930 



Nov. 8, 1906 



American T*ee Journal 



of strenuous work then there is some 



propriety in the argument that a queen may 

 not prove good longer than 2 years." 



This Journal is in entire accord with its 

 Irish contemporary in considering the fore- 

 going a fair presentation of the general teach- 

 ing on the subject. It will be noted that Mr. 

 Simmins is the only one who limits the work 

 of the queen to a single year. Mr. Sladen 



allows her 3 ; all the others 2. 



The Irish Bee Journal thinks that Mr. 

 Maguire's statement, " rightly understood," 

 is supported by these authorities. The puz- 

 zle still remains with us to understand how, 

 with the one exception, they can possibly 

 support the " having, every season, a young 

 queen of the previous year's rearing, to head 

 each colony." 



flews -Items 



Dr. E. F. Phillips. Acting in Charge of 

 Apiculture, at Washington, D. C, was mar- 

 ried Oct. 27, to Mary H. Geisler, in Philadel- 

 phia. They will be at home after Jan. 1, at 

 "The Nansemond," 22d and N St., N. W., 

 Washington, D. C. Our heartiest congratu- 

 lations are extended to Dr. and Mrs. Phillips. 



L'Apicoltore— the oldest of the Italian 

 bee-papers, over 38 year6 old — is very pro- 

 gressive, and often quotes from American 

 writers on bee-keeping. We have just re- 

 ceived a request from a Dr. Triaca, for per- 

 mission to translate Doolittle's " Scientific 

 Queen-Rearing " into Italian for publication 

 in instalments in L'Apilcoltore. This is a 

 compliment, not only to Mr. Doolittle, but to 

 American bee-literature as well. 



Dr. C. C. Blilier's Report for the sea- 

 son of 1906, is summed up in these few words, 

 in reply to a question: 



Yes, we got a very few sections — don't 

 know just how many, but not worth mention- 

 ing. But we'll have a good stock of sealed 

 combs for next spring, and the hives will be 

 heavy for winter. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



That's rather discouraging for a specialist 

 bee-keeper. He'll have to draw somewhat 

 heavily on the bee-keepers' " Bank of Hope" 

 until another season. But there are those 

 who feel certain that 1907 will be a great 

 honey-year. "So may it be!" 



Patterson Bros. in]an Apiary. — When 

 sending the picture ,appearingJJonJ|the first 

 page, Mr, Robinson wrote as follows :Jo i I 



Mb. York:— I enclose a photograph of a 

 part of one of my apiaries with two United 

 States soldiers in the foreground — Patterson 

 brothers. Joe E. Patterson, who stands at 

 the left, served in the Spanish-American war 

 in Cuba, served through the Boxer Insurrec- 

 tion in China, and served over 4 years in the 

 Philippine Islands. His rank is First Cor- 

 poral. On one occasion while acting as scout 

 in the Philippine Islands, being alone, he 

 shot and killed 7 natives without moving out 

 of his tracks. On another occasion (in a bat- 

 tle this time) the American side run short of 

 ammunition, and were forced to repel the 

 bolo attack with sword and bayonet. On this 

 occasion Mr. P. had all the wood chopped off 



his army gun. In speaking of the affair, he 

 said, " It was a little searey about then." 



He was engaged in 22 battles and innumer- 

 able skirmishes, serving the army 9 years, 

 and received only a slight flesh-wound in the 

 arm. Last week he resigned hi6 commission 

 as an army officer, received an honorable dis- 

 charge, and will now try the life of a private 

 citizen. He is very much interested in bees, 

 and expects to engage in this work before a 

 great while. T. P. Robinson. 



and drones had been hatched at Albertville, 

 and the purpose was to take them where the 

 mating would undoubtedly be pure, since 

 there are no bees so high in the mountain. A 

 part of the trip had to be accomplished on 

 mule-back, and for that purpose the hives 

 were fastened together in pairs. The rearing 

 of queen6 and drones beforehand wa6 done in 

 order to gain time. But the cool and damp 

 temperature of the mountain height rendered 

 the queens and drones apathetic, and great 

 difficulty was encountered in getting them to 

 mate. After 5 days 5 queens out of 20 were 

 missing— apparently lost on their wedding- 

 trip. Only 3 out of the 20 virgin queen6 

 hatched in the plains were fertilized. The 

 others were lost. 



After that the hatching of queens and 

 drones took place at the apiary, and the suc- 

 cess was better. It would seem that the 

 queens and drones hatched at that high alti- 

 tude were more vigorous and hardy than 

 those hatched at a lower altitude. Eleven 

 out of the first 13 queens were successful, and 

 became fertile. 



