1046 



Dec. 27, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



wonderful discoveries that the sex of bees is 

 determined by the food given the larvae I" 



But Mr. Smith should restrain himself and 

 try to be modest, for is not Texas a part of 

 the United States? and will not the new 

 theory belong to the whole nation? 



It is sure to be the case that fuller details 

 will be desired, for many questions promptly 

 arise. Is it a Texas peculiarity that a queen 

 js reared with her tail up and her head only 



partly down? and would it make any differ- 

 ence in the sex if the bead were wholly down? 

 What sex would be " created " in the drone 

 if a drone-comb, filled with eggs or youDg 

 larvae, should be turned over so that the 

 drone would be tail up and head down? If a 

 queen-cell were laid on its side, as it some- 

 times is, does that create the male sex in the 

 enclosed queen? And what— but perhaps it 

 is best not to ask too many questions all at 

 once. 



O)iscellan»ou 

 flews - Items 



An Electric-Heated Honey-Knife, 



of the Bingham type, is shown herewith. The 

 engraving is reproduced from the French pub- 

 lication, Revue Generale Industrielle. The 

 main advantage claimed for this heated knife 



great, was phenomenally large last year. 

 Plans are now being perfected to make the ex- 

 hibition, whether from the standpoint of the 

 exhibitor, the visitor or the management, bet- 

 ter than ever before. Premium lists giving 



Electric-Heated Honey-Knife. 



is that the heat is evenly distributed through- 

 out, and the blade is of uniform temperature. 

 The inventor, Tonelli, lives in Italy, and the 

 invention was exhibited at Milan this year. 



The Annual Poultry, Pigeon and 

 Pet Stock Show to be held in Chicago 

 Jan. 23 to 30, inclusive, 1907, will be an im- 

 provement on any of the series of high class 

 show6 heretofore held under the management 

 of the National Fanciers' and Breeders' Asso- 

 ciation. The exhibits of stock, incubators, 

 brooders, appliances, foods, remedies, and all 

 things pertaining to the poultry, pigeon and 

 pet stock industry have at all times taxed to 

 the utmost the capacity of the largest hall ob- 

 tainable. The attendance of visitors, always 



names of judges and the varieties to be passed 

 upon by each of them, and all necessary in- 

 formation to intending patrons, were issued 

 about Dec. 15, 1906. Twenty thousand will 

 be mailed out, and it is the intention to have 

 one sent to every interested person, but if for 

 any reason it is not received, or additional 

 copies are desired, write to the secretary, 

 Fred L. Kimmey, 325 Dearborn St., Chicago. 



ever relates anything unless he knows what 

 he is talking about, and all who know him 

 won't question his veracity one moment, or 

 doubt the correctness of any story Bill may 

 tell if he claims he has a personal knowledge 

 of anything connected with it. 



A few days ago Mr. Heflin and Squire 

 O'Bryan were talking about bees and the 

 manner of swarming, and Mr. Heflin was re- 

 minded of the immense swarms he once saw 

 in Missouri. It was during the time Bill was 

 down South fighting for his country, and 

 along about the last of that sanguinary con- 

 flict, when Bill saw that the Southern boys had 

 to surrender to superior numbers that he saw 

 the big swarm of bees. Bill says one day 

 while marching up the Mississippi valley with 

 his command, he saw bees swarming out of a 

 hole in a big cliff. The hole, he says, was 

 about three times the size of a hogshead, and 

 the bees filled the entire space and had the 

 appearance of a black cloud coming out of a 

 hole. He did not know how long the bees 

 had been coming out of the hole, but the 

 swarm was 2 miles wide, l}i miles thick, and 

 20 miles long, and that they were 2 hours in 

 passing a given point. Bill did not go into 

 particulars as to how he got the dimensions 

 of this great swarm of bees, nor when they 

 settled, but he says the hole was left in the 

 cliff, for he saw it after the bees had vacated 

 it. This is the biggest bee story we ever 

 beard, and it seems too big to be true, b 

 Bill declares that his command was not on a 

 retreat when he saw the swarm. — Huntsville 

 (Mo.) Herald. 



Bees Close a Mine. — Mr. Fred H. May 

 sends the following newspaper clipping tell- 

 ing how myriads of bees closed a mine: 



There are instances in great number where 

 mining operations were temporarily sus- 

 pended by a shortage of funds, or by water 

 flooding the property, but it remained for 

 Mohawk, a small station along the Southern 

 Pacific, to furnish a new cause which is uni- 

 que in the history of m ning. The company 

 affected owns the Red Cross mines in the 

 Mokawk Mountains. 



Millions of bees, attracted by the water at 

 these mioes, and forced from their hives in 

 the mountains by the drouth, took possession 

 of the water supply, and their numbers were 

 so great that it was found impossible to drive 

 the swarms away. Consequently the mines 

 have been shut down until the rainy season 

 sets in, when it is hoped the bees will return 

 to their mountain homes. 



Perhaps there is a reader of this Journal 

 living near the mine referred to, who can 

 verify its reported closing by the bees. 



Honey as a Healtb-Food. — This 

 is a 16-page honey-pamphlet intended to help 

 increase the demand for honey. The first 

 part of it contains a short article on " Honey 

 as Food," written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It 

 tells where to keep honey, how to liquefy it, 

 etc. The last part is devoted to " Honey- 

 Cooking Recipes" and "Remedies Using 

 Honey." It should be widely circulated by 

 those selling honey. The more the people are 

 educated on the value and uses of honey, the 

 more honey they will buy. 



Prices, prepaid— Sample copy for a 2-cent 

 stamp; 50 copies for 70 cents; 100 for $1.25; 

 250 for $2 25; 500 for $4,00; or 1000 for $7.50. 

 Your business card printed free at the bottom 

 of front page on all orders for 100 or more 

 copies. Send all orders to the office of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



A Record Swarm.— Hon. Eugene Secor, 

 of Forest City, Iowa, sends us the following 

 clipping from the St. Paul Despatch, which is 

 almost too ridiculous to be amusing: 



We very frequently hear of snake and fish 

 stories, and sometimes a pretty good bee- 

 story is told. Our friend, Bill Heflin, hardly 



San Antonio Photograph. — We have 

 some of the San Antonio convention photo- 

 graphs, showing over 100 of those present at 

 the National convention. We are sending 

 them out in mailing-tubes at 60 cents each, 

 postpaid. Send orders to the office of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



