270 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



get hold of the broad stumpy ridge that 

 answers to side wall in a piece of ordinary 

 foundation and pull it out fills him with a 

 fine scorn. That Deacon will get into 

 trouble if he don't look a little out— but not 

 with me this time. 



A faucet went wrong, and three tons of 

 Mendelson's honey went wrong — in a stream 

 down the canyon A. B, J. 570. (Don't you 

 telegraph a single condolence. He's got 

 50 tons left.) 



Rambler says he knows of a ca?e where 

 nice white honey was changed to amber by 

 letting the hot sun shine in it several days. 

 A. B. J. .566: This is a bran new warning 

 against the awful impolicy of extracting too 

 soon. Pungency, lack of flavor, undue 

 fluidity, foaming, souring, going to half 

 candy and half water— formed ^uite a chain 

 of terrors before. And (I've waited long 

 enough for somebody else to say it) "cap- 

 ped two-thirds down" is'nt ripe enough of- 

 tentimes. Frequently the other third is 

 very thin indeed and badly demoralizes the 

 whole batch. 



Ah ! here's what I was just saying, and by 

 good authority, and a number of weeks old. 



"The greatest trouble with unripe honey 

 comes from that which is daily added to an 

 unfinished super by the bees." C. P. Dadantin 

 A. B. J. 401, 



And F. L. Thompson, Gleanings 445, goes 



one better by having the honey all capped, 



and then waiting a spell longer. 



C. Davenport needed a large uncapping 

 can, and coulda't wait for one to come from 

 the supply store; so he just made one of an 

 alcohol barrel sawed into two unequal tubs. 

 Found it larger, and and more substantial, 

 and costing .$5.50 less— bating about an 

 hour's work to make it. A. B.J. 387. Go 

 thou and do likewise. 



On page 391 A. B. J. Dr. Miller tells of 

 using the edge of a green leaf as a handy 

 valve for the hole you are poking bees and 

 queen through. 



And hear how Daolittle, in A. B. J. 403 



goes for the Palestine bees. 



" With me they would not start a large amount 

 of brood at any other time save when the hon- 

 ey flow was on ; and this I think is one of the 

 worst faults that any race of bees can possess ; 

 for an extra amount of brood during a honey 

 yield always means a multitude of months to 

 feed after the honey harvest is past." 



James B. Drury, in A. B. J. 404, contri- 

 butes an interesting freak of robber bees. 

 During a great carnival of robbing ( Had 

 one myself this very day ) a great lot of 

 would-be robbers rushed into an empty hive. 



There was no honey there to plunder yet 

 they were too obstinate to go away. They 

 soon began to play they were a colony, pro- 

 tecting their hive against later comers, and 

 kept the nonsense up for three or four days. 



It seems that so great a man as Mr. Har- 

 bison, in so great a bee region as southern 

 California, was not above doing some 

 planting for honey — set out a large planta- 

 tion of the best honey-bearing sage. A. B. 

 J. 4;m. 



McEvoy says colonies differ greatly a bout 

 letting brood starve in time of scarcity. 

 Some will doit when there is considerable 

 sealed honey left in the hive, just because 

 they feel penurious about uncapping it. 

 Suggests that such misers should have their 

 queens replaced by something better. A. B. 

 J. 4;^. 



Mrs. Axtell's decision is that the spring 

 feeding of meal does more harm than good. 



Dr. Miller says a queen reared in a little 

 nucleus is worth less than nothing. A. B. 

 J. 439. 



Wallenmeyer thinks that in those fairs 

 where the premiums are too small to justify 

 a first class display, a free permission to sell 

 honey lemodade might be obtained, to the 

 end that profits and premiums together 

 might pay expenses. H i suggests free 

 lemonade to officers and judges — with the 

 shrewd expectation that they will go and tell 

 of you. A. B.J. 450. 



Also in A. B. J. 470 he gives valuable kinks 

 about exhibiting bees at fairs. Have a bran 

 new smoker, and blow air among them 

 every hour or so. If this does not seem to 

 be sufficient spray in cold water with an 

 atomizer. Yon can see by the way they 

 become comfortable. 



Friend Mahinsays that in 27 years' exper- 

 ience golden rod has yielded honey abund- 

 antly only twice, once in the early '70s, and 

 latest in 1881. In my locality golden rod 

 seldom draws many bees but as other in- 

 sects are sometimes thick on it when bees 

 are not, I judge that sometimes there is no 

 nectar, and sometimes helianthus and other 

 forage which bees esteem better draw all 

 the bees away. Also the level-toped golden 

 rods are visited often times when the 

 plumose species are neglected. Mr. Mahin 

 says there must be some reason why bees 

 worked at blackberry bloom so unusually 

 this year. A. B. J. 467. Who will tell us 

 what it was ? His suggestion that it was 

 the very cool, damp weather hardly satisfies 



