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IHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 12, 190S 



Mr. Moore — I want to correct some of these lawyers that 

 are talking about common law and State law. Whenever the 

 Illinois Legislature raises its hands it wipes the common la-v 

 off the land. 



Pres. York put the motion, and a vote having been taken 

 it was declared carried. 



BLACK BROOD — PICKLED BROOD. 



Mr. Colburn — We hear about black brood, and this sum- 

 mer I ran across two or three symptoms in my apiary of 

 something not exactly like foul brood. Some four years ago 

 up on the North Side I had an apiary and I had something 

 I didn't understand, so I sent a portion of the brood to Dr. 

 Howard, and he returned it stating it was not foul brood, 

 but pickled brood. This year I have something just like both, 



I 



and not like either. I think possibly we may be getting a 

 little taste of black brood ; and possibly the reason we differ 

 is that we are looking at things from different points, or rather 

 have a different disease ; that may account for the discrepancy 

 of symptoms, etc., which we find in different hives. 



Dr. Miller — I rise to a question of privilege. I have a 

 whole lot of speeches on foul brood, and I know you would 

 be delighted to hear them, but I think the time is passing, 

 and I believe we ought to hear from Mr. France. 



Mr. France — I don't know just what part of this discus- 

 sion you want. Do you want the description so that you may 

 know without guessing when you look into a hive or not? 



Dr. Miller — Give that first as briefly as you can. 

 (Coatiaued next w^eek.) 



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TXix. ^asty 5 Clftcrtl^ouat^ts 



The "Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hastt, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



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Pltting Weak Colonies Over Strong. 



And now we have a report of 6 colonies put 

 over G stronger ones and left a long time — 

 left till the middle of June, and still not a 

 queen killed. And to malse it seem more re- 

 marliable, they were on shallow frames. Still, 

 on rertection, we may decide that it's not 

 much of a "booster" for the new method, 

 after all. They were bees of a very quiet 

 disposition to begin with; and our perishing 

 remnants are not always such. These colonies 

 were sufficiently strong that they scarcely 

 needed anything in particular done for them — 

 /. ', . hardly the kind of colonies we have been 

 studying. They were strong enough to be 

 above the temptation to abandon their own 

 organization and join as individuals a stronger 

 crowd. This is what works the ruin in many 

 of the cases of failure, I suspect. While alone 

 it's " root hog or die;" but when put in the 

 same hive with a more prosperous colony the 

 third alternative of naturalization presents 

 itself; and they accept it until the queen has 

 no one to protect her (or thinks she's coming 

 to that). All the same, we can thank E. W. 

 Diefendorf for his very instructive record. 

 Page 604. 



Only 1 Swarm from Each 9 Colonies. 



Only 30 swarms from 371 colonies is quite 

 a record. The apparent reason of it — s'eady 

 and abundant honey-flow — is the point for us 

 to remember. You see, in these days every- 

 thing is being called in question; and some of 

 our professional idol-smashers are liable any 

 day to deny with contemptuous laughter that 

 swarming is ever hindered by abundant honey 

 in the fields. Let's have this item of Wm. 

 Kernan's ready for him. Page 604. 



Dark Honet Below and White Above. 



Fine theory, to have all vacant space below 

 filled with dark honey, and so much the more 

 white honey put above. Sometimes, with 

 some bees. I guess it would work. If I should 

 try it maybe expansion of the brood-nest 

 would take place, and the dark honey be 

 moved up ai)0ve to mi.\ in. Page 613. 



Section Honet Never Poisonous. 



Natives who chew up combs, brood, feath- 

 ers and all, might possibly get poison where 

 there was none in the honey. Also even with 

 poison present in the cells of thin sweet pre- 

 pared for immediate use, there might be none 

 in the sealed surplus honey. That poison 

 should be only in wild honey as noted, may 

 be because it comes from a plant that grows 

 only in limited localities, and those localities 

 all distant from the white man's bee-keeping. 

 I'll guess, however, that the New Zealand 

 poison comes in always in small quanlites, 

 and never at a time of year wJien surplus is be- 

 ing stored. Consequently, it is always in or 

 near the brood-nest, and troubles nobody ex- 

 cept when the broodnest is broken up, as it is 

 n getting honey from a bee-tree. The possi- 



bility of a poisonous fungus, growing in the 

 pollen of the hive in cold weather, should not 

 be forgotten. This would account for simi- 

 larity of symptoms in widely different locali- 

 ties. Also vindicates the common sense of 

 the bees — pollen not poispnous when they 

 brought it in. I rather think it remains to be 

 proved (with no probability of there ever be- 

 ing any proof) that serious poisoning ever re- 

 sulted from section honey, or from extracted 

 honey if produced as it should be — in a super 

 entirely away from the brood. 



