THE BEE-KEEPEh^' HEVIEW 



While at Mr. Aspinwall's, I was shown a 

 queen from which about one-eighth of an 

 inch had been clipped from eacd wing. 

 She had been clipped in a hurry and more 

 taken off than was intended, and there was 

 little hope that she would become fertile, 

 but such finally proved to be the case. 

 Experiment will yet determine how much it 

 is safe or advisable to clip, and perhaps 

 some device will be gotten up to do the 

 clipping or to measure the amount to clip. 

 With black or hybrid bees all around him 

 Mr. A.spinwall has kept the mismated down 

 to one in twelve with clipped queenSj while 

 the undipped averaged one in four. 



MH^H ■ ^irfT<^^#* 



Bees Fly not more than two miles in 

 gathering their honey, says C. P. Dadantin 

 the American Bee Journal, or, to be more 

 exact, he believes that most of their honey 

 is gathered within that distance of the hives. 

 He bases his views upon an experience of 

 twenty-flve years with out-apiaries, giving 

 several instances in support of his conclu- 

 sions. In apiaries located only three miles 

 apart the crops varied both in quantity and 

 quality. Bees will work farther away when 

 the country is level than when it is hilly or 

 broken. Forty acres of buckwheat were 

 once sowed early in the season, three miles 

 from my little apiary. The owner intend- 

 ed to plow it under to enrich the soil, but 

 finally changed his mind and allowed it to 

 ripen. It bloomed two or three weeks be- 

 fore any other buckwheat, and my bees 

 worked upon it and secured a little more 

 than enough for their immediate needs, but 

 when the buckwheat bloomed near home, 

 the combs filled up with a rush. 



«Trfm «"jr^rf*rf». 



Burning over an apiary to get rid of the 

 grass is something that is practiced by 

 ■'Skylark, " a bee-keeper of California. He 

 accidently set fire to the tall grass in an 

 apiary and was astonished to see that bees 

 would not leave their homes even though 

 the sides or ends were burned out of some 

 of the hives. He took a hint from this and 

 burned over his apiary at night when there 

 was no wind and before the grass became 

 too dry, taking care not to allow the fire to 

 come too near the hives. All this he tells in 

 the American Bee-Keeper. This plan may 

 answer for California, but in Michigan the 

 honey harvest is over by the time that the 

 grass is dry enough to burn, and, besides, 



we don't wish the grass to grow uncut all 

 the forepart of the season when we are busy 

 in the yard. The lawn mower is the thing 

 for us. I knew that bees would not leave 

 their hives when the atmosphere is filled 

 with smoke. I remember, years ago, when 

 the forest fires raged so terribly in the 

 northern part of the State, and the wind, 

 for a day or twc, swept the smoke down 

 here in such quantities that we could scarce- 

 ly see or breath, and not a bee left the 

 hives until the smoke cleared away. 



■^^^iP^M^n^Ajt^ 



DooLiTTLE was Certainly what Gleanings 

 called him, the " uncrowned king of the 

 Buff alo convention. " I think no one will 

 be offended if I say that I think that he 

 was the best speaker there was there. No 

 one who has simply read his staid, sober, 

 matter-of-fact articles in the bee journals 

 would dream of the manner in which he can 

 flavor his speeches with anecdote and illus- 

 tration. For instance, he was telling how 

 some old man was working himself all but 

 to death that his children might not be com- 

 pelled to begin at the foot of the ladder as 

 he had done. Mr. Doolittle asked him if 

 he had not enjoyed himself when he began 

 housekeeping in a humble way, and he and 

 his young wife had worked cheerfully and 

 happily as month by month they added to 

 the comforts of their home ? The old man 

 was silent a minute and then admited 

 " They were the happiest days of his life. " 

 " Would you rob your children of this 

 happiness?" asked Mr. Doolittle. I don't 

 suppose Mr. Doolittle knew it, but it brought 

 tears to my eyes, so clearly did it bring 

 back those happy days when wife and I be- 

 gan house-keeping in a humble home built 

 by my own hands, and "worked cheerfully 

 and happily as month by month we added 

 to the comforts of our home. ' ' 



■HM»*«jr^rf^«^ 



KINDNESS AND SYMPATHY IS APPEKOIATED. 



Kind and sympathetic words have come 

 to me from all over the United States and 

 Canada, even from across the waters, and 

 the bee journals have all said the most kind, 

 comforting and encouraging words that it 

 was possible to say, and I only wish that it 

 were possible for me to write a personal 

 letter to each good friend in return; in fact, 

 in some special instances, it seemed as 

 though I must write in return, but, with the 



