1903 



THE AMI:RICAN BEE-KEEPER 



75 



ically I would say tliat I had to devise 

 novel methods for \va,tching her, details 

 of which will be g-ivcn in a future ar- 

 ticle. 



Here is another unexplained bee 

 trick: At times a bee will cling firmly 

 to the comb, slightly elevate her wings 

 and then shake as with the ague; a 

 little further on another bee will take 

 it UD. then another and another, until 

 manv of them are at it. Each bee con- 

 tinues but for a moment or two. What 

 the object is I know not, but I have 

 several times noticed that it preceded 

 the absconding or abnormal swarming 

 of the colonies sometimes by a day or 

 two, sometimes by a few hours. 



Another strange act of the bees is 

 "raking." Poised on the middle and 

 posterior pairs of legs, the bee swings 

 forward and backward, at the same 

 time rythmically opening and shutting 

 the mandibles, and with the anterior 

 legs "raking" seemingly imaginary 

 matter backward and beneath, much as 

 a dop^ or rabbit rakes back excavated 

 earth. Sometimes the alighting board 

 and whole front of the hive will be 

 covered with a single layer of bees, all 

 busilv "raking," and the same individu- 

 als will continue it until the observer 

 tires of watching them. Some strains are 

 more addicted to it than others: sorne 

 rarely show it. What its object is, 

 whether it denotes unfavorable condi- 

 tions, pleasure or distress, I am unable 

 to even guess. 



The correct answer to some of the 

 foregoing questions may help us to bet- 

 ter practices of many parts of bee cul- 

 ture, such as queen rearing, queen in- 

 troduction, honey ripening, stimulative 

 feeding, etc., etc. 

 Providence. R. L. Ja«. 22, 1903. 



SAVING TIME. 



A Peculiar Letter from a Peculiar Individual. 



(A. Q. Cumber). 



EDITOR Am. Bee-Keeper: I've 

 been reading your yellow jour- 

 nal for the last ten years. I've 

 been satisfied to soak what t'other fel- 

 ler has had to say in all the bee pa- 

 pers, until I'm swelled up like your cat- 

 nip balloon, with ideas of quck meth- 

 ods, short cuts and s,tre?ak-lightning 

 ways of doing things. 



I wouldn't have felt called upon now 

 to spill some of the contents of my 

 dilated brain before the readers of your 

 paper, only for your remarks in the 

 December number, page 217, where you 

 attempt to discourage the youthful bee- 

 keeper from developing ,the faculty of 

 time-saving. You are evidently like 

 lots of others, who seem to go about 

 their business just as though they had 

 always to live in ,this world, or else 

 could take the job with them to finish 

 it in eternity. Here I draw the line. 

 I can't keep silent. I want to warn the 

 young that you speak tO; agains,t a vio- 

 lation of the sixth ^ommandment. 

 "Thou shalt not kill." That means you 

 shall not kill time, as much as anything 

 else. People who take the long way 

 to do things will have to answer for 

 the murder of time. It makes me 

 tremble to think of the account thai 

 Old John Hardscrabble will have to 

 render for ,the time he has lost sitting 

 on that bee-hive. It's a horrible ex- 

 ample to se,t your young readers. Oh, 

 that I could impress upon their young 

 hearts the necessity of doing things 

 quick, and getting them out from under 

 foot, and ready for another job. How 

 I do admire those "lightning operat- 

 ors." so full of "kinks" and short cu,ts. 

 Think of the fund those boys will have 

 to their credit on the balance sheet of 

 time when they are called hence, if 

 they will only keep up the pace while 

 on earth and what a genuine satisfac- 

 tion it will be to contemplate this 

 wealth of accumulated time, as a re- 

 sult of the savings of each day. It's 

 a grand and inspiring thought tha,t 

 should be taken home to the heart of 

 every young bee-keeper. 



I haven't time to say very much along 

 this line just now, but I have saved 

 enough time in the last year to give 

 me plenty of surplus ,to draw on, if I 

 can induce your young readers to do 

 the same thing, by pursuing the sub- 

 ject further in a future issue. Think 

 of the time we could save jointly if we 

 all adopt the quick ways of doing ev- 

 erything. I'll just give them a little ad- 

 vice this time, and will come again lat- 

 er. 



Now listen, my young friend! If 

 you've got a job on hand, do it, and do 

 it quick, and get it ofif hand. If you've 

 got honey to extract, extract it. Some 

 will say. "wait till it's sealed." I say, 



