June 8, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



361 



in a talk on bees if g-iven a chance to hear it. We had a 

 Lang-stroth frame of bees in a glass hive, and gave there- 

 from a practical illustration of the work of bees in the hive. 

 On the comb were worker-bees, drones, and a queen. There 

 were capt worker-brood, drone-brood, and the beginning of 

 a queen-cell. In the open cells were honey, eggs, larv;e in 

 various stages of development, and pollen. 



We also had a chart illustrating the development of 

 bees, and some other things in relation thereto. 



Mrs. Lane, the efficient teacher in the eighth grade of 

 the McPherson school, had invited us to visit them and g'ive 

 the bee-talk, expecting to have the pupils take notes and 

 write out afterward as much as they could remember of 

 what we said. The best reports were then to be publisht in 

 their little school paper. It made a splendid written exer- 

 cise for the pupils, and the talk seemed greatly enjoyed by 

 them, many asking a number of questions, which showed 

 that they were much interested. 



Live bees in a glass hive are always interesting even 

 to people who are far beyond their school-days. 



Preventing Swarming. — This item, copied without note 

 or comment in the Australian Bee-Bulletin from the New 

 Zealand Farmer, makes one wonder whether bees are so 

 diflFerent on opposite sides of the globe, and whether bee- 

 keepers are so much more skillful on that side : 



"There is only one way of absolutely preventing 

 swarming, and that is to take out every frame in the lower 

 story at least once in every seven days, and destroy every 

 queen-cell that the bees may be building. The job, to 

 many, may seem a tedious one, but it is really very little 

 trouble. An expert bee-keeper ought to be able to take out 

 each of the ten frames and destroy every cell in about five 

 minutes." 



Destroying all queen-cells once a week will hardly pre- 

 vent swarming if bees sometimes swarm with no queen- 

 cells present: and the man that can handle each comb and 

 miss no queen-cells when averaging' only 30 seconds to a 

 comb must be expert indeed. But sometimes those who 

 write for agricultural papers about bees are more theoretical 

 than practical. 



Bee-Keeping in Cliili — Gleanings recently contained 

 the following- paragraph referring to an article which ap- 

 peared lately in the American Bee-Keeper : 



An interesting letter from Chili, by the editor of the 

 Chilian Bee Journal, is given, together with a picture of 

 the writer, Mr. Lafitte himself, and two Chilian apiaries. 

 His journal comes here, and I have noticed with mucli 

 pleasure the excellent and progressive qualities of it in 

 every respect. He says the general aspect and climate of 

 Chili are especially adapted to bee-keeping. Some of the 

 farms cover 40,000 and some 80,000 acres, and some are 50 

 or 40 times as large as that. There is an enormous con- 

 sumption of wax there for tapers in the Roman 

 churches. One of the largest apiaries consists of 700 frame 

 hives, 400 of which are of the Dadant-Blatt system, and 

 about 300 of the Langstroth-Simplicity style. These 700 

 hives are divided into five apiaries about two miles apart. 

 So far as harvests are concerned, 110 pounds per hive is the 

 most that has been extracted. This was an apiary of 10 ) 

 Dadant-Ouinby hives. Deep frames are inconvenient in a 

 climate like that of Chili. 



Getting Queens from Italy by Mail is reported a suc- 

 cess in Gleanings. The A. I. Root Co. send to the Italy 

 breeders queen-cages prepared with Good candy and sealed 

 honey, all ready to put in the bees, and out of a dozen 

 queens sent ten came thru alive, but one of the ten was 

 weak. 



Cuban Bee-Keeping is Expensive, according to Glean- 

 ings, as the hot climate makes sheds almost imperative, and 

 they cost a good deal of money. 



Getting Bees Started in Sections.— Editor Hutchinson 

 speaks approvingly of the plan of first putting on extract- 

 ing-supers, and Editor Root advises that the experiment be 

 tried of putting- on a shallow extracting-super, and then 

 when the bees are fully at work taking away the extracting- 

 super and putting on a super of sections. 



Mr. B. Walker, of Osceola Co., Mich., has been in 

 Tennessee for several weeks buying carloads of bees — 475 

 colonies in all. He is sending- them into Michigan, where 

 he runs some ten apiaries every year. 



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Dr. a. B. M.\son. of Lucas Co., Ohio, Secretary of the 

 United States Bee-Keepers' Association, writing us May 25, 

 reported thus concerning the weather and his bees : 



'■ This is the first real, nice day for bees since the nice 

 weather we had in April, but there are no blossoms for 

 them to work on. I have full supers on several hives, and 

 lialf supers on most of the others — not for storing honey, 

 for there is none coming in. but to give room for the bees ; 

 but to-day I notice that nearly all the hoTiey has been car- 

 ried from tlie brood-nest into the supers, and the brood- 

 combs are full of brood." 



# * ♦ « ♦ 



The HfM.\NE Alliance, New York (50 cents a year), is 

 a popular and interesting magazine devoted to animals and 

 pets and humane education. The May number is remark- 

 able for its fine illustrations and the great amount and 

 variety of interesting matter in relation to animals. It also 

 savs that there is one subject on which every dictionary, 

 encvclopedia, natural history and zoology is in error ; that 

 is. where the subject is treated fully. It is strange that this 

 error is in the description of one of our native American 

 animals, the armadillo, of which little seems to be known,, 

 tho this animal is likely to become a valuable pet. 



# * ♦ * ♦ 



Mr. W. a. Pryal. of Alameda Co., Calif., writing us 

 Mav 15, had this to say : 



" Mr. Pender, of Australia, arrived in San Francisco 

 Saturday morning from his eastern trip ; he stopt at Los 

 Angeles" and saw Mr. Martin. He reports the country very 

 dry in the southern portion of the State. He called on me 

 Saturday evening. I askt him to take dinner with me Sun- 

 day, and he did so. I drove him about Berkeley, and showed 

 him over the grounds of the State University, and also thru 

 the grounds of the institution for the deaf, dumb and blind, 

 which is also at Berkeley. He'll replenish his cages with 

 young bees at my place to-morrow, and the next day he 

 takes the steamer for Australia." 



Mr. R. McKnight, for years a prominent bee-keeper 

 of C)ntario, Canada, has a most beautiful home, as is shown 

 by the two nice pictures in the May Bee-Keepers" Review. 

 He says this in reference to it : 



"The grounds embrace about 4-V acres — and they are 

 admitted. I believe, to be the finest site in town. They cost 

 me §10,000. When Mr. Hooker, of London, was staying- 

 with me during the Chicago Fair, we were one evening 

 sitting on the rustic seat in the distance, when he declared 

 he had witnest no finer prospect in all his travels in Europe. 

 Mr. Cowan was also much taken with the situation. Mr. 

 and Mrs. Cowan stopt with me for ten days during- their 

 first visit in 1887. My apiary was located in the orchard, 

 which lies behind the house, and inside the row of ever- 

 greens. shown here. I have occupied this place for 23 years, 

 and laid out the g-rounds, planted all the trees, shrubs, 

 hedges, etc., which are now, like myself, getting old. I 

 fear that my bee-keeping correspondence is about over. I 

 have no bees at home now ; not being able to attend to- 

 them. I still have an apiary about 15 miles from here ; but 

 I do little in it personally." 



