152 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



will bring the metal tongue through between 

 the section and starter. The starter is drop- 

 ped on the hot metal, the pressure is relaxed, 

 the spiral spring throws back the section 

 board, the starter falls in place and is firmly 

 fixed to the section. The spacing block 

 should be dampened occasionally to keep 

 the starter from sticking. 



Flody says she is willing to present her 

 picture to all the bee keeping women if I am 

 willing to present the machine to the bee 

 men. So here goes. What say you, Mr. 

 Editor ? 



[I say long live little Flody and the " Walk 

 Over."— Ed.] 



Comments on a Beginner's Day-Book. 

 No. 6. 



E. E. HASTY.* 



(^^UNE, with many of the fraternity, is 

 #13D ^^^ month of surplus honey. With me, 

 however, it is seldom worth while to put 

 on supers till the month is well along. It is 

 most frequently my swarm-y month ; but 

 in the year we are following swarming did 

 not get fairly begun till June 21st. 



* See biographical sketch at end of article. 



"June 3d., 1880. Thermometer 56° 73° 61° . 

 Kun l'/4 oz. Loss by night, 4oz. Swarm from 12 

 —7 (Michigan queen). Found queen running on 

 the ground, (clipped) Swarm wouldn't Jif,4it 

 on her cage. Clusfered in cliesniiit tree, but 

 many went back. Put what 1 coukl ot them, 

 rather a small swarm, with two of tht ir own 

 combs and a capped queen cell into a hive at 

 stand 10-3 " 



This is one of the first installments of the 

 experience tlial made me a pronounced anti- 

 clipper. My Hasty mind painfully lacks 

 placidity as I hunt for a queen that is 

 swarming bed-bug fashion somewhere in 

 the all-out-doors. If I find her the expen- 

 diture of nerve power is loo yreat. And es- 

 pecially 1 don't like the prospect of arriving 

 after she has entered some other hive, or 

 got hopelest-ly out of siglit underneath a 

 iiive, or some other place. Moreover, bees 

 made on a machine may couie back witli the 

 dutiful regularity the books tell of when 

 minus their queen ; but intelligent bees like 

 miue often don't. They are much in the 

 same frame of mind as a boy just run away 

 from home — anxious to go any place what- 

 ever rather than return to the roof they 

 have just renounced " for keeps." I don't 

 like hopping around in the heat covering up 

 with sheets and tilings first this hive, then 

 that hive, then t'other hive, as my runaways 

 try to force an entrance. 



"June 16th. Mild, bright day. Tliermometer 

 56 79° — Kun t B)8. ^oz. L< ss by uiglit, 9^4 oz. 

 1 wonder why no swarms come out." 



Ah, greenhorn, you can't pretty much al- 

 ways tell when the swarms will come out. 

 On this occasion, none came out for four 

 beautiful days. 



"June 20th. Warm and sultry. Thermometer 

 60° 87° 65° . Kun Doz. Loss 7 oz. Sumach in 

 bloom— covered with wasps and wild bees, and 

 beetles, and flies, but no Apis Melifica. White 

 clover on the soutii roads more productive than 

 at home, and many bees gathering there." 



Sumach appears to be a profuse producer 

 of nectar but that wise judge of nectar, the 

 bee, rates it as decidedly No. 2 in quality. 

 Whether we see it swarming with bees, or 

 swarming with everything else and not a 

 single bee, depends wholly on what else 

 there is to be had. This county is great on 

 sumachs — five species, yielding two sepa- 

 rate harvests, one early and one late. The 

 late species, Rhus CopalUna, ( " varnished 

 sumach," on account of the glossiness of its 

 deep green leaves) is seldom neglected by 

 the bees. It may not yield any better honey 

 than the other species, but coming after the 

 summer flowers and before the fall flowers 

 it happens to be Hobson's choice. 



