May 9, 1907 



399 



American Hee Journal h 



bcc-kccpcrs materially. Besides, there are 2 

 sides to every vexed question. 



In this ease the smelters were made wel- 

 coine, as no one anticipated any trouble from 

 their operation. Then if we take into consid- 

 eration the imforcseen complications of this 

 long-drawn-out question, our bee-keepers real- 

 ize the situation we have had to cope with, 

 and they are very well satisfied with the final 

 settlement reached, and I feel grateful to them 

 for the many thanks and kind expressions for 

 niy feeble elTorls in this matter. Personally, 

 it has been one of the lights of my life. 1 

 have neither time nor space to describe the 

 voluminous coiTespoiidence of our long and 

 persistent efforts and determination never to 

 "give in" short of a successful issue, and 

 while our smelter friends gave us all due 

 credit, they thanked us for our patience and 

 courteous good-nature, which was mutual and 

 thus, although it was a long, tedious affair, 

 it was pleasant throughout. 



The locating of the smelters in the center 

 of the Salt Lake ^'alley was a grave blunder 

 that should not be repeated, but instead of 

 moving them — which certainly should even- 

 tually be done — some parties are agitating 

 the building of others under like conditions, 

 and one was actually built last year near the 

 agricultural center of Weber and Boxelder 

 counties, and a protest was sent by the bee- 

 keepers to the company before the smelter was 

 built. If the bees were destroyd by the smoke 

 . — which is more than likely — the bee-keepers 

 will claim full damage for their loss. There 

 is no question but that the smelters have de- 

 stroyed, and 'are destroying, the agricultural 

 industry of Salt Lake county, and it certainly 

 should be stopped. The agricultural settlers 

 have rights which should be respected. Their 

 homes and farms should not be destroyed. 

 Then let the smelters be built in or near the 

 mountains where the smoke will seek the hills 

 or in some other location where the rights of 

 others will not be injured. E. S. IvOVKSy. 



Salt Lake City, Utah, March 12. 



been asserted. N. iihrr are they as active work- 

 ers as Italians. ri rhaps not pure," did you 

 say? Well. 1 ^■,,l the quech from the Got- 

 ernment apiaries .11 Washington. 



Metz, Wis. p. A. Strohschhih. 



Covered Entrances— Grass in Front 

 of Entrances— Solar Wax-Ex- 

 tractor— Caucasians 



About a year ago, O. L. Hershiser in a long 

 article described his patented bottom-board. 

 One of its virtues was to prevent colonies 

 becoming depopulated by many bees leaving 

 the cluster and going out through the entrance 

 and not returning. Now it may be that things 

 would go differently with the Hershiser bot- 

 tom, but with an ordinary one I have con- 

 vinced myself that it is bad to fasten a bee- 

 tight screen over the entrance. 



Last fall I made the entrances of 18 colo- 

 nies bee-tight with wire-cloth. In 3 or 4 

 weeks after cellaring, all colonies with closed 

 entrances made much commotion. This also 

 stirred up others with open entrances near by. 

 One shut-in colony acted the same as when a 

 hive is closed in summer. All of its bees, so 

 it appeared, were at the entrance attempting to 

 get out. As I could not drive them to their 

 places and tie them, and as they did not cease 

 their attempts at getting out voluntarily, I re- 

 moved the screen. They then rushed out and 

 many flew away, and, of course, were lost 

 forever. This colony has been comparatively 

 uneasy until today (February 26). As the 

 weather permitted, I gave them a flight and 

 now hope they will "keep their mouths shut." 



Those are fine California views on the cover 

 page of the February 21st issue, but what tall 

 grass or weeds among the hives! Does Sir 

 Patrick not know that Doolittle claims that the 

 yield may be reduced one-half by such ob- 

 structed entrances? I dislike to see bees pull 

 on a spear of grass as they will when grass 

 grows in front of the entrances. It makes 

 me feel as if I were attempting to pull out 

 large trees that some one else (my superior, 

 of course) had neglected to remove, though 

 a great hindrance to my work. 



