1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



243 



Yellow Jasmine 



Your editorial in the May Journal 

 on ''Does the Yellow Jasmine Poison 

 Bees?" just read. In regard to same 

 shall say that this is my first season 

 near the Atlantic coast of North Car- 

 olina, where the yellow jasmine is 

 found abundantly, in fact for three 

 weeks it was our only source of nec- 

 tar during April. The last blossoms 

 are now disappearing. Mr. F. S. John- 

 son, of Mt. Airy, N. C, was with me 

 lately and we noticed many bees dy- 

 ing in front of the hives, many being 

 young bees. I had noticed bees dying 

 similarly in the Piedmont section in 

 former years, with the difference that 

 formerly it seemed to affect old bees. 

 The disease, or trouble, has about 

 disappeared. I think at one time 

 enough bees died to seriously affect 

 the strength of a colony. Jasmine 

 honey is amber colored and is yielded 

 in quantities to aid brood-rearing 

 largely. 



The spring here has been very 

 backward, with killing frosts on 

 April 26. Flowers yielded no honey 

 for a week or more after it. 



We are now in a great flow from 

 blackberry and cotton gum (a tu- 

 pelo), with gallberry about to open. 

 Our winter was very mild and few 

 bees were lost. 



Another fact on jasmine honey. I 

 was surprised to find last week that 

 one colony that had much more 

 honey than any other is headed by a 

 hybrid queen, mismated, making her 

 bees almost black. Whether they are 

 immune to the poison, as indicated by 

 Mr. Brown, or this just happened, I 

 can't say. This was a very weak 

 colonv earlier in the season. 



BRUCE ANDERSON. 



Death of Dr. McCray 



Just as we are going to press we 

 learn of the death of Dr. A. H. Mc- 

 Cray, which occurred Saturday, June 

 14. Dr. McCray, together with Dr. 

 G. F. White, will be remembered as 

 author of the Department Bulletin 

 "Diagnosis of Bee Diseases by Labor- 

 atory Methods. Dr. McCray had late- 

 ly been director of the Laboratory 

 of Hygiene of the State of Montana 

 and was conducting investigations on 

 the spotted fever. It is believed he 

 contracted this disease during his 

 studies. Particulars will follow in our 

 August number. 



A Drone-layer 



Finding a queenless colony in which 

 a drone-layer had developed, I wanted 

 a quick, easy and certain way to sep- 

 arate the bees from the criminal, so 

 proceeded as follows: 



On a piece of board which effect- 

 ually closed the entrance of the hive 

 I put a small wire bee-escape, open- 

 out; then from another hive took a 

 frame of brood and put it into a hive 

 with three other frames and a tight 

 division-board and set the hive with 

 a 3-bee entrance almost in contact 

 with the cone bee-escape. 



The bees were very active, carry- 

 ing in pollen and feed, and not being 

 able to get into the parent hive nat- 

 urally went into the other, and find- 

 ing brood, proceeded to start a 

 queen-cell. 



I assumed that the drone-layer, like a 

 laying queen, would remain on the 

 combs, at any rate until the bees 

 were about all gone, which proved to 

 be the case. The next thing was to 

 pick out half a dozen drones, put 

 them in with the bees in the new hive, 

 then a little formaldehyde finished 

 the drone-laver and drones. 



DR. BONNEY. 



of beekeeping work for the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, and G. S. 

 Demuth, his assistant. 



Beekeepers' Chautauqua is First of 

 Its Kind 



The beekeepers' chautauqua is a 

 new departure in the way of summer 

 celebrations. But that is the plan 

 of the Wisconsin Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation for August 25-30 this year. 

 The chautauqua will be held on the 

 old Lake Monona assembly grounds 

 at Madison, announces H. F. Wilson, 

 secretary of the beekeepers' organi- 

 zation. 



Although the social side of the 

 meeting will be emphasized, the plans 

 include a series of lectures by men 

 well known in the beekeeping world. 

 The speakers who have already 

 agreed to talk to the Wisconsin fra- 

 ternity are E. F. Phillips, in charge 



New York Meet at Newark, N. Y. 



