74 



AMERICAN BEE JO'JRNAL, 



Feb. 2, 1899. 



Logwood is reported, in Southland Queen, as the best 

 honey-plant in the island of Jamaica. It comes into bloom 

 in January. 



Cypress Half-Barrels for Honey are preferred by Dr. 

 Blanton. When dry they weii,'^h 27 to 29 pounds, and ab- 

 .sorb three'pounds of honey. — Cleaning's. 



Drone-Cells Opposite Worker on Same" Comb "I 



once had a full sheet of heavy brood-foundation, one side 

 every cell drone-comb, whilst the other was all worker," 

 says J. W. Green, in Australian Bee-Bulletin. Is there no 

 possible chance for mistake in that ? 



To Stop Robbing.— Set in a new place the hive that is 

 being- robbed, and put in its place one of the strongest colo- 

 nies. Do this in the evening. Robbers begin work early 

 in the morning, and will get a warm reception. After a 

 little fighting they will give it up. — Gleanings. 



A Woodpecker's Work.— A bee-keeper was greatly 

 surprised to find that a colony that had been unusually 

 heavy had become very light. A hole was in the side of the 

 hive, and on watching he found a woodpecker was the ag- 

 g-ressor, perhaps being aided by others. — Wegweiser. 



Market Quotations appear to glory in giving the low- 

 est prices, saj-s the Canadian Bee Journal, and if in Tor- 

 onto, Montreal, or some other cities a few culls have been 

 sold at b'i cents a pound, the public, without explanations, 

 see in the press that comb honey is selling at from 6'2 cents 

 to — . The tendency of this is to depress prices. 



Darkening Hive=Entrances for Winter Franz Ebster, 



in Deutsche Imker, considers it of very great importance 

 that colonies wintered out-doors should have the entrances 

 well shaded. During the winter rest the bees should not be 

 able to tell day from night, least of all should they be able 

 to tell that the sun is shining. They will keep quieter, con- 

 sume less, and endure the winter better. 



Arizona Honey.— C. A. Hatch says the principal sources 

 in the Salt River Valley are three : mesquite, which does 

 not yield every year, and gives honey a shade darker than 

 good white clover ; alfalfa, the main reliance, with honey 

 nearly equal to that of Colorado or Central California iii 

 flavor, but much darker ; ground-cherry, which yields some 

 years largely, and compares favorably with eastern buck- 

 wheat. — American Bee-Keeper. 



To Prevent Swarming, R. C. Aikin says there are two 

 ways : '• Hive the queen and bees in one section of the hive 

 just as the flow comes on, making a new or strengthening 

 weak ones with the brood, or by excluding the queen from 

 part of the hive 10 days prior to the flow ; then at the be- 

 ginning of the flow take the queen and unsealed brood to a 

 new stand, and give the bees and scaled brood on the old 

 stand a ripe cell or virgin queen.— Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



Credit to Whom Credit is Due. — This Boiler was 

 obliged to get down on his marrow-bones because when 

 mentioning some items brought out in the discussions of a 

 convention, he failed to mention that the report of the con- 

 vention was given in Canadian Bee Journal. Will the edi- 

 tor of that esteemed journal please print some words that 

 will show he has assumed the same attitude when he notices 

 that he has omitted to give any credit for the first half of 

 page 4,52 in his paper ? 



Doolittle on Adulteration.— Mr. Doolittle, in the Pro- 

 gressive Bee-Keeper, thinks there is more noi.se about adul- 

 teration than the facts will warrant : that there is less 

 adulteration now than formerly. If Mr. D. will go over the 

 markets as some of us have done, especially in the large 

 cities, I think he will have reason to change his mind. It 

 is true, honey has come down in price, and so also has glu- 



cose, and verj- nearly in proportion. If Mr. D. will take the 

 pains to get the price on glucose by the carload he will find 

 that there is a good margin for adulterating- 3'et. If there 

 were not, there would not be so much of it. I dislike to talk 

 about adulteration as much as any one ; but if we bee-keep- 

 ers try to cover up the fact, or try to convince ourselves that 

 it is not as bad as some folks think, the glucose-mixers will 

 take new courage. All they want is to be let alone. In that 

 respect thej' are like the saloon-keeper, whose bu.siness Mr. 