The "Canadian Beedomer" thinks a solar 

 wax-extractor unnecessary, as the cappings can 

 be washed of adhering honey and then melted 

 in water. But how about pieces of dark comb 

 that accumulate during the busy season? If 

 not put through a solar-extractor, the residue 

 to be rendered by the hot-water method, I have 

 found that they will mostly be eaten up by 

 the wax-moth larvse, keep them where I may. 



As I think many tried Caucasian bees last 

 season, I am surprised to see so very few re- 

 ports of their accomplishments. I have had 

 one colony for 2 seasons, and that has been 

 one too many. I dare not "kick" them as 

 some assert they do, for they will kick back. 

 In other words, they are not gentle as has 



Keeping Bees In Buildings 



On piigeHlS, li I'liirisylvanian asks Dr. .Mil- 

 ler about ketpini' bees In a back jard, also 

 about having them in a butldinpr. In accord- 

 ance with my oxpiiionce Dr. Miller's answer 

 is right. It may be interesting to other read- 

 ers of the Americun Bee .lournal to learn 

 what has actually been done on that line. I 

 kept from 10 to ,.b colonies of bees for 20 

 years in a town in Lebanon Co., Pa., about 30 

 yards from Main street, most of them in a 

 building with an open front; and 41 years 

 here in Virginia, L'l) years of which were in 

 a town here. I now have 10 colonies in my 

 barn. I cut out an opening :t feet high on 

 the east gable end, set the hives inside of the 

 building and they do better than the 60 colo- 

 nies right outside on the ground in pairs, not 

 over 6 feet from the barn, 10 in a row. Dur- 

 ing this time I had LJ colonies in my house in- 

 side at the gable-end window, raising the sash 

 IJ-.j inches almost right along Main street in 

 the town. I never bad any trouble nor was 

 annoyed with the bees at the barn or here, 

 myself and family passing daily under and 

 between those on the ground. 



I practise Dr. Miller's advice about opening 

 the hives and working iate in the day, when 

 I can. 



I find the Italian and golden strains more 

 gentle than any other I have, or have had. 

 Caution must be used about the mice in the 

 barn, as I lost 3 good colonies last winter; 

 but in the summer I have no trouble. 



William Ubich. 



Herndon, Va., April 23. 



Cold April— Slow Breeding 



A very cold April here thus far, and the 

 time which bees gained in March has proba- 

 bly been more than lost now. Breeding has 

 not progressed with rapidity, and colonies are 

 to-day with less brood than they usually are 

 at this season. But they bred early in March 

 and young bees have very largely replaced 

 the old bees, and you know that this means 

 rapid work as soon as warm weather does 

 come. Allen Latham. 



Norwich, Conn., April 21. 



Report for Last Season 



I now have 7 colonies. Last year I had 5, 

 and the year before that 2; so you see I have 

 been going slowly, as you advise. My honey 

 crops have been: 1005,189 sections and 61 

 pounds of extracted honey from 2 colonies, 

 and increased to 5 by natural swarming (I 

 use the l}2-inch plain section with 8-frame 

 dovetailed hive; 1906, 126 sections and 46 

 pounds extracted from 5 colonies, and in- 

 creased to 6. All was buckwheat as white 

 clover did not yield. This is the amount of 

 honey I sold besides what we use, which is 

 considerable. I took my bees out of the cel- 

 lar March 26. They gathered some pollen in 

 March from willows and maples, but have 

 not had a flight this month, as it has been 

 cold all the time. A. Ott. 



South Haven, Mich., April I". 



Chunk Honey^Queen-Exeluders 



I notice in the Report of the National Con- 

 vention at San Antonio, last November, that 

 the Report has me to say that 1 am a comb 

 honey produeer. This is a mistake. I pro- 

 duced something like 16,0C0 pounds of honey 

 about 20 cases of w hich was chunk honey. 



