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$12° PERVtAR^'\@"nEblNA-OHlB'* 



Vol. XXIV. 



APR. I, 1896. 



No. 7. 



"If a. I. Root would only get the bee-fever 

 over again it would be the biggest kind of an 

 item."— E. E. Hasty, in Review. Correct. 



C. W. Post says that in 1893, during buck- 

 wheat flow, 52") colonies in his apiary were not 

 overstocked. So reported at Ontario conven- 

 tion. 



I KNOW all about some things, but it isn't 

 about bees. [Now look here; you know a lot 

 more about bees than you profess to know. You 

 are too modest. — Ed.] 



March 16 I looked into the new and commo- 

 dious quarters of the Chicago branch of the A. 

 I. Root Co., at 118 Michigan St., and found it 

 didn't look so much like a branch as a whole 

 tree. 



" We CONSIDER the drones as important, in 

 the making of a good apiary, as the queens." — 

 Dadant & Son, in A. B. J. Yes, no doubt about 

 it; but in actual practice very little attention 

 is paid to it. 



In replying to the questions on p. 233, re- 

 member the important thing is to tell what use 

 can be made of sweet clover as a forage-plant. 

 The time for discussing its value as a honey- 

 plant is past. 



I'm much obliged to J. E. Hand for his ex- 

 planation on page 314. I understand the mat- 

 ter perfectly now. He has " perfect control " of 

 his bees by watching their instincts and letting 

 them do as they please. 



Harper's Magazine has an article by Ninet- 

 ta Earaes, in which she says, " Instances are 

 not uncommon where a single Italian swarm 

 has produced one thousand pounds of extracted 

 honey in one year." O Ninetta! Ninetta! 



In Canada, by the new law, says C. B. J., 

 "Sugar honey fed to bees, or any other substance 

 such as glucose, is simply not recognized as any 

 thing more than it is, and only that gathered 

 from flowers has a legal standing as honey." 



"Ten years ago I Invested in alfalfa seed; 

 and up to the present time I have never seen a 

 bee upon it." So says J. Mc Arthur, of Canada, 

 in A. B. J. [His locality is not adapted for se- 

 creting honey. It requires a hot dry climate to 

 do its best. — Ed.] 



Hasty, in Rcvieio, calls attention to the fact 

 that Baldensperger's figures make the queen 

 average 1748 eggs per day between March 3 and 

 August 3. But remember that was in a colony 

 probably less than 40,000. What would it be in 

 a colony of 75,000, 100,000, or 150,000? 



Winter stores. W. C. Copeland reports, in 

 A.B.J., that for the forty-five days ending Jan. 

 11, average consumption of his bees in Tennes- 

 see was Ig oz. daily; largest average by any one 

 colony, 2 oz. ; smallest, 1 oz. That makes a gen- 

 eral average of only about 2!4 lbs. per month. 



Thos. Evans sends me a 10-foot strip of foun- 

 dation made on a machine he invented three 

 years ago. Don't know how much it's like the 

 Weed process; but what made you keep so quiet 

 about it, friend Evans ? [Because he knew long 

 sheets were not a new idea, probably. — Ed.] 



"After-cells," the name proposed by Chas. 

 Norman for worker-cells turned into queen- 

 cells, is seconded by Hasty. He thinks other 

 queen-cells can be called simply "cells" or 

 "queen-cells;" or if emphasis is needed, "nor- 

 mal cells." Guess we can settle on "after-cells," 

 any way. 



Whole-wheat flour. T. F. Bingham says 

 in Review, ''I go to a roller-mill and ask for 

 'brake-stock' just before it goes to the 'grat- 

 er.'" Then he gets all but the coarsest bran, 

 and they have nice gems and raised griddle- 

 cake, iater.— Works well at our house too. 

 [And here too. — Ed.] 



Some say packing does good in winter by 

 keeping the bees warmer. Others say it does 

 harm by keeping out the heat of the sun. J.L. 

 Gandy (A. B. J.) compromises the matter by 

 packing the north and west, leaving east and 

 south unprotected. Thus he protects the two 

 coldest sides and lets the sun do its work too. 

 Why isn't that a sensible idea ? 



