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Vol. XXIV. 



NOV. 15, 1896. 



No. 22. 



November opens up with the loveliest kind of 

 weather — bees flying as in summer. 



Has C. a. Hatch, too, deserted the North, 

 and is California to get all our best men ? I 

 hadn't heard he had left Wisconsin; but on p. 

 777 he hails from Pasadena. 



The section-holder has been improved by 



. a writer in Australian Bee Bulletin by putting 



on a top-bar. That's unkind, Mr. Editor, after 



you had improved the wide frame by taking off 



the top-bar. 



" About this time," as the almanac used to 

 say, bee-keepers will begin to paint in brilliant 

 hues the prospects for next season's crop. I'll 

 add my mite by saying clover was never thicker 

 on the ground than now. 



Ph. J. Baldensperger says, in British Bee 

 Journal, that, while the odor and flavor of 

 some honeys are strongest when fresh, those of 

 horehound and orange, weak at first, become 

 strongly pronounced afterward. 



O. B. Barrows writes, "It does seem strange 

 if bees can bit through a grapeskin, that my 

 bees should stand right among my grapevines 

 and never a bee touch a grape. A few grapes 

 still hang on the vines, Oct. 10, but not a bee on 

 them." 



The Horticultural Society of Northern 

 Illinois, through its secretary, has asked me to 

 write for them a paper on " Bees in Horticul- 

 ture." Doesn't look like an irrepressible con- 

 flict in Northern Illinois between fruit-men and 

 bee-men. 



I don't think the wild sunflower of Ohio 

 and that of Nebraska are the same. Isn't the 

 Ohio plant perennial, and the Nebraska, like the 

 Colorado, annual? [No, I think the plant in 

 Ohio is an annual — at least the frost has killed 

 them clear down; and then, besides, they look 

 exactly like the plants in Nebraska, except 

 that they are smaller.— Ed.] 



Say, Doolittle, that's hardly fair for you to 

 weight down sub-ventilation with turning a 

 regulator " from one to ten times a day," p. 787. 

 I never did any regulating one time in ten, nor 

 in thirty days. But I feel just a little shaky 

 about sub-ventilation on account of the quality 

 of the air that comes in. 



James Bennett, in a sensible article in Aus- 

 tralian Bee Bulletin, says, " When a person has 

 acquired a taste for one variety of honey he 

 prefers that variety to any other." Australians 

 think eucalyptus the finest honey in the world; 

 but England will none of it, notwithstanding 

 the earnest efforts made to establish a market 

 for it. A point in favor of home markets is the 

 preference for home honey. 



The average weight of 9364 sections, most- 

 ly IJi, with a few Ij-f, was 15.088 ounces each. 

 They varied from less than 13 to more than 17 

 ounces. This was with separators. [I believe 

 this is the first instance where ten thousand or 

 nearly ten thousand sections of honey were 

 weighed to get the average weight per section. 

 I think we can safely set it down that a 1% sec- 

 tion approximates almost exactly 15 ounces. — 

 Ed.] 



Perforated zinc ■^'^ or larger will hold the 

 smallest queen from going up into a super; but I 

 don't dare to trust it to keep in the largest queen 

 if she's crazy to swarm. [If the queen is crazy to 

 swarm, and the bees are with her in that desire, 

 there is not very much use in putting zinc or 

 supers on the hive. But your strain of bees 

 seem to diflfer in size from those owned by the 

 majority of bee-keepers. Crazy or not crazy, it 

 is generally reported that the 165 mark holds 

 the queens. — Ed.] 



" What size and style of shipping-cases do 

 you prefer for marketing comb honey ?" is a 

 question in American Bee Journal. Single- 

 tier 24-lb. cases have most votes, 12-lbs. coming 

 in second. After all, it isn't what you and I pre- 

 fer, but what sells best in our particular mar- 

 ket. [Yes, I know you are an advocate of a 

 double-tier 24-lb. single shipping-case; and it is 

 possible that, with your particular market, 

 many would prefer them; but the Chicago 



