54 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



The poor fellow continued : 



"I didn't fasten strongly enough 

 those divisible hives, and now the 

 Americans are streaming out." 



This was no time to scold, so I 

 asked, quickly: 



"Where is the Dadant smoker." 



"Beg pardon, sir," he went on. "1 

 didn't think of it ; I forgot to take it. 

 This is why I am not able to handle 

 the bees." 



"Then hurry; bring some water in 

 your felt hat. Hurry !" 



"Excuse me, sir; but how will we 

 sprinkle it over the bees? They will 

 drown." 



"You are going to sprinkle them 

 with your mouth, like the washer- 

 woman does before she starts iron- 

 ing the linen." 



My pupil's face brightened, as far 

 as his swollen skin permitted, and he 

 ran to the nearest water hose on the 

 sidewalk. 



******* 



I looked at the hives and saw the 

 Americans streaming out. My flash- 

 light seemed to anger them. At that 

 time I used to perfume my clothes 

 with violet in order to pacify the 

 bees. Surely this saved me from 

 having trouble that night, because 

 the Americans were furiously pa- 

 trolling the air. 



From afar I heard my pupil's voice. 

 Somebody wanted to take him away, 

 while he was protesting loudly: 

 "I can't come, sir; I am busy now." 

 The other voice ordered, angrily: 

 "You will come to the police sta- 

 tion, or I will use force. You have 

 disregarded my order. The whole 

 neighborhood is complaining against 

 you. Come to the police station." 



"But I am not in the police's ser- 

 vice," went on my pupil's voice. "I 

 am in that gentleman's service." 



"Then I am going to arrest this 

 man, too." 



I had lowered my hat over my eyes 

 on account of the warrior-like be- 

 havior of my bees. I turned my flash- 

 light on the policeman and told him 

 briefly: 



"Don't advance! Stop! Stay where 

 you are !" 



The policeman advanced toward 

 me, saying, with harshness : 



"How dare you give me orders? I 

 am going to arrest both of you for 

 the trouble you are causing witli 

 these bees; you and this fellow here." 

 "Well, do as you like,' said I, "but 

 don't advance. I warn you." 



"Without hesitating, the police- 

 man advanced, put his hand on my 

 pupil's arm and said, authoritatively: 

 "You are under arrest. Come with 

 me to the police station." 



Thus saying, he grasped my pupil's 

 arm and was going to pull him to- 

 wards the police station. He had not 

 even finished his sentence when he 

 I yell and started to slap his 

 own respectable face with both 

 hands. Then, without even taking 

 leave of us, he began the most won- 

 derful race I ever witnessed. He ran 

 in the direction he came from. My 

 pupil stood there a few moments, 

 laughing, then he became mournful 

 and said: 

 "Beg pardon, sir, would you mind 



taking this hat in your hands? Be- 

 cause I will be gone." 



"Where do you want to go just 

 now?" I asked wonderingly. 



"I don't want to go ; I must go, sir," 

 he went on, sadly. 



"Go? Where? Where must you 

 go?" 



II. simply put his hat in my hands 

 and starting in the direction the po- 

 liceman had gone, he said : 



"I must go after the policeman, 

 sir. I am under arrest; I must run 

 after the policeman." 



"Stay here," I laughed; "you have 

 plenty of time to be arrested." 



"No, sir," he went on, with a very 

 serious air. "I am a stranger in this 

 city, and if that man goes out of 

 sight I won't be able to find his old 

 police station, and will get lost. I 

 must hurry, sir." 



I couldn't remain without help 

 there, so I used my whole strength 

 to retain him, till I was sure that the 

 policeman was out of sight. Finally 

 he acceded to my wish; but said, 

 sighing: 



"I would have been proud to catch 

 that man, to show him what a good 

 racer I am ; because it seems to me 

 that he must be a professional racer." 



With some trouble we removed the 

 cart from that spot. People still 

 came to look at our business and 

 then ran away like Boches. 



The pupil and prospective teacher, 

 after seeing how many people came, 

 only to be chased away by our bees, 

 said : 



"No, I don't believe that police- 

 man was a professional. I see all 

 those who come near us become first- 

 class racers." Then rubbing his swol- 

 len face, he added: 



"I wonder who wouldn't be a first- 

 class racer, with these American she- 

 devils behind?" 



A Novel Queen Mating Nucleus 



WHEN it comes to mating 

 queens with a minimum of 

 equipment as well as the 

 smallest possible number of bees in a 

 nucleus, C. B. Bankston, of Buffalo, 

 Texas, probably holds the record. 

 When the baby nucleus was brought 



out, it seemed that the limit had 

 been reached, but Rauchfuss brought 

 out his mating box containing three 

 comb-honey sections. The great dif- 

 ficulty with these small mating nuclei 

 lies in the difficulty of maintaining 

 them and the frequency with which 

 the bees swarm out when the queen 

 goes on her mating flight. 



Bankston has discounted the small- 

 est nucleus previously offered by 

 more than half and is now mating 

 queens successfully with a small box 

 enclosing a single comb-honey sec- 

 tion. The photo will give a good idea 

 of this little nucleus. It is composed 

 of a small wood frame which comes 

 together over the section like an old- 

 fashioned daguerreotype photograph. 

 Two sides are covered with paste- 

 board and the flight opening is made 

 by pushing a lead pencil through the 

 pasteboard. The small opening is 

 just right for one bee to get through 

 at a time. 



In stocking these small nuclei he 

 places a ripe queen-cell on the comb 

 and shakes in about SO bees, never 

 more than 100. The thing is then 

 closed and carried to some distance. 

 With perhaps a hundred of these 

 small nuclei he drives far enough 

 from the apiary to prevent the bees 

 returning to their hives. The nuclei 

 are hung on wire fences, in trees or 

 other convenient situations. No ef- 

 fort is made to maintain them per- 

 manently. As soon as the young 

 queens are mated and laying they 

 are used to fill orders and go imme- 

 diately into the shipping cages. 



Mr. Bankston maintains that there 

 is less trouble from swarming out 

 than with the baby nuclei or other 

 small mating hives which are de- 

 signed to be maintained during the 

 season. He says that the number of 

 bees is too small to establish a 

 swarming impulse, and hence the loss 

 is very rmall. 



Since there is no effort to maintain 

 these small colonies and only a few 

 bees are used in each, a large num- 

 ber of queens can be mated without 

 seriously reducing the breeding colo- 

 nies or honey-producing colonies in 

 the apiary. The great cost in bees 

 of maintaining mating hives is the~ 

 chief drawback to commercial queen- 





