Sept. 13. 1906 



American Itee Journal 



old man portrayed with such apparent 

 honesty as he is on page 600. The rea- 

 son our biographies are more fictitious 

 than our fictions is sometimes owing 

 to a lack of this honesty — or the biog- 

 rapher thinks he is exercising a Chris- 

 tian charity when it is rather a weak 

 desire to daub on praise thicker than 

 the subject will bear. Still the whole- 

 sale failure of biographies seems to 

 need more explanation. Most of the 

 characteristic things which define a 

 life and make it differ from millions of 

 others get left out. Why ? The biog- 

 rapher wants the reader to take a very 

 exalted view ; and he thinks that if 

 the characteristic things were put in, it 

 would be fatal to hero worship. After 

 all, perhaps he fears mostly for him- 

 self, lest his book should not sound 

 like literature. 



Returning Bunched Swarms. 



With me mixed bees are very apt to 

 ball all their queens. C. W. Dayton 

 expects the same in his locality in 

 California. But (unless we have been 

 treated to a vast deal of silly dope in 

 print) that is not the case in all yards. 

 I would not like to recommend a 

 method that tends to get queens balled 

 if they are to be used again. If one is 

 willing to sacrifice the queens, all 

 right. The Dayton method of return- 

 ing mixed bees to their own hives looks 

 promising. But don't be too sure you 

 will like it until you have tried it in 

 your own yard. The trouble most to 

 be feared is that they will, even when 

 let out slowly, insist on all going to 

 the same hive. My usage with big 

 tangles has been to take them in a 

 bushel basket (or several of them) and 

 then put the right quantity in front of 

 each original hive with a scoop. I 

 think (but do not know) that many of 

 those put wrong go to their right homes 

 next day. Long ago I used to hive 

 fractions of big mixed bunches on a 

 frame of young brood. Have quit 

 that. Pretty sure to swarm 10 or 12 

 days later ; often get away to the 

 woods when you are not watching ; 

 and all your fuss results in a remnant 

 nearly worthless. Page 613. 



Bee-Keeping in Japan. 



The experiences of T. B. Blow settled 

 in Japan are certainly interesting. 

 Frame hives and foundation and civi- 

 lized treatment for 2 years and yet no 

 surplus — apparently because Japanese 

 bees are too small and too lazy. Better 

 they pick out somewhere a locality 

 with good floral resources and then im- 

 port some Italian bees and start them 

 in it. With the oil-producing fields of 

 mustard and rape on one side, and the 

 flower gardens of a big city on the 

 other side, Italian bees ought to make 

 a " go " of it, one would say. At the 

 University apiary at Notre Dame, Ind., 

 they succeed in getting early surplus. 

 With the milder climate of Japan some- 

 body ought to succeed in getting sur- 

 plus from those great rape and mus- 

 tard fields, even if they do bloom pretty 

 early in the season. Page 613. 



Feeding Bees a Baked Hen. 



I had supposed feeding bees a baked 

 hen was modern nonsense, and origi- 

 nated in our country. It seems it is 

 European, and presumably ancient. 



Almost glad. Fear the modern writers' 

 palliation of it has almost as much 

 nonsense as the original hum. Page 

 616. 



Moving Bees with Open Hive- 

 Entrances. 



Mr. Holtermann speaks rather hotly 

 against moving bees with entrances 

 open. With not more than 3 or 4 hives 

 in a light wagon, one man to drive and 

 one with a lighted smoker, I think it's 

 a very nice way — much better than 

 keeping them prisoners ; but with a 

 whole load of bees and only one man, 



I think I never encouraged so risky an 

 attempt as that. 



He's right that bees do not exactly 

 consider themselves prisoners when 

 there is a portico screened in front, and 

 the ordinary entrance wide open. 



Bryan's Not a Bad Case of Bee- 

 Fever. 



And so Bryan has $5.00 worth of 

 bees, as per assessor's books. Glad he's 

 a bee-keeper; but evidently the bee- 

 fever has not fully claimed him as its 

 own hitherto, else he would have more 

 bees than that. Page 614. 



