918 



Nov. 1, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



crust crisp and dry rather than to have 

 it dampened with anything. (To be 

 continued.) 



Ark Bunched Swarms Self-Dividing 



To hive 24 pounds of mixed bees in a 

 4 story hive hoping to find 6 pounds 

 and a queen in each story next morn — 

 I hope some of the brethren will try it 

 as Grant Stanley wishes ; but I should 

 hardly have faith enough to spend the 

 time. Manifestly it can only succeed 

 in yards where mixed bees do not ball 

 queens. It's expecting altogether too 

 much to expect the bees to divide and 

 locate themselves when ihe queens are 

 all on the bottom-board encased in 

 hostile balls. Page 784. 



Winter Watering of Bees. 



So the Hamburg doctor thinks bees 

 should be watered in the hive in win- 

 ter. Thought so myself — when I was 

 an A B C child. At present, I think 

 that all winter watering inside would 

 be a damage, and also that the thickest 

 possible honey consumed in winter 

 furnishes water enough and to spare. 

 Page 785. 



Signs of Robbing Bees. 



I surmise quite a few of us will dis- 

 agree with Dr. Miller, if he means to 

 say that crawling up the front of the 

 hive to take flight is not at all a. sign 

 that robbing is going on. Some other 

 things will make bees do so, doubtless ; 

 and very likely robbers, so long as 

 they are not getting very much, would 

 take flight without climbing ; but still 

 it seems to me that beginners should be 

 told to investigate promptly all colo- 

 nies where bees climb before they fly — 

 robbing nine times out of ten. Nor- 

 mally bees come in with loads and go 

 out without loads ; when robbing the 

 reverse is true. When not loaded they 

 start from a low level and fly up, but 

 haven't much left over when they do 

 so. To start from a level and fly up 

 with more than half their weight of 

 honey aboard (condition of a man with 

 80 pounds of silver-plate in a bag on 

 his back), that they are a little disin- 

 clined to try. In such circumstances 

 they want first to get up a few inches 

 so that if they lose level in the first 

 foot or two of flight they will not 

 strike the ground. If alighting-boards 

 were narrow, and entrances a foot or 

 two from the ground, there would not 

 be so much need of care. Page 787. 



The Never-Fail Queen-Introducer. 



Man who tells us he never fails in- 

 troducing queens is the same man as 

 he on whose statements throughout we 

 are not to rely fully— so Mr. Dadant 

 thinks. Now, maybe that's so. Page 

 799. 



Tents for Extracting Honey. 



Hutchinson, who lives north, thinks 

 a tent to extract in too awfully hot for 

 endurance, except when you can't do 

 any other way. Scholl, or L,. B. Smith 

 for him, as far south as Texas, is sur- 

 prised, and thinks a good tent an ideal 

 arrangement. What can be the cause 

 of this disagreement ? My inclination 

 was to side in with Hutchinson. A 

 second look, however, shows that all 

 the lower part of the approved tent is 



mosquito-netting, also it is a very big 

 one and 9 feet high. Such a tent as 

 that, if we may also suppose a breezy 

 location, may indeed be quite as com- 

 fortable as a shanty, if not more so. 

 Might spread a fly of muslin above the 

 top, not touching it. Tents and tents — 

 ranging all the way from Purgatory 

 to Paradise. Page 800. 



Difference in Bachelors. 



So bachelors in Canada enjoy hav- 

 ing a gang of men extract honey in 

 their kitchens. I'm going to disown 

 those bachelors, Mr. Pettit. Page 801. 



Growing Texas Horsemint. 



If Texas horsemint will stand zero 

 weather, it looks as though it might be 

 started in most of the States. Must 

 be up and established in the fall, it 

 seems. I think the diligent raising of 

 a plant in the garden for a few years 

 from its own seed will gradually fit to 

 take care of itself outside, even if at 

 first it refused to grow except where 

 cultivated. But we should feel more 

 enthusiasm to introduce Monarda punc- 

 tata were it not that its honey is re- 

 puted a little strong in flavor. Page 

 803. 



V- 



?v 



Doctor Millerls 

 Question-B^x 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journa 

 Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 

 %3§ a Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Packing Comb Honey for Shipment 



What is the proper way to pack a large 

 bulk of honey to ship it a long way on train? 



Michigan. 



