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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



373 



Dr. Miller's Last Answers 



In the questions department will l>e 

 found the last answers which Dr. Mil- 

 ler wrote. Some of these were still in 

 his typewriter when he passed away. 

 Dr. Miller was a contributor to 

 .'\merican Bee Journal for fifty years. 

 It is our purpose to review at length 

 his connection with this Journal in 

 our January issue, which will be our 

 sixtieth anniversary number. 



Good Samaritan Fund 



Credit- 

 By balance Sept. 1 $139.00 



Received for queens; 



C. S. Saunders 15.00 



American Bee Journal l.S.(X) 



Ben G. Davis 44.00 



Ben G. Davis 11.00 



A. E. Crandall 15.00 



H. S. Foster 31.25 



Jav Smith ?2.80 



.A.lien Latham 21.00 



J. M. Davis (half for each coun- 

 try) 54.00 



J. W. Stine 3.75 



Cash, J. N. Demuth, N. Y 2.00 



Total $373.80 



Debit- 

 Smokers sent to France $ 57.12 



Transportation 4.16 



Draft to Belgium,.A.ug. II 150.00 



Draft to France, Sept. 9 71.58 



Draft to Belgium, Sept. 9 49.30 



Smokers to Belgium, and parcel 



post 41.64 



Total $373.80 



We have not yet stated that, by 

 mutual agreement, the French and 

 Belgian committee divided the funds 

 in 3 parts, 2 for France. 1 for Bel- 

 gium. It was so divided in the above 

 remittances, except that the subscrip- 

 tion of J. M. Davis was, at his request, 

 divided equally between the two 

 countries. 



Later. — Since closing the account 

 we have received the following: 



I. J. Clinton, Torrington, Conn., $1.00. 



W. S. Carrico, Florissant, Mo., $5.00. 



The subscription list is therefore 

 again reopened. We know more peo- 

 ple will v/ant to subscribe, especially 

 where they have had a fair crop and 

 good prices. America is thriving and 

 still willing to help. 



Cleaning Out Honey 

 From Extracted Supers 



When we put extracting supers 

 back on the hives for the bees to 

 clean of the sticky honey, at the end 

 of the season, we find that, in many 

 cases, strong colonies store a Jittle 

 honey in those supers. Then a clus- 

 ter may remain with the honey and it 

 is an unpleasant job to shake or 

 brush them out, later, when remov- 

 ing those supers for winter. If they 

 are left upon the hive, the bees may 

 be unable to go down to the brood- 

 chamber when cool weather comes, 

 and do not have enough stores in 

 those upper stories to carry them 

 through the winter. In such cases we 

 have known them to starve, with the 

 main cluster and plenty of honey a 

 few inches below them. 



A very good way to prevent this 



is to place those supers under the 

 brood-chamber for a while, after the 

 bees have cleaned them. If the col- 

 ony is very strong they r.iay even be 

 placed under the brood-chamber at 

 once, in the evening after extracting 

 the honey. But colonies of only aver- 

 age strength may not be able to de- 

 fend such supers against robbers, 

 when they are fresh extracted, be- 

 cause of the strong odor of honey 

 which emanates from them. 



Bees rarely, if ever, allow honey to 

 remain between the entrance and the 

 brood-chamber. They want their 

 honey where they can defend it, 

 above their cluster, where pilferers 

 have to pass through a host and give 

 the countersign before they are al- 

 lowed to proceed. Hence no honey is 

 left by them below the cluster. 



Some beekeepers prefer to have the 

 supers cleaned out by the bees, by ex- 

 posing them, out-of-doors, where the 

 bees can reach them. We do not like 

 that practice. It causes more or less 

 uproar, teaches the bees to rob, and 

 'often feeds neighboring colonies 

 which do not belong to us. We be- 

 lieve in being neighborly, but not in 

 that way. 



Man}' beekeepers who have had ex- 

 perience with .'\merican foulbrood, 

 prefer t return to each colony its 

 own supers to clean, even when they 

 do not know of any disease in any 

 of their colonies. They feel that, in 

 case any germs should be lurking 

 about the supers of a colony, un- 

 known to the owner, it is safer to re- 

 turn the combs of each colony to its 

 own bees and not increase the dan- 

 ger of contamination. This is, of 

 course, advisable only in an apiary 

 where disease has been discovered 

 at some time or other. 



