\2^ 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Friend R"s "'expecter'" must be a No. ir. 



On page 295 Doolittle telLs his big story 

 about a colony of bees he once had. 

 Occuijied 32 frames in a long-idea hive, 

 and numbered 99,500 bees. And the sur- 

 plus it gave was 566 pounds. 



On page 256 Somnambulist says he 

 used .smaller starters than ever this year 

 — and was much disgusted with the 

 unusually thick septums the contrary little 

 bees bungled in themselves. And a faith- 

 ful friend reproved him for using too 

 much foundation. He also indorses 

 Ernest Root and Miss Wilson in their 

 preference for honey left on the hive 

 quite a bit after sealing, even if it does 

 get a slight discoloration on the surface. 

 Ditto here. 



On page 258 Fred Thorington says he 

 keeps his extracting combs on the hives 

 over winter. Half stor\' with quilt and 

 cushion as usual, and then whole story of 

 emptv combs top of all. 



On page 259 E. T. P'lanagan is ' ' for- 

 ninst "" the usual advice, that i.-eginners 

 .should buy a cheap gum of black bees 

 and transfer. Began that way himself, 

 and so knows something about it. 



On page 268 Doolittle makes it toler- 

 ably plain that the trouble with the new 

 drawn foundation is almost wholly in the 

 fact that bees cannot get at the flat bases 

 to change them into the .shape they pre- 

 fer. Is glad he found out "where we 

 are at '" in a single season. For bottom 

 .starters in sections he thinks even the 

 present form of drawn foundation valua- 

 ble, because it will not fall over like other 

 foundation. 



On page 213 Wilder Graham is quite 

 sure that the average location ( average as 

 to places for swarms to alight ) can be 

 greatly improved by planting vines and 

 little trees nearer the hives than the tall 

 old trees where troublesome climbing has 

 been done in the past. Very likelv half 

 of us are not doing our best in that re- 

 spect. 



On page 218 Doolittle says that earlv 

 sections when first taken will often drip 

 honey freely from outside cells; but after 



three weeks of detention in the right kind 

 of honey room not a drop will start, no 

 matter what .side up you may place it. 

 Doolittle 's work in the Progressive is 

 much of it leveled to the apprehension of 

 beginners ( good influence of the Busv 

 Bee perhaps | and whether so or not a 

 good thing to be done. 



On page 132 Somnambulist says for us 

 to always keep b}- us that familar phrase 

 from the grammar, "Exceptions to gen- 

 eral rules. ' ' He fires this at the wise bee 

 man who never in his life found a queen 

 on the outside comb next the wall of the 

 hive. Strikes me that ?L'iy/! timid queens, 

 that run when the hive is opened, one of 

 the most probable places to look for them 

 is between the last comb and the wall. 



The Progressive is making a reputa- 

 tion for correct poetic taste; both its orig- 

 inal and its selected verses being of high 

 order. Will Ward Mitchell is still the 

 first one we meet when we open up. The 

 welcome to autumn, quoted on page 255 

 from the Atlanta Constitiition, is delight- 

 fully rollicksome and darky-like. To be 

 sure Somnambulist is responsible for the 

 selection of that — but, "like master like 

 man," editor Leahy is the original case 

 from which the other patients catch it. 



The General round-Up. 



Copied from the British Bee Journal in 

 the American Bee Journal page 501, is a 

 very interesting article on Asiatic bees, 

 especially those of Borneo, by C. D. Hav- 

 iland. He is one of those students who 

 incline to establish many species of Apis 

 rather than few, e. g. the Egyptian and 

 Chinese bees are Apis Fasciata and Apis 

 Sinensis instead of merely varieties of 

 Apis ]\Iellifica. Of the tiny little bee 

 .^pis Florea he reports a ver}- different 

 grade of courage in different regions. In 

 Ceylon they are too timid to sting, and 

 boys have no difficulty in plundering 

 them at will. In Borneo they sting right 

 lively. It .seems to be the rule rather tlian 

 than the exception for most species of the 

 bee to vary greatly in color. He found 

 in Borneo that Europeans, as well as 



