412 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



believe we have flowers and ice at 

 the same time. 



"And folks in California won't be- 

 lieve it," I rejoined, as I looked at the 

 photograph which she brought out to 

 me, then t the hydrant in the yard. 

 The icicle (first in twenty years) 

 leading to the ground, was new re- 

 placed by a board reaching from the 

 faucet and resting in a bed of water- 

 cress. Nailed obliquely on the board 

 were short slats to which the bees 

 cling by their toes while drinking the 

 water that constantly trickles in a 

 thread-like stream from the pipe. 



"Aren't you afraid they'll sting?" 



Dear me, no;" she laughed. I've 

 always lived among bees. Grand- 

 mother had them when I was a child. 

 They packed the attic full of honey, 

 and whenever she wanted any for the 

 table or for a neighbor, she simply 

 went upstairs and cut out a piece." 



"I suppose she sulphured the bees 

 in the good old-fashioned way," I 

 commented. 



"No, she didn't need to. They never 

 bothered her, and she didn't wear 

 your new-fangled contraptions for 

 protection, either. Grandfather used 

 to say the bees laid in extra stores 

 just for her, so, of course, they didn't 

 mind when she took it." 



"Did you ever keep bees yourself?" 

 I queried, as she calmly adjusted the 

 drip to accommodate a thirsty ar- 

 rival. 



"None except yours," she replied. 

 "They know where to come when the 

 creek dries up. They don't drink 

 much, but they need it reg'lar." 



As I examined her numerous de- 

 vices for the accommodation of my 

 bees, I decided that they needed 

 water not only "reg'lar," but served 

 in a variety of styles. On a bath 

 towel hung out to dry, many lues 

 were gathered ; others were holding 

 a kind of caucus on a flower-box 

 where the water had seeped through 

 the cracks; still others preferred the 

 trough used by my neighbor's cow, 

 much to the annoyance of that pa- 

 tient animal. But my eyes kept com- 

 ing back to the hydrant. There dele- 

 gates from the different hives gath- 

 ered in democratic convention. Not 

 that I felt any desire to eavesdrop. 

 Bees with a sense of justice would 

 scarcely spare the man who had made 

 no provision for the quenching of 

 their thirst, thus exposing them dur- 

 ing a long dry season to tlie exigen- 

 cies of chance and of public charity. 



Somewhere in the distance a 

 whistle blew. 



"One o'clock!" I exclaimed. I rose 

 guiltily, and acquainted my neighboi 

 will] my real errand. 



"A dozen eggs!" she repeated, 

 aghast. "I've only tw> in the house, 

 but I'll divide with you." 



Duly grateful, I hurried homeward, 



in; hand firmly grasping the isola ed 



egg in tin deepest corner of my 



pocket, and my mind busily framing 



a plausible explanation of tin- delay — 



my first domestic remissness. As I 



d the door. I hesitated, i i >n 



i stricken. "Hang it all. why 



a hen cross the road, anyhow?" 



1 muttered, impatient l\ 



Thus fortified by placing the blame 



where it properly belonged, I 

 marched boldly in. The table was as 

 usual — covers for only two. 



"Our guests telephoned they were 

 detained — a puncture or something," 

 explained the Magic Girl, serenely. 



So we didn't need eggs, after all. 



"Hooray!" I shouted, and dropped 

 into the nearest chair, quite oblivious 

 of the muffled crash that followed. 



Los Gatos, Calif. 



Results of Experiments With Varia- 

 tion of Demaree Plan for Swarm 

 Control During Season of 1918 



By W. J. Sheppard 



THE variation of the Demaree 

 plan that gave good results in 

 the Kootenays in 1917 has been 

 tried this season as well, and has 

 again proved satisfactory, both from 

 the standpoint of swarm prevention 

 and the increased amount of honey 

 obtained. The ordinary Demaree plan 

 for swarm control, which is an excel- 

 lent one and has many adherents, is 

 as follows: Just before the colony is 

 ready to swarm put all the brood, ex- 

 cepting one or two frames (two. I 

 think, are best), in a second story, 

 over a queen excluder, leaving the 

 queen below with the two frames of 

 brood, the vacancies at the sides be- 

 ing filled with empty combs, or, fail- 

 ing which, full sheets of foundation. 

