Mar. 28, 1907 



Amc»ric<in l^ee Journal j 



and color. The very irregular shape 

 of raisins just dug out of a pressed 

 cake of raisins is often met ; but I 

 think that most of these, with time and 

 warmth and moisture, will expand into 

 some definite shape. 



And Mr. D. is hardly at his best 

 when he intimates that a scoopfull of 

 bees made to hang on a bunch of 

 grapes is any fair representative of a 

 cluster that forms there themselves, 

 knowing what they are after. (He says 

 "any of my readers can try this.") 

 Only a few times in a dozen years is 

 there — for the most of us — a chance to 

 try any such thing. 



Testing Thermometers. 



Tell " Wisconsin " to fes/ his wander- 

 ing thermometers. Put a wash-dish of 

 water out in the cold till it freezes over 

 lightly. (Don't trust water with more 

 or less ice floating in it.) Put in your 

 thermometers, and quite possibly one 

 of the lot will prove to be right — read- 

 ing 32 degrees, or nearly that. If not, 

 choose the most convenient one and 

 note how many degrees wrong it is. 

 Say it reads 29 degrees when it ought 

 to read 32 degrees. As the further 

 aberration in the course of 13 degrees 

 can not be very large, assume that it 

 will read 42 degrees when it ought to 

 read 45 degrees. I take it that care- 

 less workmen at marking thermome- 

 ters let their freezing water get too 

 warm and their boiling water too cold. 

 Also, I guess they twist the tops when 

 not hot enough ; so no real sealing 

 takes place. The result of this last is 

 that the fluid in the tube slowly evap- 

 orates out ; and the thermometer comes 

 after a while to read much too low. 

 Page lis. 



Those Winter Drones. 



F. Dundas Todd does very well for a 

 beginner in trying to account for his 

 winter drones. I'll add the guess that 

 the bees were queenless when the 

 drones were reared. Possibly the 

 queen laid a few eggs and then died off. 

 Thereupon the bees developed the eggs 

 for what they were worth, drone-eggs 

 to drones, and if there were any 

 worker-eggs, tried to rear a queen from 

 one. Page 117. 



A Hive-Rifling Bear that Was 

 Rifled 



Bully for the bear ! He lies in state 

 amid the evidences of his prowess, and 

 gives us the visible evidence of his big- 

 ness. He is a Samson resting his head 

 on the ruins he has made. What a 

 pity "Teddy" could not have been 

 presented with a chance to kill such a 

 whopper 1 Five rifles bear mute testi- 

 mony to the force considered appro- 

 priate to send against him. Page 121. 



T-SupER Discussion. 



Mr. Greiner's earnest hit-him-again 

 forninst the T-super is sufficient to 

 account for a smile or two. His charity 

 is great— great enough to think the 

 propolis of Marengo is greasy in its 

 nature — not sticky like the rest of us 

 have to agonize with. It slips right off 

 when it sees Miss Wilson press her 

 teeth together and go for it I And 500 



a day, moi or less, will satisfy Mr. 

 Greiner as . day's scraping. (There, 

 that gives m some sort of a sight.) 



And it secHii from a closing remark 

 of his that there are among us tom- 

 tinkers of the 33d degree that try to 

 press honey into shape when somewhat 

 out of square. Don't? Well, if advice 

 has any impression on that sort of 

 chaps, I'll say don't, also. Page 127. 



seat across the ocean for some — that 

 fact weighs much heavier for those 

 early days than it would now. Now 

 we hardly know what our next neigh- 

 bor lias, or has not. That Indian who 

 had never seen bees before, very likely 

 thought the hive was a contrivance of 

 the white man's to defend his premises 

 in his absence. Page 129. 



First Apiary in the South. 



So a "claim is filed " for the honor 

 of first apiary in the far South. Place 

 on the Savannah River ; time a little 

 over a hundred years ago ; and keeper 

 the elder Wilder. Very good till some- 

 body can ante-date it. The fact that 

 he could hear of no bees, and therefore 



Is There Honesty Among Bees? 