Do Bees Hear? 



Among the things which we don't 

 know as yet positively, is whether 

 bees hear, and how. Most of us are 

 of the opinion that they do hear. 

 .A.nything that may be brought about, 

 throwing a little light on the subject, 

 is worth while. That is why we in- 

 sert in this number an article clipped 

 from the Literary Digest on "How 

 Butterflies Hear." 



The American Honey 

 Producers' League 



Great encouragtment was given to 

 the League at the July ineeting of the 

 Michigan State Beekeepers' .A.ssocia- 

 tion, at Boyne City, in July last. 

 Michigan is one of the most progres- 

 sive States anyhow. But the League 

 has wonderfully capable supporters, 

 and any one who heard that eloquent 

 speaker, Colin P. Campbell, explain 

 the possible advantages of such a 

 union, was sure to support it. We 

 were enthused ourselves, and, in or- 

 der to give in a concise manner a list 

 of the most useful features that will 

 be secured from the League, when it 

 is well established, with the universal 

 support of the different States, we 

 asked Mr. Campbell to write thein 

 down for publication. Then we asked 

 a similar statement froin the Presi- 

 dent of the League, Mr. LeStourgeon. 



The two statements are published in 

 this issue.- Although some of the 

 points in one statement are repeated 

 in the other, both are short enough 

 that every reader may read them 

 through and the repetitions will serve 

 to emphasize the salient points cover- 

 ing the benefits to accrue to the 

 American beekeeping public when the 

 League is thoroughly established and 

 universally sustained Ijy the Bee- 

 keepers' Associations of the different 

 States of the Union. This will prob- 

 ably not be achieved within one or 

 two years. But it is in the future, 

 without doubt, for we may say of the 

 beekeeping interests what is said of 

 the .American Union : United wq 

 stand; divided we fall! Let us has- 

 ten the day. 



False information 



We are indebted to a friend in the 

 East for a copy of the "Philadelphia 

 Inquirer" of August 15, which con- 

 tains an article on bees and honey 

 production. 



It says that the vicinity of National 

 Park, N. J.., is developing as a honey 

 center, owing to the numerous sugar- 

 laden ships which pass up the Dela- 

 ware river and the refineries on the 

 Pennsylvania side, which the bees 

 raid in large numbers. The article 

 gives the impression that bees make a 

 great harvest from those ships. What 

 we have seen, of candy stores and 

 confectionery shops, gives us the im- 

 pression that the bees in the vicinity 

 of those ships have more to lose than 

 to gain. Probably an occasional col- 

 ony may make a find and gather a 

 few pounds of stores from such 

 sources. But there are usually more 

 bees lost than gains made in raids of 

 this kind. 



The article also states that "Crooks 

 have discovered that stealing bees is 

 profitable. If they can capture a 

 queen bee they know the entire col- 

 ony will follow them. Several losses 

 have been experienced by beemen 

 through the operation of bee thieves." 



It is unnecessary to quote further. 

 If the information first given is not 

 any more reliable than this passage, 

 it will serve only" to lead people 

 astray in beekeeping information. 

 The man who wrote that evidently 

 knew that a swarm will return to the 

 hive if the queen is not with them. 

 From that he deducted the statement 

 that a colony will leave its hive and 

 follow the man who takes away its 

 queen. Practical beekeepers know 

 that this is absolutely incorrect. 



In the same mail came another 

 newspaper clipping, stating that the 

 Morales Bros., at 623 West 207th 

 street. New York City, keep 20 mil- 

 lion bees in 30 colonies, in the upper 

 story of their home; with other im- 

 possible features, such as "how^many 

 quarts of honey the bees lay during 

 the night." Why do our newspapers 

 take pleasure in misinforming the 

 public? If the foreign news and the 

 political information are as distorted 

 as the information which relates to 

 our industry (and it is very likely), 

 how can the public discern the 

 truth? 



