Aug-. 



1899. 



AMERICArN BEE JOUkNAL 



487 



The " Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By "COGITATOR." 



SOMETHING THAT AFFECTS THE HONEY-FLOW. 



There is a topic which will bear a great deal more talk- 

 ing about than it has ever received, which is alluded to in 

 Dr. Miller's letter on page 396. About time for us to stop 

 saying so much, it was so cold, or so wet, or such a drouth 

 prevailed, that very little honey came in. Of course, severe 

 cold, or constant rain, or 7'crv severe and long-continued 

 drouth, arrests the honey-flow : but there is something be- 

 yond and different from these which constitutes the main 

 reason. When that mysterious something is right, any one 

 of these three hindrances may hinder greatly, and yet 

 there'll be a fair crop. When that mysterious something is 

 wrong there'll be no flow, tho all three of the regulation 

 scape-goats could be choked to death with old tinware. 

 Let's find out about it. I think the failure of basswood 

 late years is owing to a fungous disease of the blossoms 

 and leaves ; but that, too, is an eccentric, and does not 

 touch the main thing. The true solution must be able to 

 account for the sudden commencement of the honey-flow 

 when nothing plainly visible as to weather has changed. 

 " More things in heaven and earth Horatio," etc. 



OUEEN-CWPPERS AND CUPPING. 



Avaunt there, thou queen-clipper. Prof. Cook ! Can't 

 yi>u ■' jist be aisy " without sayingf that the wisest of in- 

 sects, the ants, give us a pointer to clip the queen's wing, 

 when they break ofl^ the wings of their queens ? The wings 

 of queen-ants are apparently articulated on purpose to 

 break oft' (like the stems of brittle willows, and the bases of 

 leaf petioles), and the wings of bee-queens are not so artic- 

 ulated. Moreover, we have respectable evidence that ant- 

 queens sometimes break their own wings ofi' ; and bee- 

 queens are not led to attempt that. Page 386. 



BEE-STINGS AND THEIR EFFECT. 



Dadant's article on the bee-sting, page 386, is a very 

 interesting one. I doubted the identit}' of bee-poison with 

 serpent poison, but did not think before of the evidence he 

 gives — stomach revolts violently against bee-poison, but 

 tolerates serpent poison to such an extent that a serpent 

 bite can be suckt with safety. (But is if true that a direct 

 dose of apis nauseates the stomach ? And isn't it true that 

 a man bitten by a serpent soon vomits violently ?) 



I see he repeats the same old caution not to rub or pinch 

 the sting out. Very bad advice, it seems to me. Of course, 

 if one could lift oft' the sting with the point of a knife :c'i//i- 

 oiit any delay it would be better : but practically care in ex- 

 tracting the sting means delay, and delay means a full dose 

 of the poison. I would say, get a sting out instantly — with 

 thumb or finger nail, if you have a hand at liberty, other- 

 wise rub it out against the most convenient object — and 

 don't rub so gently as to have to rub the second time. Mv 

 idea is that the holes thru which the poison flows are too 

 small for pressure to send thru very much additional poison, 

 if one is quick enough. 



RUBBER RINGS DIPT IN HOT BEESWAX. 



Mr. Davenport, on page 387. gets a joke ofi^ on us, keeps 

 us watching all the way to see the failure he had made, and 

 then tells us that he succeeded. Just dip rubber rings in 

 prettj' hot melted beeswax, and honey cannot ooze out un- 

 der them. It may transpire that this is a very valuable lit- 

 tle discovery, and not for honey alone, but for fruit also. 



" FOOI, NEWSPAPER APICULTURE." 



That half-acre of sweet clover under wire netting, to 

 keep the honey unmixt, rather marks the high-water mark 

 of fool newspaper apiculture ; but then, yarns of that char- 

 acter don't do us any harm. Page 392. 



GLUCOSE — THE GREAT .\DULTERANT. 

