356 



AMERICAN BEE JOUPNAL, 



June 8 1899. 



ers, but a wasteful plan, as I consider it, unless the combs 

 are too crooked ; and, secondly, straightening- them in the 

 spring- of the year when pretty much free from brood and 

 honey. Take them from the hive to a warm room — whose 

 temperature is up to 90 or 100 deg-rees— and, when thus 

 warm and pliable, lay on a flat surface and press them in 

 conformity to that surface, cutting out a little strip of 

 comb if necessary, where the worst bulg-ed, so that the 

 combs will come straight without spoiling too many cells 

 by pressing them out of shape. Years ago I straightened 

 many combs in this way, before foundation was known, so 

 that the combs in all of my hives were as straight as a 

 board, and many of these straightened combs are still in 

 mj' apiary. 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEESWAX AND PROPOLIS. 



QuES. 4. — "What is the difference, chemically, between 

 beeswax and propolis ? Is propolis a special product of the 

 bee as wax is ? Do bees consume anj'thing to produce 

 propolis?" 



Ans. — Beeswax is a fatty substance peculiar to the 

 bee, and produced by the consumption of honey on a 

 plan similar to animals, such as the hog and cow consum- 

 ing grains of various kinds to produce lard and tallow, the 

 same being of a fatty nature, but differing from beeswax 

 to a considerable extent. Who can tell us more on this sub- 

 ject, as I am no chemist ? 



Regarding propolis, bees do not produce it at all, but 

 simply gather it from the resinous exudations of certain 

 plants or trees, and from old hives, etc., where it has been 

 previously placed by other bees. The tree known as the 

 balra-of-gilead, and the horse-chestnut, give the most of the 

 propolis gathered in this locality, the buds being well cov- 

 ered with this resin during the greater part of the summer 

 season, 



DO BEES KNOW BEST AS TO UPWARD VENTILATION ? 



QuES. S. — "Do you believe the bees know what is better 

 or best for their good ? If it is best for them to have 

 upward ventilation, do you not suppose they would provide 

 therefor instead of sealing everything up tight at the top of 

 the hives ?" 



Ans. — I have my doubts whether bees know what they 

 want along this line, but accept the surroundings as they 

 find them. It is their nature to seal up all cracks and holes 

 not large enough for their exit or return, and this they will 

 do, no matter whether in a tree or hive ; but after seeing 

 them prosperous in trees which had only a hole large 

 or small at the bottom of their combs, and ail the way from 

 this to a crack large enough to put your hand in the whole 

 length their combs occupied in the tree, I have concluded 

 that they accepted things as they found them, as said 

 above, without asking whether such were the best for them 

 or not. 



THE "BALLING" OK QUEENS. 



QuES. 6. — "What is your remedy where bees ball a 

 queen ? Why do bees ball a queen of their own rearing, 

 after all queen-cells have been destroyed, and they can 

 have no hope of any other queen ?" 



Ans. — The last part of this is a mystery which I never 

 could really solve. It is easy to say that, in' opening hives, 

 the bees fear that their queen is to be injured, so ball her 

 for safe keeping ; but I have known scores of instances 

 where a virgin queen has been balled in coming home after 

 meeting the drone, and at other times until they were killed. 

 or nearly spoilt for future use, being led to the discovery 

 that the queen was being balled by the general appearance 

 of the colony at the entrance, such as an unusual commo- 

 tion denoting queenlessness, or dead and doubled-up bees, 

 having the appearance of being stung. Who can tell us 

 why such balling occurs ? 



The remedy is the same as in introducing queens — that 

 of caging them until the bees behave themselves, and are 

 peaceably inclined toward them. Smoke the bees till they 

 release the queen, then cage her and leave her till the bee's 

 pay no more attention to the cage than they do to any other 

 part of the hive. When you find this to be the case, it is 

 generally- safe to let any queen out. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



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. 



--^^S 



The "Uld Keliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By " COQITATOR." 



MOTHS AND ROBBING. 



" The onh' good bee-keeper is a dead one ;" quoth Harry 

 Howe, page 258. Come to think of it, it was not verbatim 

 that he thus chuckt us into the proverb relative to the poor 

 Indian — but it amounts to that, if neither robbing nor 

 moths ever trouble the G. B.-K. Let's compromise, dear 

 Harry, and put it that the evils of moth and robber are 

 greatly mitigated by wise forethought, and by always being 

 on hand in time. 



A NEW WRINKLE — ROBBERS ROBBING THEMSELVES. 



Kew things take better in a journal than new wrinkles ; 

 and I think that we must credit Mr. Howe with quite a 

 wrinkle in that he combats robbing (must be a shockingly 

 bad bee-keeper) by keeping the robbers constantly employed 

 at robbing out their own honey : heavj' combs being con- 

 tinually taken out and carried to the robbing spot. Of 

 course, this would not be practical where there are outside 

 bees handy ; but where it is practical it seems to combine 

 an excellent sort of stimulative feeding with a clever device 

 to keep rogues out of mischief. All the same, let's wait for 

 our individual afterthoughts after we've tried it. He's 

 right, that what honey we desire to feed thus can be ex- 

 posed (discreetly), and no serious harm follow. It is a wise 

 point that we should, if possible, avoid letting them realize 

 that we have shut thera out from plunder, or carried it off. 



SAFE INTRODUCTION OF QUEENS. 



Frank Coverdale's safe introduction is worth thinking 

 of. A queen once O. K. in a nucleus, the nucleus can soon 

 be made to absorb the most of any designated full colojiy. 

 But it's tough on the queen just arrived from a long jour- 

 ney to make her wait two days more on the shelf; and 

 mails and dealers are seldom regular enough to have things 

 match exactly. , Page 258. 



THE CLUSTER OF BEES IN WINTER. 



Out of W. G. Larrabee's excellent paper at the Vermont 

 convention I cull the remark about the danger of getting 

 the winter cluster establisht on nearly empty upper frames, 

 while most of the honey is left in the lower frames — quite 

 out of cold weather reach. Queens below, as much as may 

 be, should be the rule. Page 261. 



NIGHTBEE VS. THE NIGHTMARE. 



It seems (page 262) that Mr. Holmes, who sleeps in his 

 house-apiary occasionally, has at times experimented with 

 the nighibee (sharp end first) as an improvement upon the 

 nightmare. (No danger that money would make it go.) 



OUEENLESS COLONIES IN HOUSE-API.\RV. 



It was shrewd to move in the weak colonies last, after 

 getting them strengthed up with the obstinate bees that 

 prefer an alien home near by to own home a little further 

 off. I have seen bees in process of being moved show that 

 same trait, even when moved only a few feet at a time. But 

 16 out of 29 is a sad proportion to go queenless in summer 

 when young queens come on deck. We'll be excused from 

 house-apiaries, if that ratio is to be the rule. Page 262, 



DR. MILLER .\ND HIS " Q. AND .A." DEP.\RTMENT. 



And so Dr. Miller has encountered a man who thinks 

 that the questions in the department of " Questions and 

 Answers " are made up ! Mist him that time. Accuse him 

 of making up the answers, and see what he'll say then. 

 When Mary told her dream her mistress smilinglj' accused 

 her of being asleep when she dreamed it — which she indig- 

 nantly denied. 



BARRELS FOR HONEY A GR.\ND NUISANCE. 



Right, you are, dear editor, about the barrel. The 

 dealer who buys it and sells it again whole thinks it O. K., 

 naturally ; but to the retailer it is a grand nuisance. Quite 

 a good few of us don't admire the job of taking the head 