I do not use queen-excluders, and will not 

 have them on the place, except one or two to 

 strain out an occasional queen that I can not 

 find. I coax my tiueens to lay in any part of 

 the hive they desire. I do this to have popu- 

 lous colonies, and :i populous colony pro- 

 duces a large yivhA of honey. I have used 

 queen-excluders, and my experience with 



them goes to show that they not only restrict 

 the queen in many cases, but retard the bees 

 in transit to the upper story. The queen. ex- 

 cluder for mo is a positive nuisance, and I 

 would not tolerate one on a hive for any con- 

 sideration. 



As to section-honey producing, I am not in 

 it. I hate seeliuns worse than I do a scrap- 

 iron pile. They are a nuisance for me from 

 every point of view. There is at least 4 times 

 as much work connected with their produc- 

 tion as compared to chunk honey, saying 

 nothing about short sections, and non-mar- 

 ketable sections due to a host of causes that 

 are familiar to every bee-man of note. I took 

 all my sections and section paraphernalia, 

 piled it up and had a huge bonfire. 



There is no trouble to sell all the extracted 

 and chunk comb honey that you can produce, 

 if you put it out under a positive guarantee 

 as to its purity, etc., and back the guarantee 

 with the money. I do not say it boastfully, 

 but I fell short about 7000 pounds of extracted 

 honey last season, at good prices. 



Bartlett, Tex. T. P. Robinson. 



A Colony That Deserted Its Hive 



Day before yesterday a '-swarm" of bees 

 alighted in this town. I heard of it and could 

 not believe it. But I went and saw the tree 

 or bush and hunted the man that hived them, 

 and also saw the bees. I have kept bees hO 

 years, more or less, and never knew of the 

 like. 



The weather is cold ; no buds nor flowers 

 have started; but a cold wind with nothing 

 for bees to get. The man who found the 

 bees IS feeding them. Willard Mann. 



Bufifalo, Minn., April 2.5. 



Mating of Bees 



My bees came through the winter in fair 

 condition, but we have had a very cold and 

 chilly spring, and I fear much brood will be 

 lost. I hope it may soon get warmer, and 

 the bees make up for lost time and come out 

 all right. 



Not long ago I saw in some bee-paper that 

 a man in England had made some experi- 

 ments to get queens fertilized by attaching 

 them to a fine thread fastened to a pole, and 

 the writer seemed to think the plan entirely 

 new. Now if I am not mistaken, the plan 

 was tried some '30 years or more ago by Mr 

 Demaree, of Kentucky. So you see the plan 

 was not a new one. 



Oil page 295 (1906) ProL Cook wrote in one 

 of his letters from Germany, that at one time 

 he witnessed the mating of bumble-bees, and 

 that the act proved fatal to the male. Last 

 summer while going through the pasture, I 

 saw a very large bumble-bee rise up before 

 me and fly about 50 yards and alight on some 

 weeds. 1 followed it up, and, when close 

 enough, I saw it was 2— a large female— and 

 a smaller one on its back— I suppose a male. 

 When I came closer they would fly some dis- 

 tance and alight again. They would fly away 

 whenever I came a little too close, until 

 Anally I lost sight of them. My observations 

 do not correspond with those of the Profes- 

 sor, but I did not see the finish. 



Fred Bechlt. 



Searsboro, Iowa, April 15. 



W7_,^.i._ J Shook Swarms, with 

 WanXCQ S"^"' °" o°e frame. 

 Safe arrival guaranteed. 

 State kind, welg-ht, price, and time of shin- 

 meot. J. B. MASON, 



19Alt Mechanic Falls, Maine. 



ForSal6 



i9A:t 



TESTED ITALIAN 

 QUEENS, $L2= each. 

 Extra Eood, $2.50 each. 

 Make money order on 

 Canton, Mo. 



W. SIMPSON, Meyer. III. 



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