SKI'TEMRt;k 1. 191: 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



ITMAY STKAW! 



Marenffo, 111. 



a 



Ilv way of <.'inj)liasiziiig' wliat is 

 said about bees working' on same 

 kind of How'ers, p. 611, it may be 

 added tliat some varieties of fruit- 

 tiees are sterlile to tlieir own pol- 

 len, and, unless insects carry pol- 

 len to Ibem from other varieties, 

 I hey will remain barren. 



("oNnrnONS named by J. L. Hyer, p. G17, 

 are much the same as they have been hei'c, 

 but lesults opposite. Wet weather caused 

 I he loss of Held bees with him; but here it 

 seems mei'ely to have kept them at home, 

 saving their strength and lengthening their 

 lives; and colonies never have been stronger. 



'Sin. KniTOR, you have struck the nail on 

 the head exactly when you say, p. 613, that 

 (he trouble about getting rid of the saloon 

 has been '^ that the great majority of the 

 voters would not desei't their old party." 

 As 3'ou say, a big movement is on, and 

 whenever Christian men decide to put prin- 

 ciple before old-party ties, and get together 

 in one party, rhe speed of that movement 

 will be quadrupled. [Exactly. But if the 

 great majority do not desert their parties 

 we are compelled in the mean time to do 

 the best we can with the kind of voters we 

 have. — Ed.] 



P. C. Chadwick, p. 571, reports a queen 

 filling five combs with egg's in five days, and 

 sa\'s, " That is performance enough for me." 

 Not for me, P. C. I have a queen in No. 

 81, perliaps the best layer I have; hive over- 

 flowing with yellow bees; but she's marked 

 for decapitation because her bees don't re- 

 liver the goods. The measure of a queen's 

 value is not the number of eggs she lays, 

 but the pounds of honey her workers store, 

 [ilorp than once w'e have had instances in 

 our locality showing that the extra-yellow 

 bees are not the ones that gather the honey. 

 Our neighbor, Mr. Vernon Burt, said to us 

 a couple of years ago that he had some bees 

 liiat were golden almost to the tip, "but," 

 said he, " while they are beautiful to look 

 at, They are absolutely worthless for honey- 

 a^athering, and I am going to pinch the 

 queen's head."- -Ed.] 



A siSTKR beekeeper wants to know about 

 placing hives in pairs. Advantages: Dou- 

 l)ling the number on tlie same ground. The 

 bees know right from left, and bees from the 

 right-liaiul hive never enter the left-hand 

 hive. Tf they go wrong it will be to enter 

 the riglit-hand l;ive of the next pair. Tf two 

 rows are jdaced back to back there is still 



greater economy of ground room. When 

 vvoi'king at a hive it is a convenience to 

 have the top of the adjoining hive as a plat- 

 foim. Disadvantage: Once in a great while 

 some of the bees of a returning swarm will 

 enter the wrong hive. [We have been work- 

 ing the scheme of putting hives in pairs 

 at our oLityards. We liked it so well that 

 •ve shall continue to use it. There is one 

 disadvantage you have not mentioned; and 

 that is. in the spring the colony in the pair 

 that is the stronger has a tendency to draw 

 from the weaker. During the playspells 

 of the young bees, the stronger colony, mak- 

 ing a bigger show, will draw the young bees 

 awciy to some extent. However, this slight 

 disadvantage is not great enough to over- 

 balance the advantage of being able to unite 

 in the fall, putting the weak one with the 

 3t;ronger, and taking away its hive entirely. 

 —Ed.'] 



TifAT article by Chalon Fowls, p. 574, 

 sets one to thinking. But isn't ye editor a 

 bit sweeping when he speaks of a swarm 

 according to nature having " notliing but 

 old bees'"? A bee would hardly be called 

 " old " until it becomes a field bee. But in a 

 natural swarm aren't there bees from the 

 oldest down to those just able to fly? and 

 don't you sometimes find on the ground bees 

 too young to fly that have tried to go with 

 the swarm? Yet a beginner might under- 

 stand from what is said that only field bees 

 are in a swarm. However, in a shaken 

 swarm baby bees are brushed off that would 

 never go with a swarm, and that might make 

 a subtle difference. [You have taken our 

 language too literally. What we really meant 

 and perhaps ought to have said was flying- 

 bees in distinction from those that are 

 nurse bees or those that could not fly. Tliis 

 does not mean that nurse bees cannot fly. 

 Yes, it is true there is no invariable rule 

 in regard to swarms. A swann may and 

 jiossibly does carry away three-fourths of 

 all the bees — possibly nearly all that can fly. 

 Some of the bees are much older than 

 others, as a matter of course. The point 

 we tried to make was that the old shake 

 methods of swarm control were defective 

 in that they took bees of all ages. 



But you entirely skip over the important 

 thing we want to know — what is your opin- 

 ion of the Fowls plan of swarm control? 

 Is it as good as or better than some other 

 plan? It is more important to know what 

 you think about that than what constitutes 

 ""old bees."— Er).] 



