936 



Nov. 8, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



An hour later, or the next day, you will lind 

 the bees all down in the lower story, when 

 yon can remove the empty upper story. 

 Whatever frames of honey you take away 

 will come in handy next spring to give the 

 bees in place of combs they have emptied. 

 Better keep them in the cellar, or somewhere 

 where they will not freeze. 



2. As a rule, when honey is sealed it is 

 ripe, and it isn't ripe till it is sealed. That's 

 the rule, and if you follow it in taking off 

 honey all the mistakes you make will never 

 send you to the penitentiary. As with most 

 rules, there are exceptions. The bees may 

 seal up honey before it is ripe, and they may 

 leave it unsealed after it is ripe. You can tell 

 by seeing whether the honey is thick or thin. 

 If it's thick, call it ripe. But the exceptions 

 are so few that in actual practise I never paid 

 any attention to them, merely counting all 

 honey ready to take off if sealed. 



Robbers or Young Bees Playing? 



On page 219 of " Forty Years Among the 

 Bees," I find this sentence: 



" I think I can tell by carefully looking at 

 bees when flying with unusual commotion at 

 the entrance of a hive whether it is a case of 

 robbing or bees at play, but I am not sure." 



Knowing that it is not possible that a man 

 who has kept bees as long as you have 6hould 

 have failed to notice that playing bees always 

 keep their heads toward the front of the hive 

 in all of their manuuvers, I wondered why 

 you did not mention this fact when writing 

 on this subject. Time and again I have had 

 persons come to me in an excited way and 

 tell me that the bees were swarming. I would 

 hasten to the yard only to find playing bees 

 in front of one or more colonies, all with their 

 heads toward the entrances of the hives. I 

 have never mistaken a case of this kind for a 

 case of robbing. In cases of robbing there is 

 not the quiet and orderly deportment of these 

 young bees, and there is a greater number of 



bees right at the entrance of the hives, and 

 generally a little fighting has begun. 



Don't mase the mistake of supposing that 

 I have written anything for your enlighten- 

 ment. There are things which 6peak as 

 plainly as some words do, but do not convey 

 the same meaning to others. I have written 

 with a view to incite the beginner in bee- 

 keeping to become a careful observer. 



Iowa. 



Answer. — The incompleteness of your quo- 

 tation gives a somewhat wrong impression. 

 As you give it, the meaning seems to be that 

 I am not sure whether I can tell playing from 

 robbing. The correct meaning is given by 

 finishing the sentence as it is in the book, the 

 last part of the sentence being, " I am not 

 sure I could tell some one else the difference 

 in appearance." Yet that is not a very great 

 matter; what we are both at is to tell the be- 

 ginner how he is to distinguish between rob- 

 bing and playing. You are quite right in the 

 general statement that playing bees fly with 

 their heads toward the hives; robbers are not 

 as quiet and orderly in their behavior as play- 

 ing young bees, and generally a little fighting 

 has begun where there is robbing. And you 

 and I can tell pretty well by those marks, as 

 well as by the other marks in " Forty Years." 

 Yet are you sure a beginner who has been told 

 these things can tell whether it's robbing or 

 playing when he for the first time sees a case 

 of either? For you have never seen some of 

 the playing bees with their heads away from 

 the entrance, and some robber bees flying with 

 their heads toward the entrance! And when 

 the beginner sees his first case of playing, how 

 is he to know that the bees are any more 

 quiet and orderly than when they are rob- 

 bing? What looks quiet and orderly to you 

 looks confusion to him, seeing he has never 

 seen a case of robbing. And, of course, you 

 know that often there is no fighting when 

 robbing is going on. So you see how difficult 

 it is, sometimes, to tell another how to see 

 what looks so very clear to you. Besides, I 

 have seen cases where I had to study no little 

 time to decide whether there was robbing or 

 not. 



All this does not excuse any man pretend- 

 ing to write about the matter from leaving 

 out one of the most prominent features in 

 diagnosing; and I thank you for calling at- 

 tention to the matter. At the same time, let 

 us make an amendment by saying that when 

 bees are playing, a large part of them will be 

 seen flying backwards — that is, they will be 

 flying away from the entrance with their 

 heads pointing toward the entrance. 



Bargains g« 



Best Wisconsin Sections, 

 • 1000— $4 00; N".2-f3 +0; 

 , 25c less. 7 percent 

 discount"in October on Root's and Danz. Hives, 

 and other Root's Goods. 



40A26t H. S. DUBY. St. anne. III. 



Mention Bee Journal when writing. 



