JUNE 1. 1915 



435 



^- C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAW! 



H. P. KiRBY, when bee-hunting, 

 lakes vinegar to dihite honey, p. 

 409. Wliy vinegar rather than 

 Avater? 



W. C. IMOLLETT, in comparing 

 Italians with blacks, p. 413, you 

 oniitlerl one marked trait of supe- 

 riority in Italians. A weak colony of Ital- 

 ians will clean out the bee-moth where a 

 weak colony of blacks will give up and die. 

 G. M. DooLiTTLE, p. 398, testifies " from 

 many experiments and ranch careful obser- 

 vation," (hat queenless bees select for 

 queen-rearing larvae about 36 hours old. 

 Thanks, friend Doolittle. for your expert 

 testimony against the libel that in their 

 haste for a new sovereign they choose larvfe 

 too old to make a good queen. 



I WONDER how many beekeepers take care 

 that no young queen be reared except from 

 the best stock. And then, of those who are 

 thus painstaking, I wonder how many pay 

 any attention to the drones. Yet we are 

 told that the drone is just as important as 

 the queen. It isn't such a very hard matter 

 to encourage drones in a few of the best 

 colonies, suppressing them in all others. 



A SEVEFiE slump has taken place in the 

 market value of Chicago's 7152 saloon li- 

 censes. A year ago they brought $2500 to 

 $2800. This year, 89 licenses came into 

 the possession of Judge Landis through the 

 failure of The Tosetti Brewing Co., and he 

 could get no bid higher than $1200 for a 

 license. It would be hard to say just how 

 much this is due to the fact that a great dry 

 campaign is to be waged in Chicago, with 

 Billy Sunday in the thick of it. [What is 

 taking place in Chicago is taking place in 

 many other cities and towns in the United 

 States. The saloon crowd is panic-stricken, 

 and on the run. — Ed.] 



That vigorous editorial protest against 

 spreadin? brood, p. 345, would do good 

 service if it were printed each spring, for 

 each spring a fresh lot of beginners come 

 into action, and one of the first notions a 

 beginner gets into his noddle is that a sure 

 way to hurry up brood-rearing is to shove 

 an empty comb between two combs of brood. 

 I think, however, that you are making a 

 pretty liberal concession, !Mr. Editor, when 

 you say (hat under som^ circnmp'nnres "it 

 may do some good." I don't dare to say 

 that my experience should be a guide for 

 every one, but I will say that in my locality 

 and with ray bees brood can be spread in 



spring always and only at a loss. With 

 plenty of honey in the hive, my bees always 

 have all the brood they can ^over, as soon 

 as they get fairly started at brood-rearing; 

 and pray tell me how spreading can make 

 them cover more. Doesn't any good queen 

 anywhere have all the brood in spring her 

 bees can cover? [We do not know but that 

 we agree with you; but if you will look at 

 the editorial again we think you will* see 

 that the only time when spreading brood 

 might do no harm, or might be an advan- 

 tage in the spring, was during a spell of 

 continuously hot weather. If it did not 

 turn cold shortly after, it might do no 

 harm. Generally speaking, the beginner 

 should let the spreading of brood alone. 

 Bees may not know much, but they know a 

 whole lot more than their owner who knows 

 more than he ought to know. — Ed.] 



Pollen is generally understood to be 

 found in honey, at least a few grains here 

 and there. It is doubtful, however, whether 

 all beekeepers understand to what extent 

 this is the case. The English pollen-expert, 

 Mr. G. Hayes, says, British Bee Journal, 

 117, " You will remember that the pollen- 

 grains are distributed all through the hon- 

 ey, and you can scarcely put in a needle- 

 point without taking out pollen-grains." 

 [The presence or absence of pollen in any 

 sample of suspected honey goes a long way 

 toward determining whether the honey is 

 pui'e or impure. For example, invert sugar 

 has many of the characteristics of pure 

 honey. At one time certain unscrupulous 

 venders thonght they could adulterate honey 

 with invert sugar, and escape detection ; but 

 they found out their mistake, for the chem- 

 ists found that their adulterated samples 

 contained too small an amount of nitroge- 

 nous matter — pollen. 



The fact that there is always some pollen 

 in honey explains why bees will breed up 

 on it better than they will on sugar syrup 

 or any other artificial product. This also 

 explains why colonies in the spring that 

 have a good supply of natural stores will be 

 stronger in the spring than colonies having 

 only sugar stores. The former will breed 

 up on honey when they could not do so on 

 sugar; hence the relative difference in 

 strength in the spring between the tAvo sets 

 of colonies. But that does not argue that 

 sugar syrup is not better as a pure wintering 

 food. If with the sugar stores there were 

 combs of natural pollen the difference might 

 not be so marked. — Ed.] 



