August, 1907. 



American Vee Journal 



ish the young bees, and hence spring 

 dwindling. 



I therefore conclude that I shall feed 

 my bees, after this, in early spring, 

 when the weather is too cold for them 

 to fly for 3 or 4 days, no matter how 

 much honey they have in the hives, un- 

 less it will prove that it is better to 

 give each colony about ID pounds of 

 unsealed honey as soon as they are taken 

 from the cellars, which I expect to 

 experiment on another year. Others 

 might try similar experiments, and re- 

 port in the American Bee Journal. 



Keystone, Wis., May 14. 



Under Cross-Examination on 

 Matters Apiarian 



D. M. MACDONALD. 



At your special desire, and in agree- 

 ment with your express wish, 1 step 

 up into the witness-box to be cross- 

 questioned. You accuse me, on page 

 389, of three instances of ambiguity con- 

 sequent on the brevity of my extracts 

 from the veteran Dr. Miller's work; and 

 on page 429 you seek to pillory me for 

 use of the word impossible. I really 

 think that on all the points animadverted 

 on, if you had read with your usual 

 perspicuity, the so-called puzzles would 

 have been evaporated. But lest I un- 

 wittingly do injury to any one of our 

 mutual friend's "kinks," or mystify your 

 or our readers in any way, let us pro- 

 ceed to evidence, first premising that 

 the extracts were merely intended as 

 texts on which to hang sermons ; and 

 that they were supplied to whet the ap- 

 petite of British readers for " some 

 more." I have reason to know the re- 

 sult was that several additional copies 

 of "Forty Years Among the Bees" found 

 their way across the "herring pond." 



1. In regard to securing all worker- 

 comb from starters, Dr. Miller is not 

 singular in considering the very best 

 way of insuring this is to work for it 

 in weak colonies. This is a truism whch 

 I deem requires no elucidation from 

 me. Any amplification, even, is not 

 necessary, because in two almost pre- 

 ceding "extracts" will be found a de- 

 scription of the Doctor's frame, with 

 his process of "wiring" in full sheets of 

 foundation, in his words "providing 

 beautiful comb," tlius showing as clearly 

 as words can that this "grand old man" 

 of apiculture knows how to get all work- 

 er-comb in various ways. 



2. Reducing the brood-body to about 

 8 frames at the opening of the honey- 

 flow, in order to force the bees to en- 

 gage in super-work, is a very general 

 practise. As the extract objected to for 

 its ambiguity follows one dealing with 

 the opening of the flow, and another 

 treating of the sections used, its brev- 

 ity should not lead even a novice astray. 

 Indeed, the natural sequence of half a 

 dozen extracts distinctly shows how, 

 why, and when the number of frames 

 should be reduced. 



3. Increase by taking frames of brood 

 to an out-apiary is an excellent style 

 of procedure. Dr. Miller shows a lik- 

 ing for it and recommends it, but the 

 two preceding extracts show as clearly 

 as possible that Dr. Miller has more 



than one string to his bow, and prac- 

 tises home increase. "Plugging with 

 green leaves" implies nuclei in the home- 

 apiary, while "taking a frame from a 

 nucleus" to requeen leads us to infer 

 that nuclei are there for more than one 

 purpose. 



Now, let me deal with page 429. I 

 still stick to the "Impossible" argument. 

 Apparently you read the word as if it 

 meant that bees can not place newly- 

 gathered nectar in brood-combs. In this 

 sense of course the contention would be 

 manifestly absurd, as everyone who has 

 handled frames finds in them very fre- 

 quently a thin liquid "which looks like 

 nectar, tastes like nectar," and is nectar. 

 But my original paragraph most dis- 

 tinctly stated as much where I mention 

 "unsealed honey ready for the nurse- 

 bees." 



So much for the sense in which the 

 word was used ; but let me take a step 

 further, and show why I deem the doc- 

 trine of transference an old wives' fa- 

 ble. Read what I wrote, how every cell 

 is already occupied, and tell me, if 



these cells are already full, how they 

 can admit this nectar. They can not be 

 twice filled with two diflferent substances 

 at the same time. C'est impossible! 



I will now step down from the wit- 

 ness stand and call on Mr. Doolittle 

 (who was supposed to favor your first 

 contention) to give testimony in my 

 favor. Read Gleanings, page 691 : 



"To give the best results in supers, 

 the combs at the commencement of the 

 honey harvest must be literally filled 

 ivith brood. With the combs thus full 

 of brood the first storing is done in 

 sections, and, having commenced there- 

 in, the bees continue with little honey 

 (very small percentage) being put in 

 the brood-chamber till near the close of 

 the season." 



Any jury, British or American, will 

 acquit me of error or even exaggeration 

 in claiming it is impossible for nectar 

 to be stored in the brood-nest, when it 

 is already full of brood. Therefore, 

 let us revise our ideas if we find them 

 wrong. 



Banff, Scotland. 



outfiern 



Conducted by LOUIS H. SCROLL. New Braunfels, Tex. 



Keeping' ColoniesAIways Strong- 



it is one thing to talk and write about 

 keeping bees always strong and ready 

 for any unexpected honey-flow in this 

 State, and another to do it, and es- 

 pecially is this true if you have more 

 than one yard to look after. 



In February and a part of March we 

 had unusually warm weather, and the 

 bees bred up in a way that was pleas- 

 ing to the apiarist, and a few of the 

 most thrifty colonies cast swarms in 

 March, only to repent of their folly, 

 perhaps, as the next two following 

 months were the worst I ever saw for 

 bees In the 49 years I have been in Texas. 

 It was cool — yes, cold — cloudy and dry 

 almost the entire time, with the result 

 that a great many of our queens stopped 

 laying in the height of the breeding- 

 season, and today most of our colonies 

 are weaker than they were the first of 

 February ; and that, too, after having 

 fed several barrels of sugar. So it's not 

 so easy to "keep all colonies strong" 

 where one has out-yards that he can 

 visit only once in 10 days or 2 weeks. 



Ag-ainst Handling' the Bees Dur- 

 ing- the Honey-Flow 



A good many of our best apiarists 

 advise' working with bees in time of a 

 good honey-flow. That is very good 

 advice in some cases, but there are se- 



rious objections to working with bees 

 in time of a heavy honey-flow, one of 

 the worst being the killing of bees. At 

 such times the bees are all filled with 

 honey, and are very much disposed not 

 to get out of the way while manipu- 

 lating them, and are crushed. Then, 

 another objection is, it seriously hinders 

 them from their work, and at a time, 

 too, that we can least afford it, for 

 the honey-flow is usually short at best, 

 and the least disturbance during such 

 times is by far the best, provided, of 

 course, you are sure they have plenty 

 of room. My advice is to watch and 

 study your locality and if you don't 

 know when to expect your main honey- 

 flow, you should by all means find out, 

 and do the principal part of the work 

 with the bees just before it starts. Ther> 

 let the bees alone — if you are sure they 

 have plenty of room — until the flow is 

 about over. 



I am off to my 3 out-yards to see 

 how the bees are doing this evening, 

 (June 17). The weather is hot and 

 dry, and a light flow is on from mes- 

 quite. I want to put on shade-boards, 

 and help the bees in every possible way 

 [ can, so as to get them built up 

 good and strong by the middle of July. 

 That is when we expect the sumach 

 to bloom here. If we don't get more 

 rain, though, the bloom will be very 

 light. L. B. Smith. 



Rescue, Texas. 



After all, Mr. Smith, / still believe 



