814 



Sept. 27, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



"practically," then I agree with him that 

 there will be likely to be some drones. 



He then continues : " And the few they do 

 succeed in getting, will do more mischief — 

 meet more queens — than ten times the num- 

 ber of ordinarily-reared drones would do, on 

 account of being pampered and treated at 

 home much as the queen is treated." Ashe 

 esteems that " the straight truth on a rather 

 important subject," I wish he would tell us 

 how he knows it to be true. I wish, too, that 

 he would say what he thinks the right advice 

 in the premises; for so far he is only tearing 

 down without building anything better. Per- 

 haps, also, Mr. Editor, you would do a little 

 figuring for us, helping to a decision as to 

 what is wise practise. C. C. Miller. 



If that desire for "a little figuring " im- 

 plies that Dr. Miller thinks it is a matter of 

 mathematics pure and simple, he is very 

 much mistaken. The only chance for any 

 " figuring" in the case seems to come from 

 that " 10 times" — the few husky, pampered 

 drones doing " 10 times " as much mischief 

 as the drones of better quality reared in 

 larger numbers. That is. 100 pampered drones 

 will meet more queens than 1000 unpampered 

 ones. Then, to meet the case, why not in- 



crease the number of unpampered ones— pit 

 2000 unpampered against the 100 pampered, 

 and there you are ; odds in favor of the un- 

 pampered drones of better stock. But some- 

 thing besides mere figures comes in. If it be 

 a matter of swiftness of flight, then numbers 

 do not count at all ; for the swiftest drone 

 will win, and if he is the 6wiftest in the field, 

 he will win just as easy against a million 

 rivals as against one. 



That being the case, why not reverse the 

 practise, limiting the number of drones in 

 best colonies, so they will be pampered into 

 sure winners? But there comes the trouble- 

 some question as to whether we know that 

 the few drones in a colony are fed any better 

 than a larger number? Some will be just 

 troublesome enough to ask, " Are not ordi- 

 narily-reared drones fed all they want? And 

 if pampered, does not pampering tend to 

 sluggishness rather than activity?" 



Plainly it is not a clear case of " figuring," 

 and the whole question is handed back to the 

 two disputants. 



Miscellaneous 

 flews - Items 



HP 



Mr. E. Li. Hall, of St. Joseph, Mich., 

 dropped in to see us while in Chicago lately. 

 He also brought with him a basket of the 

 most delicious Bartlett pears as a donation for 

 the home table of the Editor and wife. Many 

 thanks, Mr. Hall. Call again ! 



Mr. M. M. Baldridge, of St. Charles, 

 111., gave this office a pleasant call recently. 

 Mr. B. is one of the oldest bee-keepers in this 

 country. He was a contributor to the col- 

 umns of the American Bee Journal in its first 

 volume, in 1861, and has been keeping bees, 

 and writing occasionally, ever since. 



him. They visited the same hotel, and when 

 the noon meal was served, he said to his wife 

 he hoped they had some more of the honey. 



It did not appear, however, and beckoning 

 to a waiter, he said: " Say, Sam, where is 

 my honey?" 



He was almost paralyzed when that worthy 

 grinned and replied: "She doan work here 

 nomore,bo6s; she done got a job at the silk 

 mill." 



The wife received a handsome new dress 

 before they returned home, after making a 

 solemn promise not to tell the story. 



Ml*. James A. Green, of Grand Junc- 

 tion. Colo., wrote us Sept. 15, as follows: 



" Although the first part of the season did 

 not amount to much, some of my apiaries 

 have been doing very well for the past month, 

 and I will harvest a full honey crop." 



Mr. Green is an inspector of apiaries as 

 well as an extensive bee-keeper, as most of 

 our readers know. 



Mr. TV. D. Soper, of Jackson, Mich., 

 received seven 1st premiums, five 2d pre- 

 miums, and two 3d premiums on bees and 

 honey at the recent Michigan State Fair. 

 This would seem to be a very good record. 

 We will be pleased to receive reports of ex- 

 hibits and premiums at Fairs, for publication. 

 Also, if photographs of exhibits have been 

 taken, we would like to have them for use in 

 the American Bee Journal. 



His "Honey" Accounted For.— Mr. 



