558 



.lune 28. 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



will have dried so that the bees will easily open it for them- 

 selves. 



But don't you want to have more than a nucleus for 

 your new queen ? If you do, you might proceed in this 

 way: Find the old queen ; take the frame of brood she is 

 on with its adhering bees, and put them in a new hive. Put 

 this new hive in place of the old one, and set the old one on 

 a new stand, giving it your new queen in its cage. You 

 will thus allow the new queen to start housekeeping with a 

 full force. There will also be the advantage that the field- 

 bees will all have gone to join the old queen on the old stand 

 by the time the new queen is out of her cage, and the 

 younger bees will be more friendly to the stranger. 



If you want to make it easier to find the queen, you can 

 vary the program. Instead of taking any bees and queen 

 with the frame of brood, brush off all the bees and put into 

 the new hive the frame of brood without any bees, setting 

 the old hive on the new stand as before. The fielders, as 

 they return with their burdens, will enter the new hive, and 

 a day or two later there will be only the younger bees in the 

 wa y when you seek the queen to return her to the old stand. 

 If you put the new queen into the old hive at the time you 

 put the old hive on the new stand — and it will be quite 

 proper to do so — you must have a piece of tin over the candy 

 in the cage, or have it arranged in some way that the bees 

 can not get at the candy to liberate the queen until the old 

 queen is removed. 



Now Mr. Scholl can take his revenge by giving a better 

 plan. 



Mr. /fastyS 

 'terthouc&hts5 



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

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



Do Drones Fly Further than Workers 



That proof on page 421, that drones fly further than 

 workers is hardly proof as it stands. " Quite a long dis- 

 tance " is a very indefinite term ; and I'll whack my indefi- 

 nite " guess " against it. To start with, it's very improb- 

 able that drones are superlatively enduring on the wing, as 

 compared with workers. I'll guess that the " quite a long 

 distance " was not much over a mile, perhaps less. And 

 the reason no workers returned was not because it was too 

 far, but because they were unfamiliar with the territory. 

 And the reason they were unfamiliar there was that, so far 

 that season, nothing good enough to draw them had been in 

 bloom in that particular territory. The drones were famil- 

 iar with the territory because their daily play-gound hap- 

 pened to lie in that region. I infer from what I have read 

 that it is common for drones to have a chosen spot, some 

 distance from home, where they usually go when they come 

 out for a long flight — other drones from all colonies within 

 a mile or two usually joining them. 



Mating of Queens in House-Apiary 



Frank Kittinger is hardly correct, that hiving on the 

 old stand obviates all mating of queens in a house-apiary. 

 The queen hived there each year must needs get old and 

 die — and the queen the bees rear to supersede her has to run 

 her chances of getting the right one in a street of entrances. 

 Page 422. 



Father Dzierzon and Longevity 



The inventors of the movable frame, and of the ex- 

 tractor, and of comb foundation, and possibly a few others, 

 did more to bring in the cash to those who keep bees for a 

 living than did Dzierzon ; but his discoveries by far lead all 

 others in importance to the biologists and other scholars of 

 the world. Surely our sympathy, even if unspoken, should 

 go out to him in his "days of darkness," as Solomon calls 

 them. Sad. Feet too tender and weak to walk around ; 

 eyes too dim to read ; ears too dull to listen to reading — and 



not 100 yet till Jan. 16, 1911. (And this is the port youth 

 sets sail for.) Let us hope for him that he can still think 

 with enthusiasm — and worship at a never-to-be-taken-away 

 mercy-seat. The pleasure of thought is a high order of 

 pleasure to those who have gone that far. We would fain 

 get some comfort out of that, both for him and ourselves. 

 Alas, it may be as liable to failure in senility as sight and 

 hearing are. My experience rather makes me think that 

 that is the case, indeed. But having partially failed, it 

 seems to be capable of coining back. Sight also sometimes 

 fails and then comes back again ; and vigor of thought comes 

 back easier than sight does, we hope, and far easier than 

 hearing does. A neighbor of mine, whose funeral service 

 I conducted, came within less than a year of the 100-year 

 mark ; and in his case the "days of darkness " were of a 

 very mitigated sort. Do we want to join the Two Hundred 

 Year Club — which same implies the definite and steady 

 effort to get ourselves into the second century of corporeal 

 life? Notwithstanding the menacing shapes seen in the 

 mists out that way, I think I'll join. There is no Be-a-boy- 

 again Club to join. Here's for 1941 ! Page 422. 



Relation of Swarming to Comb-Surface 



Mr. C. F. Smith's figures quoted on page 423, I suppose, 

 are for but one year. Even at that they are important. Of 

 7-frame hives 95 percent of them swarmed ; of 8-frame hives 

 85 percent swarmed ; of 9-fratne hives 70 percent swarmed ; 

 of lOframe hives 55 percent swarmed ; of 12-f rame hives 33 

 percent swarmed. Here is a consistent decline of swarm- 

 ing corresponding with the increase of comb-surface. Veri- 

 fication of these figures (or the contrary) is valuable work 

 for those students who want to be doing something of pub- 

 lic, value. But, as Mr. Dadant suggests, it's no fair trial to 

 add combs to the brood-chamber and leave the supers no 

 more roomy than a 7 or 8 frame hive would have. 



Facing of Hives— Requeening 



In a French apiary one hive faced the south while all 

 the rest faced the east. This one prospered greatly and ex- 

 ceeded its fellows in yield of surplus. Adrian Getaz seems 

 to consider the case a puzzle. Easy puzzle to me, as I have 

 had a somewhat similar case. A solitary colony faced south 

 (or west) in a big apiary faced east steals bees from its neigh- 

 bors dreadfully during winter-flights. Mutual good fellow- 

 ship is apt to prevail in winter. Flight begins with all east 

 entrances warm in sunshine. Before the bees get ready to 

 go in all entrances are chill in shadow except that one. 

 That one becomes a jolly rallying place for a great popula- 

 tion besides its own ; and they end by going in there for 

 keeps. 



We should try to be reasonable creatures and not make 

 our decisions of the iron-clad variety. Mr. Getaz illustrates 

 this when he remarks that two of the reasons why he wants 

 a young queen in each hive every single year do not exist 

 at the Dadant apiaries. That hints that some may requeen 

 every year, and some never requeen, without any sharp dis- 

 agreement being necessary. Page 423. 



an ad tan 



Beedom 



Conducted by Morlet Pettit, Villa Nova, Ont. 



Side-and-End Frame-Spacer 



Friend Pettit: — I have been readiDg with interest the " Cana- 

 dian Beedom " in the American Bee Journal. This week's issue is 

 just to hand, and I was much interested in your discussion of frames 

 and spacers. I \at «1> Hoffman frames, and the first I made had the 

 V-edge. I won't make bjymoreof them, but get along fairly well 

 with those having a flat beariog. I notice you are inclined to regard 

 with favor the new metal spacer for Hoffman frames, and they may be 

 better than I think, but I am of the opinion they are no improvement 

 over the wood bearing. If those little projections came out abruptly 



