

IN AMERICA J^ 



4 2d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, SEPT, 25, 1902, 



No, 39. 



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Editorial Comments. ^^ ^ 





The Denver Convention Report we expect tobefjin to 

 publish next week. It will be interesting reading. It would 

 be a good time now to get your neighbor bee-keepers to sub- 

 scribe for the American Bee Journal, to begin with the 

 number commencing the Denver convention report. Why 

 not do it ? 



The National Bee. Keepers' Association.— In this 

 number of the American Bee Journal will be found two 

 articles which bear on the advantages or benefits to be 

 derived from a membership in the National Association. 

 In view of the statements made bj' Mr. V. Shebat, of Min- 

 nesota, it seems to us that instead of only 1000 bee-keepers 

 being members at present, there ought to be from five to 

 ten thousand members. 



We do not see how any bee-keeper can feel that he can 

 afford not to be a member. It costs only $1.00 a year, and 

 even if a member receives no direct benefits himself, he has 

 the satisfaction that he is helping in a splendid cause. 



The National Assocation has done more, perhaps, than 

 all other bee-keepers' organizations combined, in this coun- 

 try, to place the industry of bee-culture on a firmer founda- 

 tion, and secure for it the rights that it justly deserves. 

 But its work has only begun. And yet, in view of its 

 wonderful success with only a handful of members and dol- 

 lars, what might it not do if it had five or ten times as 

 many members and dollars ? 



We trust that all the readers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal will join as soon as possible. We stand ready to receive 

 their membership dollars and forward them promptly to 

 the General Manager, if it is more convenient to send the 

 money to us than to him direct. 



Shall we not have a rapid stream of new members and 

 dollars flowing in from this time on ? 



The Mission of Drones.— Prof. J. W. Spengel, of the 

 University of Giessen, contributed to the Deutsche Revue 

 an article of which a translation was published in the Lit- 

 erary Digest. This translation is copied in the Rural Cali- 

 fornian, and at its close C. N. Wilson makes the following 

 comment : 



Dr. Joseph Warder, of Crydon, England, in his now 

 rare work entitled, " The True Amazons, or the Monarchy 

 of Bees," published in London in 1765, devotes a chapter on 

 heredity of bees, and handles the subject from a practical 

 standpoint, giving the drone bee credit for generating the 

 heat in the hive, whereby the temperature is maintained in 

 the hive sufficient to hatch the eggs, both of queen, workers 

 and drones. 



The translator for the Literary Digest is therefore in 

 error when saying, "The entire mission of the queen and 



drone is reproduction of their species; the (jueen being 

 assiduous in the deposit of eggs, the drones stupid and 

 slothful." Dr. Warder understood the drone's duties and 

 usefulness better in 176.5 than the translator for the Literary 

 Digest does in VI02. 



It is just possible that the translator for the Literary 

 Digest may be so ignorant about bees as not to know a 

 drone from a worker, but is it fair to hold him responsible 

 for the sins of Prof. Spengel ? If he has made a faithful 

 translation, he can hardly be said to be in error. 



The question is whether Prof. Spengel or Mr. Wilson is 

 in error. Prof. Spengel has plenty of company in believ- 

 ing that no special value attaches to the drone as a heat- 

 producer. Does Mr. Wilson believe that by having a full 

 frame of drone-comb in the hive there will be more heat 

 produced than if no drone-comb was in the hive 7 An equal 

 weight of workers will produce just as much heat as drones, 

 and this heat costs nothing, for the workers will produce 

 more heat while busily acting as nurses than while remain- 

 ing idle like the drones. The time when the drones pro- 

 duce the greatest amount of heat is when they are out of 

 the hive whetting their appetites for a fresh meal to be taken 

 when they return, and this heat can hardly be said to be 

 utilized. 



How to Burn Foul Brood — The editor of Gleanings in- 

 sists stronglj' that it should be " burned at night, when the 

 bees are all in the hive." If done in the day-time there is 

 danger that some of the bees will carry the disease into 

 other hives. He does not advise burning bees as well as 

 combs, except in very bad cases, or when it is the only case 

 known in the bee-yard. A detailed account of the way he 

 treated one case when he could not throw all into a boiler- 

 furnace is thus given : 



Once, when treating a case of foul brood, or, rather, 

 burning it up, in an outyard, I started a big blaze in a 

 brush-heap near-by ; but to make the blaze hotter I threw 

 on a quart of coal-oil. Then I placed the hive as near the 

 fire as I could, picked out the combs and the bees, and threw 

 them one by one into that raging flame. When the bees 

 flew up (for it was night) they would go right into the fire, 

 of course, and that was the end of them. Then I took the 

 hive, held it up by means of a pitchfork, and thoroughly 

 scorched the walls inside and out'. Next, in like manner. I 

 treated the cover ; but while the fire was raging I could see 

 the melted wax running down between the fiery embers to 

 the ground. I marked the spot, and when the brush-heap 

 burned down I raked the hot coals right over that place, 

 then pawed over the ground with a rake and pitchfork. I 

 made up my mind that I would thoroughly disinfect the 

 ground : and the next morning I found the live coals had 

 been so hot that the clay was turned red — in fact, it was 

 turning into common brick. I had no doubt the whole thing 

 had been disinfected, including the hive. 



Writing for the Papers.— Barring the high price put 

 upon pen and pen-holder, the following words from the 

 editorial columns of the Bee-Keepers' Review are well 

 spoken : 



. A bottle of ink can be bought for five cents. A pen 

 and wooden pen-holder for five cents more. There is no 



