1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAJU 



227 



regular entrance-hole. They knew as well as I did when the 

 glass door was open, or when it was closed. 



And now comes more interesting facts. In the three 

 years the bees were kept in the station waiting-room, and the 

 hundreds of times the hive was opened with a dozen or 

 more people looking on, and even handling the bees, only one 

 person, to my knowledge, ever got stung. 



A dozen trains a day past within 18 feet of the bees — all 

 the Jarring, hustle and life of a regular railroad station, with 

 hundreds of passengers going and coming, and yet the bees 

 lived on peaceably, and increast, prospered, and did well. 



At different times, and I might say for the most part of 

 the time, there were all grades of Italiau-black hybrids and 

 pure-black bees in that particular observatory hive. But here 

 I should add that with the exception when first putting the 

 bees there, all were reared in the hive, and consequently 

 knew no other life but the one surrounding them. This may 

 also explain why they did not buzz themselves to death on the 

 glass. 



I should remark here, that in the case of young bees 

 sometimes starting out for their first flight, they tried at first 

 to get out of the glass, but it did not last long, and they soon 

 learnt the right way, and then always followed it. Also, iu 

 case of their throwing off a swarm, which happened several 

 times, the bees always went out the tube, and none stopt buz- 

 zing on the glass inside. 



I have found that a single-comb observatory hive is not as 

 good or as instructive as one having two or three combs, for 

 the reasons that the number of bees in a single-comb hive are 

 too small to amount to much in the way of building comb and 

 storing honey, etc., and when you do get it just nice and 

 strong, why, it is but a day or so before it is too strong — at 

 least somehow I never got satisfactory results from them, and 

 I have had bees in one for a year, and several times for a few 

 months ; but with a two or three frame hive you have some- 

 thing that one can gain much information from. 



Then don't have shutters or covering of any kind over 

 the glass. Let the bees be in the light all the while, and then 

 when you wish to examine them or watch their work you don't 

 throw tbem in an unnatural condition, as you do when you 

 have them in a dark hive, and only give them light when you 

 wish to watch their movements. 



Do not put them in a sunny window, unless the hive is 

 well back Inside, and the ends of the frames face the window ; 

 and this is the proper way they should face, so that one can 

 get to examine both sides of the hive inside the room. I 

 would rather keep them on the north side of the house, or in 

 a room that had a veranda outside, so that the sun could not 

 shine on the combs through the glass. 



The ideal spot, in my estimation, for an observatory hive, 

 is on a shady veranda. Then when the hive is opened there 

 are no bees flying around inside the room. The entrance can 

 be through. a tube running off near the roof, and thus have 

 the flying bees out of the way ; and one can sit and watch the 

 hive for hours. There is much of interest to be noted from a 

 small colony of bees kept thus. Volusia Co., Pla. 



Section-Cleaners— Producing Fancy Honey. 



BY .JAMES COKMAC. 



There has been considerable publisht in the bee-papers 

 on the subject of cleaning sections of propolis stains, and on 

 page 33 is shown a machine offered by J. A. Golden for that 

 purpose. The half-tone is a good one, and the eyes of the 

 operator say, "Now, you see, this works like a charm." The 

 charm of the young lady in the half-tone (to me) is more 

 charming than the machine, because I think I see in the 

 illustration a young lady who is not ashamed to allow her 

 position before the machine to be understood that she is a 

 helper in the affairs of the household and its income, and not 

 given to be waited on, while many others pass their time with 

 yellow-covered novels. 



But my admiration does not go far enough to construct a 

 machine for the purpose shown, because I think I Itnow that 

 one can produce comb honey without having it daubed with 

 bee-glue. A bee never ought to be allowed to travel on the 

 upper side of a section. Something ought to intervene be- 

 tween the upper surface of the sections and the hive-cover or 

 another super. I have tried paper, waxt, paraffined, etc., 

 which allows the bees to raise the edges thereof, piling up 

 glue superabundantly at their option, which paper prevents a 

 free passage to the super or supers. 



