April 18, 1907 



American Hee Journal ii 



he reasons that there is some hunting 

 going- to be done— and he likes the job. 

 The dog knows why he does things for 

 the most part ; and the things he does 

 not knowing why are comparatively 

 few. But when we pass from the dog 

 to the bee we find the reverse the case. 

 Very many things which superficial 

 view would call wisdom, are simply 

 automatic or habitual; and the bee 

 does not really think or question as to 

 what object is in view. But for all 

 that there is still a remainder of things 

 which bees do just as intelligently as 

 other non-human creatures do. Of 

 course, we know that there are still 

 some folks eager to jaw, jaw, jaw to 

 the end of time in defense of the propo- 

 sition that no creature but man has a 

 particle of reason. By some odd hocus- 

 pocus they have made this a tenet of 

 their religion. Venture to hope that 

 not many of this tribe of theologians 

 are bee-keepers. 



That was a narrow escape you had 

 from getting up the no-trouble-to-con- 

 trol-swarming tree. Your experience 

 in the natural change of a non-swarm- 

 ing location into a swarmy one is val- 

 uable to us. Page 188. 



slip of the writer's memory ? Tip here 

 elm leaves do not appear till later on. 

 However, the inllorescence of the elm 

 furnishes lots of surface on which an 

 aphis might breed. Page 191. 



Respiration of the Bee. 



I wonder a little what Mr. House 

 was at when he said, " Normal res- 

 piration of the bee is 3 or 4 times a 

 minute ; under abnormal conditions as 

 high as 124." As a bee has no rib 

 bones and no diaphragm, it might be 

 asked how the respiration trick is per- 

 formed. Say perhaps a general con- 

 traction of muscles, causing part of 

 the air in the spiracles to go out, fol- 

 lowed by general relaxation causing 

 fresh air to come in. The highest rate 

 mentioned would be about 2 per sec- 

 ond — same rate at which some clocks 

 tick. My memory dimly confesses to 

 having seen something like successive 

 undulations, not far from that rate of 

 speed, slightly stir the anatomy of 

 highly active bees. At least I'm not 

 going on record as denying that the 

 bee has what amounts to a timed res- 

 piration. But I guess most of the 

 brethren either don't know this or else 

 so ignored it that it amounts to about 

 the same. Page 189. 



Carniolan Bbes Slightly I/arghst. 



Pretty positive evidence that Carnio- 

 lans are slightly the largest, if perfora- 

 tions .162 of an inch give satisfaction 

 in most other yards, but are returned 

 as too .'■.mall from yards where Carnio- 

 lans are kept. Strikes me I would 

 rather have an occasional queen get 

 up (as they have been doing) rather 

 than have the last one kept down at 

 the cost of having all the workers at 

 their work go through "with a squeeze 

 and a grin." So 1 still incline to the 

 old .168 of an inch zinc. Put the zinc 

 smooth side down, and so get decided 

 advantage at no cost. Page 190. 



Texas Elm Honey from the Leaves. 



Mr. Smith, of Texas, thinks elm 

 honey comes from the leaves, being in 

 fact " honey-dew," Here's " locality " 

 again with a vim. Do Texas elms have 

 leaves at blooming time, or is that a 



Rknukking Beeswax. 



In wholesale way, with Mr. Cogg- 

 shall's kettle and sack rendering of 

 beeswax, the slumgum contained 35 

 pounds of wax to the barrel. That's 

 more than we enjoy throwing away. 

 Page 190. 



Honey-Dealing Annoyances. 



The way Mrs. Amos trims a certain 

 bee-man is somewhat amusing. But 

 "we're all poor critters!" She feels 

 real annoyances on one side. He feels 

 the pinch of severe conditions on the 

 other side — the difficulty of making the 

 days have a hundred hours each. Still 

 I suppose we shouldn't mortgage a 

 hundred of to-morrow's hours unless 



we are prepared to deliver that many. 