 Glucose — editorial on page 393. Ten pounds of liquid 

 lies made for each human being in the nation 1 We are not 

 obliged to drink the liquid pandemonium that another kind 



of Satan's institutions puts out; but these liquid lies we 

 have to swallow. What are we going to do about it ? In 

 some countries the answer to that inquiry would be, " Why. 

 bless your soul and body, we can't even think of doing any- 

 thing about it. They've got on their side the power, and 

 the wealth, and the officials — and the law, too, all they 

 want of it." It is a proper cause of thanksgiving that in 

 our country, when there are monstrous failures of justice, 

 or great triumphs of wrong, there is not so strong a dispo- 

 sition to say we can't do anything about it. Better the 

 American spirit (even if we have to take Judge Lynch 

 thrown in) than the hopeless, sheeplike spirit which some 

 would commend to us. 



MRS. HARRISON'S " DAKNED " COMBS. 



And so when the worms get in Mrs. Harrison's store of 

 extra combs she just darns 'em — not profanely at all (as to 

 no purpose many a masculine craftfellow has oft done), but 

 with the blessed, old, orthodox darning-needle. Interesting 

 to see that so simple a device, faithfully used every ten 

 days, keeps the combs. Page 413. 



MAKING FOUNDATION-MOLDS. 



The article of Adrian Getaz, on page 402, is as full of 

 suggestions as an egg is of meat. Portland cement much 

 more substantial than plaster to make foundation molds for 

 home use. The tedium of u-.iiting for the material to set 

 can be borne, seeing you an- to get a plate as solid as good 

 stone in the end. His flatwise dipping method seems to be 

 excellent. Rock the dipping plank as you put it in the wax 

 — and whisk it quickly wax side up, when you withdraw it 

 — and finally make the sheet drop off itself by plunging the 

 whole thing in warm water. One advantage of the method 

 is that it is adapted to sheeting small amounts of wax. 



But perhaps the most valuable thing of all is how to 

 drive nails in little pieces of fragile wood — clamp the pieces 

 in a vise while driving. 



"THE NECTAR IN FLOWER-CUPS." 



Happy to see Mr. Norton again, on page 403 : but I'm 

 pretty sure he's wrong in saying that silica in water is only 

 in suspension. Not even sure that he logically covers all 

 the points to prove that thick and thin nectar do not exist 

 in a flower simultaneously. How does he Anow that two 

 contiguous nectar-glands secrete nectar of exactly the same 

 thinness? What's to hinder a ribbonlike film of nectar in 

 a flower from being half dried down at one end, and nearly 

 in original condition at the other? or yesterday's secre- 

 tion from being' thick, when present thin secretions are just 

 beginning to pour out ? 



FEEDING IN F.\MINE SEASONS. 



Queens from eggs taken from the very best colonies, 

 and subjects for them to reign over from the laggard colo- 

 nies, not much good for surplus honey. Worth thinking of 

 — but don't tumble in without thinking. This is anent 

 Dadant's article on page 403. It seems the Dadants, when 

 feeding in famine seasons, have never yet failed to get the 

 honey back, and more, too, before the season was over. 



CARE REQUIRED BY SHEEP AND BEES. 

 Twice a week for a sheep, and not twice a sea.son for 

 the bees — the way the average farmer does. Bees to blame. 

 They could stop this nonsense if they would always die off 

 under it, but sometimes they don't. This for the Doolittle 

 article on page 404. 



TAR SMELL ON FOUNDATION — ABSCONDING. 



I think Dr. Miller is wrong, on page 405, in expecting a 

 swarm not to mind the smell of tar on foundation. The 

 lady says some of the swarms object to running in (just 

 what I should expect), and when they don't want to go in 

 it stands to reason that they may not want to slay in. One 

 good and easy way to hold bees which are inclined to ab- 

 scond is to bury the basket and swarm in a suitable pit un- 

 til near eventide, and then take them out and hive them. 

 They can't well run away in the night, and by morning 

 they may have decided to stay. If also foul-broodj', I'd try 

 keeping- them in the pit till they began to tumble down 

 from starvation, and feed them well directly after hiving-. 



CYCLONE-CELLAR FOR THE BAD BOYS. 



And so 8,000 miles from Manila, and less than 2,000 

 years from the Advent, the first lightning struck from the 

 thunder heads (not dunderheads) of the United States Bee- 

 Keepers' Association. Bully! Now may there be no let-up 

 to the cyclone till the bad boys are all in the cyclone-cellar 

 — substantial and reticulated irons on the cellar windows. 



CogitaTor. 