Four years ago, with pattern-slats (section-holders) of 

 two inches in width for sections \% wide, laid on top of the 

 sections and held In place by a 3/16 strip H Inch wide laid 

 across in the center of the super, the super made '% deeper by 



nailing a strip all around the upper edge of the super, would 

 effectually prevent the smearing of sections unless the weight 

 of honey therein bent the lower set of section-holders. To 

 prevent this, another strip the thickness of the space between 

 the lower holders and brood-frames, placed in the center 

 across the frames, kept all level and tight. My brood-frames 

 being % thick, would not bend down and allow the heavy sec- 

 tions to settle. 



You do not need to scrape the sections ; they will come 

 out of the super as clean as put in, except the edges touching 

 the separator and the inset. 



In cleaning the edges I use a thumb-plane. A narrow box 

 has a strip four inches wide nailed across it, through which a 

 hole is bored, also directly under this hole one through the 

 bottom of the box % inch large. A small box M inch larger 

 than the section, and Jj inch lower than the section, with in- 

 set cut out 3^, as the one in the section. Fasten a wooden 

 pin in the bottom of this last box to go through the hole id 

 the cross piece of the large box and through the bottom of the 

 same. This last box will turn on the pin. Lay the section 

 in, give the plane a curving sweep from the corner of the In- 

 set up the straight edge to the corner of the other inset. A 

 thin shaving is removed from the section. Turn the box and 

 use the other side likewise. This removes all soiled wood. A 

 knife with a notch % deep on the square end of the blade, 

 drawn across the inset, cleans that. 



In using sand-paper the dust of the section would often 

 catch the honey in the uncapt cells and injure the appearance. 



The production of fancy honey demands as much fineness 

 as any undertaking I ever engaged in. There are many ways 

 used to accomplish a certain end, and if others give their ex- 

 perience one can cull and be greatly helpt. 



The " Solomon " of Marengo does the American Bee Jour- 

 nal " proud," as the boys say. It is a grand addition for the 

 beginner — the department of " Questions and Answers." 



Our winter's snow lying so long on the ground, after being 

 parcht with drouth and heat last fall, gives token of another 

 season favorable to a good yield of nectar from white clover, 

 as it is increasing in rootlets. Should the coming spring be 

 favorable in temperature, with plenty of ozone In the atmos- 

 phere, we may expect a good harvest. Polk Co., Iowa. 



The Loco-Plant and the Bees. 



BY I. W. BECKWITH. 



Three years ago I brought several colonies of bees to this 

 vicinity, and the next spring they workt well on the wild 

 flowers, which were abundant till about the middle of May, 

 when they all stopt work entirely, and from that time during 

 the summer I scarcely saw a loaded bee enter a hive. 



In the fall I rendered a quantity of comb that I had on 

 hand into wax, and to my astonishment not a single bee came 

 into the house, which I kept open while the wax was cooking. 

 I encouraged breeding that fall and the next spring as much 

 as I could, yet they dwindled away till there were but few left. 



In the spring they again workt well till the middle of 

 May, when they " struck " again, taking no notice of exposed 

 honey or melted wax. I told a neighbor, J. L. S. Jackson, 

 how my bees had acted, and he said he thought they were 

 locoed by using honey gathered from the loco-plant, which is 

 very abundant in the immediate vicinity where I kept my bees. 



For the benefit of those who never heard of the loco, I 

 will say that it is a leguminous plant that grows on the arid 

 plains of the Western States. When an animal eats leaves or 

 roots of the plant — some say the root only — the brain becomes 

 affected so that the animal loses its reason to a greater or less 

 extent, and in severe cases it perishes, apparently because it 

 does not have sufficient reason to go to water and otherwise 

 take care of itself. 



I thought Mr. Jackson was mistaken about the cause of 

 my bees' actions, and having lost all my bees, I bought some 

 more about a year ago, and they behaved during the past sea- 

 son just as the others had done — that Is, they workt all right 

 in the spring till the loco had been In bloom a short time, 

 when they quit work, were quite irritable, and their conduct 

 was generally different from other bees. The few young that 

 they reared on honey that they already had In store (they quit 

 work before they had stored much loco honey) seem to be all 

 right. 



If anybody else has had similar experience I would be very 

 glad to have him report through the American Bee Journal. 



Weld Co., Colo. 



l^~ See " Bee-Eeeper's Guide" offer on page 203. 



