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Vol. XXI. 



JULY 15, 1893. 



No. 14. 



STR/ir Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILUER. 



"The great clover year" will be the way 

 1893 will be referred to in the future. 



"Answers to questions," p. 525. is a fine 

 article, notwithstanding the frequent change of 

 subject. 



It's like old times to be able to have honey 

 standing around almost anywhere without 

 starting robbing. 



How MANY BEES are in a pound? Root, I 

 think, puts it at 5000, and Simmins says 3500. 

 How many are there? 



Try melilot, at least a little bit of it, for 

 hay. My horse will not eat the green stuff this 

 time of year, but will the dry. 



In introducing queens by means of hatching 

 brood, you can keep them closed for five days. 

 If I am not mistaken the young bees will not "fly 

 out sooner. 



Clipped queens for me, if there were no 

 other reason than to have them marked. Then 

 I'll not think a queen is three or more years old 

 when she was superseded last summer. 



Tbjachers and preachers seem largely 

 represented \w the ranks of bee-keepers in Ger- 

 many. Does this speak well for the vocation, 

 or for the teachers and preachers? Perhaps 

 both. 



Eggs don't hatch from heat alone, accord- 

 ing to Simmins. He says, " No eggs will hatch 

 until the workers first surround them with the 

 preparatory food upon which the tiny grub is to 

 feed." 



Clip one wing on one side is frequently 

 advised for queens. I've been so many times 

 fooled into thinking that such queens were not 

 clipped at all, that I always want both wings 

 on one side clipped. 



"There's nothing new under the sun." 

 The Wells system, two colonies working to- 

 gether in one super, which has made a stir in 

 England. Herr Reepen says is old in Germany, 

 and for many reasons cast aside. 



Friend Wilkin says he's often seen laying 

 queens fight to a finish. Perhaps the way of it 

 is, that laying queens don't always fight, but 

 virgin queens always do. Do the tempers of 

 the gentler sex always improve with age ? 



Why is it that queens are so often found 

 dead in their cells? They may be found in all 

 stages, from the shapeless grub to the fully 

 colored insect. Workers don't die that way in 

 cells ; why should queens ? 



Asbestos keeps a smoker from getting so 

 hot. but I questioned whether the advantage in 

 that respect would not be overbalanced by the 

 greater weight. After a full trial, I find it so 

 much comfort that I vote for asbestos. 



Are DRONES of unfecundated queens virile? 

 Herr Reepen cites a case reported by Lehrer 

 Strack, in which a young queen was fecundated 

 by drones from a drone-laying queen before 

 other drones were present in the neighborhood. 



Who WAS that, friend Dayton, that pulled 

 on a hive-cover with both hands so hard that it 

 flew away? (See p. 519.) Tell him to wiggle a 

 screwdriver under one corner, and, if necessary, 

 under the other, and there'll be no snap about 

 it. 



Clipping queens' wings is better done, as 

 friend Dayton says, before the brood -nest gets 

 beyond two or three combs; and where queens 

 are raised in nuclei, or where it is otherwise 

 convenient, it is a good plan not to wait till 

 spring, but to clip them just as soon as they be- 

 gin to lay. 



The sting-trowel theory, according to 

 Thos. Johnson, in A. B. J., was evolved by Mr. 

 Clarke after seeing a lot of beavers at their 

 work " putting on the last finishing touches 

 with their tails." Knowing that bees had tails, 

 it was easy to reason that they were used in 

 the same way. , 



A STANDARD SIZE of section may be adopted, 

 and it would be a good thing; but you can't 

 have a standard weight of section, for the sim- 

 ple reason that bees will not always build them 

 of the same weight, nor any thing like it ; at 

 least, the bees in Northern Illinois have passed 

 a resolution to that effect. 



Do BEKS sometimes hold over eggs, without 

 allowing them to hatch, three days after being 

 laid ? I have had some cases that looked very 

 much like it, unsealf^d queen-cells being found 

 in a full colony at a longer period after the re- 

 moval of the queen than ordinary rules would 

 allow. But some mistake may have been 

 made. 



A SMALL SWARM was hanging on a tree by 

 the roadside as I went to an out-apiary June 

 24. I hived it in my hat and took it along, but 

 left a cluster about the size of an egg. I found 

 no queen in the little cluster, but it was still 

 theraas I passed July 3, but was gone in the 

 evening, having hung there queenless nine 

 days. 



Working i-kople, according to the World's 

 Fair authorities, were just pining for a chance 

 to get into the fair on Sunday. Now that the 

 Sunday gate-money has dropped to half of the 

 average week day, wonder what e.xcuse they 

 will have for a continued violation of their con- 



