1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



201 



any contest for a prize, but having 

 let the opportunity go by unim- 

 proved, I cannot now claim the re- 

 ward. He who fails to enter can lay 

 no claim to a crown in a race. 



First, find and remove the old 

 queen, then pour about three or four 

 ounces of honey into the cup. Put 

 the queen to be introduced into this 

 honey and roll her around a number 

 of times with your finger until she is 

 thoroughly smeared. Don't be afraid 

 of drowning her. Just immerse her 

 again and again until it looks like 

 she is dead. Then turn the honey 

 and the queen over the tops of the 

 Frames and let the mess run down be- 

 tween the combs, carrying her with 

 it. Shut up the hive, being careful to 

 provide against robbing, and leave it 

 alone for at least three days. Don't 

 open the hive to see how your ex- 

 periment is coming along. To do so 

 might cause trouble. Be patient, and 

 when you examine after several days 

 you will find the lady perfectly at 

 home, and she will have laid a fine 

 lot of eggs if she is a good breeder. 



— An uld-fashioned flower for a 



fashioned virtue 

 (Photograph by John R. Dougla 



place. Desiring to mate them I car- 

 ried four virgins when they were 

 four days old to the yard of Mr. 

 Henry S. Bohon, five miles north of 

 Roanoke, and introduced them by 

 the honey route into three-frame 

 nuclei. The fourth day, wanting to 

 know how well my attempt to get 

 them fertilized had succeeded,! opened 

 the nuclei. Three of them had mated 

 and were at once caged, returned to 

 the Hartman yard and re-introduced 

 by the method under consideration. 



The fourth virgin was missing. It 

 is my belief that she was lost on her 

 wedding flight. But of course there 

 is a possibility that the bees balled 

 her. If they did, it is the first and 

 only case of the kind that I have 

 known. In a published article over 

 his own name. Mr. Bohon says that 

 he believes this method will work in 

 more than 95 per cent of the cases in 

 which it is used. Hope you can get 

 some of the experts to give it a full 

 test and report. If it is as safe as 

 some of us believe, it is time the fra- 

 ternity were fully advised about it. 



Mt. Vernon, Ga. 



I have found eggs in abundance and 

 also hatching larva? the fourth day 

 after introducing by this method, 

 showing that no time was lost after 

 the hive was closed up. The bees at 

 once licked the honey oft" the queen 

 and she was as much at home as if 

 she had always been a part of that 

 colon}'. It is my practice to let the 

 hive alone until the fourth dav. But 

 Mr. Bohon, being of a more inquiring 

 turn of mind, reports that he has 

 found the queen at w.jrk laying eggs 

 an hour after he poured her down be- 

 tween the combs. 



Confessedly it is more difficult to 

 introduce a virgin that is several 

 days old than any other queen. Last 

 summer I visited at Roanoke. Va. In 

 August I raised some Italian queens 

 in the yard of Mr. P. I). Hartman 

 about five miles southwest of that 



My Neighbor's Garden 



By C. D. Stuart 



WHEN the honeymoon is over, 

 then the humdrum life begins. 

 After two blissful months 1 

 went back to my neglected bees, and 

 the Magic Girl started on a con- 

 ventional calling expedition. Already 

 she had made friends of my neigh- 

 bors and came and went among them 

 like the bees, except that she gath- 

 ered seeds, slips and whole plants 

 where the bees took only nectar. Our 

 own strip of yard was beginning to 

 look like Joseph's "coat of many col- 

 ors." One neighbor called it a "Vau- 

 deville Garden." 



The idea amused me greatly. 

 Where had that sombre mite heard 

 of ragtime and footlights? Her 

 dresses were black, her eyes large, 

 solemn and black, and she lived be- 

 hind a dense funereal hedge of cy- 

 press in which black shadows lurked 



even on the sunniest days. Once I 

 had thought to penetrate the re- 

 cesses of that mysterious garden of 

 hers, but a great spotted dog barred 

 my way. I wished the Magic Girl 

 would not return that call ; but she 

 only laughed knowingly and invited 

 me to go along and ward off the 

 spooks. 



Inside the hedge a sun-flecked path 

 beckoned through a lane of bloom to 

 a secluded verandah ; but we chose a 

 by-path that careened gaily round a 

 corner, through another cypress 

 hedge straight into the oddest bit of 

 landscape gardening — so colorful, its 

 flowers totally unrelated, yet so har- 

 monious in ensemble ! Here was 

 vaudeville, drama and grand opera 

 all rolled into one. It was like a 

 huge airdome stage set for the per- 

 formance. Even the strip of lawn 

 just beyond waited for the spectators 

 to stretch themselves, and every- 

 where the hum of bees like the ex- 

 pectant buzz of an audience before 

 the curtain rises. 



The Devoted Heliotrope 

 ( Photograph by A. B. Coldwelll 



"Stay right where you are !" a voice 

 called, and our mite of a neighbor 

 emerged from the wings, her snowy 

 hair, divested of its widow's cap, 

 gleaming 'gainst the background of 

 dark-green cypress. "I want you to 

 know my actor friends." 



"That's why we came by the stage 

 entrance," replied the Magic Girl, ad- 

 vancing to meet our hostess, while I, 

 marooned on a cunningly devised 

 rustic seat at rear center of the 

 stage, with groups of hollyhocks and 

 sunflowers to the right and to the 

 left of me, felt like the interlocutor 

 in a minstrel show. Women are all 

 like that. They get together and talk 

 and leave a fellow sidetracked in 

 some conspicuous position. Luckily 

 I had the bees for company. They 

 had followed us and were busy strip- 

 ping off and carrying away on their 

 legs in large quantities the make-up 

 of those selfsame "actor friends," the 

 cheerful coreopsis, a few faithful 

 wallflowers and stocks still blooming, 

 and rows of presumptuous snapdrag- 

 ons. Judging from the noisiness of 



