July, 1907. 



American Vee Journal 



into the cruel world to perish from 

 cold and hunger, the drones are driven. 

 ^ * * "What a vast difference is the 

 fate of man ! Every one of whom may 

 die in a palace with his boots nicely ar- 

 ranged beneath the bed I" 



Yes, the drone-days are here, and I 

 notice that they are somewhat ahead of 

 the usual time. It is June lo, and the 

 husky fellows are being slaughtered. 

 Usually this does not happen until July. 

 I noticed 5 weeks .igo. during a brief 

 lull in the honey-flow, that one or two 

 colonies in the apiary began the work 



of destruction of the male occupants 

 of the colony. Then the workers con- 

 cluded, no doubt, that there would be 

 no more honey to be gathered, and de- 

 termined to cut off the useless consum- 

 ers. But the flowers again gave forth 

 of their sweetness, ana the remaining 

 males were spared — for a later fate. 



And so Nature has set its mandate, 

 and we all have to make our final bow 

 at the proper time, and proceed to that 

 bourne from which no traveler is said to 

 return. Vale, ye drones ; may our fate 

 be a happier one than is yours. 



'Boiled 1>owiv^ 



Prices for Extracted Honey. 



An article concerning wholesale and 

 retail prices for extracted honey, by 

 G. A. IJeadman, contains the following 

 passage (Canadian Bee Journal, p. 

 139) : 



"I said that honey should never go 

 below loc retail. I will go further than 

 this. It should be at least 12c per pound 

 in the home market, in small quanti- 

 ties. In lo-pound pails, say lie; in a 

 60-pound tin at toe per pound. The re- 

 tail merchant then should pay 9c and 

 the commission man or wholesaler 8c. 

 When honey can not be bought by the 

 wholesaler for less than 8c, then the re- 

 tail price should not be less than 12c. 

 If it can be bought at 7c, then loc might 

 be satisfactory." 



Out-Door Feeding. 



Feed is put in tubs full of alfalfa- 

 stems or e.xcelsior by E. F. Atwater 

 (Bee-Keepers' Review, p. 172), and this 

 is his plan for starting all his own bees 

 at work promptly : 



"At first we start the bees by breaking 

 up some old combs into pieces about l^ 

 inches square. We dip these in the feed, 

 lay one at the entrance to each hive, 

 kick the hive if the bees are not numer- 

 ous at the entrance, and so on. Then 

 we go around and pick up the bits of 

 comb, with bees at work on the feed 

 in the cells, and carry them on a queen- 

 excluder or escape-board, to the tub, 

 where they are all dumped into the feed. 

 In a few minutes every colony will be 

 at work, and the feed will be gone long 

 before many of your neigivbors' bees 

 find it." 



Yellow Sweet Clover on the S.\me 

 Land Each Year. 



Sweet clover is a biennial, and it has 

 been considered possible to have it blos- 

 som on the same land only in alter- 

 nate years. Now comes J. A. Green, 

 saying that by using the yellow variety 

 a crop on the same land can be had each 

 year. July 18, 1906, he gathered seed, 

 sowed it between July 20 and 25, and 

 this year it began to bloom May 5 — 285 



days or less from the time it was sown. 

 If the seed ripens this year as early as 

 last, that means a crop each year on 

 the same land. Quite a feather in the 

 cap of the yellow variety, even if Colo- 

 rado be the only State in which it will 

 mature so promptly — Gleanings, p. 828. 



Five- Banders not Hardy. 



F. A. Lockhart says that in the past 

 unfavorable spring his 5-banders suf- 

 fered the most heavih- of all; F. A. 

 Salisbury says his extra-yellow stock 

 are all "gone up ;" and N. E. Cleaver 

 tells practicaly the same story. Editor 

 Root says: 



"We have observed, time and again, 

 that the .5-banded or very yellow bees 

 do not seem to be able, for some rea- 

 son, to stand a severe winter or a bad 

 spring like the leather-colored stock." — 

 Gleanings, p. 833. 