 Cut out all queen cells at the same 

 time, if there are any, and search for 

 and destroy any queen cells, on the 

 eighth or ninth day afterwards, that 

 may be found in the second story. 

 The brood frames in the second story, 

 as soon as the brood hatches out, 

 will be used by the bees for storing 

 honey. Add other supers above the 

 second story as needed. 



The following are the details of the 

 variation of the Demaree plan re- 

 ferred to, by which a new queen can 

 be assured to each hive every year: 

 When the bees cover all the frames 

 in the brood chamber, towards the 

 end of May, find the queen and place 

 her with two or three frames of un- 



sealed brood in the center of a sec- 

 ond story, over a queen excluder, 

 adding empty combs, or frames con- 

 taining full sheets of foundation, at 

 the side:,. Put in frames containing 

 combs or full sheets of foundation at 

 the sides of the brood combs left be- 

 low. The bees will usually build 

 queen-cells below the excluder, all 

 but one of which should be destroyed 

 on the eighth or ninth day after- 

 wards. After the young queen has 

 hatched below, and is mated and lay- 

 ing, the old queen can be removed. 

 If she is provided with two or three 

 frames of brood and put into a fresh 

 hive on a new stand this will make a 

 good nucleus. The old queen, how- 

 ever, can be left until the combs be- 

 low arc partly filled with brood. By 

 this method, if carefully followed, it 

 is scarcely possible for the bees to 

 swarm, the old queen being above the 

 excluder, with ample room for egg- 

 laying. A powerful colony can by this 

 means be built up in readiness for 

 the honey flow in July, and a young 

 queen assured to each hive so 

 treated every year. After the old 

 queen has been removed from the 

 second story, queen-cells may possi- 

 bly be built there. If so, these should 

 be destroyed on the eighth or ninth 

 day afterwards. A colony headed by 

 a queen of the current year will not 

 swarm, as a general rule. 



As a further result of the experi- 

 ments carried out this season, it was 

 found that when the new queen ex- 

 cluder was used the bees, as a rule, 

 would build queen-cells, except when 

 a shallow super was put above the 

 first story, and a second wire ex- 

 cluder over that, making it necessary 

 to place the queen with the frames 

 of brood in a third story of deep 

 frames. But if an ordinary zinc ex- 

 cluder was used instead of a wire 

 one, there was no difficulty in getting 

 the bees 'o build queen-cells. It fol- 

 lows, therefore, that an all-wire 

 queen-excluder is the best to use 

 when the ordinary Demaree method 

 is practiced, that is when leaving the 

 queen below and queen-cells not re- 

 quired, but when she is put up into 

 the second story, in the variation 

 plan, a zinc excluder will give the de- 

 sired results. Putting a shallow 

 super between breaks up the colony 

 too much, and is, therefore, not sat- 

 isfactory. The freer communication 

 through the wire excluder doubtless 

 accounts for the bees not building 

 queen-cells. 



Neslon, B. C. 



Wholesale Transferring 



By O. H. Gibbs 



OX June 17, 1916. I purchased 56 

 colonies of bees in a miscel- 

 laneous assortment of boxes. 

 Among them were several old styles 

 of "patent" hives, and a few Lang- 

 si roth frames, but in none were the 

 combs built true. I got them cheap 

 i prii e [>aid i, but had to 

 move them about in rods at once. 

 Somi ol them had swarmed and gone 

 away, the people having hived but 

 three or four in old boxes full of 

 combs. Several boxes were split from 

 t..p to bottom, showing heavy combs 



