NOVEMBER 1, 1914 



867 



Headg ef Gram from Differeinit Fields 



j!un.y 



THE BACKLOT BUZZER 



The last report from the amateur wJio named his 

 bees after the great European nations and fun: Uit 

 a comb of honey lyin' on one of the hive-i, v>as that 

 the Belgians were still holdin' out. 



A New Reason Why Bulk Comb Honey 

 Should Not be Called "Chunk Honey' ' 



Having about 1000 lbs. of surplus honey to 'sell, 

 I decided that it pays to advertise, so the following 

 advertisement was inserted in our local daily papers 

 with instructions to let the advertisement run 30 

 days. 



For Rale. — Fine fall honey, goldenrod and Span- 

 ish needle flavors. Rich, thick, and delicious. Phone 

 your orders. Price of section honey, 5 lbs. for $1.00, 

 delivered; cliunk honey, 16 2-3 cts. per lb. 



HiLLCREST Fruit Farm. 



What was my surprise when a customer gave me 

 an order for 5 lbs. of section honey and asked what 

 kind of honey " skunk " honey was, as I also had 

 advertised that. Skunk honey I Upon investigation 

 I found that the advertisement really did read 

 " skunk honej' " for chunk honey. Now our repu- 

 tation is badly perfumed for advertising a really 

 superior article. I hardly see how a careless type- 

 setter could make a mistake on the world "bulk;" 

 l)ut chunk can be made into skunk, and now nobody 

 wants our honey. 



Our exijerience has been that the average con- 

 sumer is not so critical as to the appearance of honey 

 as he is regarding the quality. We have been able 

 to realize as much per pound for bulk comb honey 

 in many instances as we have for section honey. 



Tlie bulk comb honey was produced in shallow 

 e.xtracting-frameK, and sold in 3 and 6 pound paper 

 butter-dishes with oil paper for lining and inside 

 wrapper. We liave a demand for all we can pro- 

 duce of this kind of honey at 16 2-3 cts. per pound. 

 This is considerably more than the section-honey 

 producer realizes for his fancy white at wholesale 

 prices. 



We find several advantages in using the shallow 

 extracting-frames with full sheets of foundation. 

 First the bees start work in them more readily than 

 in the section. Second, they are very easily re- 

 moved from one hive to another, and a few bait 

 combs are all that is necessary to start work in the 

 super. Third, the frames can be used year after 

 year, and are as easily stored as are the sections. 



Washington, Ind. S. H. Burton. 



Why Bees Leave the Hive to Die when They 

 Grow Old. 



-V geiUleinan who was not a beeman recently made 

 this query, putting two questions in one: 



" I have heard that old worker bees leave the 

 hive to die. If this is true, what is the physiological 

 principle underlying the act?" 



To confess the truth, I felt that, to use a slang 

 expression, I was " up against it." The explanation 

 I made was that which has been suggested in our 

 bee-,ioiirnals by our supposed doctors of apicultural 

 science, that, when the bee has grown old, when her 

 wings are badly worn, and she realizes that she 

 cannot further do her share of the work of the 

 colony, she merely crawls out into the world to die, 

 placing herself out of the way of the work of the 

 colony, thereby ceasing to retard progi'ess. This 

 explanation in no way fully covered the ground nor 

 gave a definite reason, either to my mind or to the 

 mind of my questioner. 



Feeling the importance of the question, or, rather, 

 of a correct answer, I began to tlieorize, trying to 

 find a scientific reason; for to my mind there is a 

 different dominating power behind the act than that 

 the worker leaves the hive to die for the reason that 

 she is old and not able to work longer, and desires 

 to get out of the way. The departure of the old 

 bee is due to the hostility of the younger bees in the 

 hive ; her leaving is justified, and transfers the re- 

 sponsibility to the inmates of the hive. 



If, then, the blame is to be placed on the younger 

 inmates of the hive, the dominating cause is to be 

 found back of the bees which perform the hostile 

 acts. The bees would hardly chase out a faithful 

 worker ripe with toil ,iust for the sake of rejoicing 

 in the light-hearted act. 



There is something more. It seems to me that 

 it is due to a physiological interruption of the bees' 

 existence, both mentally and physically, in compli- 

 ance with a natural law governing the perpetuation 

 of its species. 



To illustrate, a hen does not sit because she feels 

 it her duty, but because she cannot help herseif. 

 When the hen has laid her quota of eggs, interrup- 

 tion, both mentally and physically, takes place. The 

 hen becomes broody, not because she desires to, but 

 because she is overcome by a natural impulse. Na- 

 ture designs this as a purely necessary act to per- 

 petuate the species; and to my mind just such an 

 impulse is the dominating factor governing the lee. 



Bartlett, Tex. T. P. Robin.son. 



"Laying Worker Caught in the Act" 



In Glea.vixgs of November 15, 1912, p. 720, I 

 noticed that Dr. Miller had seen laying workers in 