The program of the State meeting 

 is not yet ready, but the following 

 people expect to be with us at New- 

 ark August 1 : 



E. R. Root, L. C. Dadant, Dr. Phil- 

 lips and Kenneth Hawkins, all very 

 prominent men in the beekeeping 

 world. 



Special attention is going to be 

 given to the problem of creating a 

 demand for honey. Come and pre- 

 pare to give this problem your best 

 support. Everyone is welcome. Bas- 

 ket lunch at noon. 



Program with directions of how to- 

 reach our place will be mailed on re- 

 quest, either by Deroy Taylor, O. L. 

 fiershiser, Kenmore, N. Y., or J. H. 

 Cunningham, 303 University Place, 

 Syracuse, N. Y. 



There will be several demonstra- 

 tions there on that day that will be 

 bound to interest you. Come and bring 

 your friends. 



J. H. CUNNINGHAM, Secy. 



Bee-Keeping $& For Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma St Wilson. Marengo. 111. 



Giving a Queen 



After the first swarm has issued, 

 can you give the parent colony a lay- 

 ing queen successfully? If so, what 

 method would you recommend to in- 

 troduce her? 



Washington. 



Answer. — When the first swarm is- 

 sues the old queen goes with it, leav- 

 ing a number of queen-cells. If you 

 wait a week or more (but not wait- 

 ing till the first virgin emerges from 

 her cell), and then kill all the queen- 

 cells, there will be left nothing from 

 which a queen can be reared, and 

 that will have a tendency to make 

 the bees ready to accept a queen. But 

 there are other things to be consid- 

 ered. When the swarm issued, a 

 large part of them were old bees, 

 leaving mostly young bees in the old 

 hive. If you wait a week before in- 

 troducing, the bees will be a week 

 older, and hence a larger proportion 

 of older bees, and it is the older bees 

 that raise the mischief when a new 

 queen is introduced. Besides that, 

 waiting a week before introducing 

 the queen will be the loss of a week 

 in the rearing of brood, which may 

 be a matter of considerable import- 

 ance. 



So, taking all into consideration, it 

 is better to proceed as soon as con- 

 venient after the prime swarm has is- 

 sued to introduce the new queen. De- 

 stroy all queen-cells, whether sealed 

 or unsealed, even those containing 

 only eggs. If you have bought a new 

 queen for introduction, directions as 

 to how to proceed will no doubt ac- 

 company her, which directions you 

 will do well to follow. 



It may be, however, that you have 

 reared a queen in a nucleus, and 

 want to use her for introduction. Use 

 one of the introducing-cages that are 

 in common use. Use a long, slender 

 nail to pin the cage on the comb, put- 

 ting it in the central part of the 

 hive, surrounded by brood, where 

 there is no danger that the queen 

 will be deserted by the bees and 

 chilled. 



The cage is provisioned with queen 

 candy, and the construction of the 

 cage is such that it will take a day — 

 perhaps two or three days — for the 

 bees to eat away the cardboard that 

 covers the candy, then eat the candy 

 and release the queen. 



If you haven't a regular introduc- 

 ing cage, you can make a cage that 

 will answer. What are called "one- 

 cent cages," because the material 

 costs only a cent, are thus described 

 in Dr. Miller's book, "Fifty Years 

 Among the Bees": 



"I take a pine block, SxlxJ^ in., and 

 wrap around it a piece of wire-cloth 

 4 inches square. The wire-cloth is 

 allowed to project at one end of the 

 block a half inch. The four sides of 

 this projecting end are bent down 

 upon the end of the stick and ham- 

 mered down tight into place. A piece 

 of fine wire about 10 inches long is 

 wrapped around the wire-cloth, about 

 an inch from the open end, which 

 will be about the middle of the stick, 

 and the ends of the wire are twisted 

 together. I then pull out the block, 

 trim off the corners of the end a lit- 

 tle, so that it will easily enter the 

 cage, slide the stick in and out of the 

 cage a number of times, so that it 



