July 10, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



441 



advance of the meetings, and approved by the Director. If 

 you do not ask for an institute until the series has been 

 arranged and the dates fixed you will be disappointed ; 

 much of this v?ork should be done to-day. Your thanks are 

 due the Department for favors received. 



It is important, and a source of gratification to the bee- 

 keepers and the several societies, to be largely represented 

 at this convention ; but it is not necessary that we should 

 be noted for the numerical size of our conventions; but 

 rather by the value to our pursuit of the work accomplished. 

 Our time is limited ; there are live issues to be di.scusse<l ; 

 be thorough, but brief and pointed in your discussion. 



Thanking you for your attention and for the loyal sup- 

 port and aid you have rendered, I await the pleasure of the 

 convention. 



i * The Afterthought. ^ 



Tbe '*Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Qlasses. 

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



COMB HONEY .\ND SW.\KMING. 



Yes, sir, no doubt of it ; a living blanket of bees on top 

 of the sections and all round, is one of the very best incen- 

 tives toward getting them finished promptly and in the best 

 style of bee art. 



To deplete the old hive of bees after swarming, and to 

 use it finally to hive a swarm in, is a method of restraining 

 increase that commends itself highly. Still you must re. 

 member that it might play capers -mith you, in your yard, 

 providing you have never used it before. Article of G. W. 

 Stephenson, page 343. 



PERCENT OP WATER IN HONEY — FL.WOR .\ND COLOR KRllM 

 POLLEN. 



If we can not know exactly how much water there is in 

 honey, here is an approximation stake to tie to which is 

 tolerable. Prof. Eaton tells us on page 345 that 23 percent 

 should be the high-water mark. Above that it's hone^- and 

 water rather than honey. 



Wonder if he intended to say that flavor and color of 

 honey depend in part upon the pollen. If so our goat, me- 

 thinks, ought to give him another degree of bee-masonry. 



THE SCIENTISTS AND GLUCOSE. 



It worries me a little when I hear the scientists tell 

 what the different sweets are that compose honey. These 

 pronouncements, of which we have had quite a number, 

 sound very different the one from the other. How much 

 of this disagreement is real disagreement, and how much a 

 different use of language merely, a layman can not tell very 

 ■well. It's plain that scientists, when they get criss-cross 

 at each other, rather take pains to have their language dis- 

 agree. I am not accusing Prof. Eaton of this, but just 

 honestly and squarely quoting him below ; and those " un- 

 reliable glasses " of mine can see " just as easy " that none 

 of our learned and respected teachers know quite as much 

 about the composition of honey as they let on : 



■■ Glucose, in a chemical sense, sigailies a group of sugars having 

 common etiaracteristics, and includes almost two dozen varieties, the 

 most eomiiion of which are dextrose and levulose. Honey, therefore, 

 contains glucoses, but no ' glucose.' ' Glucose ' also contains glucoses, 

 dextrose being common to both products." Page .345. 



PROPER TEMPERAURE FOR HANDLING BROOD. 



As to the temperature at which brood should or should 

 not be taken out of the hive, the answer on page 347 is con- 

 servative, and to that extent good. I will remark, however, 

 that for 20 odd years I have been in the regular habit of 



going through my hives whenever I wanted to (and that has 

 been to a total of a great many cases), at temperatures very 

 much below what the authorities set. Instead of keeping 

 my minimum at 6.5 degrees it would be somewhere about 2r> 

 degrees, I reckon. No wind, you understand ; and a pro- 

 tecting case made on purpose to put the frames into as soon 

 as taken from the hive ; the exposed side of the case to hold 

 a broodless comb ; and the quilt laid loosely on the top of 

 all if things are severe. I may have done much harm by 

 this conduct, but I have yet to run acro.ss the first evidence 

 of it. Tender brood lies at the bottom, or at least half way 

 to the bottom, of a narrow, warm cell, which takes quite 

 a while to get cold. And my idea of how matters work in a 

 calm atmosphere is that a warm, empty comb holds its in- 

 closed air — somewhat as a floating thistle-down holds its 

 inclosed globe of warm air. The cooling of the inner walls 

 of the hive is to be regretted, in case you take everything 

 out ; but then the bees go back in a stirred-up condition, 

 like a stirred-up tire, and soon warm things up again. 



A HARD SPRING FOR BEES. 



Worst spring for bees in 33 years — Doolittle, Onondaga 

 Co., N. Y.; May 15. Bring it down to June 19, and say 

 worst spring I remember in my locality for lack of nectar 

 in the flowers. Not so very exceptionally cold, or dry, or 

 wet, or stormy, but just barren. Perhaps the number of 

 days of rather cold weather has been exceptional. But in 

 my garden one or more cucumber plants, planted May 3, 

 and coming up with reasonable promptness, still live, hav- 

 ing had no protection whatever. Page 348. 



\ Quest 



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Questions and Answers. 



CONDUCTED BY 



Znt. O. O. JUILLER, Marengo, 111, 



[The Qiiestloiis may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. MlL'er 



direct, when He will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers bv mail. — Editor.! 



Superseding or Swarming-Out ?- 

 Supers. 



When to Put on 



Why so much superseding of last year's reared queens ? 

 On opening the hives I find two capped queen-cells, frames 

 well filled with brood, equal to the work of a well-regulated 

 qtieen, no drone-brood. The bees will ball the queen, and I 

 find them on the entrance-board. I have not been tamper- 

 ing with them or bothering them. All are clipped. I would 

 think nothing of it if they were old queens. 



I had hives booming with bees, and saw the first clover 

 bloom May 21. I put on supers June 10, and to-day there is 

 scarcely anything being done in them. The reason is the 

 cold and wet weather. I said I would wait before putting 

 them on. because I thought the weather would continue 

 cold, and it has, and will remain cool throughout the sea- 

 son, as it did in 1882. 



There is very little swarming, what swarms there are 

 issue when young bees are out for a flight. I get about 

 enough of the returned ones to make a coporal's guard. The 

 swarm will settle and go in with others : I can't blanket all 

 the entrances. 



I find the bee-men have troubles as well as the fisher- 

 man. 



I had my stakes set for 100 colonies, but have concluded 

 that a whole lot less will make me plenty of trouble. 



It is enough to make one hot under the collar to have 

 the natives swarm in to buy honey and have none to supply 

 them with, and to hear them say, "What, all of these bees 

 and no honey ! I would get rid of them.'' Iow.a. 



Answer. — I've looked over my assortment of answers 

 carefully to find one to fit your question as to the loss of 

 queens, and can't find a single one to fit the case except 

 that one I have to use so often — " I don't know." I doubt 



