1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



413 



Sweet clover is mentioned in the 

 Iowa s%ed law because it sometimes 

 occurs as an adulteration. I have 

 asked that this be eliminated from 

 the law. 



The dandelion is classed as a weed. 

 So it is everywhere in Iowa. I don't 

 know what bees would do without it 

 in May and June, and yet thousands 

 of Iowa citizens would like to see it 

 banished. It depends altogether on 

 the special interest of the individual. 

 In our work on honey-plants these 

 weeds will be included as valuable 

 honey-plants. 



L. H. PA M MEL. 



Yellow Jackets in a Beehive 



By Frank C. Pellett 



WHILE the writer was visiting 

 at the apiary of D. W. Spang- 

 ler, at Longmont, Colo., his 

 attention was attracted to a hive 

 where the flight at the entrance 

 seemed unusupl. There was a strong 

 flight of insects coming and going, 

 but upon examination it proved that 

 the occupants of the hive were not 

 bees, but yellow jackets. On the out- 

 side they had built a paper cover, 

 similar to that with which they pro- 

 tect their hanging combs 'when built 

 in the open. This extended about 

 half way across the front of the hive, 

 as will be seen in the photo. 



There was some difficulty in mak- 

 ing an examination of the interior. 

 There was some question as to 

 whether the yellow jackets could be 

 subdued by smoke, and the nature of 

 the paper nest made it difficult to re- 

 move the frames. With the lighted 

 smoker, the writer approached the 

 hive and undertook to subdue the in- 

 sects as though they were bees. A 

 liberal amount of smoke was blown 

 into the entrance, then the cover was 

 removed and more smoke blown 

 across the frames. The results were 

 entirely satisfactory, for the wasps 

 made no attempt to sting, except in 

 one instance after the nest had been 



torn apart. A. J. McCarty and Mr. 

 Spangler, both experienced beekeep- 

 ers, stood by and witnessed the en- 

 tire operation. It is hardly necessary 

 to state that there had been serious 

 doubt in the minds of the entire par- 

 ty as to whether these insects could 

 be controlled by smoke. The usual 

 explanation of the success of smoke 

 in subduing bees, is due to the fact 

 that they are induced to fill their 

 honey sacs. Bees are generally quiet 

 when their honey sacs are full. With 

 wasps there was no honey to be had 

 and a different explanation must be 

 sought for. 



On removing the frames it was 

 found that a portion of the wax 

 combs built by the bees had been re- 

 moved and paper combs built instead. 

 The honeybee's comb is made of wax 

 and built vertically, while the combs 

 built by the wasps are made of paper 



and built horizontally. The differ- 

 ences are well shown by the illustra- 

 tions. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the 

 wasps had built their combs inside 

 the hive, where there was ample pro- 

 tection, they had surrounded them 

 with the usual paper shell. This outer 

 shell was largely broken up in re- 

 moving the nest. 



The cells of the wasps all open 

 downward and the young are at- 

 tached to the inside by means of a 

 sort of appendage which keeps the.ii 

 from falling out. The nest was a 

 populous one and hundreds of wasps 

 were flying about while the nest was 

 being examined and the photos se- 

 cured. The combs extended across 

 six of the frames and were four in 

 number. 



While wasps may occasionally be 

 seen seeking nectar from flowers, 

 their food, for the most part, is com- 

 posed of animal tissue. Some spe- 

 cies feed to a large extent upon 

 house flies, others upon caterpillars. 



A horizontal comb extends across six frames within the hive 



Granulated Honey 



By A. F. Bonney 



A NUMBER of years ago I was 

 stopping in the town of El Rio, 

 Calif., and visited with a man 

 near there who used to allow bee- 

 keepers to set their colonies of bees 

 around his farm (ranch), where he 

 raised vast quantities of lima beans. 

 He got from the beekeepers one 

 pound of honey per colony as pay for 

 the privilege, and at the time I saw 

 him had stored away some fifty 

 cans of honey, which had accumu- 

 lated, he not thinking of marketing 

 it. This honey was granulated solid. 

 He would cut out three sides of the 

 top of a can loose, use from it until 

 it was empty, then begin on another, 

 and as he worked a force of five to 

 twenty men during the year, there 

 was a great amount of the sweet 

 consumed." No one objected that it 

 was granulated. 