Wi Sell Root's Goods in Michigan 

 Let na qnote you prlcea on Sections, Hives, 

 Foundation, etc., as we can Bave you time and 

 freight. Beeswax Wanted lor Cash. 



M. H. HUNT A SON. 



Bbll Branch, Watnb Co., Mich 



Mention Bee Journal when writing. 



ITALIAN QUEENS 



Too late to deliver them? Yes! But not too 

 late to begin to get ready for next 



spring ! I give personal attention to cor- 

 respondence. My queens are guaranteed. 

 Write at once to 



ROBERT B. McCAIN, 



2Atf YORKVILLE. ILL. R.F.D. 3. 



Mention Bee Journal vrhen writing. 



" The continuous advertiser 

 gets tlie bulk of tlie business, 

 because others are not adver- 

 tising, and he is." 



The Bee-Hive Clock 



We have originated and had made specially 

 for our readers, a bronzed-rr etal Clock, called 

 " The Bee-Hive Clock." It is 10}^ inches 

 wide at the base, 9% inches high, and deep 

 enough at the base to stand firmly on a man- 

 tel or elsewhere. It is a beautiful piece of 

 work, and would be both ornamental and 

 very useful in any house, and particularly in 

 a bee-keeper's home. 



The Clock part itself is warranted for 3 

 years to keep good time. So it is no play- 

 thing, but a beautiful and needful article for 

 everyday use. 



Clocks like "The Bee-Hive Clock " usually 

 sell in the stores at from $4.00 to $5.00 each, 

 but having them made for us in quantities 

 enables us to offer them at $2.50 each by ex- 

 press, or with the American Bee Journal a 

 year — both for only $3.00. Either Clock or 

 Journal would make an ideal gift. 



How to get "The Bee-Hive Clock" 

 FREE 



Send us 5 New Subscribers to the 



Weekly American Bee Journal for one year, 

 at $1.00 each, and we will send vou this beau- 

 tiful " Bee-Hive Clock " FREE (excepting 

 express charges). Or, send us 4 New Sub- 

 scribers (at $1.00 each) and 50 cents — $4.50 

 in all. Or, 3 New Subscribers (at $1.00 

 each) and $1.00—14.00 in all. Or, 3 New 

 Subscribers (at $1.00 each) and $1.50— 

 $3.50 in all. 



Only $2.50. f.o.b. Chicago, by Express. 



Weight, witli packing, about 4 pounds. 



What Dr. Miller Thinks of the 

 Bee Hive Clock 



Busily ticking away, in the room where I 

 am sitting, stands a genuine bee-keeper's 

 clock (please understand that the word "gen- 

 uine" belongs to the clock and not to the 

 bee-keeper) .or, as the legend upon the clock 

 has it, "The Bee-Hive Clock." I don't know 



A $4.00 CLOCK FOR $2.50 wuhthe 

 American Bee Journal B o\ h a for Only $3.00 



whether the idea of getting up such a clock 

 was conceived in tbe brain of the Editor of 

 the American Bee Journal, or whether he got 

 it elsewhere, but the wonder is that such a 

 thing was not thought of long before. 



Setting aside all idea of its association with 

 the business of a bee-keeper, there is a pecu- 

 liar appropriateness in having the minutes 

 and the hours " told off " in a case represent- 

 ing the home of the busy little workers. The 

 glance at the clock, with its ceaseless tick, 

 tick, tick, tick, can not fail to remind one 

 that the flying moments must be improved 

 now or be forever lost, and that suggestion is 

 reinforced by the thought of the never ceas- 

 ing activity of the little denizens of the hive, 

 always busy, busy, busy, working from morn 

 till night and from night till morn, working 

 unselfishly for the generations to come, and 

 literally dying in the harness. 



Let us be thankful that tbe form of the old- 

 fashioned straw hive or skep was adopted, and 

 not that of any modern affair, patented or 

 unpatented. The latter smacks of commer- 

 cialism, but the former of solid comfort, for 

 no other form of hive has ever been devised 

 that contributes so fully to the comfort and 

 welfare of a colony of bees as does the old- 

 fashioned straw-hive. It appeals, too, to one's 

 arti6tic sense as can no angular affair of more 

 modern times. As an emblem of industry, 

 artists have always U6ed — probably always 

 will U6e — the old straw skep. 



Thanks, Mr. Editor, for furnishing us a 

 time-keeper so appropriate for all, and espe- 

 cially for bee-keepers. C. C. Miller. 



Address aii orders to GEORGE W. YORK & CO., 334 Dearborn St., CHICAGO, ILL. 