It wouldn't pay the Association to dis- 

 tribute that Lancet article free. Page 613. 



Color op Beeswax. 



I'm not sure he is wrong, but I think he is — 

 0. P. Dadant, on page 616, where he says 

 ' beeswax is always white when first pro- 



duced." The way it stands in my mind is 

 this: When beeswax is produced by bees 

 that have been mostly at secreting wax for a 

 long time the scales are white; but when pro- 

 duced by bees that have recently been digest- 

 ing large amounts of pollen to feed young 

 brood, the scales have a yellow tinge to start 

 with — blood and secretions and all getting 

 some of the superabundant coloring-matter 

 of the pollen. May be I'm wrong. Analogy: 

 Absolutely pure butter is white, I suppose. 

 The food the cow gets in January does not 

 color it; but the food the cow gets in June 

 colors it yellow. 



Vest-Pocket Foundation Holder. 



Capital, Editor York! Just one of the 

 simplest, cheapest, and most effective of ways 

 to combat the manufactured-honey fib. A nice 

 little holder for the vest-pocket with comb 

 foundation in it. Should contain at least two 

 pieces, one of surplus foundation and one of 

 brood foundation. Show the good folks right 

 and left one of the props the fib rests on. And 

 yet Mr. Wheeler has worked on this line and 

 things oft went badly awry. No. 1 retold to 

 No. 2, and he to No. 3; and somewhere on 

 the line the new and truthful explanation got 

 changed back into the old falsehood or some- 

 thing about as bad. Queer creatures humans 

 are. Page 617. 



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®ur 23ec Keeping Sisters 



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Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



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What Has the Harvest Been? 



What have the sisters accomplished this 

 year? Please let us have your report, if it is 

 nothing more than a postal card saying how 

 the harvest has been. If the total amount of 

 honey is given, please give also the number of 

 colonies, spring count. 



Can't the sisters do a little better than the 

 brothers in this respect? Every now and then 

 a brother reports something like this: "I 

 got 1500 pounds of nice section honey this 

 year," but forgets to say a word as to how 

 many colonies he got it from. From that 

 statement alone one gets no idea whether the 

 season was bad or good. If he had only 10 

 colonies, then l.'i pounds was phenomenal, 

 but if he had lOU it was a failure. Either he 

 should give along with the amount of his 

 crop the number of colonies he started the 

 season with, or he should give the average 

 yield per colony. Indeed, it wouldn't be a 

 bad thing to give both. 



But any kind of a report from each of the 

 sisters will be welcomed, together with any 

 little item of interest that may occur. Please 

 let us hear from all. 



Bee-Smokers with Light Springs 



In many things a woman, with less 

 strength, wants things lighter than a man. 

 But the rule does not apply to smokers. A 

 woman, when working at bees, needs just as 



big a smoke as a man. Neither does the one 

 with a few colonies need a smaller smoker 

 than one with 100. For all the difference In 

 the price, one may as well have a good-sized 

 smoker as a toy, even if one has only 2 colo- 

 nies. To be sure, a smoker is not used a 

 great deal with 2 colonies, but when one is 

 needed a good one is needed, one that will 

 hold a lot and give a big volume of smoke, if 

 a big volume is needed. And a colony needs 

 just as big a smoke if it's the only one in the 

 apiary as if there are 99 others beside it. 



But there is one thing a woman ought to 

 insist upon in a smoker. For that matter, so 

 should a man. That one thing is a light 

 spring. There is no sense in having the 

 spring in a smoker so stiff that one's hand 

 feels like cramping after half a day's work. 

 All the stiffness needed in a spring is enough 

 to throw open the bellows without letting the 

 smoker drop out of the hand. Smokers in 

 general are made with springs much too 

 heavy, but if you insist upon it you can get 

 one with a light spring. 



Results of the Season at Dr. Miller's 



The season of 19(1."), at Marengo, as in many 

 other places, was one of brilliant promise re- 

 sulting in more or less blasted hopes. White 

 clover was in great abundance, and the bees 

 had more than they could do. About the 

 third week in July, however, the (low closed. 

 White clover seemed as abundant as ever, and 



