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Vol. XXI. 



JUNE 15, 1893. 



No. 12. 



57-/?y4r Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Smokers seem to be the burning question 

 now. 



That comb-leveler of B. Taylor. I've tried 

 it, and it's splendid— a real acquisition. 



Another FACTOR in the sealed-cover busi- 

 ness that ought to be reported is the amount 

 of lower ventilation. 



The best thing in the bee-corner at the 

 World's Fair was to see how glad each bee-man 

 was to help the other. 



Ramble No. 85 is capital — gets right down to 

 solid bee-talk, and puts in more than the usual 

 number of healthy laughs. 



Honey-comb, in the Bible, always means 

 what we call comb honey. Isn't it used the 

 same way nowadays in England ? 



Look out, Bro. Root, what you say about 

 patent-medicine ad's, or you'll offend some of 

 the religious papers. Such ads pay. 



Woodchopper, you let my queens alone. If 

 "some smart young rambler" comes fooling 

 around, better tell him my shot-gun is loaded. 



Laying workers, according to Abbe Mar- 

 tin, in L'Apicxdteur, can be produced only by a 

 partial operation of the laws that produce a 

 queen; that is, th-^y must be specially fed while 

 in the larval state. 



Friend Root, that talk on page 439 is first- 

 class— Al. all but one thing. Never wait to be 

 "in a fit frame of mind to apologize." Blurt 

 out an apology the minute you see you're 

 wrong, and let the " frame " take care of itself. 



Introducing queens. A plan given in Revue 

 is, to thoroughly dust with flour all the bees 

 after shaking them into a box, then dump them 

 down in front of the hive, and, as they enter, 

 add the queen and her companions, also floured. 



Mrs. Atchley says birds almost never de- 

 stroy queens flying from hives standing alone, 

 neither do they when the hives stand together; 

 but in the latter case the queens enter the 

 wrong hive on return from their wedding- 

 flight. 



I've come down off the compression theory, 

 but I'll get back long enough for a dab at 

 Woodchopper (p. 433). Queen goes off in the 

 corner because she can't find cells enough else- 

 where; and the will of the workers, not the 

 queen, has decided in advance that there 

 should be drone-cells ready for her there. See? 



Overstocking is a word that is not translat- 

 ed In the French bee-journals; but the English 



word is transferred bodily into their language. 

 To balance the account, can we not adopt their 

 word soiiche. which means the mother colony, 

 or the one from which a swarm has issued? 



Little black ants, about -^g of an inch 

 long, says E. S. Lovesy, in A. B. J., are the 

 bane of bee-keeping in Utah. They are every- 

 where by the million, destroying eight colonies 

 for him last season, some of them strong col- 

 onies, besides weakening others. I think I'll 

 not move to Utah. 



John McArthur feels sure he has known 

 workers to change worker eggs to drone eggs. 

 Worker brood has been given to a queenless 

 colony having no drones. Has any one else 

 made any such observation, or is he mistaken? 

 Very positive proof would be needed to estab- 

 lish such a belief. 



In France, as well as here, the spring has 

 been unusual. L'Apiculteur reports that no 

 such spring has been known for 13 years. But, 

 unlike here, the spring has been remarkably 

 favorable there. Natural swarms issued in 

 April, one as early as the 5th, and honey has 

 been stored from fruit-bloom. 



Abbe Martin says, in Apiculte^ir, that no 

 worker can be changed to a laying worker after 

 it is sealed up in its cell — it is made a laying 

 worker by special feeding during its larval ex- 

 istence. If this be true, it agrees with my view 

 that laying workers do not appear till all work- 

 er brood is hatched. But I'm not sure of my 

 ground. 



" Holding too long to one set of ideas " (p. 

 430) is hardly the way to put it. Never ride 

 exclusively a single hobby, neither longer nor 

 shorter, unless you want to kill both horse and 

 rider. If A. I. Root at the start had kept a 

 change of hobbies, his principal hobby would 

 still be in vigorous health, to the great advan- 

 tage of bee-keeping. 



Langdon's arrangement, whether it suc- 

 ceeds in all cases or not, is an effort in the right 

 direction. Prevention of increase, prevention 

 of swarming, automatic hiving, none of them 

 are so desirable as a plan of working straight 

 along for comb honey without any desire to 

 swarm. . Whatever the " proof of the pudding " 

 on eating, the outside of the bag has certainly 

 a promising look. 



Transferring, according to H. F. Coleman, 

 in ^. B. J., should be done at beginning of 

 clover-bloom rather than in fruit-bloom, there 

 being less honey then, more bees to straighten 

 up matters, and the loss of brood at this later 

 period is not so serious, as it will be somewhat 

 late for the clover crop. "Transfer in fruit 

 bloom " is time-honored advice, but there seems 

 sense in Mr. C.'s position. 



