218 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



April 6, 1899. 



For Protection Against Wind and Winter Editor 



Root favors a hig-li board fence. J. E. Crane objects that 

 the wind goes over the top of the fence and swoops down on 

 the hives with increast force. He prefers a pickt fence to 

 one of close boards, or else an evergreen hedge so as to slow 

 up the wind. If the wind is stopt too much, it will warm 

 up within the enclosure in early spring, the bees enticed 

 out, never to return. — Gleanings. 



Apis Dorsata — Editor Hill, of the American Bee- 

 Keeper, gives some account of Frank Benton's efforts to 

 secure Apis dorsata, and sa^-s : 



" That no subsequent effort has been made to introduce 

 this bee is a fact not only to be regretted, but calculated to 

 arouse the agriculturists of America to demand governmen- 

 tal aid in testing its qualities, which promise to be of ines- 

 timable value to American agriculture." 



The Pure Food Bill — C. Davenport urges that every 

 bee-keeper should write to his member of Congress on a pos- 

 tal something like the following : 



" Dear Sir : — I and others here are much interested in 

 the Pure Food Bill, and we hope you will do what you can 

 to have it past." 



Then address with the name followed merelj' bj' 

 ber of Congress, Washington, D. C." — Gleanings. 



Mem- 



A Fresh Credit to Sweet Clover is set down in 

 Gleanings. Elias Johnson saj-s it is one of the best root 

 crops for cattle. He plowed five acres of sweet clover land, 

 and the cows gathered on it and workt on it for weeks eat- 

 ing sweet clover roots till they had the ground so hard they 

 couldn't get another root. It spoiled the plowing, but al- 

 most doubled the milk. He also saw at a county fair towels 

 made of the fiber of sweet clover. They lookt much like 

 linen, and were verv strong. 



Black Bees Preferred for Comb Honey. — C. Daven- 

 port thinks he can get more white honey in sections with 

 blacks than with Italians. Italians are too much inclined 

 to crowd honey into the brood-chamber when the white flow 

 begins ; while blacks will have very little white honey in 

 the brood-chamber at the end of the flow. Blacks cap 

 whiter, and are more tractable when it comes to the matter 

 of mixing and uniting colonies. For extracted honey he 

 prefers Italians, considering the vigorous defense they 

 make against the moth. — Bee-Keepers' Review. 



An Interesting Interview with J. E. Crane is given in 

 Gleanings, the interviewer being the Editor. Mr. Crane 

 has about 525 colonies in five apiaries; thinks a smaller 

 number in an apiary would give more honey per colony, but 

 the convenience in handling compensates ; produces comb 

 honey and has generally onlj' one helper ; averages about 

 ten hours a day of work, and 11 and 12 in the height of the 

 season. When swarming comes, he removes queens from 

 some, cutting out queen-cells, and giving virgin queens 

 after two weeks or more ; from others he removes brood- 

 combs, filling up with empty combs or foundation. 



Plain Sections are not strongly favored by Editor Hol- 

 termann, and he does some vigorous arguing by way of 

 pictures. On one page in the Canadian Bee Journal is given 

 a picture of plain sections copied from the American Bee- 

 Keeper, and on the opposite page is given a picture of "sec- 

 tions with the top and bottom bar only of the section open, 

 with solid separators and section-holders." The latter are 

 beautifully finisht out. and are distinctly superior to the 

 former. The advocates of plain sections will, however, be 

 very likely to say that it is hardly fair to take as a repre- 

 sentative of plain sections a picture so much inferior to 

 others that have been given of the same class of sections. 



TraveI=Stain. — A second article by J. E. Crane upon 

 this subject appears in Gleanings, in which he maintains 

 the ground that the so-called '• travel-stain " is not travel- 



stain at all, the feet of the bees having nothing to do with 

 it. He says that the stained combs come in rare cases from 

 pollen carried on the bodies of the bees ; in others from 

 propolis mingled with the cappings ; but most frequently 

 in the cappings of surplus honey from impure wax carried 

 from the brood-chamber, the impurities being propolis, pol- 

 len and cocoons. The original coloring of brood-comb he 

 attributes to the cocoons, in which he is probably in error, 

 as Cheshire saj-s the color comes from the contents of the 

 bowels of the larva; being plastered on the cell-walls. 



