248 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 17, 1902. 



\reeks before this harvest, in order to meet the harvest with 

 the maximum number of bees. If you have a late harvest, 

 then g-overn yourself accordingly ; but remember that the 

 earlier you commence, the more care is needed. 



To show the harm that may arise, let us suppose that 

 you have a moderate sized colony which is carrying all the 

 brood it can keep warm in moderate weather. We go and 

 insert a comb in this nest, and by so doing cause the colony 

 to spread out so as to keep just so much more comb-space 

 warm. Now it turns cold, and after a little the bees are 

 obliged to contract the cluster to keep from being chilled. 

 in doing which they leave the two outside combs of 

 well-developed brood to perish, in order to protect them- 

 selves and the center combs containing eggs and the young- 

 est brood. Without explaining further, all will see that 

 much harm, instead of good, would result. Therefore I 

 said at the outset, "care and experience " are necessary. 

 With these great gain can be made by spreading the brood. 

 Without them, the colony is much better off undisturbed. 



Onondago Co., N. Y. 



i Association Notes ^ 



f^ 



jt ByEMERSOX T. AliBOTT, St. Joseph, Missouri 



kf fieo. Mgr. of the National Bee-Keepers' Association. 



The New General Manager has not gotten things 

 entirely in hand yet, but desires to say to the bee-keepers of 

 the country that there is a great deal demanding the imme- 

 diate attention of the Association. The question of spray- 

 ing fruit-trees in bloom has come up, and a member has 

 appealed to the General Manager for aid. This will receive 

 his attention at once. 



A Bill Against Sweet Clover.— As has been announced 

 in the bee-papers, an attempt has been made to pass a law 

 in Ohio with a view of exterminating sweet clover. The 

 General Manager has written a vigorous protest, in the 

 name of the Association, to the chairman of the committee 

 which has the bill in 'charge. Secretary Mason and Acting 

 Chairman Root have seconded the efforts of the General 

 Manager, and it is hoped the bill will be killed in the com- 

 mittee. 



Director Miller has suggested that an attempt be made 

 to get the Department of Agriculture to issue a bulletin on 

 sweet clover. The General Manager will take this up at 

 once with the Secretary of Agriculture, and see what can 

 be done. 



The Lie About Manufactured Comb Honey.— The 

 question of manufacturing comb honey still continues to 

 disturb the minds of city reporters, and the General Mana- 

 ger has also found it necessary to vprite vigorous protests 

 in the name of the Association, to the New York Tribune, 

 and to the Medical Brief, of St. Louis, on this subject. It 

 remains to be seen what will be the responses of these pub- 

 lications. 



The General Manager has also addressed a letter to the 

 Chairman of the California State Board of Health on the 

 subject of honey-adulteration. 



Bee-Keepers Invited to Co-operate.— It is the earnest 

 request of the General Manager that bee-keepers all over 

 the United States and Canada be on the alert, and inform 

 him at once if anything comes under their notice which 

 tends to the injury of our industry. In the meantime it is 

 hoped that old members will send in their dues promptly, 

 and that bee-keepers everywhere will see the importance of 

 sending in their dollar for membership fee. The new Gen- 

 eral Manager desires to say that all moneys received by him 

 will be acknowledged at once, and those who send in mem- 

 bership fees and do not hear from them promptly should 

 write and make inquiry about them. 



The Change of General Managers.— The retiring 

 General Manager has been absent from home, attending to 

 his duties as a member of the legislature of Iowa, and for 

 this reason there has been some delay in making the 

 change, but if our friends will be a little patient, all will be 

 in working order in a short time, and we will make a long 

 pull, and a strong pull, and a pull all together, for victory. 



St. Joseph, Mo. E.MERSON T. Abbott, Gen. Mg-r. 



^ The Afterthought. * 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Qlasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



DIFFERENCE IN LONGEVITY IN BEES. 



That was a shrewd experiment of Mr. 01mstead"s, on page 

 149. As it is very suggestive, and very easy, it should be re- 

 peated by many observers until wo can have a settled knowl- 

 edge of wliat it amounts to, and what it teaches. Among your 

 dark-colored Iwes choose the colony that puts the most white 

 food around the hatching eggs; also choose the one tliat does 

 the least in that line. (Jive each a frame of eggs from very 

 yellow stock (both from the same queen if possible), and then 

 observe how long the yellow bees live in the two respective 

 colonies. Mr. Olmstead's observation that the onesextra-weU 

 fed in early babyhood live two weeks the longest is almost be- 

 yond belief. 



Yes, Mr. Olmstead, those bees that forget all about putting 

 any honey below in their zeal for filling sections are very valu- 

 able bees : and there is serious danger that Nature will weed 

 tliem out by starvation unless man interposes. 



W.\X-WOKMS IN PINE AND BASSWOOD. 



As to the preference of wax-worms, my memory is that 

 they eat the pine and the basswood about equally when they 

 burrow between a section and the adjacent wall. But my 

 memory sometimes plays me tricks. Some pine is very soft 

 while some is quite hard — and basswood is usually pretty 

 tough. Page 147. 



THAT SEVEN-TEAB-OLD QUEEN. 



Hello ! Mr. Riker gets himself into good and ancient com- 

 pany. Virgil gives seven years as the extreme age of the bee 

 — and Mr. Riker claims a seven-year-old queen. Probably the 

 ancients, most of them, didn't know that workers lived to a 

 less age than the queens. And Mr. Riker will encounter lots 

 of Thomases who will tell him that anything beyond five years 

 must be a mistake. Page 160. 



HONEY CROP VS. YELLOW BANDS. 



Queen tested for honey crop worth three times as much as 

 the one tested for yellow bands. Right — and might have said 

 more and still be right — Miss Emma Wilson. Even when you 

 studied the harness of the horse you intended to drive "you 

 were not any "right-er." But the provoking mischief of it is 

 that it costs much more than three times as much. And when 

 the testing is fairly complete the queen is not as young as 

 once she was. Page 151. 



OILED MUSLIN HIVE-COVERS — YELLOW SWFET CLOVER. 



Is the hive-garment projected by R. McCradie, page 154, 

 a practical thing ? (Oiled muslin to cover all the hive except 

 the entrance.) The object sought is valuable. A dry wall is 

 warm when the sun shines even a little ; but a soaked wall 

 uses up more of the heat evaporating its surplus water. If 

 the device can be kept from clinging^ — as wet garments are in- 

 clined to do, and thus imparting lots of moisture to the wood 

 — I think it would be worth while in any cold climate prone to 

 frequent rains and drizzle driven by winds. Possibly one 

 might profitably and as well go further and fare better with 

 regular outside packing and a big piece of corrugated iron for 

 top. 



And so there is one yellow sweet clover that blooms three 

 or four weeks earlier than the white. Pago 172. 



don't be a propolls-rubber. 



If dirt ur propolis are rwidfo' o?i to sections to make the 

 Thomas family believe in them, and the ingenious rubber gets 

 found out, the family aforesaid will have " confirmation strong, 

 etc.,"; and the honey-man will find his mouth awkwardly 

 stopped. Guess it would be safer, as well as more strictly 

 moral, to lot alone. Page 154. 



SHADE FOB BEES. 



My opinion of the shade proposed by Albert Wiltz, is that 

 it is a wonder that some one has not proposed it before. Arti- 

 chokes are a vegetable I am unfamiliar with. There'll be some 

 hot days before they are big enough to sufticc, will there not"? 

 With artichokes, sunMowors, asparagus and grapes on trial. 



