JANUARY ir.. 1915 



51 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



ITEAY 



STRAWS 



Mi 



TllK chief tliiiiL;' in piil I in^ hilc'ls 

 on ylnss. lU'coi'ilini;' l(.) ;iii ilom in 

 li.-Vatcr, is lo brusii the paste, not 

 (111 ihe label, but on the glass. 



Inbreeding, if continued for a 

 time, is jjenerally believed lo result 

 in deterioration. Hut Dr. Kramer 

 i:;is shown that it nuMvly emphasizes eharae- 

 leristics existing. Weak stock inbred will 

 deteriorate, strong stock will not. Accord- 

 ing to tliat the great thing is to breed from 

 the best without worrying about danger 

 from inbreeding. 



W. Herrod says, British Bee Journal, 

 405. that extracting-combs put away wet will 

 not be attacked by bee-moth. '' In the center 

 of a pile of supers containing wet combs a 

 brood-chamber full of drj' combs was stored. 

 These were entirely eaten np by wax-moths, 

 which did not touch the ones immediately 

 above or below.'' [This is interesting if 

 true. — Ed.] 



11. CiiRiSTEXSEX asks if my Italians seal 

 - riions as white as hybrids did. I have not 



ted any ditference. With almost any kind 

 "I bees 1 think there will be an occasional 

 ( oloii}- that will have watery sealing, also 

 lliat will varnish the sealing with pro])olis; 

 l)ut when certain fall plants are yielding 

 (and I'm not sure what they are), any and 

 all colonies will do this varnishing. 



The annual consumption of an average 

 colony is thus given in Illustrierte Monats- 

 ihietier: Honey, 40 kilograms (88 lbs.); 

 lollen, 20 kg. (44 lbs.); water, 20 qts. 

 ' M tiers have estimated the honej' as high as 

 liUO pounds. [While 200 lbs. is higher than 

 the average, 80 lbs. is undoubtedly low. 

 Our experience in feeding to build up colo- 

 nies seems to favor an intermediate figure. 

 —Eu.] 



Dr. Bruennich reports in Schweiz. Bztg. 

 :i colony which had not swarmed in eleven 

 >'ars. Tlie original queen, which he calls 

 S ( from wliich many non-swarming queens 

 uHie reared) lived nearly four years, the 

 last ten months of her life having with her 

 a successor, S'. S' lived more than four 

 years ; her successor, S", being with her the 

 last three months of her life. S" reared a 

 successor when a few daj's more than four 

 years old. Excellent work was done bj- the 

 colony all the while. No wonder the Swiss 

 believe in breeding for longevity and toward 

 non-swarming. 



" If you u.se full sheets of foundation in 

 sections it really pays to fasten it with 

 melted wax an inch or so from the top on 



each side, to prevent ihc iciideucy of the 

 sheets swinging over when tiie bees cluster 

 on one side, so that the comb is attached to 

 the separator," p. 954. Formerly I had 

 trouble that way, but not a single case for 

 many a year. My remedy is much better 

 than melted wax. Simply have strong colo- 

 nies so the super will be crowded with bees, 

 and then never will " the bees cluster on 

 one side." [Your remedy is all right; but 

 not all colonies will be up to the required 

 strength. You would say, " Do not run 

 tliem for comb honey, then." Perhaps you 

 would be wise. — Ed.] 



F. A. Hannemann, inventor of the zinc 

 perforated queen-excluder, was born in 

 Wartenberg, Germany, May 25, 1819. He 

 came to Brazil, South America, in 1853, 

 bringing with him two colonies of bees, 

 which he increased the first summer to 28. 

 He sold five of these, and increased the 

 remaining 23 the next summer to 250. July 

 24, 1912, he died near Rio Paulo, Brazil. 

 [The scheme of making holes big enough to 

 let workers pass, and not cjueens or drones, 

 is not one of the minor inventions in beedom. 

 It is evident that Hannemann was not 

 aware of the importance of his invention at 

 the time. — Ed.] 



Please^ Mr. Editor, don't say a V starter 

 in a section is a satisfactory compromise, p. 

 954. It's false econom\. The bees will fill 

 out with drone-comb; and unless you use 

 excluders the queen will go up and fill out 

 your sections with drone-brood. [We grant 

 that it is false economy to use V-shaped 

 starters; also false economy to use nari'ow 

 starters an inch deep at the top. But there 

 are W.c^q who believe that full sheets of 

 fouuuation cause too much midrib in the 

 comb honey, and a tendency to revive the 

 so-called manufactured comb-honey canard 

 of years ago. Said a prominent honey- 

 buyer two weeks ago, "I believe tliat all 

 comb honey should be jModuced with nar- 

 row starters because full sheets make too 

 much midrib in the honey." We ventured 

 the suggestion that he could not tell, by eat- 

 ing, comb honey made on full sheets of 

 foundation from that on narrow starters; 

 but he thought he could. Personally we do 

 not believe there is any appreciable differ- 

 ence in the midrib — certainly none that the 

 l)ublic will recognize. But there are those 

 who believe that it is unwise to use full 

 sheets, for the reason stated, and hence our 

 suggestion in the way of a compromise to 

 use a V-shaped starter. — Ed.] 



