Oct. 4, 1906 



849 



i <>ter^ 



American Ttee Journal 



less, for this reason: Just as soon as it be- 

 gins to bloom the owner goes into the held 

 with his mower, anil, of course, in that way 

 the bees get but little honey from it; and, as 

 a matter of fact, in our locality, if we desire 

 to be successful in a honey-yield, we must 

 provide some other plant for forage. What 

 shall that be* Phillip Mohleu. 



Lincoln, Nebr., July 31. 



Finding Bees in Trees 



'■ Missouri," on page 601, wants to know 

 how to find bee-hives in the woods. As the 

 question was left unanswered, I will tell ail I 

 know on the subject. 



If we know that there are " wild " bees 

 somewhere, the first thing to find them is to 

 know the direction as near as possible where 

 they can be found. Different methods can be 

 used to mark the direction, when honey-bees 

 live in trees. 



An easy way to find at least an approxi- 

 mate direction of wild bees is when you have 

 a field of flowers, such as white clover, alsike, 

 etc., which are sought by bees numerously. 

 On a day when there are no clouds that cover 

 the sun, wait until the sun is sinking in the 

 west, then go to the east side of the field, 

 where you can look all over the field; looking 

 in the direction of the setting sun, you can 

 see bees flying to their home, even at a dis- 

 tance of 200 yards. You need not waste much 

 time for ihi«. You can see dozens of bees 

 leaving the field in a few minutes, and before 

 they are out of sight you know the approxi- 

 mate direction they take. If you see a bee 

 leaving the Held right straight, without Hying 

 in a circle before leaving, you can judge for 

 sure that the " hive " is near the field ; but if a 

 bee Hies about 3 circles before leaving, you 

 can judge that the " hive " is not nearer than 

 about one mile. Thi6 is in accordance with 

 my own experience, but I had no chance to 

 use it often ; however, I was successful with 

 it twice. 



Further, every beekeeper knows that bees 

 need a daily supply of water, and to obtain it 

 they are often found gathering water from 

 some flowers sparingly, even where the 

 ground is only wet. Now, if you once know 

 that there are bees in a certain direction 

 somewhere in the woods, proceed to find their 

 watering-place. You can do this best during 

 a drouth, when they can get water only at 

 certain places. If you find their watering- 

 place, you can be almost sure to have success. 

 If you go around the woods during a dry 



spell, and you find a place suitable for a 

 wiM.iring-place for bees, but no bees gather- 

 ing any water there, be sure no bees are near. 



There are still other methods employed in 

 hunting for " wild " bees, but I suppose these 

 two are the easiest to be used, and they cost 

 only a little time, and under favorable condi- 

 tions a lot of fun, honey and bee-stings. 



Should "Missouri" profit by observing these 

 hints, I would like to have the "fun" of 

 hearing of his success. Indiana. 



" Hybrid " as Applied to Bees 



Hybrid— an animal or plant produced from 

 the mixture of 2 species. 



Bee— a 4-winged insect of the order Hy- 

 menoptera, and family of Apis. There are 

 many genera and species. The common 

 honey-bee is the Apis melliflca, and lives in 

 swarms, each of which has its own queen, its 

 males or drones, and its very numerous neu- 

 ters or workers. Besides the Apis melliflca 

 there are other species of honey-bees, as the 

 A. ligustica, of Spain and Italy; the A. muni- 

 color, of Madagascar and Mauritius; the A. 

 indica, of India; the A. fa6ciata, of Egypt; 

 the A. Adansiome, of Senegal, and others. — 

 Noah Webster. 



if the common or black bee belongs to the 

 species melliflca, and the Italian bee to the 

 species Apis ligustica, then a bee produced by 

 a mixture of the two is plainly a "hybrid." 

 It is " up to " those who claim that the bees 

 produced by this mixture are not hybrids, to 

 show that the black and Italian bees belong 

 to the same species, or to furnish some other 

 reason why such bees should not be called 

 hybrids. I, like a good many others, have 

 been calling them hybrids, and I want to 

 know the extent of my offense. 



The honey-flow is at an end here, and at- 

 tempts at robbing are very easily provoked. 



Leon, Iowa. Edwin Bevins. 



