570 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 7. 1899. 



A Bee-Veil Long Enough being askt for in Gleaning^s 

 in Bee-Culture, Dr. Miller advises sewing- the veil to the 

 edge of the hat-brim, thus making the veil come down 

 farther than if fastened around the crown of the hat. The 

 editor thinks Mr. Coggshall's plan still better. Have a hat 

 ■with a very wide brim, and sew the veil to the underside of 

 the brim, but so far from the edge that the veil will be 

 shaded from the direct rays of the sun. The sun shining 

 on the veil makes it especially hard to see thru, the trouble 

 being greatest early or late in the day when the sun is near 

 the horizon. 



Are the Dark Cappings of Sections Colored Clear 

 Thru? — Editor Root and Dr. Miller are at loggerheads on 

 this question. Mr. Root says he examined several thou- 

 sand pound.s of honey from different parts of the country, 

 and three-fourths of the so-called travel-stained faces 

 showed on examination that the stain went clear thru the 

 capping. But Dr. Miller says he knozcs that a section capt 

 white as snow becomes dark if left on the hive long enoug-h, 

 especially in the center of the super, and asks, " Now, don't 

 you believe the white capping still remains white, with a 

 dark coating over it ?" 



The Royal Palm as a Honey=PIant Mr. Snyder hav- 

 ing called attention, in the Bee-Keepers' Review, to the 

 fact that Mr. Somerford had reported royal palm as yielding 

 a surplus, while Mr. Poppleton had reported it as not yield- 

 ing a surplus, Mr. Poppleton says the difference between 

 the two is more seeming than real. Mr. Poppleton's ex- 

 perience of two years in Cuba was in what he considered a 

 largely overstockt locality, 400 or 500 colonies being in the 

 one apiary. During the time of bloom of royal palm only a 

 few colonies stored surplus, while Mr. Somerford, in a re- 

 gion less densely stockt, might have found a good surplus 

 stored from the plant. 



A Trap for Honey. Loving Bears — Editor Hill thus de- 

 scribes it in the American Bee-Keeper : 



" It is simply a strong box, about 14 inches deep and 10 

 inches square, with a number of 3-inch light wire-nails 

 driven thru and inclined downward from the outside. Then 

 a piece of comb honey is placed in the bottom, and the ar- 

 rangement left at some convenient place. The bear, it is 

 said, will thrust his head to the bottom after the sweet mor- 

 sel, but when he attempts to withdraw it, he finds he has a 

 nightcap that persists in being worn thereafter, and the 

 bee-keeper finds him tumbling about, thus blindfolded, 

 when he arrives in the morning. 



Bees Crossing Larvse for Queens Dr. Miller and the 



editor of the Bee-Keepers' Review are at a dead-lock with 

 regard to the age at which bees choose larva; for rearing 

 queens. The former insists that when a queen is removed 

 the bees choose larva> sufficiently young, but continue to 

 start cells for several days, and then they use larva? that 

 are too old, not from choice, but because no younger are 

 present. He asks Editor Hutchinson to make fresh trial 

 and report results. This Mr. H. politely declines, but 

 says : " Let me tell j'ou just what I do know about this 

 matter. I know from a great number of trials that when 

 bees are given larva? of all ages from which to rear queens, 

 that some of the queens are very poor ; while if given only 

 eggs, or just-hatcht larvae, all of the queens are good." 



Doolittle Queen-Cells— two dozen of them— make a 

 full-page illustration in a recent issue of Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture, upon which the bee-keeper would gaze for a long 

 time. The picture is a fine one, and the cells are fine, of 

 that kind from which the experienced bee-keeper will con- 

 fidently expect fine queens. They were reared in a hive of 

 one story, a laying queen being in the hive all the while. 

 But the hive was separated into three compartments. The 

 central compartment was the one in which the cells were 

 produced, the queen not being allowed in this central com- 

 partment, but alternatelj- in either of the two outside com- 

 partments, the workers having the free run of the compart- 



ments by means of division-boards f urnisht with perforated- 

 zinc. The ceiitral compartment had a capacity of three 

 frames, on either side of the frame of cells being a frame 

 of young larva?. Preference seems to be given to cells 

 fastened on a stick as compared with those fastened on the 

 lower edge of a comb. When a larva is put into a cell, 

 there is placed at the same time in the cell a bit of royal 

 jelly about as big as a double-B shot. The jelly should be 

 of the right age, an ordinary natural queen-cell of two or 

 three days' growth furnishing jelly for six, and sometimes 

 for twelve cells. 