?v 



Doctor MillerS 



Question-Ik 



_r v — ^ 



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. 



Moth-Worms in Section-Honey 



1. What do you advise me to do with sec- 

 tions of honey damaged by moth-worms? 

 Will sulphur fumes injure the honey? How 

 can I prevent further damage? 



2. Is there any preventive? New York. 



Answers.— 1. Sulphur fumes will destroy 

 the wax-worms, and that will prevent further 

 damage. It will not hurt the honey, but too 

 much of it will give a green tinge to the comb. 



2. I don't know of any preventive, unless 

 it be to keep Italian bees. I used to fumigate 

 my sections of honey a week or so after tak- 

 ing them off the hives, and then again 2 or 3 

 weeks later; but since 1 have mostly Italian 

 blood I do not need to fumigate. 



A Swarming Experience 



1. I have a little experience to relate. On 

 June 23 a colony of bees attempted to swarm, 

 but the queen did not go with them, and they 

 returned to the hive. I examined and found 

 the queen, al60 l> or $ queen-cells. I examined 

 them 3 days later and found all the cells torn 

 down. They had a case of sections but had 

 not worked in them at all. I thought they 

 would after this freak of swarming, but they 

 did not do a thing. On Aug. 17 they swarmed 

 " good and proper." nearly depleting the old 

 hive of bees which contained plenty of empty 

 comb in which they could have stored pounds 

 of honey. I examined the old hive and found 

 2 capped queen-cells, which I removed. I 

 hived the swarm on 4 empty combs, then the 

 next day gave them the frames of brood from 

 the old hive. They have been very busv since. 

 The strange thing to me is why they swarmed 

 at this late date. There were no bee-moths 

 or worms in the hive to cause them to leave. 

 There was no flow of honey at this time, as 

 they did not store a single pound of surplus 

 honey this season. Did you ever have, or 

 hear of, any experience of this kind! 



Ohio. 



Answer.— While such an occurrence is not 

 an every-day affair, it is by no means very un- 

 common. When preparations for swarming 

 are made, and the yield of honey becomes dis- 

 couraging, sometimes they give up swarming, 

 and sometimes they don't. The case in June 

 was one when they did, and the case in Aug- 

 ust was one when ihey didn't. Although no 



surplus was being stored, the bees were prob- 

 ably getting enough for their daily needs and 

 a little more When bees are getting a little 

 more than they use each day, they are just as 

 likely to swarm as when honey is coming in 

 a flood. If there were only 2 queen-cells 

 present, it looks like a case of intended super- 

 sedure. The old queen may have failed, and 

 3 queen-celU were started. When the young 

 queen emerged from the first of these, the 

 bees may have been in the humor of swarm- 

 ing, and bees with a virgin queen are not so 

 conservative about swarming as those with a 

 laying queen. Bees are rather freaky things, 

 anyway. 



^^♦^ 



Eyes of the Bee 



How many eyes has a honey-bee? 



West Virginia. 



Answer. — I don't know; they don't all 

 have the same number. For the sake of 

 making the count easier, we may say the 

 worker has 3 simple and 2 compound eyes, 

 each of the compound eyes being made up of 

 a number of facets; but really each facet is a 

 separate eye. Cowan says: " There is great 

 variation in the number of facets in the com- 

 pound eyes of bees. In the worker the low- 

 est is given as 3500, whereas we have our- 

 selves found as many as 5000." Drones have 

 more than either queen or worker. 



Saving Bees Intended for Killing- 

 Cleaning Section Honey 



1. What would be the cheapest way to win- 

 ter bees intended to be killed for their honey, 

 but I want to save them. My employer buys 

 them in boxes, etc., kills them and sells the 

 honey, takes the money and buys more, and 

 does pretty well at it. He has 200 colonies 

 here at home. Can we profitably save those 

 bees? 



2. How many cases of 24 sections does your 

 best hand clean in a day? What should be an 

 average day's work for an average hand? One 

 person claimed he had cleaned and cased 40 

 cases in a day. Colorado. 



Answers.— 1. In Germany. I judge from 

 advertisements, quite a business is made in 

 the fall of selling bees from which their 



