184 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



an occasional mis-mated queen. The char- 

 acter of the country may have something to 

 do with the distance. 



Sealed ooveks and absorbents still occupy 

 considerable attention in the journals. 

 Bees must be kept dry. In a warm dry cellar, 

 with the hives raised from the bottom boards, 

 it matters little, so far as the bees are con- 

 cerned, whether the covers are sealed or not. 

 Out of doors the covers must be protected if 

 they are left sealed, then they will be warm 

 and there will be no condensation of moisture 

 over the bees; it will take place at the sides 

 and corners of the hive or near the entrance. 

 If the cover is removed and the bees covered 

 with some porous packing, the moisture will 

 pass up through the packing and condense 

 above it. Packing should never be used with 

 the intent that it should absorb and retain 

 the moisture. There must be abundant ven- 

 tilation above the packing to allow the excess 

 of moisture to pass off. 



The North Amebioan might meet in Wash- 

 ington the next week after the National G. 

 A. R. Encampment, which would be about 

 Sep. 27Dh for the bee-keepers to meet. This 

 date is suggested by Frank Wilcox of Maus- 

 ton, Wis. If this date will allow us to take 

 advantage of the reduced rates resulting from 

 the G. A. R. meeting, then that is the time to 

 hold the meeting. I am already planning a 

 programme, and shall be very glad of sug- 

 gestions. I wish every reader would send 

 me a list of the topics he would like discuss- 

 ed and of the men that he would like to have 

 lead in the discussion. I shall work hard to 

 make the coming meeting one of the best 

 that the Society has held. 



One thing more, let each who expects to 

 attend write to me and let me know, that a 

 list of all such may l)e published. Nothing 

 increases the attendance like knowing in ad- 

 vance that " So and So " will be there. 



Jacob T. Timpe has been "shown up" by 

 the American Bee Keeper and by Gleanings, 

 as a man that has received money for queens 

 and not sent the queens or returned the 

 money. I have always felt that Mr. Timpe 

 was honest, and have several times defend- 

 ed him to his complaning customers. I 

 suppose that he used the money that came in 

 for queens, expecting to be able to fill the 

 orders, and then the poor season prevented, 



and he had neither queens nor money to 

 send. I finally wrote him a long letter and 

 plead with him as with a brother to straight- 

 en up these matters in some way. If he 

 could do no better he could tell his de- 

 frauded customers exactly how he was situ- 

 ated and when he could pay them. I told 

 him that unless he did this, the matter would 

 eventually be given to the public, when his 

 business as a queen breeder would be ruined. 

 No reply came to this letter, but complaints 

 against him did contiue to be received, and 

 then his ad. was dropped from the Review. 



ONE way in which self-hiveks do not 



FILL THE BILL. 



I have received a nice, long, chatty, " ram- 

 bling" letter from "Rambler. " He starts 

 out in this fashion: "This finds me sitting 

 by the side of a large honey tank, in a lone 

 California apiary, drawing off honey into 

 square tin cans, two in a case. It takes just 

 16 minutes to fill two cans, and to fill in the 

 spare time, I'll waggle the pen at you. 

 While sitting here listening to the roar of 200 

 strong colonies of bees, I fiud myself think- 

 ing of the many problems in bee culture, 

 particularly of the efiforts toward non- 

 swarming and self-hivers." After mention- 

 ion the cost of self-hivers and the " too much 

 machinery " point against them, he says: 

 " There is one vital point that I have not 

 seen mentioned. In a large apiary there are 

 frequently several swarms in the air at the 

 same time. Suppose that these swarms have 

 no queens with them. In the first place, 

 they will spread themselves over a large 

 space and keep on the wing a long time. 

 The bees become mixed, and, if they alight, 

 all will cluster together. The advocates of 

 self-hivers would lead us to believe that each 

 swarm will single out its own hive and re- 

 turn to it. The facts of the case are quite 

 contrary. Nearly all of the bees will follow 

 the loudest hum and nearly all that are in 

 the air will concentrate upon one hive. " 



What " Rambler " says is true. The place 

 for the self-hiver is in a small apiary that 

 must be left alone except at stated intervals. 

 In a large apiary there ought to be several 

 swarm catchers and some one to manipulate 

 them during the height of the swarming 

 season. As B. Taylor said in the Review, 

 last season, any system that allows the 

 swarms to fly and mix, in a large apiary, is 

 faulty. 



