(Entered at the Post-Offlce at Chicago as Second-Class Mall-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Tear-, by George W. Vork & Co., 334 Dearborn St. 



QBORQB W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, MARCH 8, 1906 



VoL XLVI— No, 10 



^ 



(Sbttortal Hotes 

 anb Comments 



j 



Propollzed Quilts for Smoker-Fuel 



On page 137 was given a clipping from the British Bee 

 Journal recommending the use of old bee-quilts as a good 

 thing to subdue bees of unusual viciousness. In a later 

 number of the same journal, "J. G." reports a case in 

 which he used this article to subdue the bees, and the more 

 he smoked them the more it seemed to infuriate them ; and 

 finally he had to beat an inglorious retreat from the en- 

 raged little creatures. 



Will Very Young Bees Work Afield? 



It is well known that division of labor prevails in the 

 economy of the bee-hive, and it is pretty generally under- 

 stood that in the normal course of affairs in the busy season 

 a young bee performs household duties until something like 

 16 days old, and for the remaining 26 days of its life it is a 

 " field hand." It is also well understood that there are ex- 

 ceptions to the first part of this rule. When, after the win- 

 ter's nap, the queen first begins to lay eggs, and, indeed, 

 during the first 3 weeks of her laying, there is not a bee in 

 the hive under 16 days old. Not only are all the workers 

 more than 16 days old, but the youngest one has already 

 lived somewhere from 2 to S months. And yet, with noth- 

 ing but these old bees in the hive, there seems to be no 

 trouble in having the eggs and brood properly cared for. 



To this it may be replied that although these bees may 

 have come into existence months before doing duty as 

 nurse-bees, yet that existence has been so nearly in a dor- 

 mant condition that they are to all intents and purposes 

 still young bees — a view further substantiated by the fact 

 that their span of life at this time of year covers months 

 as against weeks of the busy season. The question is not 

 whether a worker can act as a nurse after it has spent more 

 than 16 days in a dormant condition, but whether it is still 

 fit as a nurse after having already faithfully served its full 

 16 days at the business. 



To this comes the reply that the fact has been estab- 

 lished, and may again be established, in the following man- 

 ner : Quietly remove from its stand a hive containing a 

 full colony at a time of day when no bees are at play, or 

 early in the morning before any bees have left the hive, 

 and set it some distance away upon a new stand. Upon the 



old stand place a hive of combs containing a little honey 

 but no brood. As soon as the bees from the old hive, upon 

 returning from the fields, begin to assemble at the new 

 hive upon the old stand, take the queen from the old hive 

 and put it into the new. There will be in this hive no bees 

 except fielders, and yet the queen will lay and brood will be 

 reared in a normal manner. That seems to prove conclu- 

 sively that although under normal conditions a worker does 

 only field-work after passing the age of " sweet sixteen," 

 yet when necessity arises it may again turn to housework. 

 It would seem not altogether unnatural to believe that 

 if, when the necessity arises, a bee past the usual nursing 

 age may again take up that duty, a very young bee might 

 in its turn, conditions demanding it, turn to field-work. 

 What about that ? On page 139, L,. Stachelhausen cites so 

 good an authority as Baron Berlepsch to prove that bees 

 not more than 11 days old are not competent to gather 

 honey and pollen, saying : 



" Another experiment proves that the bees of a colony, 

 in which no actual field-bees are present, and no brood were 

 to be fed, when 11 days old could not gather any pollen or 

 honey, and were in a starving condition when the experi- 

 ments were ceased to save the bees. Baron Berlepsch con- 

 cludes from this that the beescan't become field-bees earlier 

 than at the regular age, even under the most pressing con- 

 ditions." 



But now comes this note from Dr. C. C. Miller on this 

 subject : 



That's a very pretty fight between Messrs. Getaz and 

 Stachelhausen. Both men are able and candid, and I hope 

 they may continue sparring until we have some additional 

 light upon the very important matter of the cause and pre- 

 vention of swarming. But I am constrained to say that one 

 of the foundation stones upon which Mr. Stachelhausen 

 builds is not as reliable as it might be. He quotes an ex- 

 periment of Berlepsch, as proving that bees under 11 days 

 old will starve rather than do field-work. 



Some years ago, upon receiving an imported queen, I 

 put her in a hive with several frames of ripe brood, being 

 very careful that not a single bee was allowed to remain on 

 the combs. The hive was closed bee-tight, and not opened 

 until 5 days had expired Not long after the entrance was 

 opened bees were seen returning to the hive with loads of 

 pollen. They could not have been more than 5 days old, 

 and their appearance did not belie their age. It would not 

 be difficult for Mr. Stachelhausen to repeat the experiment. 

 I think others have had a like experience. 



C. C. Miller. 



"When doctors differ," etc. It is at least a supposable 

 thing that there were some special conditions in the experi- 

 ment of Berlepsch of such nature that no field-work would 

 have been done, even if bees much beyond the requisite 16 

 days of age had been present ; and, in any case, if there 

 was no mistake in Dr. Miller's experiment, the fact that he 

 had seen bees not more than 5 days old go afield would 



