June 19, 1902, 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



393 



sec llieni as if ol)i'ying some order, turn their heads toward 

 the entrance of the hive and march like a vast army in and 

 upward until they reach the top of the hive, hanKiiiK' '<n to 

 each other until they form a dark curtain, and wail for the 

 mysterious secretion of wax to take place willi whicli lo huild 

 the walls of their new city. Some of the swarm are iKiailcd 

 as guards to the entrance, and some inspect every crevice of 

 the hive and clean and glaze the walls and fill every seam 

 with propolis. The guards at the entrance keep out intruders, 

 and woe to the stranger who comes. But if any of the 

 worker-bees come from the field with soiled wings these ^'uards 

 act the part of dressing-maids, and carefully attend lo their 

 toilets, for no bee may enter the immaculate city of the (|uecn 

 with soiled garments, for bees arc almost fanatically cleanly. 



When I began bee-keeping I used chaff hives, but found 

 them too heavy to handle. Now I use the single-walled dove- 

 tailed hives, which I can handle alone, and use outside cases 

 for winter protection. These hives being bought in the flat, 

 and every part so nicely fitted any one who can drive a nail 

 can put them together. 



When working among the bees a beginner needs a bee- 

 hat with veil, a pair of thick gloves and a good smoker, and 

 the very best is the cheapest in the end, because a poor smoker 

 may fail you when most needed. 



With regard to taking off the honey, when I find a super 

 about full I pry it free from the hive with a screwdriver, puff 

 in a little smoke, and place another super with empty sec- 

 tions on the hive, under the full one. In a day or two, about 

 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I sally forth with smoker and bee- 

 escape board, and, raising the upper super just enough to blow 

 in a little smoke, slip the escape-board between the two 

 supers and leave them until about 5 o'clock the next morn- 

 ing. Then I take off the super full of honey from which 

 every bee is gone, and the colony does not know it has been 

 robbed. Everything is peaceful. 



I do not know that I ever enjoyed greater satisfaction 

 than when walking through the dewy grass last summer 

 carrying burdens of white honey, before the majority of 

 people were stirring. With me it has been both success and 

 failure, but the bees have quite a balance in the credit 

 column, and I hope to go on with a work that has been of 

 more value to me than can be reckoned by dollars and cents, 

 in the lessons of patient faithfulness under difficulties learned 

 from the bees. Oneida Co., N. Y. 



j ^ The Afterthought. ^ 



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

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



SULPHUR AS A GERMICIDE. 



Sulphur smoke is pretty severe medicine for live bees ; 

 but those who have been so veicked as to kill light colonies 

 in box-hives in the fall with it know that it takes a strong 

 dose of it long-continued actually to kill. Of its powerful 

 germicide powers there is no doubt. Smoking hive, bees, 

 and all, just to the last point of endurance looksmore hope- 

 ful than feeding or sprinkling drugs. Seems to me I'd do 

 it the third time, the last time taking the combs alone and 

 smoking them in a box. Page 291. 



OLD grimes' too much tongue. 



Say, Old Grimes, if too much tongue on the bee is going 

 to make it tumble to the ground from lack of balance, we'll 

 quickly remedy that by breeding on a little more tail. Give 

 us something harder. Hustle is all right, but, you see, we 

 propose to drive Tongue and Hustle in span. 



No wonder they thoui!:lit Old Grimes was dead; 



He moved like the cluck-hand, void ot bustle; 

 And never a mile did he get ahead. 



For his tongue was so long that he couldn't hustle. 



keeping bees on the "sly." 



Frontispiece, May IS, is what might be called. Keeping 

 Bees on the Sly, or, A Clergyman Queer in His Upper 

 Story. We trust that the queens of surrounding domiciles 

 will not cause any hegira by their '"quahking. " 



.MOKE ROOM TO liISSUAMB SWARMING. 



Anent the oft-repeated advice to give the bees room, it 

 may be remarked that they do not consider that matter of 

 room exactly as we blunderingly expect. Nothing is room 

 to them (at least not in any full sense) unless it has comb 

 in it. They do not walk on air any more than men do. 

