334 



April 18, 1907 



American l^ee Journal 





Qur ^ 

 'Bee -Keeping ^^^^ 



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Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



A Sister Starting With Bees 



Dear Miss Wilson : — I want to keep 

 a colony or so of bees, but as our place 

 is new — not a tree nor a shrub— how 

 am I to manage when the bees want to 

 swarm ? 



When is the best time to get a col- 

 ony ? Can you give me the address of 

 a reliable person handling bees 7 



Any point that would be of particu- 

 lar importance to a novice would be 

 appreciated. 



(Miss) Geneva Welborn. 



Jackson Co., Mo. 



You are to be congratulated that you 

 have no large trees to bother you at 

 swarming-time. If, however, you wish 

 a place for swarms to cluster, you 

 might stick a pole in the ground with 

 a bunch of dark rags attached to the 

 point; or, better still, a piece of old 

 honey-comb, as a substitute for the 

 trees and shrubs. But the simplest 

 way would be to clip your queens' 

 wings, and then no alighting-place 

 would be needed. 



In the spring or early summer, after 

 bees are flying daily, would be a good 

 time to get your bees. 



Look in the advertising columns of 

 the American Bee Journal. You will 

 no doubt find what you want there. 



The first thing to do is to get a bee- 

 book and study it, and no bee-keeper 

 can afford to do without the bee-papers. 

 If any special point comes up that is 

 not made clear in the book, it will be a 

 pleasure to answer any questions in 

 this department. 



A Man's Idea of a Woman's Bee- 

 Dress 



In the Irish Bee Journal D. M. M. 

 quotes from a book by John Keys, 



1796: 



" WocQen should not meddle with bees 

 without a headdress, nor then without a man's 

 coat, and I had almost said breeches also." 



Poor women ; pretty warm work to 

 have to wear a man's coat with the 

 thermometer in the 80's or 90's. 



Preserving Oilclotlis Witli Beeswax 

 and Turpentine 



Oilcloth looks better and lasts longer 

 if polished with beeswax and turpen- 

 tine than if washed. To make polish, 

 dissolve an ounce of beeswax in a pint 

 of turpentine. Apply with one piece 

 of flannel and polish with another. To 

 get a good effect quickly be careful 



always to use clean cloths. Old woolen 

 vests, etc., will answer the purpose, 

 and it is really a saving of time in the 

 end if they are washed each time they 

 are used. — A. R., in Vick's Magazine. 



The Sting-Trowel Theory Again 



Dear Miss Wilson : — The following 

 appears in one of our local periodicals : 



Real Use of the Bee's Sting. 



*'The bee's sting is a trowel, not a rapier," 

 said a nature student. " It is an exquisitely 

 delicate little trowel with which the bee 

 finishes off the honey cell, injects a little pre- 

 servative inside and seals it up. With its 

 trowel-like sting the bee puts the final touches 

 on the dainty and wonderful work. V!Hh the 

 sting it pats and shapes the honey-oell, as a 

 mason pats and shapes a row n£ brick. Be- 

 fore sealing up the cell it drops a wee bit of 

 poison into the honey. This is formic acid. 

 Without it honey would spoil. Most of us 

 think the bee's stinf , with its poison, is a 

 weapon only. It is a weapon secondarily, 

 but primarily it is a magic trowel, a trowel 

 from whose end, as the honey-cells are built 

 up, a wonderful preserving fluid drips.'' 



I would like to inquire if "Nature 

 Student's " bees are a new species, or 

 are they just common Apis, like yours 

 and mine? It is an entirely new 

 idea to me, that a full-fledged — i. e., 

 barbed — bee-sting is a secondary mat- 

 ter. I have been under the impression 



all these years that when the little 

 busy bee " patted " me with her deli- 

 cate little trowel it was primary, very. 



As for formic acid, the "ABC of 

 Bee-Culture " calls the poison secreted 

 by bees, " Apismellifica," and the same 

 author says further, "that the bee- 

 sting poison frequently relieves certain 

 forms of rheumatism, paralysis, and 

 perhaps dropsy;" but he neglects to 

 mention that the bees use the poison 

 as a preservative for their honey. 



This has been the hardest winter on 

 bees in my experience. I winter them 

 outdoors with chaff cushions, and pro- 

 tected by sheds and evergreen hedges ; 

 but I found 5 out of my 21 colonies 

 dead this spring. The remaining 16 

 are to-day (March 27) bringing in their 

 first pollen from willows, and are just 

 booming with bees and surplus energy. 

 Mrs. Buel Billyard. 



Millgrove, N. Y. 



Some years ago Rev. W. F. Clarke, a 

 Canadian bee-keeper now dead, pub- 

 lished a little book of verse in which 

 he put forth the theory that the sting 

 of the bee was used as a trowel, and 

 that before sealing a cell of honey the 

 bees put into it a droplet of poison 

 from the sting. No proof whatever 

 was given ; it was a flight of imagina- 

 tion pure and simple, with no shadow 

 of foundation. With an observation- 

 hive one can see the work of the bee, 

 yet no one has ever seen a bee work- 

 ing wax with its sting, or letting fall 

 from it into a cell of honey the tiniest 

 bit of poison. So you are quite safe to 

 stick to your " primary " view. 



Formerly formic acid was believed 

 to be the poison in a bee's sting, but 

 later investigations show it to be some- 

 thing separate. " Apis mellifica " is 

 the scientific name for our bees, not 

 for the poison, although a medicine 

 prepared from bees' stings may be 

 called by that name. Formic acid i& 

 found in honey, but it gets into the 

 honey while the honey is in the bee, 

 not after the honey is deposited in the 

 cell. 





The " Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses, 

 By E. E. Hastt, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Round Cell Building — Non-Swarm- 

 ing and Swarming Locations. 



No, Mr. Aikin, I guess I won't climb 

 clear down from that round-cell tree 

 yet. Some other time — maybe — maybe 

 not. Strikes me you have a pretty 

 compression theory — that hardly tallies 

 in every point with the facts. Still 

 I'm not ready with any reply. At 

 present I enjoy more seeing you up a 

 tree that I suspect almost any man 



could be compelled to climb down from 

 — unless he belongs to the sect of 

 never-climb-downs. Your tree is where 

 you say, " The bee is governed in no 

 sense by reason." How would it do to 

 say the dog is governed in no sense by 

 reason ? When the dog turns around 

 several times before lying down, it is 

 not probable that he is governed by 

 reason. But when he sees his master 

 take his gun, and he forthwith begins 

 to dance and caper like a wild creature,. 