Answer— It makes a difference as to how 

 large a bulk you mean. If it is any thing like 

 a car-load of comb honey, and I suppose comb 

 honey is meant, the cases may be packed solid 

 in the car, the ends of the sections pointing 

 toward the front and rear of the car, 60 that 

 they will withstand the jar of bumping. Any 

 room at the side must be packed full of straw 

 or otherwise filled up, so there shall be no 

 play sidewise. The cases will be placed solid 

 against each end of the car, and at the middle 

 they must be in some way securely fastened. 

 One way is to have boards flatwise across, 

 fastened to the sides of the car at each end of 

 the boards, and at the middle of the boards 

 braced by studding standing perpendicularly, 

 and fastened to the roof and the floor. The 

 idea of the whole, as you will see, is to have 

 the case6 all fastened immovably in the car. 

 No straw or other packing is needed on the 

 bottom of the car. For smaller amounts, the 

 ordinary crates holding several cases may be 

 used, having on the top a large arrow or other 

 device, and the legend, " Please pack in car 

 so this arrow shail point toward the engine."' 

 Of course the arrow must be put on so that 

 the shock of bumping shall come on the sec- 

 tions endwise and not sidewise. 



Italianizing a Neighborhood's Bees- 

 Eggs That Fall to Hatch - 

 Free Discussion 



I believe, with Doolittle, that rules with 

 bees " don't count." They are in the nature 

 of freaks from beginning to end, and no one 

 can tell what they will do next. I 6ome times 

 think there are more devils in black bees than 

 in the swine that ran down into Genesaret. 

 They seem always aching for a fight. I once 

 made an introducing-cage of a whole frame 

 of oomb (say half filled with honey), covered 

 with wire-cloth on both sides a bee-space 

 from the comb. I cut a hole in the comb 

 about as large as my thumb end for bees to 

 pass from one face of the comb to the other. 

 I put the queen and her attendants in this 



cage and kept her there for about a week, and 

 then liberated her by a door provided in the 

 screen for that purpose. The queen did all 

 right, and of course some of the other bees 

 entered the cage at the opened door. To save 

 the honey in the comb and the cage for sueh 

 use again, I tried to chase the bees out of the 

 cage, and it was one of the "biggest circuses" 

 I ever was at. Some of them were bound not 

 to go through that hole from one side of the 

 comb to the other, and one in particular 

 whirled around over the hole like a whirligig 

 — I suppose a thousand revolutions a minute. 

 I eventually killed i£ to stop the play. I 

 called this to mind on reading " Maine's " de- 

 scription of the colony that refused to have a 

 queen in any case (page S03). I have another 

 freakish case at present. 1 received an Ital- 

 ian queen (untested) after some 2000 miles 

 travel in the mails of your country, andabont 

 every second week she has a batch of eggs in 

 the same frame, that never hatch, but disap- 

 pear in a few days. 



1. What was wrong? 



2. Will she be of any use in the spring? 



3. To save the colony, must I replace her? 



4. As you and the editor of Gleanings have 

 been discussing hybrids, I think I see why 

 you can only rear hybrids, by Miss Wilson's 

 reply to Mrs. Black's question No. 3, page 

 S02. Of course it is desirable to rear only a 

 few drones when our own bees are no. longer 

 hybrids, but I think some of the queen-deal- 

 ers smile at our foolishness. They know that 

 if we spent the money we now send to them 

 for queens, in rearing large numbers of drones 

 early and late, we should soon Italianize our 

 whole neighborhood to such an extent as to 

 be able to rear our own queens, and be inde- 

 pendent of their services. Suppose each of us 

 with large apiaries, devoted say 10 of our best 

 colonies to rearing drones for 3 years; say put 

 3 frames of drone-comb or drone-foundation 

 in each brood-nest, I think we could soon 

 swamp the hybrids and the queen-rearers who 

 are not breeders, but are only fattening upon 

 our ignorance and credulity. These last are 

 only thoughts that came to a novics 6ince I 

 started to write. Let some one who is not a 

 novice, and has some conscience, correct my 

 foolish thoughts. Suppose Mr. Hasty takes 

 a crack at the idea, and modify or wreck it 

 by showing its absurdity. 



5. Some of the editors of bee-papers may 

 not allow such free discussion of the matter 

 as maybe desirable; witness how they shut 



