

;^ERICA^ 





42dYEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, OCT. 30, 1902, 



No, 44. 



^ Editorial Comments. 



White Clover for Next Year seems all right, at least 

 in northern Illinois. Never before, perhaps, has there been 

 a stronger growth of white clover in October than at the 

 present time. Its very luxuriance will help to protect it 

 against a severe winter, the dense foliage forming a close 

 covering, and the corresponding strength of root will also 

 be a help. Bee-keepers are a hopeful lot, and they will at 

 least enjoy the prospect throughout the winter, even if the 

 winter should be so severe as to kill out all the clover. But 

 that is not likely to occur. 



The Weather has been exceptionally favorable of late, 

 giving every opportunity to have the bees get into good 

 shape for winter. This very favorableness, however, will 

 in some cases act unfavorably, for there are some who will 

 see no immediate need for action so long as the weather is 

 so fine, and so the little things needed will be put off. Let 

 all such remember that fall weather is well along, and 

 almost any day may close up our beautiful days and nights, 

 so it is wise to be provided against whatever may happen. 

 If you did not see that your bees were well stocked with 

 provisions in September, see to it at once that the delay be 

 no longer continued. Each day longer is one day worse. 



Building Combs to Separators G. M. Doolittle writes 



very fully upon this subject in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 

 To avoid having the bees build the comb of sections to the 

 separators, he advises having the hives carefully leveled 

 with a spirit-level, at least in the direction in which the 

 combs run in the sections ; to see that the starters are thor- 

 oughly fastened so that one of the corners can not drop 

 down ; to make sure that the starters are true in the sec- 

 tions, preferably using full sheets as starters ; to avoid giv- 

 ing sections to colonies too weak to occupy them fully ; and 

 to avoid putting sections on too early, or leaving them on 

 too long at any time when the bees are not storing. 



To all this Mr. Doolittle might profitably have added 

 that those who use bottom starters and fill the sections with 

 foundation will not be likely to have combs built to separa- 

 tors, no matter what the other conditions may be. 



Nomenclature of Forced Swarms. — Of late the plan 

 of anticipating swarming by reducing a colony to the con- 

 dition of a swarm before it has actually reached the swarm- 

 ing point has received much attention, especially in Glean- 

 ings in Bee-Culture. Editor Root classes it as an important 

 discovery, although he does not claim there is anything new 

 about it, for years ago it was given to the public by the 

 late German leader, C. H. J. Gravenhorst. From the num- 

 ber that have been practicing the plan, it seems probable 



that others besides Mr. Gravenhorst have struck upon it 

 independently, for it is a thing that would naturally sug- 

 gest itself. 



Just what should be the right name for a swarm thus 

 made seems a matter not entirely settled. Mr. Ciravenhorst 

 called it a " fegling," a German word that might be trans- 

 lated " brushling," or a " brushed swarm," and "brushed 

 swarm " has been the terra used in this country to some ex- 

 tent. Editor Root, however, used the term " shook swarm," 

 and the term has been used to such an extent that it is 

 likely to stick. Deference to Mr. Gravenhorst would sug- 

 gest the propriety of following his example by using the 

 term " brushed swarm," but those in this country who have 

 used the plan do a good deal more shaking than brushing 

 in removing the bees ; so it seems more appropriate that 

 the name should be one suggestive of shaking rather than 

 brushing. 



There can hardly be any objection raised to the term 

 "shook swarm," except that it is very bad English, and on 

 this account Dr. Miller has protested against it very earn- 

 estly, saying that when one shakes anything that thing is 

 shaken, and so a swarm that is made by shaking should be 

 called a " shaken " swarm. To this Mr. Root replies that 

 the word " shook," to his mind, has a stronger meaning 

 than the word " shaken." It seems a little strange that so 

 well-informed a man as Mr. Root should make an idiosyn- 

 cracy of his own mind a sufficient reason for using a term 

 that grates harshly upon the ears of others, and it is likely 

 that he has had some feeling of the kind, for in the last 

 number of Gleanings he shows a disposition to desert the 

 term "shook," saying: 



" I would suggest that we use the word ' forced ' swarms, 

 for that will describe either shook or brushed swarms, and 

 avoid at the same time the ungrammatical adjective 

 ' shook.' When we get the bees out of the hive by any of 

 the processes named we force them out — we make them 

 swarm, and if reports are to be believed, we make them 

 think that they have actually swarmed, and that, therefore, 

 they must get down to business." 



No one in this country has championed more earnestly 

 than Mr. Root the plan of swarming in question, and what- 

 ever term he uses will be likely to be adopted bj' bee-keepers 

 who use the English language. If he should continue the 

 use of " shook swarms," Dr. Miller may content himself 

 with the thought that this is one of the cases in which 

 "might makes right" — eventually — and however bad it 

 may sound to say "Shook swarms," it will be good English 

 when every one says it. 



Age at Beginning of Field-Work — M. Devauchelle 

 says that most authors agree upon IS days as the age at 

 which bees begin to forage in the fields, but he has made 

 experiments which show that bees can gather honey at 8 

 days old and pollen at 10. These, however, he considers as 

 only special cases which do not disprove the rule. 



In this country the general agreement seems to be 16 

 rather than IS days as the age at which worker-bees begin 



