454 



American ^ae Journal 



May 30, 1907 



thorax gently with the left hand, and, 

 with delicate scissors held in the right, 

 I clip the right front wing about one- 

 half distance from the tip. Some claim 

 to keep the age of the queen by clip- 

 ping one-half of the other right wing 

 the second year, the left front one the 

 third year, and the last one the fourth 

 year. This may be done if desired, 

 but I do not think it will usually be 

 any signal advantage. 



I always clip my young queens as 

 soon as I am sure that they are laying. 

 I must see eggs in the cells before I 

 clip, as in case we clip before the 

 queen has met the drone we ruin her, 

 as they fly forth to mate ; and in case 

 the queen has been clipped she can not 

 fly forth, and so will always be a drone- 

 layer ; hence of no use at all. 



Bees and Pollination. 



Our fruit-men are coming more and 

 more to recognize the importance of 

 bees in cross-pollinating the fruit. 

 They are generally recognizing — at 

 least the best informed fruit-growers — 

 that unless we have warm days during 

 fruit-bloom the crop will usually set 

 only a partial crop. I have just had a 

 trip among the big fruit-men of the 

 Sacramento Valley, and was pleased 

 to find that they very generally con- 

 sent to the view that good weather is 

 very desirable during the blooming 

 season. Many are sure that there 

 must be bees to visit the bloom or the 

 crop in many cases will be light. As 

 our fruit-men become better informed, 

 there will be much less complaint re- 

 garding the injury of fruit by bees, but 

 much more contention that the bees 

 are necessary to full crops. One of 

 the most intelligent and prosperous 

 fruitgrowers that I know in California, 

 makes it a point to induce a large bee- 

 keeper to keep his bees in his orchard. 

 As there are large alfalfa fields close 

 by, and as the orchardist has a large 

 planting of all kinds of deciduous 

 fruits, they find this plan mutually 

 beneficial. 



Pbar-Blight and Bees. 



I find also that the bees are not com- 

 ing in for so much complaint from the 

 pear-growers. Indeed it is found as I 

 predicted it would be, that there are 

 always enough insects to scatter the 

 pear-blight, and would be even were 

 there no bees at all. It is found that 

 by extreme thoroughness and vigilance 

 the blight can be held in control. It 

 is also demonstrated that unless the 

 utmost caution is practised the blight 

 will conquer. It is a case where it 

 pays well to be vigilant and tremen- 

 dously energetic, for pears are a very 

 profitable fruit, and will become more 

 and more so, as so many will not go to 

 the fight with sleeves rolled up. 



It seems more than likely that those 

 who fight to the knife will be amply 

 rewarded. Had I a fine orchard I 

 would go at this enemy full tilt, and 

 would win, and would reap a splendid 

 reward. I would do one thing more : 

 I would get all my neighbors to fight 

 with me, as all must fight to bring the 

 full success. In case some would not 

 fight it would be well, if one could do 

 so, to rent the trees of such an one, as 

 trees not watched and pruned become 

 a center of infection of all surround- 



ing trees, and so with each blossoming 

 season the inoculating germs are sown 

 broadcast. 



It is splendid that our scientists have 

 discovered that this malady is con- 

 trollable, but it is unfortunate that the 

 cure is so expensive, and also that the 

 cure must be universally applied or it 

 will be unsatisfactory. It seems that 

 the disease is spread through the propo- 

 lis or gum as readily as through the 

 nectar. 



Claremont, Calif. 



Shallow Hives and Short Cuts 

 in Bee- Keeping 



BY J. E. CHAMBERS. 



On page 304 I see an article by Dr. 

 Bohrer, entitled, " The Construction 

 and Manipulation of Hives." In this 

 article the good Doctor falls into the 

 common error of supposing that the 

 shallow hive means necessarily a shal- 

 low brood-chamber. In this connec- 

 tion I wish to say that I do not here 

 desire to offer any argument against 

 the claim he advances, that bees win- 

 ter-kill more in shallow hives than 

 they do in deep ones. This kind of 

 stuff has been refuted too often to need 

 any notice here ; besides, while I do 

 not live in quite as cold a climate as Dr. 

 Bohrer, we do have some quite cold 

 weather here, and I have known bees 

 to become frost-bound and perish in 

 deep hives, but never in shallow ones. 



