1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



503 



lesson that I shall not soon forget. When using a bee-escape 

 of any kind, the bees should have ventilation at the top of the 

 case or super. 



I learned several years ago that when using the Alley 

 drone and queen trap, ventilation at the top of the hive was 

 positively necessary to guard against the danger of suffoca- 

 tion. But I do not use any queen-trap now, as clipped wings 

 is the best " trap " for me. 



THE SEASON OF 1895 IN KENTUCKY. 



After the drouth of last year, well-informed bee-keepers 

 expected a light honey-yield in Kentucky this season. The 

 white clover crop is an entire failure, but what bee-forage we 

 have has yielded nectar liberally, and we have taken some 

 honey of fair quality. I say "some honey," for in fact the 

 crop of honey will not be 33 per cent, of an average yield. 



It is decidedly seasonable here now, and has been since 

 the first of June, and there is a good outlook for fall flowers. 

 There may be better times for the bee-business after this year. 

 The questions so terribly tattered and worn about the size of 

 hives, and depth of frames, and " sitch," have little fascination 

 to many of us who yearn for the return of the good honey sea- 

 sons of the past. 



Notwithstanding a constant income of nectar this season 

 — plenty for breeding purposes — our queens have not filled 

 their combs chock-full of brood as they usually do under like 

 circumstances. I cannot account for this without believing 

 that the long, hard winter and bad stores injured the queens, 

 and made them less prolific. 



KEEPING EMPTY COMBS WHEN NOT IN USE. 



Let me name a problem here, for those persons who know 

 a great deal about impracticable things, and especially for the 

 practical bee-keepers : Give us the best, cheapest, cleanly 

 way to preserve empty combs when not in use. I have suc- 

 ceeded in keeping worms out of a lot of combs this season, by 

 spraying them with (stove) gasoline. This kills immediately 

 every worm it touches, and when it evaporates it leaves no 

 odor behind. I have saved another lot of combs by simply 

 filling the cells with tine, dry salt. 



Combs that bees perish upon, in the early or late spring, 

 need immediate attention to keep the worms from destroying 

 them early in the season. Those that have been exposed to 

 the cold all winter need no attention until the hot season sets 

 in. Such combs I have saved an indefinite length of time by 

 storing them in cotton bags, and tying them up tightly. We 

 want light on this subject. 



Christiansburg, Ky., July 19. 



[If I mistake not. Dr. Gallup has a method of taking care 

 of empty combs, which he is invited to describe. Others, of 

 course, are requested to give their ways of doing it. — Editor.] 



What Dr. Miller Thinks. 



Phacelia. — On page 4-70, phacelia gets quite a "send 

 off." I believe you may set it down as a fixed rule, that wheu 

 a plant has no other value than as a honey-plant, it isn't 

 worth while to talk much about it unless it be for waste land. 

 Phacelia is quite a pretty flower, and as such has been culti- 

 vated at least 50 years, but I doubt if any one in this country 

 will ever have a chance to tell what its honey is like. I very 

 much doubt if any one in Germany has ever got enough from 

 it to be able to furnish a sample of pure phacelia honey. 



Stinging or Bees. — "Are you sure, Bro. Abbott? I 

 think I'd stand by that statement of the British Bee Journal 

 (page 473), that a bee never volunteers an attack, save in the 

 immediate neighborhood of its hive, but I think I'd leave off 

 the clause, " and even then never without some reason." For 

 the average apiary generally has some bees in it that will sting 



with no other reason than that you've come pretty close to the 

 hives. It might be well also to carry around with the state- 

 ment an explanation that the neighborhood of a cross colony 

 is sometimes quite extended. But unless you pinch a bee, I 

 don't believe it ever stings unless , it thinks it's defending its 

 hive. 



Inteoducing Queens.— On reading that item on page 

 470, I felt like starting for a certain printing-office with a 

 big stick. I was restrained by the fact that the mistake might 

 have been all my own, after all. In the item about introduc- 

 ing queens, in the sentence next the last, please add so as to 

 make it read, "The caged queens were taken care of all right, 

 but the free queen of the colony was killed." On further 

 thought, I'm pretty sure the mistake was made at this end of 

 the line. [It was my fault. Doctor. Your " end of the line" 

 is all right. — Editok.] 



Ontabio Association. — That membership of 176, as 

 given on page 476, is pretty good proof that a good member- 

 ship can be obtained by the right plans, and we better change 

 our plans on this side the line. 



Why Bees Swarm. — I have received the following from 

 Mr. F. C. Morrow, of Wallaceburg, Ark.: 



Dr. Miller: — On page 359, you ask why bees swarm. 

 Well, I know, but you don't know that I know, and I don't 

 know that you will believe me when I tell you. 



To begin, bees desire a plurality of queens, but the queens 

 seem to say : " I, thy queen, am a jealous queen." I guess 

 ,you have the idea well settled in your mind that bees want 

 only one queen, but you must change, for I can safely intro- 

 duce two or more queens at the same time to one colony, by 

 using excluders, so you see the bees do not object, but the 

 queens are full of nest jealousy. 



Another thing you must know : The bees love their queen 

 above all things else — yes, after they have toiled all their life 

 and laid up much stores, they are willing to leave it all and 

 take the old queen and start anew. 



Doctor, there is another thing I wish you to know : Bees 

 know nothing about laying up stores for winter — all there is 

 about it, they are very greedy. 



Queen-cells are the cause of swarming, but what causes 

 queen-cells ? Well, let us reason (but don't forget greediness 

 and plurality). A bee comes in panting with a heavy load of 

 honey, and every sister wants to know where it came from ; 

 the loaded bees says, " Down on the creek there is a million 

 times more basswood honey than we can all gather. What 

 will we do about it ? We will feed mother high, and get her 

 to lay millions of eggs. Yes, but she can't possibly lay nearly 

 enough eggs. Well, we will go to work and rear more queens. 

 Mother will object, but there are plenty of us, and we can 

 manage that." So the work goes on for about eight days. 



As long as there is but one center for love, we have 

 union ; but now what ? The old queen has left off egg-laying, 

 and is using every effort to destroy the young queens. (Some 

 wise men say she is only getting herself light, so she can fly 

 easily.) So we see discord take the place of union — " a house 

 divided against itself cannot stand." A council is held, and 

 the decision is that those that love the old queen must take 

 her and leave, as the cells cannot be removed. 



Doctor, if bees rear queens only for the purpose of swarm- 

 ing, the old queen would stay in the old hive, and a swarm 

 would issue for each and every young queen reared ; and 

 there would be a week or so between the ages of the young 

 queens. Bees do not rear queens for the purpose of swarm- 

 ing, but swarm to save the queens. 



Scarcity of forage will destroy the desire for a plurality 

 of queens. F. C. Morrow. 



I don't know. Friend Morrow, I don't know. Some things 

 look your way, and then again there are things that look the 

 other way. Bees may be very anxious for queens, sometimes, 

 butit hardly looks like it when you take away their queen 

 and put in another and they promptly ball her to death. 



I think you're right that bees don't store honey for the 

 sake of having a supply the following winter — they just store 

 it for the fun of the thing. 



So the flood of honey makes the bees want more queens so 

 as to rear more bees ? But if you were here you'd have to get 