 Pa^e 192. 



Electric Heat for Bee-Cellar. 



An electric heater for the bee-cellar \ 

 Well, well, we are coming on. And I 

 see no reason why electric heating 

 should not be the best possible — in this 

 case where heat is often needed, but 

 hard to apply without doing mischief. 

 Page 191. 



Use Best Honey for Infants' Food. 



If honey is to be used in an infant's 

 food, let it be done with care, and by a 

 judicious person, until it proves itself 

 all right. And in heavenly mercy don't 

 let it be such poor, half-spoiled honey 

 as is sometimes sold. Sadly too many 

 outsiders think honey is honey, and 

 don't discriminate. Still, I guess 

 there's not danger of any such deadly 

 harm to the little fellows as bad milk 

 sometimes brings. Page 193. 



-*SPlHW/tLi 



C^onveinlbii 

 Proceedings 



Report of the 37th Annual Conven- 

 tion of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, held in 5an An- 

 tonio, Tex., Nov. 8-10, '06 



(Continued from pa^e 316 ) 



Distance to Breed Pure Queen-Bees. 



"How far should a breeder of pure 

 queen-bees be isolated from all other 

 bees?" 



Dr. Bohrer — I don't know of my own 

 personal knowledge how close queen- 

 breeding apiaries are situated to each 

 other, but my own idea has been this: 

 As different races of bees are being 

 brought into the United States, these 

 apiaries should be 12 or 15 miles apart. 

 I know this, that bees will go 7 miles. 

 I have timed queens that have left a 

 hive and have been out J4 of an hour. 

 Now how far they have been I have 

 no knowledge. How far the drones will 

 go I don't know, but I have reason to 

 know that queens and drones will go a 

 greater distance than 12 miles. I have 

 known of two races being bred in the 

 same yard and sent out over the coun- 

 try. Now, whoever these bee-keepers 

 are, they have not been sending out 

 pure queens, and they ought to quit the 

 business. Now, I have no ax to grind ; 

 I have no queens for sale and don't 

 intend to have any. I am not in the 

 bee-business to make much money out 

 of it, but for pastime, and I don't want 

 to quit it now. I am not going to give 

 any names, but there are parties here 

 who know something about it. If they 

 are sending out different queens from 

 the same hive, they ought to be noti- 

 fied to quit business, or be exposed. 



i know of one man that I understand 

 had foul brood in his apiaries, and con- 

 siderable money was sent in for queens, 

 and he had the honor to notify them 

 that he had foul brood and would not 

 send out a queen. I don't believe that 

 he is the only man that would do this. 

 But these are matters that we want to 

 hunt up. If you have foul brood in 

 your apiary, you need not be scared 

 about this matter, nor ashamed of it, 

 but it is harmful to keep it. It may be 

 your fault, it is a misfortune, but go to 

 work and get rid of it. The man who 

 is sending out different races of bees, 

 and breeding them side by side, is not 

 working for the interest of the bee- 

 keeping of this country. I don't know 

 the names of these parties, and especial- 

 ly those who are sending out four dif- 

 ferent varieties of bees bred in a small 

 apiary of 24 or 25 colonies, all kept in 

 one yard. We should work together 

 and find out who those parties are, and 

 quit patronizing them until they do bet- 

 ter. I don't want queens badly enough 

 to get them from a man who will do 

 business in this way. 



Pres. Dadant — Are there members 

 who have any experience in this mat- 

 ter, in regard to distance? 



W. H. Laws — I have been wondering 

 who in the world such charges could 

 be brought against. Dr. Bohrer is very 

 earnest in what he says. Since the in- 

 troduction of the baby nuclei, I have 

 known an honest man who breeds the 

 Carniolan, Caucasian and Italian, and 

 keeps them all in one yard. But he 

 takes 200 or 300 of these baby nuclei 

 and goes out far in the country with 

 them, and these queens are mated to 