It sounds nice to say " honest bee " — 

 who wouldn't increase the size of his 

 rose by suppressing the buds of other 

 people's roses — but how about the ac- 

 curacy and truth of it, dear Boss ? In 

 hot weather with no honey-flow, and 

 lots of idle bees out, whoever saw any 

 signs of honesty among them ? 



icfor Miller^ 



Send Questions either to the oflice of the American Bee Journal, or to 



Dk. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



J^" Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Some Varieties of Bees 



Describe the Golden, Carniolan, and Cau- 

 casian bees. Also, which is the best variety? 

 What was the origin of the Goldens and the 

 Carniolans? Iowa, 



Answer. — The standard Italian bee has 3 

 yellow bands. In this country these bands 

 have been increased by selection to 5, and 

 such bees are called "Goldens." Carniolans 

 are brought from Carniola in Austria. At a 

 hasty glance they might be taken for black 

 bees, but have a brighter look because they 

 have a whitish plumage on the edges of the 

 abdominal segments. Caucasians have some- 

 what the look of Carniolans or blacks. Dr. 

 D. E. Lyon says: "The bands which, in my 

 strain of Caucasians are so distinct, are of 

 the pronounced light gray, which, with the 

 slight shade of orange on the abdomen, make 

 it easy to tell these bees from the blacks." 

 Prof. Frank Benton says: "The dark color 

 is of a peculiar dull leaden gray, and gives 

 the bees a very ringed appearance. You have 

 doubtless noticed Carniolans or blacks which 

 have fallen into water-troughs, crept out. and 

 become partially dried. These might be taken 

 to resemble in color the Caucasian workers, 

 as you will notice that the dark rings around 

 the body show more distinctly when the fuzz 

 is dampened." 



There are advocates for each, and it would 

 be hard to say " hich of the 3 is best. What 

 might be best fur one might not always be 

 best for another. The majority of bee-keep- 

 ers probably prefer Italians to any of the 

 others. 



Doubled Colonies-Movins; Bees- 

 ttueen- Excluders, Etc. 



1. I have 8 colonies. I doubled up late last 

 fall and failed in iireak the comb in the upper 

 hive so that the bees could carry the honey to 

 the lower hive. So I set one on top of the 

 other. They aiv in 8 frame hives. I win- 

 tered them in ii huuse fixlO feet in size, 2 feet 

 between walls, with sawdust between the 



walls, and with double doors. I prefer to 

 conane them to the lower hive, or will the 

 queen lay in both hives J 



2. What do you call " shook swarming ?" 



3. I have 12 colonies 2 miles distant at a 

 neighbor's. When will be the best time to 

 move them— before snow goes off, or should 

 I wait until willow blossoms J 



4. Will it pay me to get an extractor for 20 

 colonies*' 



5. I want to run more for extracted honey. 

 How many bee-escapes will I have to have? 



6. Are not queen-excluders a hindrance to 

 bees, or will I have to get some excluders? It 

 so, how many! 



r. What is the " Dongolian " bee? Is it a 

 good honey-gatherer? I have the Italian. 



1 am in a good location. It is timber coun- 

 try. Clover does well here, also alfalfa, 

 alsike, and white clover. Minnesota. 



Answers,— 1. It you merely set one hive on 

 the other, you may tind the bees all in the 

 lower story, or you may find tbem all in the 

 upper story, and it is possible that you may 

 find the 2 colonies still separate, each one in 

 its own story. If strong enough, the queen 

 will lay in both stories. If you want to con- 

 fine the queen to the lower story, you must use 

 an excluder, first finding the queen to make 

 sure she is below. Or, if you don't want to 

 look for the queen, brush all the bees from 

 the upper combs into the lower story, put an 

 excluder over, and then the upper story of 

 combs without any bees. 



2. " Shook swarming" is bad English that 

 has, I am sorry to say, grown into quite com- 

 mon use in place of "shaken swarms'" or 

 "shake-swarming." Perhaps a more appro- 

 priate name would be one used in Germany, 

 "anticipatory swarming." A little before 

 you think a colony will swarm you take the 

 matter into your own hands, and take away 

 from the colony all its frames of brood, put- 

 ting them elsewhere with only enough bees 

 to be sure the brood will not chill. That 

 leaves, as you will see, on the old stand, the 

 same as a swarm with the old queen, only it 

 will be stronger than the natural swarm 

 would have been. 



When the distance is as much as 2 miles, it 



