1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



385 



never a dependable quality with us ; 

 this fall it will be better than usual, 

 owing, 1 am sure, to the aforesaid 

 unusual rain. 



W. A. PRYALL, Oakland, Calif. 

 September 20, 1918. 



The California Short Courses 



The University of California, in co- 

 operation with the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, will hold a 

 series of four short courses in api- 

 culture, from November 25 to De- 

 cember 21. The object of this series 

 is not to induce a lot of new people 

 to take up beekeeping, although, of 

 course, beginners will not be dis- 

 couraged. It is rather designed to 

 bring the commercial honey produc- 

 ers of the State together for consid- 

 eration of the scientific aspects of 

 the business of honey production. 

 The program is extensive and in- 

 cludes much concerning the funda- 

 mentals of bee behavior in addition 

 to the usual practical applications. 

 Several beekeepers have been invited 

 to assist the University and Depart- 

 ment officials in the conduct of the 

 courses. 



The dates and places are : 



San Diego, November 25 to Novem- 

 ber 30, 1918. 



Davis, December 2 to December 7. 



Visalia, December 9 to December 

 14. 



Riverside, December 16 to Decem- 

 ber 21. 



Those interested will do well to 

 write to Prof. G. A. Coleman, Berke- 

 ley, Calif., for a complete program. 



A Ventilated Honey House 



George Schmidt, of Crystal City, 

 Texas, has a very ingenious plan of 

 ventilating his honey house and at 

 the same time attracting the bees 

 away from the door in extracting 

 time. He has a belt of wire screen 

 about three feet wide entirely 

 around the building as shown in the 

 picture. This makes the building 



cool in hot weather and at the same 

 time serves to prevent the bees both- 

 ering about the door while honey is 

 being extracted. Beekeepers who 

 have occasion to extract during a 

 dearth in the honeyflow have no 

 need to be told that the bees become 

 very annoying at such times in their 

 efforts to get into the building. 'With 

 this large amount of screened sur- 

 face those attracted to the building 

 and scattered over a wide surface 

 do not congregate in such num- 

 bers about the door. The average 

 honey house is a very hot place to 

 work in midsummer, and this plan, 

 once tried, is likely to prove popular. 



A Wizard's Secret 



A few years ago, on a June after- 

 noon, I was going to Vouvry. a 

 neighboring village: 



On the way, 1 heard my name 

 called by an old woman, who was 

 popularly nicknamed "hyena," and 

 looked like one. 



"Ho! Louis; I have a swarm out 

 and it has settled in the brush. I 

 can't reach it. Come and see." 



As any lover of bees might do, 1 

 followed her. The swarm was set- 

 tled in small lumps on a number of 

 leaves of nettles and thorny bushes. 

 What to do? A hive, shaped like a 

 coffin, had been brought, and I began 

 to cut the leaves around it with a 

 pair of shears. But all at once, I no- 

 ticed the queen, gravely walking 

 about on top of a small group of 

 bees : I cut down the stem, and at 

 once introduced those few bees into 

 the hive. This was quickly done. But 

 the thought came to me to play a 

 joke on the old woman. 



"I cannot get those bees in," said I. 

 "The only thing that will bring them 

 is a 'secret.' Turning my back upon 

 her, I took down my hat and made in 

 it a number of cabalistic signs, while 

 pronouncing a few words in unintel- 

 ligible language. 



She was watching me with a great 

 deal of concern, out of the corner of 



one eye. I placed my hat back on my 

 head and said: "You did not look?" 

 "Na," said she. "Well, let the secret 

 work out." 



After 20 minutes we came back to 

 the swarm, carefully, silently. Oh, 

 what a miracle ! The bees were roar- 

 ing at the entrance, fanning it with 

 their wings. And the fearless unbe- 

 lieving old woman exclaimed in won- 

 der : "If you ain't a wizard, there 

 ain't none !" L. REY. 



(Bulletin D'Apiculture), Switzerland. 



Bees at the Front 



We are very much interested in 

 your journal and after I have studied 

 it it is sent to my son in France, who 

 is an enthusiast where bees are con- 

 cerned. He secured a swarm which 

 was found attached to the wire en-, 

 tanglements, and it has come through 

 some trying times. When discov- 

 ered, he had nothing to hive them in, 

 but went to a Y. M. C. A. hut, where 

 he got a large empty- case and a sack. 

 While away he found some soldiers 

 had been throwing stones at the 

 swarm, causing it to be divided into 

 three parts. However, he managed 

 to gather them together onto the 

 sack, thence into the packing case. 

 This case being too large, he had 

 afterwards to get a smaller one, and 

 fix up some frames with what ma- 

 terial he could find around, and they 

 have lived through the winter. In 

 the early spring the Chinamen had 

 been at it and upset the hive and 

 had broken the combs for the honey. 

 Fortunately he was able to visit them 

 soon after and found the queen on 

 the ground alive, placed her in the 

 case again along with what bees he 

 could secure and fixed up the combs 

 as best he could. He writes me that 

 after all the mishaps they have done 

 remarkably well, though they never 

 swarmed. J. FYFE, 



Stirlingshire, Scotland. 



Fermenting Honey 



I had some 30 colonies of bees on 

 an island this summer for the man- 

 grove bloom and one hive stored one 

 super of honey and when I went over 

 them to give them room the honey 

 smelled strong and was fermenting 

 in the combs, so I put the cover back 

 on the hive and left it just as it was 

 for eight or nine weeks, waiting for 

 the bees to seal it up, but they have 

 not done so yet. It is still foaming 

 almost as much as it was two months 

 ago, but it has lost its smell. I can't 

 account for it. I had 30 hives in the 

 same yard and none of the rest 

 showed any signs of it. The bees 

 seem to be strong and come in 

 loaded the same as the rest of the 

 hives. I have extracted from the rest 

 of the yard, but have left that hive 

 to see how it will come out. I would 

 like to know what caused it. 



H. LESTER, 

 Palmetto, Fla. 



NOTES FROM INDIANA 



A ventilated honey house 



Uniting Queenless Bees 



When bees are hopelessly queen- 

 less, as is the case when shipped in 

 packages without queen, they are 

 easily united with other bees, but for 



