OCTOBER 1. 1915 



789 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



iTMAY STMAWS I Mare,.g..I.. 



Grace Allkn, p. 701!, somctiiuos 

 darkness is an advaiitaye when in- 

 troducing, since (here are then no 

 robl)ers about to make the bees 

 ball the queen. 



Thk Outlaw, p. r)4.j, lias surely 

 struck on a good thing in having 

 full frames instead of sections for cafete- 

 rias. >\s the honey is to be cut up into 

 I^ortions in either case, what advantage is 

 there in the section? 



(i. M. Uoolittlf:, many thanks for telling 

 us, J). 7'i0, what perhaps 1 ought to have 

 known, but really didn't know, that it made 

 all the difference whether a full or au 

 empty comb was used in spreading brood. 

 After all, if the bees already have all the 

 brood they can cover, will spreading be a 

 good thing? 



J. E. Crane^ you say, p. 748, that sections 

 with bottom startei- were no better attached 

 at the bottom than those without. Does 

 that mean that the bees gnawed down the 

 bottom starter, that they build doAvn well 

 without it, or what? When I used no bot- 

 tom starter many sections were not built 

 down at all, while with them there is no 

 failure. What makes the difference? 



FooiiEi' again ! On p. 745 I said that, 

 although bloom was abundant, I gave up 

 hope of anything to speak of from it. 

 Scarcely had I written that when the bees 

 started on a craze for gathering I never 

 saw excelled. Clover, aster (other years 

 aster yields nothing here), heartsease, and 

 1 don't know what all, seem running over 

 with nectar. You never know what bees 

 v.ill do next. [See reference to this subject 

 in editorials, this issue. — Ed.] 



A CORRESPOXDENT refers to page 553 of 

 ABC and X Y Z, where " a frame of 

 unsealed larvae " is recommended to attract 

 the bees of a swarm, and wants to know if 

 sealed wouldn't do as well. Generally, when 

 you take from a hive a frame containing 

 unsealed larvae, you will have sealed as well, 

 and I suppose nothing could be better than 

 a fiame having all kinds. But if it is a 

 choice between a frame having only unseal- 

 ed and another having only sealed, all my 

 observation tends toward the belief that 

 bees have a stronger attachment to the 

 sealed. [A. I. Root, as you will remember, 

 used to teach and preach that a swarm 

 favors unsealed rather than sealed brood — 

 or, rather, he always gave directions that, 

 in order to hold the swarm in its hive, we 



should iiive a frame of unsealed brood. 

 Who is right?— Ed.] 



Mr. 1'^i)1T(3R^ you ask, p. 746, whether my 

 Ireatment of European foul brood is not 

 the basis of the Alexander treatm.ent. Let 

 uie say with all the emphasis I can that I 

 never wanted it understood that my treat- 

 ment was anything but the Alexander treat- 

 ment, the big pririciple of the whole thing 

 being that cessation of brood-rearing would 

 allow the bees to clean up. T merely short- 

 ened the time of treatment, and that by a 

 stupid blunder — a change that I am sure 

 Mr. Alexander would have made if he had 

 lived long enough. [Yes, we know very 

 well that you do not claim originalitj^ ex- 

 cept in the matter of time; but we merely 

 asked the question in order that the public, 

 who, perhaps, had forgotten, might know 

 the precise situation. — Ed.] 



A YOirxG queen is far more profitable 

 than an old one, because she will lay till 

 late in fall, while " an old queen that has 

 exhausted herself in the early jDart of the 

 season will usually stop laying Avhen the 

 main honey-flow ceases," page 699. True 

 as preaching. Yet the evils depicted as re- 

 sulting from that old queen being left don't 

 ha])pen with me. I suspect it's because the 

 queen that has exhausted herself is always 

 superseded by the bees. At any rate I don't 

 believe it pays for me to meddle with the 

 superseding business unless there's some 

 other reason for it than old age. [The 

 conditions in a comb-honey-producing yard 

 and a queen or bee producing yard are 

 not the same. In the latter, breeding is 

 forced in season and out of season by 

 feeding. In the ordinary production of 

 comb honey, breeding begins early in the 

 spring and continues from the time honey 

 begins to come in heavily. The gathered 

 nectar often fills up the cells that would 

 othenvise be occupied by the queen. The 

 result is, her bodily vitality is not drained 

 in the same way that it would be if she 

 were ijiven unlimited room, and forced by 

 feeding. In the foi'mer case the bees might 

 do their superseding soon enough. In the 

 latter case would it not be more jirofitable 

 to use young ciueens, esjiecially those bred 

 aftei- or about the time of the main honev- 

 tlow?— Ed.] 



Bilateral inultiple is the name of the 

 latest honey-extractor, the invention of M. 

 Etieniie Jacquet. You put into the machine 

 a single comb, or any number up to 20, pull 

 down the cover, turn the crank for a time, 