Moving Bees Short Distances.— Dr. Mason says in 

 the Bee-Keepers' Review that when bees are moved several 

 miles the^- do not return to the old location, not because of 

 the distance they have been moved, but because of the dis- 

 turbance in moving. So for 25 j-ears he has made a prac- 

 tice of disturbing bees when moving them only a short dis- 

 tance, after the plan given bj- E. R. Jones, and has never 

 made a failure till this year. When the Doctor wants to 

 move bees a short distance, he closes the hives with wire- 

 cloth, and if not ready to move them at once, he sets them 

 in the shade for half a day or longer. Then he puts a col- 

 ony on a wheelbarrow, wheels it back and forth on the side- 

 walk, whose unevenness keeps up a constant jar, till he has 

 wheeled it 40 rods or more, then puts it where he wants it, 

 and it stays put. But this j'ear he says the plan was a flat 

 failure. 



Virgin Queens and Drone.Comb. -On page 403 of this 

 journal, C. P. Dadant says that queenless bees to which a 

 queen-cell is given will build nothing but drone-comb till 

 their young queen is laying. Critic Taylor says in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review that such is not his experience. He ex- 

 amined a number of nuclei in which eggs were not j-et 

 hatching, and in one at least there we/e yet no eggs, and 

 found all the new comb entirely worker. Thinking the 

 strength of a colony might have something to do with the 

 case, he put a swarm with a virgin queen in three sections 

 of the Heddon hive, the swarm being strong enough to 

 crowd the three sections, and five or six frames in the upper 

 section were largely devoid of comb. This was in the midst 

 of a moderate basswood yield, and he says: "Now the 

 frames mentioned are almost entirely filled with comb, and 

 not a sign of drone-cell anj-where ; and the queen is not yet 

 laying." It will be interesting to discover whether there 

 maj' not be some difference of conditions not yet fully un- 

 derstood that may account for the difference in observations. 



Carrying Swarms on a Bicycle. — I have secured 

 swarms of bees in sacks, and carried them on a bicj'cle. It 

 sometimes happens that a farmer will say a swarm of bees 

 is hanging on a limb a mile or so from the office. It would 

 hardly pay to send a man with a horse and buggy ; but 

 with a bicycle and cheese-cloth sack I can very soon have 

 those bees back home and in a hive. The sack should be 

 carried by the upper end, where it is tied. Before the sack 

 is tied, however, the bees should be shaken down to the 

 bottom, and then the string should be secured four or five 

 inches above the mass of bees. I usually carrj- the sack in 

 one hand, and guide the bicycle with the other. 



A year or so ago there appeared an account of how a 

 very enthusiastic youth, seeing a swarm of bees remote 

 from his home, was particularly anxious to secure the bees 

 and take them. What did he do but remove his " pants," 

 tie the legs of them together, shake the bees into them, and 

 rush home ? No mention of the fact is made of hoiv he got 

 home, or whether he was stung or not, or whether he met 

 any one on the way ; but the fact was clearlj' brought out 

 that the bees were hived, and finally developt into a pros- 

 perous colony. 



Taking this incident as a cue, I do not see why we can- 

 not use the cheese-cloth sack in the manner I have de- 

 scribed. The body of the sack can be slipt clear up over 

 the cluster of bees as they are hanging on the limb ; and, if 

 more convenient, the mouth of the sack can be tied around 

 the limb so as to make it bee-tight; the limb can be cut, 

 and our bees brought home in triumph. — Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture. 



'^-•-^ 



Langstroth on the Honey. Bee, revised by the Dadants, 

 is a standard, reliable and very thoroly complete work on 

 bee-culture. It contains 520 pages, and is bound elegantly. 

 Every reader of the American Bee Journal should have a 

 copy of this book, as it answers hundreds of questions that 

 arise about bees. We mail it for $1.25, or club it with the 

 Bee Journal for a year — both for only $2.00. 



