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aJLEANlNGtt IN BKE CULTLKK 



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Sittings 



By J. E. Crahe, Mlddlebury, Vt. 



Our congratulations are due Wesley Fos- 

 ter, of Boulder, Col., page 609, Oct. 1. 



My experience tallies with that of Dr. 

 Miller and his assistant in regard to the 

 preference bees have for an old comb over a 

 new one, page 646, Oct. 15. 



Bee-keeping in Southern California, by 

 Mrs. Acklin, is certainly refreshing. One of 

 the pleasures of reading bee-journals is to 

 see how difTerent conditions are in different 

 sections of our great country. 



We are grateful to Dr. Miller for inform- 

 ing us that honey-comb in the Bible always 

 means comb honey, page 612, Oct. 1. Now 

 will he tell us if the "droppings of the 

 honey-comb" means extracted honey? 



On page 612, Dr. Miller says he doesn't 

 want the bottom of his sections mussed up 

 with wax and honey. Well, we use thin 

 strips of wood under our sections, and we 

 do not have any propolis on them. 

 ■4>- 



Pollen in a queen-cell is a sign of queen- 

 lessness, says Dr. Miller, page 646, Oct. 15. 

 But I have never seen pollen, that I re- 

 member, in a normal queen-cell; but I see 

 every year a good many queen-cells started 

 over cells of pollen. This is a sure sign of 

 queenlessness. 



4;- 



It almost takes my breath away to read 

 how quick Mr. Scholl can get the bees out 

 of supers with smoke, page 647, Oct. 15. 

 This works pretty well here till the flow of 

 honey is over; then the bees left in the su- 

 per, when removed from the hive, stop and 

 fill themselves with honey, breaking the 

 cappings and making the sections unsightly. 

 It may not matter with chunk honey. 



The editor speaks of "bees making trou- 

 ble in candy-factories," page 644. I would 

 put it in a different way. How would it 

 sound to say, " candy-factories making trou- 

 ble for bee-keepers"? Would not a law com- 

 pelling candy-manufacturers and those sell- 

 ing sweets in the open near where bees are 

 kept, and other places attractive to bees, 

 and where thousands are killed, to screen 

 their windows or their sweets, be as sensible 

 as the law against spraying fruit-trees when 

 in bloom ? 



Quite right you are, Mr. Editor, in advis- 

 ing late feeding if not done before, though 

 you have 1o use overcoat and mittens; 

 this is a decided advance, for not long ago 

 we thought it would be almost fatal to feed 



late. One caution, however — be sure to feed 

 with pepper-box style of feeder, and place it 

 over the center of the cluster, and, as you 

 say, feed hot. 



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I congratulate Dr. Miller that his bees 

 swarm at the proper time, just as the books 

 say they should, page 578. That he never 

 heard before of a swarm waiting till a virgin 

 is about to emerge surprises me. We have 

 lots of them that do that very thing, espe- 

 cially early in the season. It is fun, too, to 

 get a lot of queen-cages after such swarms 

 and cage a lot of virgins as they emerge aft- 

 er the old queen has left. We are dead sure 

 they are all raised under the swarming im- 

 pulse. 



■^ 



Whew! a flying-machine ! page 628, Oct. 

 1. Well, this reminds me when I see this 

 and other illustrations what a change there 

 has been in our journals in the last thirty 

 or thirty-five years. Then we were trying 

 to walk, while now we are discussing how 

 to manage outyards with automobiles, and 

 market immense quantities of honey. 

 Then we had only a few plain woodcuts, 

 while now we have a generous array of beau- 

 tiful photogravures with pictures of a large 

 share of the successful bee-keepers of the 

 country. 



I was glad to see, page 724, Nov. 15, that 

 "the Judge " has not lost his interest in 

 bees. While at our State capitol a few days 

 ago he invited us to stay over night at his 

 pleasant home in Barre. While there he 

 very politely informed me that my state- 

 ment in Sittings, that we have a law in 

 this State prohibiting spraying while fruit- 

 trees are in bloom, was incorrect as the law 

 has been repealed. He has my thanks, and 

 I hasten to make the correction. However, 

 the law was in force long enough to educate 

 our fruit-growers as to the folly of spraying 

 while trees are in bloom. 



On page 627, Oct. 1, we see a whole row 

 of hives covered with tarred paper lined 

 with dry leaves and other non-conducting 

 material; and it seems to me that plan 

 might work very satissfactorily. Some three 

 years ago I tried four hives with tarred pa- 

 per. All were single-hoard hives, and two 

 had cushions on top, and came out fairly 

 well in the spring. The other two came 

 through the winter quite ton weak to be of 

 any service in storing surplus during the 

 summer. By putting between the paper 

 and brood-chamber a considerable amount 

 of packing, it would not only protect the 

 brood-chamber from excessive heat during 

 sunny days in winter, but absorb a large 

 amount of heat that would keep the bees 

 warm for some time after the sun failed to 

 shine. We do not want to heat the brood- 

 chamber during winter so hot as to excite 

 the bees to excessive activity, as it weakens 

 their vitality and wears them out before 

 spring. 