 Suppose you dwelt in a lowly cabin, 12x20 and 6 feet high, 

 and were about to move for lack of room, Suppose, then, 

 some practical joker of a fairy queen should touch your 

 cabin and, presto, it is 12x20 and 20 feet high. " Now, you 

 have plenty of room, be satisfied," quoth she. You would 

 quickly answer, "The cubic feet are all right, but my feet 

 can not perambulate in cubic feet so far from my head." 

 Empty space may at times help some ; but it is usually very 

 inadequate as a swarm-dissuader. Page 307. 



EXTRACTED honey FROM DARK COMBS. 



It is a matter of some importance whether honey does 

 or does not extract color from black combs. The general 

 impression one would get from reading the Chicago conven- 

 tion report on the subject is an impression of doubt whether 

 there is a slight discoloration, or whether that is all pure 

 imagination. Pvvidence of serious discoloration seems to 

 be lacking. Page -WJ. 



ROBBEK-BEES STOP THE APIARIST'S WORK. 



As may be inferred from Miss Wilson's article, on page 

 309, danger and damage to the bees aren't all by any means 

 that is involved in a robbing muss. Some seem to think it 

 is — and that ignoring robbers is a nice kind of bravado. 

 Often the real, main thing when work presses is the annoy- 

 ing and expensive loss of the apiarist's time. (Jnce they 

 get the robbing bee in their bonnet nothing can be done 

 that does not involve stopping work. Extreme care from 

 outset on might have purchased the right to go ahead — too 

 late now. 



BEES fertilizing BLOSSOMS. 



Mr. Thaddeus Smith (being good on the skirmish) will 

 abandon the cucumber kopje when he reads Dr. Miller, 

 page 811 — but he'll shoot " allee samee " from the fruit and 

 berry territories. 



BEES STORING IN BROOD-CHAMBER FIRST. 



'Spects that part of Mr. Doolittle's dissent, on page 311, 

 is because he runs a different strain of bees from those some 

 of the rest of us keep. As for the rest, I guess (being a 

 Yankee) that Dr. Miller's mind was mainly on breaking an 

 idol in his own yard, perhaps not thinking very much of 

 other people's idols. Had no further faith that /as bees 

 would contract any bad habit of storing below that would 

 interfere in the least with starting in the sections when 

 conditions were right for that. To that extent I can go 

 with him heartily. In fact, I can go somewhat further. I 

 am willing my bees should put some of the first surplus be- 

 low, and serenely confident that they will carry it up a lit- 

 tle later on — but then, I run with 7 frames, not 9 or 10. 



Only One Xight to Denver.— By going over the Chicago & 

 North-Western and Union Paeifle railways, j-ou will need to spend only 

 one night on the road from Chicago tu Denver. There is a daily train 

 leaving Chicago at 10 a.m. on the C. & N. W., and leaving Omaha, 

 Nebr., over the Union Pacific at 11:30 p.m. o£ the same day. This 

 train arrives in Denver at 2 p.m. the following day. That is, by start- 

 ing from Chicago at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 2, you will arrive in 

 Denver at 3 p.m. the next day. or Wednesday, Sept. 3. iuample time for 

 the first session of the National Bee-Keepers' convention, which begins 

 that evening, 



Now as to rates: The round-trip prlee at that time from Chicago 

 to Denver will be %'ih. By going over the route mentioned, the regu- 

 lar sleeping-car rate would be only .5;100, because ot being only one 

 night on the way. 



There is also another saving by taking the C. & N. W. and Union 

 Paeifle. There is a Pullman tourist ear on this train from Omaha, in 

 ■which the charge for a double berth is only SI. 50 to Denver. As no 

 sleeping-car aeeommodations are required on this train east of Omaha, 

 it will be seen that one can go comfortably by this route for a very 

 small sum. 



We may say that Dr. C. C. Miller and the Editor of the American 

 Bee Journal expect to go over the route indicated, starting at 10 a.m. 

 on Tuesday, Sept. 3. Who will join us ? We would like to publish 

 the names of all who will do so. It would be pleasant to have a largo 

 number go together. 



