246 



THE BEE-KEBPERS' REVIEW. 



West perhaps not more than half a 

 crop. The central portions of the 

 country seem to be having an enor- 

 mous tlow; especially is this true of the 

 locality within, say, 300 miles of Chi- 

 cago. The demand for bee-keepers' 

 supplies has not been so gi-eat in ten 

 years. It seems that everybody wants 

 a lot of supplies, and wants them 

 right away. There seems to have been 

 a gi-eat deal of swarming, and a good 

 yield of white clover. Tersonally, we 

 have never seen such a perfect mat 

 of white clover bloom as there is in 

 this locality this season. 



We doubt if it is necessary for the 

 price of honey to be lowered very 

 much, if any, from the price of last 

 season. We think the people are ready 

 to buy honey more freely than ever 

 before. Tliis, we think will be especi- 

 ally true as the bulk of the honey pi-o- 

 duced is of white clover, and that 

 seems to be the kind preferred by the 

 majority of the people; at least they 

 think that is the kind they ought to 

 have. The joke is usually on them, as 

 they are apt to call nearly all kinds 

 of honey clover honey. There is prac- 

 tically no new honey on this market 

 as yet. but we suppose it will begin to 

 come In very soon." 



HAVING WORKER COMBS BUILT. 



By the Right Kind of Management we can 



have Worker Combs Built and Save the 



Cost of Eoundation. 



When t»ees are storing honey, a cer- 

 tain amount of comb may be built at 

 practically no expense— it is really so 

 much gain. One difficulty to be over- 

 come is the tendency to buihl drone 

 comb und(>r certain conditions, and 

 w(> need to know these conditions and 

 learn how to avoid tliem. :\Ir. G. M. 

 Doolittle, in Gleanings, in an imagin- 

 ary (I supose it is imaginary) con- 



versation with a neighlwr. describes 

 the conditions under which worker 

 comb may be secured. Here is the 

 conservation : 



"Good morning, Doolittle. Too cold 

 for the bees to work this morning, and 

 here it is nine o'clock the Kith day of 

 August." 



"Yes, it is very cold for the time of 

 year, :Mr. Brown. The mercury stood 

 at only 10 degrees above freezing this 

 morning, and the same on the morn- 

 ing of the 13th. I fear we are not go- 

 ing to get much buckwheat honey, on 

 account of the cold, as it is now near- 

 ly in full bloom; and the hives do not 

 have at present one-fourth enough 

 honey in them for winter; and unless 

 we have a yield from buckwheat it 

 means feeding for winter stores- 

 something I have not had to do for 

 twelve or fifteen years past. But we 

 will not dwell on this part of the mat- 

 ter. Wiiat can I do for you this morn- 

 ing V" 



"Having no surplus honey this year, 

 with a prospect of buying sugar for 

 winter stores, owing to our wet, cold 

 summer, I thought to economize a lit- 

 tle by having the bees build their own 

 comb in the frames next season in- 

 stead of buying foundation as I have 

 generally done. I read somewhere 

 that you had the most of your c-ombs 

 built in the frames wltho\it the use 

 of foundation, only as starters, so I 

 came to talk the matter over with 

 J ou." 



"Yes, I have allowed the bees to 

 build many combs in the frames, and 

 mainly did this when I first began 

 bee-keeping. But what part of this 

 comb-building has bothered yon?" 



••Ill taking out the combs and insert- 

 ir.g frames having only a starter, I 

 lind tlu> bees almost invariably build 

 drone comVi." 



"Yes, that is as I have found it all 

 ahuig my bee-keeping life, for the 

 same has shown that it is folly to in- 



