260 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



April 27, 1899. 



faultless that would insist on keeping- bees inside every 

 village for that reason. Our villag-es are not so large but 

 that outside bees can cover them. We err a little (the rest 

 of us, not Dr. Miller) in trying- to "spunk up " our spunky 

 brethren to persist in disregarding protests, where families 

 live right adjacent, and -svant their little children to play 

 out-doors -without being stung-. Mo-\fe the bees a short dis- 

 tance, into a vacant vicinag-e, before the irritation grows to 

 an ordinance of expulsion. 



NUMBER OF BEE-KEEPERS IN A COUNTY. 



I don't know whether the ISO bee-keepers of Cook 

 County have occasion to say, " Teacher, they're crowdin' 

 here," or not. A survej' township of suitable territory 

 would have space for nine apiaries, and allow four square 

 miles to each. Now add as many more who onlj- want to 

 keep just a few colonies, and we have 216 to the county. Cook 

 County on the map looks like 20 townships. 



A FB-VV OF MR. DADANT'S SUGGESTIONS. 



C. p. Dadant, on pag-e 164, gives us the new phrase, 

 " experienced novice. " Well, yes, that's him — handles his 

 bees as a lusty baby handles a kitten — really more for the 

 sake of handling them than for the nominal object — and the 

 inexperienced old-fogy's bees win the race. Mr. D. also 

 formulates a handy'new rule : As many combs as they can 

 cover, and two more, for a colony at spring examination. I 

 guess that's a good rule, altho I don't quite live up to it. I 

 seldom take out combs unless the bees are quite weak. In 

 one thing I think a warning is needed, where Mr. Dadant 

 saj's that a colony given a comb of sealed honey will not 

 show excitement and attract robbers — soiiif danger, I fear, 

 when the colony is weak, and also on short allowance. On 

 page 180, he makes a good hit in saying that thin food in 

 spring, if not unreasonably thin, will stimulate more, and 

 save many trips for water, which often cost heavilv in bee- 

 life. 



LOOK OUT FOR A " HOT TIME." 



In Dr. Miller's excellent department (page 166), he let 

 slip one incautious expression that may do harm — where he 

 says pour the. syrup ■' pretty hot " into the combs you are 

 filling to feed bees. As I have " been there." I have a right 

 to protest that one needs to look quite a little out or he will 

 damage combs by softening the wax. With hot sj-rup in it, 

 " first j'ou don't know " your comb tumbles right out of the 

 frame. A /I'/Z/c' hot syrup can be put in the middle of a 

 tough old comb ; but even thus the ends of the cells are de- 

 stroj'ed by a touch. 



THE "IMPROVED spells" GIVE 'T.^TER .^ BAD SPELL. 



And so (as per page 169) we are to have a new batch of 

 improved spells. 'Tater feels an interest in this matter ; 

 but personally he thinks he is too old to get rid of his ortho- 

 graphical prongs now. Luckily he is not too old to find 

 fault — and he finds some with that new word"thoro." 

 Either let it be, or spell it"thuro." Don't rile us with 

 what impresses the eye as a bran new worfl, with its first 

 vowel masquerading in the place of another vowel. Of 

 course, sometime in the future it will have to be changed 

 again — just a wretched case of cutting off the dog's tail at 

 two times. 



A QUARTET OF " AFTERTHINKLETS." 



Three j-ears' experience with artificial heat in winter- 

 ing, and not a colony lost, is valuable testimony. Thanks 

 due to A. JS. Bradford, page 171. 



Mr. Bingham didn't say directly that he winters his 

 bees out-doors, in northern Michigan, but it sounds so; and 

 if such a big hole in a hive as an entrance Jixl2 inches re- 

 sults well, that is valuable testimony. Page 173. 



It seems I did Mr. Hart an injustice. He was seeking 

 to doctor some honey, but only to make bee-food of it. 

 Glad to correct. 



Three-story 15-frame Langstroth hive, just the thing to 

 convert the world with, eh ? Well, here we are, Mr. Riker, 

 all sitting in the rowdies' corner, eating peanuts, and wait- 

 ing for the services to begin. Page 191. 



MORE ABOUT FACING HIVES. 



