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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



November 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



=3 Eitabllshed by Samuel Wagner In 1861 (? 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. 

 Published Monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Entered as second-class matter at the Postoffice at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Subscription Rates — In the United States and THE STAFF 



Mexico, $1.50 per year; five years, $6. „ „ t, 



r J- . ,. . J L , ■ C. P. Dadant Editor 



Canadian postage 15 cents, and other foreign 



countries 25 cents extra, per year. Frank C. Pellett Associate Editor 



All subscriptions arc stopped at expiration. Date 



of expiration is printed on wrapper label. Maurice G. Dadavt Business Manager 



(Copyright 1920 by C. P. Dadant.) 



THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT 



Two Queens in one Hive 



The finding of two queens in one 

 hive comes more and more into no- 

 tice. We are in receipt of a letter 

 from Mrs. W. F. Laraway, of Fair- 

 hope, Ala., which recounts a similar 

 experience with two different hives. 



Food for Young Queens 



Mr.Y. H. Benton, in the New Zea- 

 land Beekeepers' Journal for August, 

 describes the Benton Nursery Incu- 

 bator. Concerning the question 

 whether young queens develop prop- 

 erly when fed entirely on candy, he 

 says : 



"My experimental tests prove con- 

 clusively that queens reared under 

 conditions which make communica- 

 tion with the bees impossible, and 

 fed on candy only until introduced, 

 are the equal of those reared under 

 any other conditions; and I challenge 

 any beekeeper to prove that this is 

 not so. The proof of the pudding is 

 in the eating." On page 382 of this 

 number Mr. Jay Smith has something 

 to say on the matter. 



Honey for Explosives 



How many of our readers know 

 that honey was in great demand in 

 Europe during the war because it 

 was used in the place of glycerine to 

 niake nitro-glycei ine and other ex- 

 plosives. 



So we may reverse the riddle of 

 Samson, "Out of the strong came 

 forth sweetness," and say "Out of 

 sweetness came forth strength." 



Homing Instinct in Drones 



The Western Honey Bee for Sep- 

 tember contains an interesting state- 

 ment by "W. R. M.," telling of a bee- 

 keeper moving bees away and the 

 farmer putting an empty hive where 

 the colonies had stood. The next 

 day he was rrtuch astonished to find 

 a swarm of drones, and drones only, 

 in that hive. The writer of the letter 

 wonders how much farther drones 

 can find their way back than can the 

 workers. They had no information 

 as to how far those bees were moved. 



I have noticed several times that 

 Italian drones will mate with black 

 queens several miles from home. The 

 drones are much stronger on the 

 wing than the workers or the queens. 



and this seems to prove it. Those 

 drones had probably traveled over 

 the distance before those bees were 

 moved, so they could find their way 

 back when the workers could not. 



Foreign Quotations 



We understand that some of our 

 readers object to our giving quota- 

 tions from foreign bee magazines, 

 because this is the "American Bee 

 Journal." But do they forget that 

 some of the best inventions for bee- 

 keeping, of modern times, were made 

 in foreign countries? Witness the 

 honey extractor and comb found- 

 ation. 



Co-operation is looming up, not 

 only in this country, but elsewhere. 

 Italy has two associations, New Zea- 

 land has another, of co-operative 

 honey producers. 



Smaller Bees 



In the March number of L'Apicol- 

 tore, now published at Gallina, Cala- 

 bria, by the erudite apiarist, Vincenzo 

 Asprea, an article is published, writ- 

 ten by Riccardo Ricci, discussing the 

 size of queens and that of workers. 



Mr. Ricci asks : Does the richness 

 and abundance of the food which the 

 colony has in reserve or which it is 

 harvesting have any effect upon the 

 size of the bees? He answers in the 

 affirmative, asserting that the food 

 supplied to the larva in greater or less 

 quantity and of better or poorer qual- 

 ity has an influence upon its growth. 

 His deductions are that in order to 

 have strong, healthy bees, they must 

 be abundantly supplied with food. 



Wisconsin Beekeepers 



The "Wisconsin Horticulture" num- 

 ber for August gives a list of 18 Wis- 

 consin counties having local associa- 

 tions of beekeepers, numbering in all 

 SS^ members. It would seem that 

 Wisconsin, like several of our most 

 progressive States, is ready for a 

 honey producers' league. The State 

 Convention of beekeeners is called 

 for December 1, 2 and .1. Write to 

 H. F. Wilson. Secretary, Madison. 



Aristotle wrote that "bees do not 

 breathe." That man lived some 300 

 years before Christ. But we have 



men who write as incorrect state- 

 ments without the excuse that we 

 can find for Aristotle, who lived at a 

 time of ignorance, and who really 

 helped human knowledge on many 

 points. 



Rheumatisms and Beestings 



The poison of the bee is generally 

 recognized as a cure for rheumatism. 

 But there are all sorts of rheuma- 

 tism, or rather a great variety of 

 causes. That is probably why some 

 cases are not cured, not even ameli- 

 orated, by the use of stings. So it is 

 gratifying to read the following, in 

 the "Bulletin de la Societe Romande," 

 of Switzerland: 



"According to certain people, the 

 stings of honeybees constitute an 

 excellent treatment for rheumatism. 

 Doctor Lee, of Austria, employs this 

 curative method on a large scale. He 

 has treated 163 patients with 39,000 

 stings, the results of which, it ap- 

 pears, have always proven a cure. The 

 stings would appear to be less painful 

 to sufferers of rheumatism than to 

 healthy people." Chas. R. Ducrest, 

 May 29, 1920. 



Erroneous Statements 



False information is easily acquired 

 most innocently. The publisher of 

 the "Gazette Apicole," in Montfavet, 

 Vaucluse, France, announces to his 

 readers, for Christmas, a treat in the 

 reproduction of several articles on 

 bees by well-known authors, such as 

 Michelet, Tolstoi, Rostand, etc., 

 among whom he mentions C. P. Da- 

 dant as the inventor of the movable- 

 frame hive. We inform our contem- 

 porary publisher that it was Lang- 

 stroth who invented the modern, 

 practical, movable-frame hive, and 

 that C. P. Dadant cannot claim the 

 honor of even inventing the Dadant 

 hive, as it was simply a modification 

 and enlargement of the Quinby hive, 

 which was itself a copy of the Lang- 

 stroth idea of movable frames. There 

 were other movable frames before 

 Langstroth made his invention, but 

 they lacked the practical points of a 

 bee-space between the frames and 

 the hive and the open top for re- 

 moval of the combs. Honor to whom 

 honor is due. 



Italian Beekeepers' 

 National Meeting at Trieste 



The progressive beekeepers of Italy, 

 meeting in a national congress at 

 Trieste, in the now-redeemed "Italia 

 Irredenta," had a very enthusiastic 

 meeting. A bronze memorial plate 

 was presented by them to the City of 

 Trieste, celebrating the return of that 

 city to the mother country. Messrs. 

 Cotini, Carlini. Bovelacci, Capponi, 

 Ambrosnl, Plana and Oreggia, nearly 

 all of whom are known to American 

 readers, joined in addressing a com- 

 plimentary postal card to our editor. 



Printers' Mistakes 



On page 381 of this issue, the head- 

 ing "Two Queens in One Cell' should 

 read "Two Queens in One Hive." 

 That was in print before we secured 

 the last proof of the reading pages. 



