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Vol. XXL 



MAY 1, 1893. 



No. 9. 



Strav Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Are you looking for another big crop? 



Where's the genius among extracted-honey 

 men to get up an uncapping-machine of value? 



Are division-boards of real value, or do 

 some hold on to them merely for old acquaint- 

 ance' sake ? 



This spring isn't so very bad, and it isn't so 

 very good. Up to April 20 we've had few days 

 for bees to fly. 



Dooi.iTTi.K SAYS, in A. B. J., that bees from 

 choice fly two to four miles, and gives pretty 

 strong proof for his belief. 



The Porter escape, according to R. C. Aik- 

 in, in Review, lets bees through so slowly that 

 they have time to get over their hurry and then 

 go out very slowly. 



In cutting foundation I've long known 

 that rapid strokes made smoother work, but I 

 never tiiought of Doolittle's explanation (page 

 3ii6). that the wax became heated. 



Ar.siKE honey has a slight amber tint in dis- 

 tinction from white-clover nectar, and experts 

 claim to detect a faint taste like basswood hon- 

 ey.— L. F. Abbott, in A. B. J. 



Warnstorf's comb has got this much the 

 start of the Weed comb, that it is now regular- 

 ly advertised and sold. But it may, like the 

 Weed comb, soon sink out of sight. 



The wheelbarrow has been recommended 

 to aid in uniting colonies and introducing 

 queens, and now it is said a two to five minutes' 

 ride will subdue the fiercest colony. 



Last winter I tried occasional fires in cellar. 

 Thermometer sometimes down to 3.5° but heated 

 up to 50 or 60 every week or two. Works fairly 

 well, but I think it's better never to let it go be- 

 low 40°. 



Such progress hns been made in bee-keep- 

 ing that ir would seem the end of improvement 

 must be about reached, and yet there never was 

 a time when there seemed so many new things 

 coming to light. 



Loose bottoms, as shown by replies to a 

 query in A. B. J., have their friends and their 

 foes." Each one is likely to prefer the kind of 

 bottoms he uses. Of those who replied, two to 

 one use loose bottoms. 



Dandelions are changing their minds. For- 

 merly they bloomed after fruit-trees; last year 

 with them, and this year away ahead. April 17 

 I saw dandelions opening, when buds were not 



swelled on fruit-trees. Perhaps the warm blan- 

 ket of snow they had all winter brought them 

 on earlier. 



Russian sunflowers are extolled in one of 

 the journals. They make a big show of big 

 seeds containing little meats, and I think the 

 common kind will yield more to the acre of ei- 

 ther nectar or meats. 



Stimulative feeding, in spring, is still valu- 

 ed by some, while others think if bees have 

 plenty of stores they'd better be left undisturb- 

 ed. Here's a good ficild for experiment on the 

 part of experiment stations. 



Currant- worm cure, from National Stocfc- 

 ma?K— Dissolve half a pint of salt in ten quarts 

 of water, and thoroughly sprinkle the bushes 

 with it. Two or three applications will do the 

 business. Worth knowing, if true. 



Jennie Atchley thinks she has had as many 

 as a hundred queens reared in November and 

 mated the following March, and, with few ex- 

 ceptions, turn out to be good queens. An ex- 

 cluder prevented their flying till spring. 



Self-hia'ers haven't fairly got possession of 

 the field till along comes that man Langdon 

 with a device to make all kinds of hiving un- 

 necessary. I've seen one of them, and it cer- 

 tainly looks as though it might hold the field. 



The editor of Gleanings may be sound on 

 bees, but he's "off color " on horses. Any one 

 that thinks as he does, on p. 300, that "git up 

 and dust" in a horse always goes with buck or 

 fractiousness has had an exceptionally bad lot 

 of horse flesh to deal with. 



Excluders are not needed over a new swarm, 

 says H. R. Board man, ^. B. /., if supers are 

 not put over till the queen commences laying 

 below, which is usually in 34 hours. I don't use 

 excluders under supers, and it is a rare thing to 

 find brood in sections. 



A BEGINNER is slow in learning that it doesn't 

 pay to fuss with a weak colony. Double a 

 weakling with a stronger, then later make a 

 new colony from the stronger. You'll get as 

 much or more honey, and it won't be half the 

 bother, to say nothing of the anxiety one always 

 has with a sick child. 



Good advice Hutchinson gives when he says, 

 "I say, don't fuss with weak colonies. Have 

 enough bees so that you will have enough if 

 some of them do die." But isn't he putting it 

 it just a bit strong in the following? "Many 

 of our most successful bee-keepers do notseethe 

 inside of the brood-nests of their colonies from 

 one year's end to another." 



Hutchinson, when he put his bees in the cel- 

 lar, set three colonies on a pairof scales. From 



