238 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



the early flowers on warm banks. 

 This flower is singular in its habits 

 — it only opens when the sun shines 

 and rain is not coming. A field may 

 be quite yellow for an hour or so, 

 and then they close up; they open 

 that the ligulate flowers, which are 

 crowded together in one calyx, should 

 be fertilized when pollen is quite dry 

 and the pistillate organ is ripe for 

 inoculation. 



"A loit of these ligulate flowers, 

 like the thistle, hawkweeds, etc., alt 

 go through the same revolutions. 

 The salsify family always close up at 

 12 o'clock, and is called "John go to bed 

 at noon," but it will only open when 

 the climatic conditions are favora- 

 ble; they go to sleep at night, and 

 many of them bend over the flower 

 heads, as men do in prayer — but this 

 is digressing. Bees seem to have the 

 get-rich-quick fever, and leave the 

 flowers where stores are short for 

 the flowers where abundance reigns. 

 If it is so at our farm and other gar- 

 dens of Dorset, we may assume it is 

 general everywhere." 

 British Bee Journal of April 19, 1920. 



Experiences of a Novice 



By C. E. Knight 



I don't know whether my experi- 

 ence the first year, as a novice, would 

 cause even a smile with the older 

 heads. 



As a diversion, to take my mind ofif 

 my work, it was a success. As to 

 knowledge gained, I think it was 

 more than a success, and from a fi- 

 nancial standpoint, I think I am 

 ahead. A year ago the first of Octo- 

 ber, I purchased a stand of bees. 

 There was probably 10 pounds of 

 honey in the hive. The heartsease 

 was in full bloom, and beside filling 

 the lower part of the hive, I took ofT 

 14 pounds from the super. 



I put a box over the hive, filled in 

 about 3 inches of straw and left it on 

 the summer stand. 



The first and only swarm came off 

 May 3. I put them in a new hive on 

 the old stand and moved the old hive 

 to one side. 



All I had was 1-inch starters, and 

 for fear they would swarm out while 

 I was at the office, I put a queen trap 

 on. I never had occasion to use the 

 trap, but supposed all standard traps 

 were made for ordinary bees. 



Imagine my surprise, if you can, on 

 returning home to find the mesh full 

 of dead bees, and, the inside of the 

 trap full too. 



You better believe I used a file vig- 

 orously on that trap. 



The queen laid a few eggs, but like 

 the joy had all gone out of life. 



The first of July I made up my 

 mind there was something the matter, 

 and on examination I was unable to 

 locate the queen. I therefore took a 

 comb of brood, from eggs to sealed 

 brood and placed it in the middle of 

 the hive. 



Three days later I looked in and 

 found three fine cells started, with 

 plenty of royal jelly. 



I have read bee books from one end 

 to the other to find out what hap- 



pened, but I do not find a thing that - 

 looks just like my case. 



You take a piece of ice cream, put 

 it in a thimble and let it melt, and you 

 have it as near as I can tell. 



I thought I had foulbrood, but upon 

 examination I decided I did not have 

 it. 



Every egg and everything up to the 

 sealed brood had melted, but the 

 sealed brood proved to be O. K. 



The sun shone on them about one 

 hour, around 2 p. m., but nothing like 

 it happened before or after. 



I immediately sent for a queen and 

 introduced her in the regular way, 

 and in a few days everything was 

 moving finely and they gave me 27 

 pounds of honey in the supers. 



The honey flow was just enough to 

 stimulate brood rearing, with very 

 little surplus, so about the first of 

 July I took a hive with full sheets of 

 foundation and placed it on the old 

 stand, taking one frame of brood with 

 the queen and put them in the new 

 hive. I placed the old hive on top of 

 the new one without queen excluder, 

 and both top and bottom entrances 

 open. 



It was a comparatively short time 

 until the bottom part was full of 

 brood. 



I sent for a queen, and about two 

 days before I thought she would ar- 

 rive, I set the top part of the hive 

 down, moving the bottom part about 

 one-third its distance to the north 

 and setting the top part right against 

 it on the south. 



In three days after the queen was 

 received she was out and at work. I 

 took off about 25 pounds from the 

 new hive and about 40 pounds from 

 the old hive and about 50 pounds of 

 extracted from all and left enough to 

 take them through the winter nicely. 



When sweet clover began to bloom, 

 last summer, there was what I called 

 a big black fly, about as big as a big 

 green blow-fly, that swooped down on 

 the white clover, literally by the mil- 

 lions, and as long as they staid the 

 bees did not touch the sweet clover. 

 They disappeared in a night, as sud- 

 denly as they came, because, I sup- 

 pose, all the nectar was gone, for the 

 bees worked very little on it after- 

 ward. As I said, the flies were big 

 and black, and had white rings 

 around their eyes. 



The heartsease and fall honey 

 plants were nearly a failure here, in 

 fact the whole season was a failure. 



Summing up, I think I did remark- 

 ably well for a greenhorn. Will some 

 one kindly tell me what was the mat- 

 ter with that comb of brood? 



Iowa. 



(This must have been a case of 

 overheating. We had dozens of sim- 

 ilar accidents, in the old days, before 

 we learned how to increase ventila- 

 tion for summer days. — Editor.) 



New Manager for California Ex- 

 change 



Mr. Justice, 'the former manager of 

 the California Honey Producers' Ex- 

 change, has resigned, as already an- 

 nounced. C. E. Millspaugh has been 

 selected as his successor. The new 



manager has had eighteen years' ex- 

 perience in the marketing of bee 

 products in America and foreign 

 countries. It is announced that the 

 Exchange will inaugurate an active 

 campaign to secure facilities for col- 

 lective marketing, such as are al- 

 ready enjoyed by the citrus, raisin 

 and other co-operative organizations 

 of California. 



Dope for Bee Stings 



I think I have found an immediate 

 relief for bee stings in a mixture of 

 spirits of camphor and tincture of 

 iodine, as follows: 



Spirits of camphor U. S. P. 6 drams 



Tincture of iodine U. S. P. 2 drams 



Glycerine 10 drops. 



If applied at once it will, I believe, 

 stop pain and prevent swelling. 



A. F. BONNEY. 



BEEKEEPERS BY THE WAY 



A Beekeeper From Kentucky 



So far in our brief notes concerning 

 beekeepers of note from various 

 places we have not had much to say 

 about men from Kentucky. However, 

 it is not from lack of material, for 

 there are some good beekeepers in 

 that fine old State of diversified crops 

 and climate. Porter C. Ward is one 



Porter C. Ward 



of the best known Kentucky beekeep- 

 ers. The fact that he was selected 

 as President of the Tennessee Bee- 

 keepers' Association while living in 

 another State, is the best evidence 

 of his popularity. Ward is both a 

 farmer and a beekeeper, but the bees 

 hold first place in his affections, and 

 we hazard the guess that when he 

 decides to lay aside one of his lines 

 it won't be the bees. 