 Doolittle and I mutuallj' despise. — Gleanings. 



Cleaning in the Spring. In the Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper, R. C. Aikin sa^-s to clean up hives and frames in 

 April or May, depending on latitude and season, and the 

 bur-combs trimmed oft" will pay for the labor, leaving the 

 combs much pleasanter to handle throughout the season. 

 Doolittle thinks not enoug-h wax could be accumulated in 

 one season to pay for the work if top-bars are jj to % thick, 

 as u,sed now by most apiarists. When he finds a colony 

 gives an extra amount of bur-combs, he replaces the queen. 



Getting Frames Filled with Brood. Frames which 



have brood at the front end and honey at the back are re- 

 verst by R. C. Aikin. in the early season, or if the hive al- 

 lows, it is turned half around, so the brood will be at the 

 rear and the honey toward the entrance. This makes the 

 bees fill up the whole of the frame with brood. A good 

 scheme, where honey is thus found in one end of frames, 

 but those whose bees fill the frames with brood from one 

 end to the other without any attention on the part of the 

 bee-keeper, are saved the labor of such manipulation. — Pro- 

 gressive Bee-Keeper. 



The Dickel Theory has taken up a good deal of space in 

 the German bee-papers, but has been little noticed on this 

 side the water. The theory is that all the eggs laid by a 

 fecundated queen, whether in large or small cells, are ferti- 

 lized alike, and after they are laid the workers decide their 

 sex by the food. L. Stachelhausen, himself an able bee- 

 keeper and a well-informed German, gives, in the South- 

 land Queen, an account of the theory, then gives some ar- 

 guments of his own and others to show the fallacy of the 

 theory, saying, " It is astonishing that this controversy 

 could have so much space in German bee-papers, and that a 

 man like Mr. Dickel could have any influence." 



Making One's Own Hives.— W. Z. Hutchinson says he 

 buys sections and shipping-cases, but makes his hives. He 

 is " near planing-mills that have good machinery and com- 

 petent workmen," with lumber cheap, so.it costs him much 

 less than to send to a bee-hive factory. But thafs hardly 

 making his own hives. I suppose the onU- difl'erence be- 

 tween him and me is that he gives special instruction how 

 his stuft' shall be cut. He says wisely that each one must 

 decide for himself which is best for him. [W. Z. Hutchin- 

 son does just the right thing : but tliere are few, compara- 

 tively, who are so favorably situated. By far the great 

 majority are out of the vicinity of cheap lumber. Indeed, 

 they could buy the hives all made up in the flat about as 

 cheaply as thej" could buy the same superficial surface of 

 plain lumber. — Ed.] — Gleanings. 



Larvae in Queen-Cells. — R. C. Aikin. in Gleanings, says 

 he has unqueened about 1,000 colonies in the past nine 

 years. He always counted that there would be positively 

 no swarming for 10 days after the unqueening'. He aimed 

 to visit the unqueened colonies the ninth day after unqueen- 

 ing, when no unsealed larva; would be present, but fre- 

 quently it happened that queen-cells were not cut till the 

 10th and 11th days, and sometimes not till the 12th and 13th. 

 He found that a I'cry small percent would have a queen 

 emerge the 10th day after the unqueening. and even a very 

 small percent the 11th day. while some went to the 13th and 

 14th days. Probably half the colonies had a queen to 

 emerge by the end of the 12th day, tapering from that to 

 the ISth. Counting 16 days to mature a queen, the majority 

 must have started with larvK not more than four daj-s from 

 the la3'ing of the egg, and by far the larger part inside of 

 five days. But this does not at all prove that such queens 

 are equal to those reared for swarming or super.sedure. The 

 editor is verj' emphatic upon this point, and says in a foot- 

 note : " If there is any one thing about which I feel pretty 

 sure, it is that queens reared from cells built in a colony 

 that is suddenly made queenless, are not the equal of swarm- 

 ing or .supersedure quiens, in prolificness, size, or long-- 

 evitv," 



