370 



American Hee Journal 



May 2, 1907 



can not have sections well built down without 

 bottom-starters, by all means use them ; if 

 you don't need them, you may as well save 

 the trouble and expense. 



Drifting or Mixing of Bees 



To prevent the drifting or mixing of bees 

 when taken from cellar, whereby a large num- 

 ber go to a few hives depleting others, and 

 sometimes resulting in the death of queens in 

 the over-populated colonies, it has been rec- 

 ommended to contract the hive-entrance im- 

 mediately on taking the bees out of the cel- 

 lar. Confirmatory of this view is the follow- 

 ing from E. D. Townsend in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review : 



"If the entrance is contracted so that only 



a few bees can fly at a time, it helps to keep 

 them flying at a more moderate rate. We 

 sometimes throw a shovel full of sand inio 

 the entrance, then, with a small stick, make 

 an opening at one corner so that only a few 

 bees can fly at a time. This certainly helps 

 to keep them from mixing. I am sure the 

 whole secret lies in so managing that only a 

 few bees fly at a time. In other words, so 

 manage that the strong colonies are not 

 allowed to show their extra strength in flying 

 force, and with the entrances contracted the 

 strong colonies can not throw out a force 

 much, if any, stronger than the weak or mod- 

 erately strong colonies. It seems that with 

 this flrst mad rush for a flight the bees forget 

 all about marking their location. They seem 

 to get started to entering a few hives, then a 

 great share of the bees in the air are attracted 

 to these few hives, with the result that these 

 few colonies get the lion's share of the flying 

 force." 



ship (or remove queens otherwise) under 4 

 days' laying (and usually not under 5 to 10 

 days), the nuclei are overstocked with brood 

 at all times. Having Italianized fully 90 per- 

 cent of the neighboring bees within 3 or 4 

 miles of my yard, I get pure mating with very 

 few exceptions. 



The bricks on these little nucleus hive- 

 covers not only hold the covers securely, but 

 make exact queen-records by reversing the 

 sides, turning lengthwise or crosswise of the 

 nucleus, or standing on edge. With wife as 

 my assistant (mostly in correspondence), I do 

 the work alone. I also work 2 out-yards. 

 Chas. M. Dabrow. 



0)isceHaneou5 

 ilecus -If ems 



Removal Notice 



By the time this number of the American 

 Bee Journal is in the hands of its readers, we 

 will have moved into our new and larger 

 quarters, on the 8th floor of the " Electrical 

 Building," at 118 W. Jackson Boulevard— 

 about a half-mile west of where we have been 

 located the past 3 years. Our correspondents 

 will kindly notice this change in our street 

 address when writing us, and when in Chi- 

 cago come and see us in our new place of 

 business. George W. York & Co. 



times, but will probably have more experi- 

 ence in that line, as he is not afraid to go any- 

 where among the bees. 



The little girl, " Myrtle," is very fond of 

 bees. I think she will follow in her father's 

 footsteps, and be a queen-breeder, as she 

 always asks to see the queen. She has been 

 stung only a few times, and she walks among 

 the bees quite often to see what is being done 

 there. 



It was windy when the picture was taken, 

 and so we had to strike for tall timber, as 

 will be seen. 



The other photograph represents myself 

 and part of my home apiary and nucleus yard, 

 looking northwest. The public road is in the 

 background, with a cornfield still further 



Maeterlin'-li's Bee-Foolishness. — Not 



often is a new work received with higher 

 words of praise than was Maeterlinck's work 

 on the bee. Men thoroughly familiar with 

 the literature of bee-keeping gave it unquali- 

 fied praise, its brilliant style apparehtly daz- 

 zling their eyes so that they could not see the 

 grave faults it contained. It is hardly possi- 

 ble, however, that brilliancy of style will be 

 sulHcient to blind the eyes of any but the 

 utterly uninformed to the glaring errors con- 

 tained in the following: 



Maeterlinck on the Intelligence of the 

 Bee. 



It would be easy, without appealing to any 

 prehistoric event, to bring together a large 

 number of facts that would show that the 

 faculty of adaptation and intelligent progress 

 is not reserved exclusively for the human 

 race. 



Transported to Australia or California, our 

 black bee completely alters her habits. After 

 one or two years, finding that summer is per- 

 petual and flowers forever abundant, she will 

 live from day to day, content to gather the 

 honey and pollen indispensable for the day's 

 consumption ; and, her recent and thoughtful 

 observation triumphing over hereditary ex- 

 perience, she will cease to make provision for 

 her winter. Buchner mentions an analogous 

 fact, which also proves the bees' adaptation 

 to circumstances, not slow, secular, uncon- 

 scious and fatal, but immediate and intelli- 

 gent: in Barbados, the bees whose hives are 



The National Association continues 

 to grow, there being at this writing 2327 

 members. Only 173 needed to make the 2500. 

 If not a member, why not send a dollar now 

 to General Manager, N. E. France, Platteville, 

 Wis.? It would be a nice thing to have a 

 membership 2500 strong , by the time of, the 

 next annual meeting, 'next;^fall. We under- 

 stand the exact time and place will be de- 

 cided in a few days. 



The Family and Apiary of Chas. M. 

 Darrow, of Milo, Mo., are shown this week. 

 Mr. D. wrote as follows, April 20: 



Referring to the picture of myself and 

 family, I will say that we are all good honey- 

 eaters. The largest boy, " Willie," was 

 initiated into beedom when only a small 

 baby. As myself and wife were returning 

 home with a wagon-load of bees I had pur- 

 chased, he was stung on the neck, but as 

 soon as I removed the stinger he turned over 

 and went to sleep. Then when he was nearly 

 2 years old, he and a cousin went out to the 

 bee-yard, and he took a piece of iron and beat 

 on the hive with it. My wife heard him cry, 

 and carried him to the house, and we must 

 have removed 200 stingers from him, all over 

 his body, but mostly in his hair. It made 

 him very sick for a few days. He has had a 

 few stings since, but is not afraid of bees. 



The little chap standing before me is 

 "Theodore;" he has been stung only a few 



Partial View of Nucleus Yard and Apiart of Chas. M. Darbow. 



back. The pole in the background is a tele- 

 phone pole by the roadside. There were 40 or 

 45 colonies in this yard, used chiefly for 

 queen-rearing, although it furnished quite a 

 quantity of honey last May and June, which 

 was mostly used in queen-rearing later on. 

 We had no fall flow. 



The third colony shown on the right has 

 one of my fruit-jar feeders; this is the most 

 convenient feeder I ever had, and can be used 

 when others can't. 



The nucleus yard contained 113 nuclei, each 

 with 4 frames 5Jjx83.,' inches. As I never 



in the midst of the refineries, where they find 

 sugar in plenty during the whole year, will 

 entirely abandon their visits to the flowers. — 

 Harper's for March. 



It is the old floating fragment of folly that 

 went the rounds of the press years ago, and 

 has been refuted time and time again. In a 

 matter of such remarkable change in the 

 deportment of bees, why could not Maeter- 

 linck have informed himself as to the truth or 

 the falsity of the matter before committing t 



