Oct. 19, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



663 



in the hive in that case? I don't like to experiment, but 

 would rather profit by the experience of others. 



3. Would it be safe to destroy all queen-cells on the 

 eighth day after casting- a swarm and insure a queen ? 



4. Is the piping heard before a second or after-swarm 

 issues, done by a hatcht queen or an unhatcht one ? 



5. I have a colony that is queenless and has been so for 

 over a month, and has a laying worker. If I unite it with 

 another colony would they be liable to destroy its queen ? 

 It is not very strong with bees. I have thought of shaking 

 its bees out upon the ground and let them look out for them- 

 selves, as all my other colonies seem strong enough without 

 them. Would you think it the proper thing ? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. There is not such a great deal to choose 

 between the two plans. The objection to your plan is that 

 the bees are stirred up and excited with the shutting in and 

 the jarring, and it is better to leave them quiet after their 

 last flight. If no pains are taken beforehand to raise the 

 hives from the bottom-boards, the Root plan will find bees 

 on the bottom-board with strong colonies. If the hives are 

 raised beforehand, and left raised long enough, the bees 

 will all be off the bottom-board in the hive. If the bees are 

 quietly carried in there is no need of shutting them in the 

 hive. My hive bottom-boards are two inches deep, so the 

 hive is closed at the back and sides, with an entrance two 

 inches deep the full width of the hive. The bees are car- 

 ried into the cellar without shutting- in. preferably on a cool 

 day only a day or so after they have had a flight, and there 

 is no trouble about their leaving the hive. 



2. It may be that they will do a little better with the 

 cloths if you don't object to the trouble. 



3. No ; there might be no queen out of the cell till after 

 the eig-hth day. It would be safe to destroy all cells after 

 you hear piping. 



4. When the first young queen emerges, she travels 

 about over the combs piping at intervals, making a rather 

 shrill sound easilv distinguisht from the other noises in the 

 hive. In reply the queens yet in their cells emit a coarser 

 sound, seemingly more hurried in their utterances. This 

 last is called " quahking," altho it is also called piping. 



5. It is now known that not merely one laj-ing worker 

 is engaged in mischief, but a large number in the same 

 hive. If you unite a colony having laying workers with 

 one having a queen, there is no especial danger that the 

 queen will be injured. It matters little what you do with 

 the bees of a weak colony having laying workers. They 

 are old, and if united with another colony will hardly live 

 thru the winter. It might be economy to have them die 

 now, rather than to consume part of the -winter stores be- 

 fore dying. 



The '^Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



LEVELING DOWN B.\IT-SECTIONS. 



Yet another " t'other way " to level section-combs for 

 baits without the Taylor machine : Dip them in ice-water, 

 and scrape them right down with a blunt-ended knife. Guess 

 it will work all right; and the apparent raggedness of the 

 job probably counts little or nothing. B. T. Davenport, 

 page S47. 



HORSES AND COWS EATING SWEET CLOVER. 



What has been done can be done again — so I guess if 

 Mr. Boardman's horses and cow ate the sweet clover, big 

 stalks and all, other folks' horses and cows might be grad- 

 uated in the same " 'ology " with proper tuition. Page 546. 



THE ORIGIN OF HONEY-DEW. 



On page S46, Mr. C. C. Parsons goes it strong against 

 the '• bug-juice " fellows. " We'uns," the guilty parties. 

 are listening, and letting his stripes have all the redeeming 

 power they are capable of upon our dirty hides. Powerful 

 " curis " how the plant-secretion feller knows there ain't 

 any " bug-juice," and the " bug-juice " feller knows there 



ain't any plant-secretion, and the heavenly feller knows 

 there ain't neither one. However, it is legitimately to the 

 point that Mr. Parsons had some honey-dew honey that 

 gave the best satisfaction to the consumers. 



FOUL BROOD AND PICKLED BROOD. 



That frame of foul brood (page 545) is as natural as — 

 death. Mr. France, as an inspector, seems to be free from 

 dangerous eccentricities of carelessness — a great mercy in 

 a public officer of that sort. I see he also edges in decidedly 

 toward the view that pickled brood is a form of starvation. 

 Say rather that it is a distinct g-erm disease, but a disease 

 that never does much harm except when (from scarcity of 

 pollen or something else) the brood arc first in a half-starved 

 condition. Human beings, after being kept in a half- 

 starved condition long enough, die off like flies of pretty 

 much any epidemic that happens to come along, when few 

 or none would have died had all been well fed. 



A NON-ROASTED 'T.\TER. 



Very suggestive is that little editorial good-by to Cogi- 

 tator, page 569. What a deft airof " good riddance of you," 

 which nevertheless keeps clear of actually saying anything 

 that the luckless wight could complain of ! Ah, these edi- 

 tors ! Now then, I feel compassionate toward the poor fel- 

 low — 



Why drop thy foliage or flee. 



Poor 'Tater, no man roasted thee? 



THIN SECTIONS OF HONEY — SKIN-FLINTY BEE-KEEPERS. 



I was almost tempted to laughter by the experience of 

 F. W. Hall, page 574. The stingy fad of continually pinch- 

 ing the sections thinner is running against a stump. In 

 too thin a space the bees get all on one side of the founda- 

 tion and bend it far out of plumb. Then your extra-fancy 

 honey is nice on one side and bare bones on the other, and 

 not salable at all. Some bee-men are that skin-flinty that 

 their souls look just like that on both sides. 



HOT STONES FOR BEE-HUNTING. 



Honey on hot stones for bee-lure, and same stones 

 utilized to keep up a warm and fragrant areola around the 

 bait and baited bees. Excellent kink in bee-hunting, one 

 would say — if not too laborious. Samuel 'Varner, page 573. 



PREFERENCE AS TO HIVES. 



Of the 30 senators just half favor the Langstroth hive. 

 But as to the sub-variety — whether the " Sweet little Min- 

 nie " or the " Large-hearted Polly"— the more part seem 

 too bashful to express their affection right out in public. 

 Minnie has three out-spoken lovers and Polly has four. No 

 other hive than the Langstroth gets any large following. 

 Seven of the non-conformist 15 favor hives of their own 

 devising. Of the whole 30 the T super gets a mention from 

 five, and the section-holders from three — super part of the 

 question being ignored by the most. Opening article on 

 page 561 chances on part of the same topic. Yes, Dr. Getaz, 

 our colonies are too small in the spring (we Minnie-lovers), 

 but still you don't grasp our real disease — mind so diseased 

 that we can't believe they would open spring any stronger 

 if we should go over to Polly. 



A SWARM-CARRYING BICYCLIST. 



O thou policemaa, curse thy natal day 1 

 Don't see that scorcher— look some other way. 

 Touch him, as over broken bones he flees. 

 And he'll let loose on thee his sack of bees. 



Even if he rides en-pajamas by so much the more it 

 won't do to meddle with him. See page 570. 



THE PUZZLE BETWEEN DADANT AND TAYLOR. 



That puzzle of Dr. Dadant vs. Dr. Taylor, on page 570, 

 I would solve thus : If the bees merely spare the virgin 

 queen, but in their hearts do not accept her, then they will 

 build drone-comb or none. If she is heartily accepted they 

 will build no drone-comb unless they want some for other 

 reasons. I don't know how it actually is, but I should 

 rather expect an old colony, beginning to wish to supersede 

 their queen, to change over from worker-comb to drone. 



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