P. S. — On further thought, there is nothing 

 "offending" in speaking of a mixture of Ital- 

 ians and blacks as "hybrids." In so speak- 

 ing, we 6imply give expression to a scientific 

 fact. The trouble seems to be that there is no 

 short word that can be used in this connec- 

 tion which clearly indicates the parentage of 

 the mixture. The word " mule " does this in 

 the case of another mixture, but there is no 

 word yet found which performs the same of- 

 fice for the product of a mixture of black 

 and Italian bees. I think a reward will have 

 to be offered for such a word. E. B. 



NP 



The 



Mr. /lastyS 



'Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses, 

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



Bees of the Orient. 



So Frank Benton finds no bees worth 

 bothering with anywhere in Central 

 Asia ; but he is giving some attention 

 to 3 different species in India, prepara- 

 tory to deciding whether we want them 

 or not. Page 634. 



Honey-Yields in Arizona. 



The Arizona Experiment Station 

 certainly has a daring mathematician 

 to make its honey estimates. All the 

 same, we like him. Pleasant change 



to read something definite in the place 

 of utter indetiniteness. Alfalfa, 55 

 pounds of honey to the acre — the aca- 

 cias, a third of a pound to each big 

 bush — mesquite. 2' 2 pounds to each 

 tree. Incidentally, we get the size of 

 Arizona vegetation ; and that's reli- 

 able, I reckon. Page 638. 



Sugar Not Bad for the Teeth. 



Glad to hear Dr. Eaton say that it's 

 probably a mistake about sugar de- 

 stroying the teeth. An argument he 



uses is pretty pat. Darkies who live 

 largely on sugar-cane, cane-juice and 

 molasses, have excellent teeth. I would 

 add the suggestion, that the craving 

 for sweet, and the bad teeth, are quite 

 likely two separate results of the same 

 morbid cause. By a misinterpretation, 

 the conclusion has been drawn that the 

 sweets consumed caused the bad teeth. 

 In other words, Nature is giving a 

 remedy for a disease, and the doctor 

 forbids and prescribes the contrary. 

 Old, old story of medical foolishness ! 

 Page 639. 

 Weak Colonies Over Strong Ones. 



No, Mr. Oliver, I didn't mean any 

 disapprobation whatever. Lots of old 

 stagers are experimenting at keeping 

 weak colonies warm over strong one-. 

 I should club them, if anybody, rathf r 

 than the beginners ; but there's i o 

 call for clubs to be thrown at any- 

 body. Page 643. 



Barrels for Honey. 



C. P. Dadant likes barrels for stor- 

 age — and yet hear him: "Whatever 

 you do, by all means avoid cheap bar- 

 rels, for they will leak all summer, and 

 will waste honey until the honey is 

 granulated." Page 657. 



Cutting Cells to Prevent After - 



SWARMS. 



And E. J. Cronkleton thinks cutting 

 cells to prevent after-swarms is better 

 practise if done immediately. Then no 

 rival parties can be formed awaiting 

 the exit of different queens. Sounds 

 like good sense. Page 658. 



Ideas on Wax-Extraction. 



I wonder if the Bartz idea about 

 .wax-extraction is practical. Each cell 

 of pollen in an old comb is a lump of 

 definite size. The idea is to crush and 

 rub up the comb very thoroughly and 

 sift out these lumps with a sieve of 

 properly sized mesh'. The lumps and 

 the finer matter are then to be sep- 

 arately treated. There appears to be 

 an evident advantage in this ; and yet 

 the test of considerable actual practise 

 is needed to tell whether it is worth 

 while. Page 662. 



Requeening Every Year (?). 



So Dr. Phillips gives the weight of 

 his approval to the idea of young 

 queens in every colony — renewing 

 every year preferably. Page 664. 



Selection in Breeding for Eggs in 

 Fowls. 

 Interesting to see what selection 

 does for other creatures than bees. A 

 lot of fowls averaged 120 eggs per 

 year. Their descendants were made to 

 average over 200 in a few years by 

 breeding for number of eggs alone — 

 that is, choosing freely those most out 

 of style in looks and points, if only the 

 number of eggs was greater. Page 

 665. 

 Discoveries Concerning Foul Brood 



Almost startling that the Washing- 

 ton authorities find Bacillus alvei pres- 

 ent in black brood and absent in foul 

 brood, so far as the samples sent in 

 go. Let's be in no pickle or haste, but 

 it looks a trifle as if our previous teach- 

 ing might in the end require a serious 



