SEPTEMBER 15, 1914 



iiiomeiit lie exclaiiiicHl : " Well, we haxe jiisl 

 Ihe same thing- iu ouv bee museuui." lie 

 looked for it; and when he brought it 1 

 coidd easily see that it was exactly tlie same 

 shape 1 had designed. It was a skep used 

 up to our days by a colony of Latin-speak- 

 ing Romans in Transylvania. Professor F. 

 Funke, director of the imperial school of 

 hurdlework (basketwork) in Vienna, had 

 made a model of the sketch, which was 

 shown at the Adria exhibition in the Aus- 

 trian ImiDerial Department of Agriculture. 

 Such skeps are still used in the Latin- 

 speaking part of Transylvania and in 

 Bretagne, France. 



The iiieliualidH uf the old Konians to keep 

 bees and to study their nature in older to 

 regulate breeding according to the law of 

 nature, gave occasion to a country squire, 

 as Pliny says (it was a senator, if I am not 

 mistaken), to construct a hive of transpar- 

 ent material, which allowed the beekeeper's 

 eyes to obser^-e the mystery of the life of 

 the bees. The observation hives of the an- 

 cient Romans were made of transparent 

 horn, also used for lanterns, or of lapis 

 speculario which was imported from Spain 

 and Cappadocia. 



Vienna, Austria. 



BANK NOTES—ALL GENUINE 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER 



Some fruit number, that of February 1. 

 But it is not all a love-feast 'twixt fruitman 

 and beeman. Hereabouts we are moving our 

 bees as far from the orchards as we can get 

 them. What between careless spraying and 

 spraying sweetened poisons for special pur- 

 poses, an orchard is becoming a bad neigh- 

 bor for the beekeeper. We will let them go 

 it alone until they get over being stark, 

 staring, poison-mad. 



A chap ill North Tonawanda, N. Y., wants 

 to know if winter cases should project be- 

 loAV the bottom-board. At the risk of walk- 

 ing all over the editor's very best pet corns 

 I am going to butt in and say yes, certainly. 

 All my winter (and summer) cases project 

 below the bottom-board to the extent that 

 the joint between the hive and " floor " 

 (say " floor," boys — shorter, and does not 

 remind one of youthful " i^addlings ") is 

 protected by the case. Then all drip stays 

 outside — much nicer than having ' it creep 

 inside. You'd be sure of it i'f you had to 

 sit on the floor. [We agree with you. — Ed.] 



Ventilated escape-boards sound very good 

 to me — gives me a freedom-from-care feel- 

 ing. When one puts on the escapes to be 

 left for perhaps a week before the honey 

 can be taken off — as at some outyard — one 

 worries a bit if a spell of blistering hot 

 weather shows up. And, by the way, 1 never 

 could understand why all escape-boards 

 liave been made with little more than a bee- 

 space on the top side and none on the under. 

 Use half an inch on each side and you will 

 discover another improvement. 

 «- * * 



Summing up city beekeeping, the editor 

 says, satisfactory city beekeej^ing rests en- 



tirely with the beekeeper. Never hit the 

 nail squarer on the head. Some city bee- 

 keepers (and others) are great " resters." 



Some folks never do learn discretion. Dr. 

 Miller and " E. R." have been butting in on 

 bees' winter sleep, and saying they (the 

 bees) do not fan in winter, and somebody 

 said something. Don't you children yet know 

 that when you want to meddle in snch things 

 you should ask' Allen Latham first? Wlien 

 Allen says so, 'tis so — usually. 



Necessity is, etc. One of those days when 

 nothing seemed to hitch, and fingers were 

 all thumbs and bees all stings, 1 cut into a 

 fine queen-cell which I particularly did not 

 want to lose. Say any thing? No use. I 

 just tried to patch it up, but I knew jolly 

 Avell Avhat the bees would do with that patch, 

 and I had no cell-protector — at least they 

 were all in hiding. In pawing over things, 

 looking for one, I tumbled down a piece of 

 super foundation — just a small strip, rather 

 dusty, and more or less soft, and I wound 

 it snugly around tliat cell and pinched it 

 together over the base, and tucked it down 

 into a nucleus. The blessed little bees fast- 

 ened the edges down, and the queen hatched 

 like any other. Why did I do it "? Nobody 

 knows — just an inspiration ; but I discovered 

 that a bit of foundation is the most perfect 

 cell-protector ever invented. The bees seem 

 to think (?) the cell is on the other fellow's 

 side of the comb, and never try to cut 

 through. Foolish little bees! 



Do you like gardening? enjoy transplant- 

 ing things? every try transplanting baby 

 queens? Neat little trick. Suppose you find 

 a cluster of cells from some choice queen 



