508 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 14. 190t 



nies of bees. Ever since then he has been a bee-keeper 

 managing' several apiaries, and securing large crops of 

 honey. 



The trouble with your swarm acting so strangely 

 might have been for several reasons. Perhaps the hive was 

 not large enough. Or the hive was poorly ventilated by the 

 entrance being too small. My summer hive-entrances are 

 large — ; 4 inch deep, and the full width of the hive. The 

 small 3 s -inch-depth entrance is too small, and, with a large 

 colony, clustering out would very likely result until cooler 

 weather. 



Your experience with non-swarming of a colony in a 

 large flour-barrel is quite in accord with the experience of 

 the advocates of large hives to reduce swarming. It was 

 not the barrel, of course, but the large amount of room in 

 it that prevented swarming. The same could have been 

 provided in a large hive. 



VTii\ £)asty's 

 Ctftertfyougfyts 



j 



The " Old Reliable " as seeD through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

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



Advertisements Valuable as History 



Mostly we don't read bound volumes of back numbers 

 as much as we expected to when we bound them — and when 

 it comes to looking over very old ones the advertisements 

 strike us as a very interesting part of the book — much that 

 once made a great stir being now comically obsolete. 

 Should decidedly object to having the ads missing from my 

 back numbers. Obliterating them would be obliterating 

 history, as our Editor suggests. Page 381. 



Swarm and Drone Prevention 



So H. S. Philbrook's idea of swarm prevention is to get 

 the queen into business in an added story below. He finds 

 it working well the second year. Good — so far ! But, as 

 the elements of non-success are evidently pretty thick, we 

 must have wide and numerous successes before we draw 

 final conclusions. Some Cyprian blood in this case it 

 seems ; and that makes it abnormal to a certain degree. We 

 seem to get a sort of a hint that the held-in-reserve Daven- 

 port plan is the same. 



Mr. Philbrook seems to have made a positive addition 

 (although a minor one) to our manipulations. He finds that 

 unsealed drone-brood, when sprinkled with sulphur, are im- 

 mediately pulled out and carried out of the hive. Easy, and 

 good. Page 383. 



Weak-Colony-Over-Strong Experiences 



And here are more experiences with the pig-a-back style 

 of keeping a weak colony warm over a strong one. On 

 page 390, A. E. Oliver lost half his queens. On page 411, 

 V. Goodnow fails with 4 trials. 



C. Davenport Safe in Minnesota 



Those that don't believe that C. Davenport's swarm- 

 controlling method amounts to much will don't believe it 

 still more after reading his letter on page 401. Eucky for 

 C. D. that the Emperor Tiberius is not reigning in Minne- 

 sota. His way of keeping dangerous secrets from getting 

 abroad was to chop off the inventor's head. 



Brown-Tail and Gypsy Moths, and Potato-Bug 



And now the insect invaders of national importance 

 that are trying to fight their way across our continent are 

 two instead of one — the Brown-tail moth in addition to the 

 Gypsy moth. Even if Massachusetts should be defeated in 

 its heavy fight (as looks possible), the rest of the country is 

 realizing profit at the rate of very many millions of dollars 

 a year from each year of delay. Strange that people should 

 forget that part of the situation — and sheepishly conclude 

 that it is a useless fight that is going on. What could Ohio 

 have afforded to pay if the potato-bug could have been de- 



layed 40 years in its march to our borders ? And both the 

 insects referred to seem likely to prove very much greater 

 scourges than the potato-bug. Gypsy eats everything green 

 except the farmers themselves — and could it be induced to 

 eat some of them the situation might be bettered. Just as 

 the potato-bug left alone kills out every potato-plant in the 

 field, so Gypsy left alone reduces territory to a desert. 

 Page 383. " 



Queens and Drones Can't Digest Pollen ? 



So Stachelhausen thinks that drone and queen are both 

 unable to digest pollen for themselves. Quite possible. The 

 alleged fact that drones only live 3 days when put with 

 plenty of each kind of food but removed from the workers 

 is pretty good evidence so far as they are concerned. Page 

 386. 



Zinc and Tin Queen-Excluders 



Dr. Miller answers " Ontario," on page 390, that it is 

 bad economy to cover only part of a super-bottom with ex- 

 cluding zinc and the rest with plain tin. As a general 

 proposition I will not quarrel with this ; but ray strain of 

 (hybrid) bees seems to be characterized by unusual willing- 

 ness to store remote from the brood-nest. All my extract- 

 ing supers are that way — have been so for many years — and 

 I wouldn't tolerate it if I could see that I was losing any- 

 thing material by it. My bees often bother me by putting 

 too large a share of the fall honey above, almost never by 

 putting too large a share below. 



That Mouse-Eating-Honey Controversy 



Mr. Doolittle thinks the method proposed to show that 

 the mouse does not relish honey would also show that the 

 old soldier does not eat hard-tack. Never mind. I can't 

 afford to squeal much over my own wounds in the scrim- 

 mage for pleasure in seeing him support another of my 

 none-too-well-supported conclusions. In his actual experi- 

 ences he has had both a chipmuck and a red-squirrel as 

 pets, and both became serious nuisances on account of their 

 fondness for honey. So I was right in ranking these ani- 

 mals next to the bear in that respect. I'm still " chipper " 

 with hope that I'll turn up all right about the mouse, also. 

 My saying that the mouse peels the cappings off honey for 

 pastime I am willing to withdraw, or at least put it on the 

 doubtful list. But I jump right to another inference that 

 may worry Mr. D. still worse. After the raw and freshly 

 lapped surface has stood for a few hours in a somewhat 

 damp atmosphere the mouse can lap it over again and get 

 some water — and again by and by. He has learned to do 

 this as one help in the struggle for life in rooms where 

 water can not be gotten at. But if this is not right I am 

 still glad the performance has been viewed by a competent 

 observer. Does not look exactly like play, at any rate. 

 Page 403. 



^ 



Doctor ZTTilWs 

 Question * Box 



Send questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 

 Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Bees Hanging Out— Moving a Swarm-When to Take 

 Off Full Supers-Hive Portico 



1. The bees of one of my hives cluster around the entrance. This 

 commences about 3 o'clock and gets worse until about dark. What 

 causes this? The entrance is shaded and part of the hive, but the en- 

 trance is only '.jxS inches, and can not very well be made larger. It 

 is a 2-story hive. 



2. I bought a colony of bees in an 8-frame hive, the frames being 

 HXxll>2, and this hive was nailed shut so that no bees could get into 

 the super, and now they fill one outside frame with honey and do not 

 yet work in the super. Was this comb built so that no brood could 

 be reared in it? The cells are curved upward, and are irregular. 

 Should I cut out the comb, put in a foundation starter, and place in 

 the middle? This colony was pretty weak, but is getting better popu- 

 lated, and was, no doubt, a swarm of last year. 



3. What is the best time to move a swarm after it is hived? 