Number of Colonies to the Apiary. 



E. D. Townsend (Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view, p. 168) says : 



"Our bee-yards never have more than 

 100 colonies at a time; and this is fall- 

 count. With this number, fall-count, we 

 usually have, after our winter losses and 

 queenless colonies are deducted, some- 

 where between 80 and 90 colonies with 

 which to commence the season." 



Sampling Honey with Wooden Tooth- 

 picks. 



Wooden Toothpicks are used by Wal- 

 ter Harmer for giving prospective cus- 

 tomers a taste of honey. In one corner 

 of his canvassing case he has a holder 

 filled with toothpicks, and one of these 

 is thrust into a bottle of thick, ripe 

 honey, when enough will adhere to give 

 quite a generous taste to the recipient. 

 One of these can be given to each mem- 

 ber of the family, children and all. 

 Every one getting a taste of honey on 

 one of these new clean pieces of wood 

 feels sure that it has never been in 

 some one else's mouth, while the amount 

 of honey given is just about enough to 

 whet the appetite for more.— Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Review. 



Doesn't Like Fences and Plain Sec- 

 tions. 



E. F. Atwater says (Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view, p. 171) : 



"After an extensive test, extending 

 over several years, we have discarded 

 the fence-separators and plain sections, 

 as inferior to the older styles. The sol- 

 emn truth, for our localities and our 

 markets, is that we get less honey in the 

 new-fangled sections and supers, it is 

 not so uniformly salable, and it does 

 not sell for so much money." 



The Gait of a Bee. 



A bee, when it travels afoot, always 

 moves 3 legs at a time ; but it isn't a 

 pacer. The front leg and the hind leg 

 on one side move simultaneously with 

 the middle leg on the other side. — 

 Gleanings, p. 821. 



Protective Value of Tarred Paper-. 



A novel sort of protection gained by 

 using tarred paper is thus given by E. D. 

 Townsend (Bee- Keepers' Review, p. 

 169): 



"With the white building paper on 

 some of our honey-houses, the mice 

 make these houses headquarters. One of 

 the most mice-ridden houses was at our 

 Isabella yard. A year ago this house 

 was papered with tarred felt paper, and 

 we have never seen a mouse in that 

 house since ; neither have there been any 

 ants there either. Then, we are quite 

 sure that the robber-bees are not nearly 

 so bad around a tar-lined house ; at 

 any rate, they have never troubled us 

 in these houses yet. While I do not 

 suppose that this paper would keep out 

 robbers if one were careless and let 

 them get started, still, I am satisfied 

 that tarred paper is distasteful to the 

 bees, as it is to mice and rats. If this 

 proves so, there may be more in this 

 tar than we realized at first. There 

 is one objection to this dark-colored 

 paper, and that is, the honey-house is 

 not so light as if it were papered with 

 white paper." 



Just Plain Horse-Sense. 



If you work for a man, in heaven's 

 name work for him. 



If he pays you wages that supply 

 your bread and butter, work for him, 

 speak well of him, think well of him, 

 stand by him, and stand by the institu- 

 tion he represents. 



I think if I worked for a man, I would 

 work for him. I would not work for 

 him part of his time, but all of his time. 

 I would give an undivided service or 

 none. 



If put to the pinch, an ounce of loy- 

 alty is worth a pound of cleverness. 



If you must vilify, condemn, and eter- 

 nally disparage, why, resign your posi- 

 tion ; and when you are outside, damn 

 to your heart's content. Bj.it, I pray 

 you, so long as you are a part of an in- 

 stitution, do not condemn it. Not that 

 you will injure the institution — not that 

 — but when you disparage the concern 

 of which you are a part .\ou disparage 

 yourselr. 



And don't forg.et — "I forgot I" won't 

 do in business. — Elbert Hubbard, in 

 Technical World. 



