April 25, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



can do it in the morning just as well. 

 for it often happens that the bees are 

 out and at their work of stealing at the 

 first signs of day, before you are up. 

 Where it is so an exchange can thus be 

 made, it is generally the means of stop- 

 ping the whole trouble. 



It is often very laughable to see the 

 look of disgust that comes on the rob- 

 ber-bee after he has sallied out the next 

 morning, leaving his hive without not- 

 ing that it is not where it was, and 

 then hurrying back into it with an air of 

 "I'll soon be home with a load," only 

 to find that she has gone back to the 

 "wrong" hive; then come out again, look 

 the whole situation over, and finally go 

 and make her home with the colony she 

 had been robbing all of the day before, 

 because it is now where her old home 

 was. Then where more than one hive 

 had been doing the robbing,' and a rob- 

 ber from the other hive comes after a 

 load, she is seized so quickly by this 

 strong colony that she shows a feeling 

 of "good luck" when she gets away and 

 returns home, satisfied not to try the 

 thing again. 



But it is not always that we are so 

 fortunate as to find that only one colony 

 is being robbed, for it is often our neigh- 

 bors' bees that are concerned in this 

 work, or we have a general mix-up of 

 many colonies in the apiary. Where 

 this is the case I know of no better way 

 than, at nightfall, to carry the robbed 

 colonv or colonies into the cellar, and 



leave them there for a few days till 

 pollen becomes plenty, or the bees main- 

 ly forget about this stealing affair, when, 

 near sunset of some nice day they are 

 to be set back on their own stand again, 

 examined as to their strength in bees 

 and stores, adjusting the entrance to suit 

 the size of the colony, and reducing 

 their stores by taking away combs of the 

 same till they have only what you think 

 they can reasonably protect, and shut- 

 ting them on the combs you have al- 

 lowed them by means of a dummy. In 

 this way any colony that is of any value 

 (alone) can be saved, and if too small 

 as to numbers of bees to hold its own. 

 then it should be united with another 

 colony, doing this at this time, so that 

 the bees when they have their flight the 

 next day may mark their location anew, 

 as they will always do after being ,1 

 week in the cellar. 



In closing, allow me to say that if 

 we are careful to adjust the entrances to 

 suit the size of all colonies just after 

 their first flight in the spring, and take 

 away all surplus of stores from all colo- 

 nies which are few in bees, shutting 

 them on the combs left, as I have above 

 advised, we shall have very little trou- 

 ble with robbing. Here, as elsewhere, 

 in bee-keeping, "an ounce of prevention 

 is worth a pound of cure." I especially 

 recommend this prevention part to the 

 correspondent, and all others who are 

 not entirely familiar with this part of 

 bee-keeping. 



vised keeping the bees contented in the 

 early spring by cooling them. He also 

 advised spring manipulation to begin 

 about April 20. He then spoke upon his 

 methods of rearing queens. 



A. H. EsTABROOK, Sec. 



Report of the 37th Annual Conven- 

 tion of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, held in San An- 

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



Report of the Worcester (Mass.) 

 County Bee-Keepers' Con- 

 vention 



The March meeting of the Worcest- 

 er County Bee-Keepers' Association was 

 held at Horticultural Hall, in Worcest- 

 €r, on March 9, at 2 p. m. Dr. James 

 P. Porter, of Clark University, gave an 

 illustrated lecture on "The Bee: Its 

 Nervous System and Sense Organs; 

 Its Origin and Life." He spoke of the 

 evolution of the bee from the solitary 

 bee, through the one that lays its eggs 

 and stays with the young till the eggs 

 are hatched. The next advance is in a 

 bee that makes provision in its under- 

 ground nest for the draining off of mois- 

 ture. The next higher in the group is 

 that where the male and female pass 

 the winter together in the same nest. 

 The bumble-bee has irregular structure 

 in the cells of its honey-comb, and then 

 gradations up to the nest of the honey- 

 bee in w'hich every cell is regular, and 

 there is a distinctness of order, care, 

 and regularity about the hive. Division 

 of labor in the hive now becomes pro- 

 minent and necessary, not for the in- 

 dividual life and rights of the bee, but 

 for the general benefit of the hive and 



the generations to come; and at this 

 stage the hive has become somewhat of 

 a machine. 



Dr. Porter then went into the details 

 of the nervous system, illustrating here 

 especially with lantern slides, and com- 

 paring the large brain of the worker 

 with its many duties; the medium one of 

 the queen with the mere machine and 

 purely animal function of egg-laying ; 

 while the drone with a very small brain, 

 as after the fertilization of the queen 

 the drone has nothing to do but die. 



The next speaker was Mr. H. F. 

 Cary, who spoke on wintering and 

 spring increase of bees. He said that 

 the optimum temperature for wintering 

 in the cellar is 45 degrees, with a stove- 

 pipe for ventilation, but not large enough 

 to cause a draft into the hive. He ad- 

 vised an entrance to the hive % of an 

 inch by 3 inches. Comparing those 

 wintered inside witli those left outside 

 and carefully packed, he stated that 

 those wintered in the house seemed to 

 start in with more vigor than those left 

 out. and got their brood started first; 

 but he finds that on comparing them 

 June 1st. that those left outside are 

 stronger, and working better than the 

 others. When wintering inside he ad- 



(Continued from page 336 ) 



Pres. Dadant — We will now have the 

 paper by Dr. E. F. Phillips, of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, on 



WHAT SCIENCE CAN DO FOR 

 BEE-KEEPINQ 



Science is classified knowledge. In 

 Apiculture observations can be made in 

 infinite number, but until the facts dis- 

 covered are systemized and classified 

 very little advance can be made, and 

 only with this classification does apicul- 

 ture become an exact science. 



By the majority of people science 

 is looked on as something entirely apart 

 from the practical. By most people a 

 scientist is supposed to be a man who 

 works on subjects which are of no 

 practical use whatever. The criticism 

 is heard on all sides that "book farm- 

 ing" is a failure, and that scientific men 

 who attempt to write on practical in- 

 dustries do not know what they are 

 talking about. In the first place we may 

 as well admit that there is entirely too 

 much truth in such criticism, but the 

 fault lies not with science but with the 

 men. Unless a scientist is willing and 

 .mxious to listen to what the practical 

 man has to say, he can hardly expect 

 10 arrive at proper conclusions. 



On the other hand, it is, to my mind, 

 ,1 serious mistake for the practical man 

 to disregard what the scientist has to 

 -^ay. Scientific training fits a man to 

 'put two and two together" and arrive 

 at a conclusion. When a host of ob- 

 servations are made, not every one is 

 qualified to study them and get at the 

 bottom of the subject. 



But for the fear of misunderstanding, 

 let us confine ourselves to Apiculture, 

 and see who are the scientists in that 

 work. 



In Apiculture the scientist is general- 

 ly looked on as one who studies the 

 anatomy of the bee, the effects of color 

 on flight, or similar subjects of no prac- 

 tical importance. This is entirely and 

 unqualifiedly an error. The man who 

 analyzes the results of different methods 

 of wintering, or the different ways of 

 producing comb honey, is engaged in 

 scientific work just as much as the man 

 who works on anatomy, although he 

 may not realize it. 



Assuming then that scientific work is 

 nothing but the systematizing of numer- 

 ous observations, there can be no doubt 

 in the mind of any one that Apiculture 

 is sorely in need of more such work. 



It must be admitted, however, that in 

 speaking of scientific work in Apicul- 

 ture the more or less theoretical prob- 

 lems are generally the ones to which re- 

 ference is made. I shall, therefore, not 

 speak so much of the need of scientific 



