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Vol. XXI. 



APR. 1, 1893. 



No. 7. 



STR/ir Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



At ROLL-rALi.. March 8, <)4 per cent of my 

 bees were alive. 



H. Reepen. the versatile Itera-gatherer for 

 the CentralbUttt, Is now Reepen items for A. B. 

 J. He's a good reaper. 



I PROTEST against your calling "W. P.'' an 

 '• old standby." as you do on page :.'27. He's not 

 "old," and lie doesn't ''stand by:" he's always 

 on the jump. 



SoRKY you didn't have any bees in cellar 

 this winter. Ernest. If that cellar was the only 

 one '"available for vegetables." why wasn't the 

 other part of the cellar available for bees'.' 



Bee-paralysis may be cured in most cases, 

 according to .Tenuie Atchley. in A. B. J., by 

 putting the whole colony on new combs or foun- 

 dation, and giving sugar syrup or new honey. 



A PRIME SWARM takes with it the old queen. 

 Now. suppose, just before the swarm is ready 

 to issue, the old queen is destroyed, and a swarm 

 issues with the first maturing virgin, is that a 

 prime or an after-swarm? 



Mei-ii.ot gets a very hearty condemnation 

 from C. F. Muth, in the Guide. He thinks it 

 has run out white clover in his locality, and 

 says. " The English sparrow is a daisy compared 

 to it." What do others say'? 



That man York has a pretty big contract 

 on his hands to get up a bee-keepers' picture 

 and biography every week in the year, but I 

 think he'll make it in good shape, for he's got 

 through a fourth of the year without a break. 



Why wouldn't it be a good plan to have 

 brood-frames a little shorter at bottom than at 

 top"? It would make them easier to lift out. and 

 bees will allow a greater space at lower than 

 upper part without bulding comb in the space. 



Non-swarming plans seem coming to the 

 front, disputing the field with self-hivers. B. 

 Taylor gives a plan in Review, keeping two col- 

 onies side by side, changing bees from one to 

 the other every six days and cutting out queen- 

 cells. 



In rkplv to your question on p. 227, friend 

 Root, I have the honor to inform you that the 

 .straw in question could not possibly be the one 

 that broke the camel's back, for the one you 

 mention is the second straw, while it was the 

 last straw that broke the camel's back. 



In Virginia, winter losses are reported at .50 

 per cent, with bees flying till Christmas, and 



occasional fiights in February. Doolittle raises 

 the conundrum. " Why is a winter so fatal in 

 Virginia, that would be called mild and favor- 

 able in New York ? " 



Artificial increase. I suspect, is more gen- 

 erally practiced than friend Hewes thinks (see 

 p. 221), although it is little discussed, perhaps, 

 because few are interested in any new modes of 

 increase. Not one in fifty of my increase is by 

 natural swarming. 



Honey on a stick is a new thing to you, 

 says a foot-note on p. 222. Y^ou've forgotten. 

 Who was it at fairs cut sections diagonally in 

 four pieces, and then sold it, 



" Honey on a stick. 

 Five cents a lick"'.^ 



Let us try to encourage correctness in bee- 

 terms. I'm glad to see that, gradually, it is 

 getting less common to call a worker "he;" 

 but it is still common to talk about a queen 

 leading out a swarm. Even so correct a work 

 as the ABC perpetuates that error, 

 a Top-bars, a foot-note on p. 214 says, are prac- 

 tically % thick, as now made at Medina. Beg 

 your pardon; for strength they may be, but not 

 as preventers of burr-combs. That bead comb- 

 guide doesn't pay for the thickness cut away in 

 making it— at least, some of us think so. 



Will grading come up again in Chicago '.' 

 Or isn't it any use? The V/ashington system 

 doesn't seem to be used any more than the pre- 

 vious ones. It's several months old, but it 

 doesn't seem to be used to any alarming extent 

 in quotations, except thdt the Review 'Uses it 

 "as far as possible." 



Sulphur fumes, as urged by C. F. Muth, in 

 Quide. are heavy, falling to the floor, so he 

 strongly urges that combs to be brimstoned 

 should be placed near the floor. Brimstone's 

 cheap, however, and in some cases it will be 

 better to use so much that there will be no com- 

 fortable place for worms even close to the ceil- 

 ing. 



The Nebraska Bee-keeper objects to Kretch- 

 mer's feeding by tipping back the hive and 

 pouring feed ou a tight bottom-board, and asks 

 how he would like to eat soup off the floor. 

 The cases are hardly parallel, Bro. Stilson. but 

 I quit that way of feeding because, for some 

 reason. I found too many dead bees on the 

 ground after feeding. 



The sting of a bee is a modified ovipositor, 

 says the dictionary. If so, did the queen origi- 

 nally have two ovipositors, one of which was 

 modified into a stingi? And can she be bred 

 back into her original condition so as to lay 

 double and sting none? Or is there danger that 