Mr. Reitz, on page 189, strikes another consideration of 

 some importance on the hive-facing question. Sometimes 

 colonies faced west will get a pretty good flight in winter 

 when those'-faced east got none. And here's another item 

 I would add : When one or a very few hives face south or 

 west, and all the rest east, and when there comes a winter 

 day that the^' all fly, the first-mentioned hives may get very 



strong in bees at the expense of the others — bees stay out 

 till the east doorways are shaded and cold, and then seek a 

 warm, lively entrance to go into. As bees usually behave 

 as free commoners in winter, they can easily do this. And 

 if it happens that the only hive faced a warm waj' is one 

 the keeper is trj'ing a wintering experiment on — just you 

 hear him shouting what a valuable discovery he has made. 



THE BELL ROBBER-BLOCK. 



G. W. Bell's robber-block, page 188, will very likely be 

 of some use in cases where the assailed colony has spunkt 

 up during the night. Its strong point is that the robbers 

 think the proper place to get in is on top of it. But of 

 course they'll find the new route unless the 'bees inside de- 

 fend tolerably well. 



TH.\T GERM.\N CASE. 



On page 186, paragraph 12, that German case of a great 

 swarm that yielded less surplus per pound of bees than 

 swarms less than half as large did is important if valid. I 

 think it common for the old bees of mixt swarms to half of 

 them go home during the first few days after hiving (don't 

 like the miscellaneous company), and unless the managers 

 of this experiment assured themselves on this point the re- 

 sult has no special significance. 



CONSOLIDATE FOR BETTER LOOKS. 



It will look better to have the Union and Association 

 consolidate, and page 184 reads as if the prospective wed- 

 ding was approaching — Niagara Falls condition — " nuthin' 

 to hender " — or at worstonlva few broken bones and delayed 

 love letters. 



HONEV-DEW ON THE GRASS. 



I like to see a man fight well on a losing side ; there- 

 fore I incline to cheer S. W. Maxej' (page 178) in his plea 

 for real honey-dew right from heaven. I shall be a glad 

 and easy convert if I can see a little of this — but at present 

 I apprehend that the sweet on the grass was direct exuda- 

 tion, or possibly from wounds made by grasshoppers, and 

 so practically the same as stubble-honey — or what's to hin- 

 der its being insects down on the sod. and firing the nectar 

 up a la Theilmann ? At any rate, honey on the g-rass will 

 have to be allowed the name of honey-dew. 



PROF. COOK BALANCED OFF ON HONEY-DEW. 



Mr. Cowan is one of the first-class authorities, and if 

 he is convinced that honey-dew is sometimes a direct exuda- 

 tion from leaves, without insect agency. Prof. Cook is bal- 

 anced off — in fact more than balanced oft' — as one compe- 

 tent witness, holding actual and direct evidence, weighs 

 more than ten equally good men who hold merely the ab- 

 sence of evidence in situations where evidence might be 

 lookt for. 



MR. THEILMANN'S FIRE-ENGINE PLAY. 



Also Mr. Theilmann's case of honey from the nodes of 

 birch leaves — we shall have to allow that to be called honej-- 

 dew, too, as it gets spattered around upon the leaves. We 

 are glad to hear of its excellent quality. (Say, not a great 

 while ago I was on the side which appears to be licking its 

 adversaries out. Prof. Cook, behold your recent convert's 

 back-sliding under the loam). Mr. Theilmann's experi- 

 ment with the aphides, making them eject by having some 

 one jar the tree, and looking toward the sun to see the 

 sprays, and especially the surprising distance thej- can play 

 fire-engine, are valuable contributions to our knowledge. 



TH.AT EXPERIMENT IN PRODUCING EXTR.\CTED HONEY. 



And now I haven't half the room left that might be well 

 devoted to Mr. Davenport's experiment, on page 179. Prob- 

 ablj' it would not turn out the same all years and all loca- 

 tions. Right glad am I to see that the result favors neat- 

 ness and propriety. To let the queen run " amuck " thru 

 all the combs decreast the surplus instead of increasing it — 

 to this tune, 500 pounds, 175 pounds, 150 pounds: the better 

 score being where the queen was kept in one storj-. As to 

 non-swarming, the result is the other waj-, to be sure: but 

 then many of us are not prepared to give our colonies each 

 three stories of finisht comb, anywaj- : and with less than 

 that, swarming is only decreast a little, not prevented. 

 Rearing a great host of bees too late to be of any use, is 

 credited with the above decline of surplus. 



COGITATOR. 



The Premium offered on page 254 is well worth work- 

 ing for. Look at it. 



