1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



197 



is prudent to reckon with middling 

 years instead of exceeding ones. 



Secondly, the apiary, notwithstand- 

 ing its shelter from cold winds, is too 

 much exposed to the autan or African 

 sirocco, cooled sometimes in crossing 

 the Mediterranean. Some years, par- 

 ticularly, it lilows for 8 to IS days con- 

 tinuously, ol)Structing the work of the 

 bees. 



Thirdly, the sun reaches the hives 

 only till about 4 o'clock in the after- 

 noon, as the slope is to the northeast. 

 I have outapiaries in warmer exposi- 

 tions where the breeding is earlier 

 by a month. Lateness is a great han- 

 dicap, because our main flow comes by 

 the 25th of May. There is also too 

 little shade. 



Another disadvantage is the variety 

 of styles, though the majority are in 

 Dadant hives. There is, however, a 

 compensation to this, as it allows of 

 more experiments. 



The name of the apiary is after the 

 French-Latin name of blossoms, not 

 after a State of the United States. 



You will ask why, with so many 

 drawbacks, I do not attempt a reform. 

 It is because, of several inconven- 

 iences I cho'ose the least. 



V. DUMAS. 



Observing Hives 



A Letter from the Ames Experiment 



Station 

 Mr. C. P. Dadant, Editor .A.merican 



Bee Journal, Hamilton 111 : 

 Dear Friend : 



You may be interested to know 

 that a one-frame observation hive in 

 my office contains a little colony 

 which bids fair to winter through. I 

 left them there just to see what the 

 result would be, little thinking that 

 there would still be any bees left by 

 the last of January. The colony lost 

 two or three hundred bees along in 

 December, at the time of the cold 

 weather and coal shortage, when the 

 temperature in the room got down 

 close to freezing. They had a good 

 flight the last of December and a 

 fairly good one again today (Jan. 26). 

 The queen started to lay about the 20th 

 of December, but only a small frac- 

 tion of the eggs hatched, as the 

 proper temperature could not be 

 maintained. About SO or 75 young 

 bees emerged. The queen has ceased 

 laying and with the flight the bees 

 had today, I see no reason why they 

 should not live through. During the 

 month of confinement just ended, 

 hardly a bee died till within the last 

 few days, when they became a little 

 restless, and a total of 36 bees is the 

 I'oss for the month. The colony now 

 contains approximately 1,400 bees. I 

 am hoping now to see them alive yet 

 in May or June. 



February 2. — I had scarcely consid- 

 ered this an experiment, but rather as 

 a matter of interest to me personally. 

 As it is turning out. the prospects are 

 that data obtained will be of more 

 than passing interest. Should the lit- 

 tle colony fail to live till summer, it 

 will not be any proof that such a col- 

 ony could not be carried through the 

 winter, for I am continually making 

 use of this colony for other experi- 

 mental purposes. 



Since my last letter, the queen has 

 resumed laying. This follows imme- 

 diately the flight of the bees on Janu- 

 ary 26, and may have been influenced 

 by this. l)Ut I believe it more likely 

 due to disturbing the colony with my 

 experiments about the same time. 



Approximately one-fifth of the 

 young bees that have hatched during 

 cold weather are abnormally small. 

 Tliis is to be expected, since proper 

 brood-rearing temperatures could not 

 be maintained. I notice that the other 

 workers take special delight in tor- 

 menting the little fellows and kill 

 them in a few days, although, so far 

 as I have noticed, they are deficient 

 only in size. 



I made a number of observation 

 hives last summer. They are ex- 

 tremely simple in construction, and I 

 find them very satisfactory. The price 

 of the observation hives offered on 

 the market is almost prohibitive to 

 the average beekeeper. If you wish, 

 I will try to supply you with an il- 

 lustration and short description of 

 this hive some time later on, but am 

 too busy to do so now. 



Yours truly, 



WALLACE PARK. 



(This is interesting, and we would 

 be glad of an illustration and descrip- 

 tion. Too few beekeepers use observ- 

 ing hives. — Editor.) 



Money From Bee Stings 



On page 137 it appears that you 

 have no knowledge that the formic 

 acid of the bee is used for medical 

 purposes. I have been furnishing 

 bees for medical use for the last 15 

 years and have thought it was the 

 formic acid they wanted. Now you 

 find out. I am sending part of an en- 

 velope that gives you the firm's name 

 and address, hoping you will write 

 them. I ship to the Philadelphia ad- 

 dress. Further, a homeopathic doctor 

 here says he uses the formic acid in 

 treating heart disease, dropsy and 

 rheumatism. The way the bees are 

 prepared, the bottles are two-gallon 

 size, three-inch neck, no cork. One 

 quart of alcohol in each, weighed and 

 marked; bladder wet ^nd stretched 



over the top; four bottles at a time. 

 I am not allowed to kill the bees, for 

 sulphur or carbon would spoil them 

 for medical use. 



I empty the alcohol out and dry the 

 bottle to put the live bees in ; use a 

 15-inch funnel, 3-inch neck to fit the 

 bottle, brush the bees off the combs 

 in the funnel, strike it lightly and 

 they slip in; or if it's a swarm I 

 take from a limb, I get them in a 

 sack, tie the sack over the neck of 

 bottle, up-end the sack and shake 

 them in. If the bottle should be half 

 full I turn in half the alcohol. Next 

 time I use a dry bottle, then empty in 

 the other until full. The alcohol kills 

 them in about a minute. Each bottle 

 holds about 12 pounds of bees. 



Now you are wondering why I kill 

 my bees. I don't any more, only those 

 I get from bee trees in the fall and 

 late after-swarms that come my way. 

 I keep bottles on hand, some now 

 half full. I am a farmer, not a prac- 

 tical beekeeper; don't have time to 

 do much with the bees; have kept 

 them more than 30 years. At the time 

 I commenced bottling bees I had over 

 60 colonies and was working them 

 for comb honey. I used the "T" 

 supers with the 4-piece sections; it 

 was too much bee work for a busy 

 farmer. I tried to sell at $3.50 per 

 colony firs't of October; no one to 

 buy; took up about twenty; average 

 5 pounds of bees; got over 30 pounds 

 of extracted honey and had the hives 

 and combs left. Next year lost all 

 but two colonies — foulbrood. Most all 

 bees died in 'this part of the State 

 that year, and but very few started 

 again. MICHIGAN. 



In reply to our letter the Philadel- 

 phia firm answered as follows: 



"The subject of using the poison of 

 bees in medicine seems to become 

 prominent in the regular medical 

 journals every two or three years. 

 Usually a number of articles are writ- 

 ten telling what a wonderful remedy 

 it is for rheumatism, and then it is 

 forgotten. Medicine has been made 

 from the honeybee since about 1757, 

 and has been used by the homeo- 

 pathic practitioners ever since that 

 date. It is usually made from the 



View of the home from the height of the apiary 