Different Locations Require Different Management. 



— In illustration of this, Adrian Getaz cites in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review the practice of allowing bees to swarm, 

 hiving on empty frames, and depending on the swarm for 

 surplus. With him the plan would be an utter failure. The 

 swarm -would come in mid-May in poplar bloom, and by 

 June 20, when the best flow (the sourwood) comes, nearly 

 all the original bees of the swarm would be dead and few 

 young ones to replace them. The plan will be successful 

 only where two conditions prevail — 1st, the flow must be 

 not more than a few weeks; 2nd, the swarming must take 

 place at the beginning of the honey-flow. He thinks these 

 conditions prevail nowhere in the world except in southern 

 Canada and northern United States east of the Rockies. 



Conditions in Cuba. — In reply to questions about CiAa, 

 W. W. Somerford says in Gleanings : No trouble from 

 banditti, but plent'y from rain, everything being soakt in 

 the rainy season, when for 90 days it never forgets to rain 

 for a single day, and bees may starve if not fed, especially 

 blacks ; and no malaria. Wax-moths plenty the year 

 round, but give no great trouble except in comb honey, 

 which should be shipt North before March. Extracted 

 honey might become thin in the rainy season, but is gen- 

 erally sold in February or March. No poisonous reptiles 

 except water-moccasins. Fleas to beat the world — can't get 

 away from them — jiggers pretty bad, but no ticks nor bed- 

 bugs. Grapes, figs, oranges, and vegetables grow splen- 

 didly, but he predicts that in the future the comb honey of 

 Cuba will be the thing to astonish bee-keepers. 



Large vs. Small Hives. — In a very iuteresting manner 

 Adrian Getaz discourses in the Bee-Keepers' Review. Take 

 two equal colonies. No. 1 being in a small brood-chamber. 

 No. 2 in a large one. When the brood-chamber of No. 1 is 

 full it commences storing surplus, while No. 2 continues 

 filling its brood-chamber. If the flow is short. No. 1 gives 

 a crop of surplus honey and No. 2 gives none. But Mr. 

 Getaz, like Mr. Dadant, thinks the fair thing is to consider 

 the second year. Instead of being equal in the spring. No. 

 2 is stronger, and builds up more rapidly in proportion to 

 its numbers, has its brood-nest full as soon, and begins in 

 super as soon or sooner than No. 1, and harvests as much or 

 more in proportion to its size. There is a saving of time in 

 manipulating ; perhaps less feeding to do, and less swarm- 

 ing. If there is a light flow after the main flow. No. 2 may 

 store surplus when No. 1 does nothing. In winter No. 2 

 consumes proportionally less stores and loses proportionally 

 fewer bees. 



Two.Story 8. Frame Langstroth vs. io=Frame Quinby. 



— C. P. Dadant having said that it is better to have one 

 story of Ouinby frames than to use two stories of 8-frame 

 Langstroth, Dr. Miller says in Gleanings he is afraid Mr. 

 Dadant is right, but is anxious to believe him wrong be- 

 cause it is much more convenient to have the lighter hives. 

 So, "by way of whistling to keep his courage up," he 

 argues in favor of the smaller hives with smaller frames in 

 two stories. The room can be limited in two as well as in 

 one story, by using dummies. When a second story is 

 given, the bees increase the brood-nest just as gradually as 

 when frames are added one by one in the large hive, except 

 that they hesitate to cross the space from the upper to the 

 lower story. There is economy of heat in adding the sec- 

 ond story, for the heat descends in the lower story only as 

 the bees descend. While the large hives and frames may 

 be better, they are not enough better to overbalance the dis- 

 advantage of their cumbrousness. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written" by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. Better order at once, if you want a copy 

 of this .song. 



