JUNE 15, 1915 



481 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



ITMAY STEAW! 



Marengo, 



May 24 was wet, and bees were 

 tliiok on the grass in the asparagus 

 bed — no bees on grass elsewhere. 

 A barrel of salt had been spread 

 on the bed. Strong proof that 

 bees do like salt. 



G. ^I. Dooliti'Lk's discussion of winter 

 confinement, p. 441, says nothing about dif- 

 ference between cellar and outdoors. With 

 best conditions in cellar I should expect bees 

 to stand a good bit longer confinement tlian 

 outdoors. 



Wesi.ey Foster says, p. 436, that open- 

 ing a hive seems to aggravate drifting. Ex- 

 actly. So when we set a hive on its stand 

 we not only do not open it, but we close its 

 big entrance down to a square inch or less. 

 During the years since we began that we 

 have never had a drift. 



Speaking of making a swarm stay in a 

 hive, p. 464. it is said, " With frames and 

 starters of foundation they will not come 

 out . . . and they will not come out if there 

 is a big noise about." I wonder, now, 

 whether either of those things have the least 

 effect in holding a swarm. 



Speaking of our "national crime-breed- 

 ing partnership," A. I. Root says, p. 468, 

 " We men who cast our votes are to blame 

 — every one of us." Speak for yourself, 

 Bro. Root. I plead not guilty. If all " we 

 men " had voted with me in the last 40 years 

 there wouldn't be a saloon in the land. 



First bloom on white and also alsike 

 clover found May 27. But day after day 

 it's cold and wet, seldom above 50, and 

 bees stay close in their hives. But clover is 

 plentiful, and if it will only honey there 

 may be a good crop. [White clover began 

 to come out in this locality during the last 

 days of May ; and to-day, June 4, the bees 

 are just beginning to work on it. "\,\niile 

 clover does not seem to be abundant, yet 

 what there is of it seems to be yielding a 

 little earlier than usual. — Ed.] 



T. J. Quail, p. 453, thinks I must be 

 mistaken about bumblebees working on 

 alfalfa. Possibly, but they looked the same 

 as when working on red clover. I know it's 

 the rule that alfalfa doesn't honey east of 

 the Mississippi ; but at other times I've seen 

 enough honeybees on it to warrant the be- 

 lief they were getting something. Moreover, 

 there have been (I think in Gleanings) 

 reports of bees working profitably, I think, 

 on alfalfa in New York and Wisconsin. 



[As a rule alfalfa does not yield nectar in 

 the East ; but we have had reports of its 

 yielding in New York and Wisconsin as 

 you say. Mr. S. D. House explains it by 

 saying that alfalfa has to be in a locality 

 for a considerable length of time before it 

 yields honey. — Ed.] 



E. G. Carr, p. 466, I should say that a 

 colony with European fcul brood to be 

 " strong " enough for treatment should have 

 bees covering five or six frames of brood, 

 and there should be a large proportion of 

 young bees. Your question's a fair one. 

 Here's another just as fair. Just how many 

 bees do we mean in general when we speak 

 of a strong colony? I don't know; but I'll 

 start the ball by saying not less than 50,000. 

 [We estimate from 4500 to 5200 bees to the 

 pound. Let us call it 5000 for the sake of 

 an even tigure, for it will be about 5000 

 when the bees are not filled with honey. 

 Then 50,000 bees will mean 10 lbs. One of 

 the biggest swarms we ever hived contained 

 9 lbs. of bees when placed on the scales. 

 Your 50,000 mark, then, is not far from 

 right, as a few bees would be left at home. 

 For the production of extracted honey we 

 are not sure but we should like to have the 

 colony even stronger than that. Something 

 however, would dej^end on the size and 

 shape of the hive. An ordinary comb-hon- 

 ey colony probably would not have much 

 over 35,000 bees. A ten-frame brood-nest 

 could contain about 4 lbs. of bees. The 

 supers might contain 3 lbs. more, or in all 

 35,000 bees on the basis of 5000 to the 

 pound. — Ed.] 



W. S. M'Nair, I'm a good bit in sympa- 

 thy with you about the classes of queens, 

 15. 414. It's a perplexing question, and 

 perhaps we ought to have a commission sit 

 upon it. Take " select untested." If that 

 means anything it means that he who buys 

 simply " untested " gets something inferior. 

 As you sa};, you can't tell a queen by her 

 looks, unless there be something wrong about 

 her, in which case all the selecting that 

 should be done should be to select out the 

 bad and smash their heads, and that before 

 they're mated. Then as to testing, we're 

 learning to put less reliance on eoloi*. Isn't 

 the real test the performance of a queen 

 rather than her color? And you can't know 

 the performance of a queen till she has lived 

 through a full season. But perhaps I'd 

 better leave the rest for the commission to 

 settle. [One who buys " untested queens " 



Conliuued on page 483. 



