lSi»2 



(U.EANINCJS IN BEE CULTURE. 



737 



u> use it ilicn w licii she rulUcs all hci' fcalliLTS 



up. MUS. L. (". AXTKLI,. 



Hosovillo. 111. 



[CnitrUiik'il ill licit issue] 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



HK-\mX<i QTHK-NS ON OOOLITTLK's PI.AX. 



Wp liavi' liad protty fair snccc^^s this season 

 in having <iii«'tMi-c('lls drawn out from coil-cups 

 above oxcludiTs. as per Dooiitllc's book on 

 iiue«'n-i-eafing. \V(> tind that, tirst, the colony 

 should be very strong: second, with a frame as 

 sliallow as the Simplicity the stories should be 

 three high, conlining the queen to the lower 

 story, and placing the i)r«'pared cell-cups in the 

 upper story; liiird. that some colonies will ac- 

 cept and complete thes(> c(>ll-cups. while others, 

 in apparently the same condition, will not. 

 We would advise those who have tried and 

 failed, to try different colonies until th.ey strike 

 the right one. and then they can keep them at 

 it all summer, provided there is honey coming 

 in: or supplying food would likely answer the 

 same purpose. One colony has built the most 

 of our cells this year, sometimes bringing on 

 the Second set when the first had been sealed, 

 and. again, working on others while queens 

 were hatching in the nursery just alongside. 

 This has. however, been an exceptionally good 

 season for this kind of work here; for, while 

 there has at no time during the season been 

 any considerable flow of nectar, and conse- 

 quently very little surplus secured, there has 

 been scarcely a fair day that bees did not gath- 

 er sufiicient nectar to keep up brood-rearing in 

 full blast. Nearly all of our queens thus reared 

 have proven to be of good size, good color, and 

 prolific layers so far as tested. 



BlnlTton, Mo., Sept. 17. Miller Bros. 



[Your experience agrees substantially with 

 ours. Some colonies will do fairly well at 

 building cells, while others will seemingly re- 

 fuse to do the work at all. Those that would 

 build colls did better when they had an extra 

 super between top and bottom story. We do 

 not know whether any one else has observed it; 

 but queens raised a Id Doolittle were smaller, 

 nor could we succeed in getting large queens 

 from any queen-mother by that plan, although 

 we could produce them of any shade of color 

 desired.] 



AN AKTIFiri.^I, WATERING-PLACE AFTER NA- 

 TURi;"s WAY.S. 



Observant people will notice that bees, while 

 drinking at a branch or pool, never sip the 

 water, but abstract it front the sand close by. 

 through which. Iiy the way.it has filtered by cap- 

 illary attraction. Trying always to get close 

 to Nature's ways I built me a watering-place 

 for my bees. A trough of wood 14 inches 

 square and one inch deep was filled up with 

 clean sand, and a tiiree-gallon demijohn filled 

 with water was inverted over it. its moutli 

 resting on a thin block half an inch under th*; 

 sand. The surrounding sand soon absorbed 

 moisture, and little air-bubbles could be seen, 

 displacing slowly the water in the jug. as the 

 water in the sand exhausts. By scooping out a 

 little hole in th<i sand, enough water will gath- 

 er to furnish the poultry. Put syrup in the 

 vessel, and you will liave ihe best outside feed- 

 er I know of. for tina'e is no end to the extent 

 of the sand surface you may use. and the sand 

 does not foul, as water or syrup would if given 

 alone. In order to introduce this to the bees I 



put a |»iec(Mif comb honey on the sand. After 

 they liad carried olV the honey they looked 

 about for more. ami. discovering the water, 

 have found out that it is a near and good thing. 

 The princii)le of this waterintr-device is well 

 known, but I have not heard of the use of sand 

 in this connection. I'lease give tliis a trial, if 

 yon have not such already in use. for there is 

 nothing mnv under the sun. To hold up the 

 jug or bottle, bore lour holes in the bottom 

 hoard, and put in i)egs. or, better still, nail a 

 half-hoop of tin or strap iron against a wall or 

 board fence, and put the jug mouth down 

 through it. Arthur T. (Joi.DsitoRorGH. 



Washington, D. C, Sept. 1. 



UNSCIENTIFIC SCIENCE AROUT REES. 



Frie)id Root: — I send you by to-day's mail a 

 marked copy of thc^ Santa Paula (Jlironicle. 

 Sept. :.', containing some of the teachings of 

 Mr. Archer. fornuMly the king bee-keeper of 

 Santa Barbara County. He retired from the 

 bee-busine.ss. and went into horse-doctoring a 

 few years ago. Since coming to Ventura Co. 

 he has collected a few colopies of bees, and 

 made his celebrated '"Mammoth" hive. He 

 exhibits at the two last county fairs, and uses 

 the same colony and hive at the district fair 

 held at Los Angeles. Now. you can readily see 

 how Langstroth. Quinby, Cook, and soon your- 

 self, have, after all your study and research, 

 never tumbled on to the racket of changing 

 worker brood to dione by simply turning the 

 combs around. This discovery was reserved 

 for Mr. Archer, the sage and horse-doctor of 

 New Jerusalem, in this county, to give to the 

 world through the Chronicle. 



Santa Paula, Cal., Sept. 12. Jno. ti. Corey. 



[The following is the extract to which friend 

 Corey refers:] 



We were especially interested in tiie exhibit of 

 bees, and a new bee-liive by J. Archer, of New Jeru- 

 salem. Tlirougli tlie glass the lioney-niakers can 

 be seen at work. We liave read much about bees, 

 but Mr. Archer g-ave us some information we never 

 liad before. He says t)ef ore the young- Ijees hatcli 

 out one can tell if a certain cell will produce a 

 queen or a worl<er by the shape and position of tlie 

 cell. If a few days liefore the young- bee comes out 

 you turn tlie cell about, reversing- tlie ends of the 

 cell you chang-e tiie sex of tlie bee. He says during- 

 the incubation process the workers keep Iwjvering 

 over and about tlie ceils of the young-, keeping- them 

 warm as assiduoi sly as a lien lieeps her eg-gs warm 

 in tlie nest before tin y iiatcli. 



[Some of our older readers will remember Mr. 

 Corey as the one who shares equal honors with 

 Norman Clark in having introduced simultane- 

 ously the principle of the cold- blast smoker. 

 The specimen of be(!-lore fi-om the Chronicle is 

 a good deal like tli(; information we get ^ome- 

 times from some of the old "know-it-all'" 

 veterans. However, it is barely possible the 

 reporter got things badly mixed ("as indeed they 

 do sometimes in trying to report facts regard- 

 ing bees), and therefore Mr. Archer may be 

 innocent of such a gross perversion of facts. 

 Whichev(>r way it may be, it is a piece of non- 

 sense that wi' do not desire' to go the rounds of 

 the pi-ess unri^futed.j 



HOW BEES SENI» OUT SCOUTS PREI'ARATORV TO 

 SWARMING. 



I had my hives all placed on stands in rows, 

 three rows, five in a row. but only two colonies 

 of bees. They had all either empty frames or 

 frames with foundation in them. My bees were 

 Italians, well marked. May 2")th there were 

 quite a number of black bees flying around my 

 hives. Next morning more came and kept at a 

 certain hive, flying in and out. About 10 a.m. 

 they went away; but about 11 there was a roar 