The breeding was continued during July 

 and August, when the colonies began to kill 

 their drones in spite of feeding and queen- 

 lessness. In September the apiary was 

 moved back to the plain. 

 ■ Mr. Mont-Jovet is of the opinion that the 

 rearing at high latitude makes the queens 

 and bees more rustic. This matter is worthy 

 of more experiment. C. P. Dadant. 



Jlr. Morley Pettit, of Canada, has been 

 compelled to stand suit for the loss of 2 horses 

 from stinging of bees. The verdict awarded 

 was $400 damages as the value of the team. 

 The case was appealed, but it seems the higher 

 court upheld the original verdict. It 6eems 

 that on Aug. 10, 1905, Freeman Lucas led his 

 team into an oat-field which was across the 

 road and at a safe distance from one of Mr. 

 Pettit's bee-yards. His intention was to cut 

 the oats. He went back to close the gate, 

 and when he got to the horses he found a 

 cloud of bees around them, and stinging 

 them. He attempted to drive the bees away 

 with his hat, and was stung himself, so that 

 he ran away and rolled in some mud, and 

 then went home. The horses both died. The 

 indications were that the swarm had clustered 

 in the oats, and that the horses had gone 

 into them and stirred them up. Local preju- 

 dice against bees, and sympathy, influenced 

 the jury so that they saddled $400 and costs 

 on Mr. Pettit. Messrs. E. D. Townsend, W. 

 F. Marks, R. F. Holtermann, F. J. Miller, R. 

 H. Smith, Edwin Trinder, Jas. Armstrong, 

 Dr. Burt, and a number of other bee- men 

 were kind enough to attend the trial, and the 

 National Bee-Keepers' Association also helped 

 Mr. Pettit in the cost of the appeal, as he 

 evidently was keeping his bees in a perfectly 

 legitimate and proper manner. 



The St. Bernard Apiary shown on the 

 first page, is thus described by Mr. Dadant: 



Mr. Editor: — I send a photograph of a 

 queen-rearing apiary established in the Alps, 

 at an altitude of 6560 feet, for the rearing of 

 Caucasians, by Mr. Mont-Jovet, of Savoie. 



Mr. Mont-Jovet writes me quite a long let- 

 ter, in which he informs me of some of his 

 experiences. The apiary in question was 

 taken from Albertville, on the plains of the 

 river Isere, to the mountain of Petit St. Ber- 

 nard, on July 1, 1900. A number of queens 



Mr. C. Hostettler and Wife, of Roll- 

 ingstone., Minn., called at this office last 

 week. Mr. H. reports keeping from 50 to 80 

 colonies of bees, and this year, although a 

 poor honey season, his crop was something 

 like 3000 pounds. He found no difliculty in 

 disposing of it at a good price. 



An Apiarian Display and Bee-Study 



was held in one of the Chicago day-schools 

 early in October. Through the courtesy of 

 Mr. Arnd. of the York Honey and Bee-Supply 

 Co., there were 6hown a hive, veil, gloves, 

 smoker, and other things along the bee-sup- 

 ply line. There was a program given by sev- 

 eral departments of the 6chool, which in- 

 cluded 3 bee-songs and recitations about bees, 

 etc. One of the teachers gave a talk on bees 

 and their work. It is reported that the audi- 

 ence, which was composed of the school-chil- 

 dren and their parents, was greatly interested. 

 Of course, it would be more entertaining if 

 live bees could also form a part of the dis- 

 play. This might be done in the spring or in 

 September. There is scarcely any other sub- 

 ject, aside from bee-keeping, that is of so 

 great interest to children as well as their 

 elders. Besides affording educational profit, 

 it should also lead to a larger use of honey in 

 the homes of the children. In the case re- 

 ferred to above, a number of the school-chil- 

 dren wrote letters to Mr. and Mrs. Arnd, tell- 

 ing about the event, and also thanking them 

 for furnishing the articles that helped to 

 make up the display. 



Apiarian Photographs.— We can use 



more pictures of apiaries or of other things 

 of interest to bee-keepers. If you have any 

 that you think the readers of the American 

 Bee Journal would like to see, kindly send 

 them to us, and we will report if suitable for 

 engraving for reproduction, when you can 

 furnish 6ome descriptive matter to accompany 

 them when printed. After U6ing we will 

 return the original photographs, if desired. 



