t)]ECEMBER 1, 19l4 



949 



as the advocacy of humanity lo tlie honey- 

 bee," and religiously and honestly have they 

 kept every word of their program from 

 that day until the present. 



I will not give its history in exienso. 

 There is enough of it for half a dozen arti- 

 cles. The Board of Agriculture consults it 

 on apiculture. It has this last year obtain- 

 ed from the government a grant to aid in 

 teaching and promoting beekeeping. By 

 the aid of this grant it holds preliminary 

 examinations for proficiency in beekeeping, 

 and sends lecturers all over the country, 

 and has established an apiary and school for 

 beekeeping at the Zoological Gardens, Lon- 

 don. Of itself it holds intermediary and 

 first-class examinations, issues certificates 

 for all three degrees which are acknowl- 

 edged and honored, not only at home but 

 also in our colonies. It has never failed 

 to find sufficient men of public spirit, lead- 

 ers in thought and science, and business 

 men too, to devote time, without any pay- 

 ment whatever, " to the encouragement, 

 promotion, and advancement of beekeep- 

 ing," as their original declaration enunci- 

 ates. This is a good record. 



Then there are 46 affiliated branches, rep- 

 resenting generally a county, sometimes a 

 district. Their reason for existence is to 

 look after beekeeping in their several terri- 



tories by employing teachers and inspectors, 

 generally entitled experts, holding honey 

 shows, giving awards, and diffusing infor- 

 mation generally. 



Our British Bee Journal, too, is a very 

 important factor. This Avas established in 

 1873 by Charles Nash Abbott. Although 

 quite sepai'ate from the beekeepers' associa- 

 tion, it has always worked with it. In the 

 advancement of the craft one is inseparable 

 from the other. There have been other at- 

 tempts to start bee-papers, but their lives 

 have been short ; and representing, as it 

 does, all up-to-date thought and informa- 

 tion on the matter, it can have no serious 

 rival or opposition. Mr. T, W. Cowan is 

 the senior editor, and Mr. W. Herrod the 

 junior, who unquestionably are in the very 

 first rank of modern beekeepers. Articles 

 from the best writers of the day appear in 

 its columns, including T. W. Cowan, D. M. 

 Macdonald, L. S. Crawshaw, Colonel H. J. 

 0. Walker, J. Hayes, C. H. Heaps, W. 

 Herrod, G. G. Desmond, etc. It is bright, 

 breezy, and readable, and penetrates to the 

 most remote corners — everywhere, in fact, 

 where there are beekeepers. The junior 

 editor is energetic, and grasps the inexor- 

 able truth. 



London, England. 



ODOR AND DISTRESS IN INTRODUCING 



OTHER FACTORS 



BY J. E. HAND 



A jierusal of beekeeping literature of 

 bygone days reveals the truth of the ancient 

 proverb, " There is nothing new under the 

 sun." It is true that a method occasionally 

 looms up with a flourish of trumpets that 

 savors of a diversion ; but a closer scrutiny 

 usually reveals the fact that its history is 

 recorded in the annals of bygone days. For 

 example, the smoke method that is just now 

 being popularized was described in the bee- 

 keeping literature of 25 years ago; like- 

 wise smoke was used in uniting colonies 

 long before the advent of the movable- 

 frame hive, and the process was described 

 and illustrated in Quinby's book in 1853. 

 Ever since queeen-rearing has been known, 

 smoke in some form has been used in queen 

 introduction. More than 25 years ago Henry 

 Alley used tobacco smoke to introduce 

 queens to nuclei, claiming that its virtue lay 

 in the transmission of the smoke odor. This 

 opinion was also expressed by Mr. Quinby 

 more than 60 years ago. Undoubtedly 

 Moses Quinby Avas one of the closest stu- 

 dents of bee nature in America. The mar- 



velous aecuracA^ of his deductions are won- 

 derful, considering that he had only box 

 hives to experiment witli. 



More than 25 years ago Mr. Doolittle 

 recommended smoke and pounding on the 

 hive in the direct introduction of queens, 

 claiming that the excitement caused the bees 

 to fill their sacs Avith honey, and that the 

 smoke transmitted a uniform odor — a belief 

 expressed by the best authorities in the 

 history of American beekeeping. Meantime 

 the late W. Z. Hutchinson advertised to re- 

 place all queens lost uy his patrons while 

 introducing by the tobacco-smoke method. 

 He told the writer personally that out of 

 the hundreds of queens sold the loss was 

 IDurely nominal, amounting to only two or 

 three cases. In the wake of this long pro- 

 cession of American authors comes Arthur 

 C. Miller, also a close student of bee nature, 

 also advocating the smoke method of queen 

 introduction, but standing practically alone 

 in the belief that odor cuts no figure in the 

 transaction, and stoutly maintaining that 

 excitement and distress is the basic prinei- 