Stadler Men hall, of Louisiana, sends us the 

 following, which, although referring some- 

 what to the sisters, may appear in this de- 

 partment, as we have not asked Miss Wilson's 

 permission to include it in hers: 



A New Hampshire newspaper man, who is 

 v«ry fond of honey, visited a near-by city, 

 and at one of the hotels he was served with 

 some delicious honey. He enjoyed it so much 

 that he told his wife all about it when he re- 

 turned home. 



On hit, next trip to the city she accompanied 



Bee>Stings a Cure for Rheumatism. 



— We have received the following from L. C. 

 Medkiff, of New Jersey, which appeared in a 

 Philadelphia newspaper recently, reported by 

 an out-of-towD correspondent: 



J. H. Mosteller, a large bee-keeper of this 

 section, is being besieged by numerous per- 

 sons for the use of his bees for the cure of 

 rheumatism. 



Councilman Howard Buchanan was the first 

 to try the new remedy, and the results were 

 so satisfactory tnata number of other persons 

 have followed suit. 



John Anthony has been given such great 

 relief by being stung that he has dispensed 

 with his crutches. 



Lewis Deegan, another convert, has been 

 given great relief. 



A prominent business man of Pottstown, 

 who has suffered for years, was stung eight 

 times by Pratt's golden clover bees, which are 

 the kind exclusively used for the rheumatic 

 cure. 



Mr. Mosteller says he will now begin to 

 charge a fee for his bees' stings, the same as 

 regular doctors do for their services. He says 

 it will be more profitable than producing 

 honey. 



Of course, to the older bee-keepers the 

 above paragraphs do not convey anything 

 new or startling. It has been known for 

 years that in certain cases persons who 

 have been afflicted with rheumatism were 

 helped by being stung by bees. We have 

 never beard of any one who was permanently 

 cured by a dose or two of bee-stings, how- 

 ever. There is a remedy used by the medical 

 fraternity which is made of the drops of 

 liquid that accompany bee-stings. It is pre- 

 scribed for rheumatic troubles. We believe 

 it is called " Apis Mellif." It is made by 

 drug manufacturers who buy bees for the pur- 

 pose of extracting the stings in order to get 

 the liquid referred to. Sometimes certain 

 drug manufacturers give an order to a bee- 

 keeper for a large number of bee-stings 

 each year to be extracted by the bee-keeper 

 himself, and sent to the manufacturers. 



It perhaps is something of a joke to say 

 that the stings of a certain kind of bees are 

 more likely to effect a cure of rheumatism 

 than stings from any other bees. It is more 

 than likely that the effect would be the same, 

 no matter from what variety of honey-bees 

 the stings were received. 



If it should be clearly demonstrated that 

 bee-stings are a reliable core for rheumatism, 

 the remedy can be obtained very easily and 

 cheaply. As to charging a fee for bee-stings, 

 and thus make more than by producing 

 honey —well, that maybe an open question. 

 Of course, it may possibly be true during a 

 very poor honey season, or with but 1 or 2 

 colonies of bees. 



Mr. P. J. Doll, of John Doll & Sod, pro- 

 prietors of the Minnesota Bee- Keepers' Sup- 

 ply Co., of Minneapolis, Minn., called at this 

 office last week. His firm is planning an in- 

 crease and improvement in their equipment 

 and facilities for turning out bee-supplies. 

 They have made wonderful progress during 

 the past few years, and will soon be able to 

 class themselves with the larger concerns in 

 the business. In fact, their success so far has 

 been phenomenal. 



The Bee and Honey Exhibit at the 



Interstate Fair, held at Sioux City, Iowa, 

 Sept. 10 to 15, is reported to be the finest ever 

 held in the West. There were about l 1 ., tons 

 of honey on exhibition, and although not 

 large the exhibit was complete in every way. 

 Mr. R. A. Morgan, of Vermillion. S. Dak., 

 was the superintendent. We expect soon to 

 publish a ptotograph of the exhibit with a 

 complete detailed description. 



Wiring Frames.— Dr. G. Bohrer sends 

 the following correction : 



"My method of wiring frames is described 

 and illustrated on page 770. But instead of 

 saying that the upper and lower wire6 are l 1 .,' 

 inches from the bottom and top bars, it says 

 '., inch." 



