1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



417 



ther kept a few colonies of bees and 

 handled them for comb honey. Al- 

 though his hives and tools were of 

 the crudest sort, and the price us- 

 ually obtained for comb honey at 

 that time was only 10 cents per sec- 

 tion, he made a small profit from 

 them. My portion of the work was 

 to put the sections together and 

 fasten in the foundation with a Par- 

 ker Foundation Fastener. Since tak- 

 ing up the study of beekeeping, I find 

 a great deal of difference in what 

 used to be considered necessary for 

 the keeping of bees, and what I now 

 know to be the real necessity, that 's, 

 a thorough knowledge of bee be- 

 havior. Father's knowledge of bee- 

 behavior was limited. During the 

 winter we made up the sections. In 

 the spring we put them in the hives, 

 and in the fall, if any of them were 

 filled, we removed them. The ques- 

 tions of increase, swarm prevention, 

 requeening, improving our stock, 

 etc., never concerned us in the least. 



I do not believe it will take a great 

 deal of capital to make a start in the 

 bee business, providing one begins 

 with a few colonies and gradually 

 makes his increase. By making a 

 small start, I believe that a man can 

 get greater knowledge of bee be- 

 havior, and, consequently, know 

 what to expect from his bees at all 

 seasons of the year better than He 

 could if he started in with a large 

 number of colonies, without having 

 experience or knowledge to handle 

 them. Here at the college we get 

 practical experience in beekeeping. 

 They have a good many colonies, and 

 our class work consists of handling 

 and caring for these colonies. Ever 

 since last May we have been engaged 

 in actual handling of the bees, trying 

 out different methods, so as to learn 

 how the bees would act under differ- 

 ent conditions, and I think that we 

 have made a very good beginning 

 along the road of better beekeeping. 



After spending so much time in 

 France, where I had an opportunity 

 of watching the people get good re- 

 sults from small pieces of ground, I 

 feel that now I could take a much 

 smaller place and make more money 

 from it than I could before I went 

 over there. 



I am planning on combining poul- 

 try raising with my bees, and I '.)e 

 lieve that, even though I may be 

 classed as a disabled soldier, the 

 chances for making good in this 

 world have not been withheld from 

 me. 



Criticisms 



By C. E. Fowler 



ON page 267 F. R. Smythe says: 

 "In my opinion the primary 

 cause of swarming is a pre- 

 ponderance of young bees in the 

 brood-chamber." And on page 271 

 G. C. Greiner says: "It is the old 

 stock which is bent on swarming; 

 young worker bees the same as 

 young queens are less inclined that 

 way." Who is right? 



Beekeepers seem to have so many 

 different ideas as to what causes and 

 how to prevent swarming that a new 



beginner is fairly dazed and works 

 overtime trying to follow them all. 



I would like to suggest that they 

 are both wrong and will try to prove 

 it by saying that in my system of 

 swarm prevention, which worked 100 

 per cent this year, I paid no atten- 

 tion to old bees or young bees to 

 keep them either in or out of the 

 brood-chamber. I might also men- 

 tion that the large hive advocates do 

 not make any provision for keeping 

 either young or old bees out of the 

 brood-nests. At least one of them 

 must be wrong. 



Then I think you are overworking 

 Dr. C. C. Miller, making him answer 

 so many "Tom-fool" questions asked 

 by new beginners who are too poor 

 to buy a bee-book and are just get- 

 ting the fever and want to know .t 

 all at once. Look at "Miscellaneous 

 Questions,?' page 278. 1st, "How 

 much profit can be made out of one 

 colony of bees?" 2nd, "How many 

 colonies can one man tend?" Iowa 

 has the fever badly and wants to 

 make money on paper, as quickly as 

 possible. 



On page 277 the Doctor has agam 

 made the mistake of saying carbc i 

 disulphide will kill eggs of the moth. 



(I have been asked where I got the 

 authority for saying that carbon di- 

 sulfide would kill the eggs of the 

 bee-moth. I don't know. I think 

 that wherever I first read of this 

 drug as a good thing to destroy the 

 larva? of the bee-moth, it was stated 

 that it had the advantage over the 

 fumes of sulfur that it would kill 

 both eggs and larva?. I had a lot of 

 combs in which the bee-moth had 

 begun its work. I treated them with 

 carbon disulfide, and found no oc- 

 casion for a second treatment. If I 

 had used sulfur I should have ex- 



pected a second crop of larva; from 

 eggs not destroyed. Still there is a 

 possibility that in that particular 

 case all eggs had hatched before 

 treatment. 



Turning to the books, I don't get 

 much light. Some of them are si- 

 lent as to the eggs. One of them 

 speaks of using the fumes of burning 

 sulfur "to kill the eggs or worms of 

 the moth." (I'm pretty sure that's a 

 mistake about the eggs.) Another 

 says that when the larvae are killed 

 by sulpher, "eggs also are, at the same 

 time, destroyed." Another says the 

 eggs are usually not destroyed dv 

 fumigation. So there you are. 



Who can offer satisfactory proof 

 either way? If one failed to kill 

 eggs with carbon disulfide, is it cer- 

 tain the dose was heavy enough? If 

 one fumigated and had no eggs 

 hatch after, is it certain any eggs 

 were present? Help! — C. C. Miller.) 



I would like to tell "Alabama" (last 

 answer, page 378) a good way to 

 transfer 10-frame standard to Jumbo. 

 First, nail a seven-eighths piece of 

 wood on the bottom of the standard 

 frame, making the frames the same 

 depth as the Jumbo, and put them 

 right in the Jumbo hive, and the job 

 is done. Then by the aid of full 

 sheets of foundation and a good 

 honey flow get the queen on the 

 Jumbo frames and the standard 

 above an excluder, and when filled 

 with honey extract and melt the old 

 combs, which would never be satis- 

 factory left in after cutting and 

 transferring the old way. 



But why change to the Jumbo? On 

 page 274 Arthur C. Miller says. of the 

 long-idea hive: "They are great, un- 

 wieldy things," which applies equally 

 to the Jumbo. 



The easiest of all ways to handle 

 bees is to use the standard S 11-16 

 extracted honey super for brood-nest 

 and all, making everything standard 

 and interchangeable. 



The two magic words of beekeep- 

 ing are "standard" and "interchange- 

 able." 



Hammonton, N. J. 



(We trust our correspondent will 

 forgive us if we say that we find no 

 contradiction in the statements 'if 

 Messrs. F. R. Smythe and G. C. 

 Greiner. The "primary cause of 

 swarming is a preponderance of 

 bees," and of course it must be young 

 bees, since a colony increases only 

 by hatching of additional bees. But 

 "it is the old bees which are bent on 

 swarming," owing to that very pre- 

 ponderance which causes the hive to 

 become overstocked. So these two 

 writers agree and are both right. 



But there is no need to make pro- 

 visions to keep either young or old 

 bees out of the brood-chamber, if 

 there is an adequate amount of room. 



As to overworking our Dr. Miller, 

 we believe our correspondent is 

 right. Too many questions are asked 

 which one would find answered in 

 the books. But if we were to leave 

 out all the questions that may be 

 found answered in the books, the de- 

 partment of Dr. Miller's Answers 

 would be very small. The intention 

 is to give information tQ beginners, 



