408 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



the period of their greatest need. 

 More rarely, as in the acacias, the 

 leaves continue to secrete it through 

 the season, so that those that arc- 

 mature add to the protection of the 

 younger leaves and the flowers and 

 the young fruit. 



That neither of these functions is 

 served in exceptional cases and thit 

 some flowers rely on the wind for ef- 

 fective pollination, or have lapsed 

 into self-fertilization ; or that really 

 pugnacious ants do not commonly 

 frequent the extranuptial glands of 



most plants in temperate regions, 

 and that some plants get along very 

 well without such help, mark ques- 

 tions that will continue to stimulate 

 observation and experiment. But 

 nothing now known of the physiol- 

 ogy of plants offers an alternative 

 explanation for that which connects 

 nectar with either pollination or de- 

 fense ; and until such an explanation 

 can be found, nectar will continue to 

 be regarded as connected indirectly 

 with these services through insect or 

 bird relations. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



=3 Established by Samuel Wagner In 1861 C= 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. Consolidated with The 

 National Bee Journal in 1874. 



Published monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Hamilton. Illinois. 



Subscription Rates — In the United States and THE STAFF 



Mexico, $1 per yeir; three years, $2.50; five r p r> 



years, *< Canadian postage 16 cents, and "- r - U * D ' |NT Editor 



other foreign countries 85 cents extra, per Frank C. Pellett Associate Editor 



• T'V' ■ •• j . •••!-.. C. C. Miller Questions Department 



All subscriptions are stopped at expiration. Date 



of expiration is printed on wrapper label. Maurice G Dadant Business Manager 



(Copyright 1918, by C. P. Dadant.) 



THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT 



Brood in the Super 



Foloppe Bros., in the "Revue Fran- 

 caise d'Apiculture" report that whei- 

 ever the bee-escape has failed to re- 

 move the bees, it was because of 

 brood in the super. It appears that 

 worker-bees will not desert brood. 

 This is logical and may explain the 

 rare reports of failure of a bee- 

 escape in removing the bees from the 

 supers. The queen's presence in the 

 supers would have a similar effect. 



Aeroplanes for Beekeepers 



In the October Gleanings, the oid 

 veteran, A. I. Root, tells of taking a 

 short trip at Medina, in an aero- 

 plane. Fourteen years ago there were 

 only 3 automobiles in and around 

 Hamilton, 111. On the day of tne 

 armistice, 13 years later, 443 farmers' 

 automobiles were counted in Hamil- 

 ton. Who knows but in 12 or i4 

 years we will all (those of us still 

 living) be riding around in aero- 

 planes? 



Overworking the Queens? 



We don't wish to criticize the 

 statements of other publishers on 

 matters of theory. But there are In- 

 stances when t seems necessary. 



The Western Honey Bee, in its 

 September number, page 291, quotas 



rather approvingly a statement by 

 Mr. Thos. F. Cobb, in the Brithh 

 Bee Journal, that the "overworking" 

 (overlaying) of the queen is tne 

 cause of lack of stamina, and there- 

 fore of the diseases that afflict the 

 honeybee. 



As we see it, the queen lays more 

 or less, according to her capacity to 

 develop the eggs in her ovaries as 

 fast as the food supplied to her by 

 the bees will allow. When her ova- 

 ries are empty she is done. Sim- 

 ilarly when the male sperm is ex- 

 hausted in her spermatheca, she lays 

 only drone eggs. But we fail to see 

 in what way the speed of her laying 

 would affect her progeny. Are the 

 chicks hatching from a prolific hen, 

 properly fed, any weaker than those 

 from an inactive hen. slightly fed? 



Ml bei keepers who have watched 

 a prolific queen at the time of her 

 greatest egg-laying know that if she 

 is interrupted in her work, her eggs 

 will drop "like ripe fruit." The ques- 

 tion for us to settle is whether we 

 should encourage this prolificness by 

 giving her ample room easy to reach, 

 or reduce her laying to the capacity 

 of a small brood-chamber. 



The English beekeepers use either 

 the small skep of straw, or the di- 

 minutive British standard movable- 



frame hive. This hive is reported, in 

 the British Bee Journal of August 

 28, as containing only 2,400 square 

 inches of comb surface, as against 

 4.800 of the Dadant-Blatt hive, which 

 they acknowledge is the standard in 

 many parts of Europe. 



It seems strikingly evident that, if 

 the greater or less laying of the 

 queen has anything at all to do with 

 the diseases of the adult bee, such 

 as Isle-of-Wight or paralysis, the 

 present condition of English bee- 

 keeping would indicate that the 

 small hives, in which the queens can- 

 not fully develop their fertility, are 

 the ones that cause the trouble. 



We kept bees for some 40 years in 

 the large hives, larger than the av- 

 erage Langstroth, before we ever 

 saw foulbrood. We saw but isolated 

 cases of paralysis, and never any- 

 thing resembling Isle-ofWight dis- 

 ease. 



We are inclined to take the view 

 that there would be less Isle-of- 

 Wight disease in England if they 

 used large hives. It seems to us much 

 more plausible to expect strong colo- 

 nies to withstand the changes of 

 climate, the effects of mould or or 

 moisture, than weaker ones. We see 

 nothing unnatural or forced in the 

 active laying of a prolific queeo, 

 when she is plentifully fed by her 

 workers. Whenever her spermatheca 

 or her ovaries are getting empty, it 

 is time she should be superseded. 

 Our American beekeepers are get- 

 ting in the habit of superseding their 

 queens at the end of the second year, 

 to avoid any delay or inaction on 

 their part. We believe that is right. 

 Let our British cousins give a fair 

 and full trial to large hives, not 

 singly or isolated, but in ample api- 

 aries, as we have done. They will 

 then be able to compare results 

 knowingly with the small hive man. 



The British Frame 



The British standard frame con- 

 tains 236 square inches of comb su-- 

 face. The Langstroth approximately 

 320. Referring to this matter, R. B. 

 Manley writes in the British Bee 

 Journal of August 21 : 



"The British standard (hive) is too 

 small for a good strain of Italian or 

 hybrid bees. It is weak and incon- 

 venient, and to get room has to be 

 tiered up too high. 



"It will be found that bees winter 

 better and increase very much more 

 rapidly in spring on large combs. The 

 queen will extend on a large comb 