But Dr. Bohrer's hole bored through 

 the center of the combs to enable the 

 bees to pass from side to side is the ex- 

 planation of the whole thing. This 

 very movement is secured by the space 

 through the center, and between the 

 top and bottom bars of the divisible 

 hive. 



But the main points on which the 

 venerable Doctor is wrong, according 

 to my experience, which covers a period 

 of some IS years' use of shallow hives, 

 is where he says that he does not see 

 how we find the queen-cells. Why, 

 bless your soul. Doctor, that is the 

 easiest, the quickest, and the surest of 

 all the manipulations capable of being 

 performed with the shallow hive. With 

 my hive the frames are clamped to- 

 gether by a knob that yields to pres- 

 sure, and when examining for cells I 

 can divide the hive through the center 

 and tilt the upper case on end, allow- 

 ing it to rest on the upper part of the 

 bottom chamber, and with thumb and 

 forefinger turn the combs apart an 

 inch or two, and see every square inch 

 of comb-surface in the hive, and with- 

 out removing even one comb. 



Regarding the finding of queens, I 

 will say that I have lately been much 

 pleased with a few words contained in 

 an article by Mr. Alexander, which 

 lately appeared in Gleanings, in which 

 he says that the young honey-pro- 

 ducers of the future can not long re- 

 main in the ruts that we older men 

 have made, but must with renewed per- 

 severance push forward until they have 

 made great improvement in the meth- 

 ods now in use. I fully indorse all this 

 and go still further, that the everlast- 

 ing hunting of queens and continual 

 tearing up of the brood-nest is the pro- 

 lific cause of more harm than is any 



other one thing. A man who can not 

 tell the condition of a queen by the 

 work she is doing, has, to say the 

 least, missed his calling, and is strug- 

 gling in one of Alexander's ruts. 



Another splendid thing I heard at 

 the San Antonio convention was con- 

 tained in the paper of Mr. Town- 

 send, where he said. Don't do the 

 things with the bees that they 

 can do just as well as you can ; and 

 don't handle brood-frames. These few 

 words were worth the cost of the trip 

 to me, and compensated for the other 

 disappointing features of that noted 

 convention ; not that it was new to 

 me, but there is always to the mind of 

 a dullard, like myself, at least some 

 satisfaction in knowing that he is in 

 good company in some of his beliefs. I 

 have just mentioned these things in 

 order to illustrate how I have been for 

 years trying to cut out every unneces- 

 sary manipulation. 



I keep good stock, and as long as a 

 queen keeps her colony strong she is 

 in every way satisfactory to me. When 

 one fails I immediately know it by the 

 decreasing strength of the colony, and 

 at once slip one of my requeening 

 boards between the upper and lower 

 section of the brood-chamber, and 

 without removing the old queen intro- 

 duce a young one at one and the same 

 operation. 



In this connection I may mention 

 that I requeen all colonies that make 

 preparations to swarm by the use of 

 my non-swarming board. This makes 

 it unnecessary to watch those bees that 

 have young queens. However, I will 

 say for Dr. Bohrer's information, that 

 I find queens whenever by chance I 

 need to do so by the use of a simple 

 mechanical device which I call a queen- 

 trap. You are aware of the fact that a 

 queen when trying to escape from the 

 fumes of smoke will run into any crack 

 or crevice. This device consists of a 

 thin board with 4 transverse openings 

 in it, arranged so as to allow the bees 

 a free passage through by means of 

 escapes of wire, but when it is in opera- 

 tion the queen, after passing through 

 with the rest of the bees, is caught and 

 automatically caged, so the apiarist 

 can give her attention when and how 

 he pleases. The whole operation takes 

 but a minute or two. 



These are but a few of the ways and 

 short cuts by which I manage to do 

 the things easily that others complain 

 so much of. I do not write much for 

 publication or otherwise court noto- 

 riety, but I am following the course 

 mentioned by Mr. Alexander ; that is, 

 trying to find out improved methods, 

 and in a way at least I have succeeded. 

 In many things I am not orthodox, but 

 I always did hate that word ; it means 

 to me the throttling of individuality 

 and the strangling of every higher 

 aspiration. I don't intend to follow in 

 the same ruts that others do, even 

 though my way is not so good as theirs. 

 In my methods I have shortened the 

 time required to enable me to accom- 

 plish most of the manipulations neces- 

 sary in the managing of my business, 

 and that suits me exactly, though it 

 may not give the same measure of sat- 

 isfaction to others. 



Vigo, Tex. 



[We would be pleased to have Mr. 



