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PER\tAR."^'\@"nEDlNA-OH10 



Vol. XXX. 



FEB. I, 1902. 



No. 3. 



Let me say to J. M. Mack that his plan 

 of emptying- sections to use the next year is 

 all right provided he lets the bees dry them 

 out before the honey in them granulates. 

 I wouldn't be willing- to use them if the 

 bees did not clean them out in the fall. 



I ADVISE Bro. Aikin not to be big--headed 

 because he devises some useful thing-. All 

 the same, if I had g-otten up that separator 

 on p. 50, I'm afraid I'd need a hat of larg-er 

 size. It should be put on the list of bee- 

 keepers' supplies. JBi-o. Aikin, can't you 

 g-ive it a name not already in use for anoth- 

 er bee-keeping- implement? 



Mr. Editor, I think you misunderstand 

 Wm. Craig-, p. 61. He means his bees fly 

 out while he is carrying them out. Friend 

 Craig-, the trouble is a lack of that fresh 

 air in the cellar that the editor thinks so 

 much of. Open up your cellar the evening 

 before, and let it stay wide open all night, 

 and see if it doesn't quiet the bees so they'll 

 not want to liy out till after they are on 

 the stand. If any are inclined to fly out, 

 g-ive them a little smoke. No harm if the 

 cellar is full of smoke so long- as all the 

 bees will be taken out within a few hours. 



" Extracted honey can be improved by 

 boiling it," p. 63. Do you mean boiling or 

 heating, Mr. Editor? [I mean boiling in 

 the case under consideration; for you will 

 remember that our correspondent stated 

 that he had some honey that soured, and he 

 wished to know how to treat it. Mere heat, 

 while it might do some good, would not 

 bring about the improvement sought. It 

 should be kept boiling for some time. That 

 will arrest further fermentation, and at the 

 some time expel tlie gases. But not all 

 sour honey can be made sweet, by consider- 

 able, by such treatment. If very sour, it 

 had better be converted into vinegar. If 

 honey is slightly tainted with an acid 

 taste, it can generally be improved. — Ed.] 



" We have known that the depths of 

 the cell varied . . . the cells at the 

 start are longer than is necessary," says 

 ye editor, page 48. Worker comb 25 years 

 old will be perhaps y% inch thicker than 

 when new; but is there any real difference 

 in the depth of the cell? Is not the differ- 

 ence almost if not entirely in the septum? 

 Reidenbach's measurements seem to show 

 that the average contents of a cell does not 

 decrease with age; why should its depth? 

 [Your notion of the matter is the same as 

 mine. An old comb is deeper than a new 

 one by just the thickness of the accumula- 

 tions in the bottom of the cell. — Ed.] 



A. Maujean spaces his extracting-combs 

 \f\ inches from center to center, leaves 

 them on till sealed, then cuts them down to 

 one inch in thickness. He thinks the extra 

 yield of wax costs him nothing. — Rev. Eclec. 

 [Th.s is a very common practice through- 

 out the West; and extracting-frames are 

 spaced wide, even with Hoffman end-bars. 

 Wax always brings a good price, and very 

 many, perhaps a majority, of the extract- 

 ed-honey producers, consider that there is 

 more money in producing wax and honey 

 both by using thick extracting-combs, and 

 slicing down each time, than spacing the 

 combs regulation thickness and merely cut- 

 ting off the cappings. — Ed.] 



"There are more bees kept to-day in 

 the old-fashioned box hive than any other 

 style," says L. E. Kerr, in American Bee- 

 Keeper. I wonder if that can be true. 

 There are probablj^ more box hives across 

 the water than in this country, and it miiy 

 be true there, but I suspect that frame 

 hives have the upper hand in this country. 

 [The statement of Mr. Kerr, even if it ap- 

 plied to the whole world, can hardly be 

 true. In Europe there may be more colonies 

 in straw skeps and box hives co)nbined than 

 in movable-frame hives. But if the state- 

 ment is limited to the United States, it is 

 certainl}' wide of the mark. I presume I 

 have traveled through nearly all the best 

 bee country in the United States and Can- 

 ada; and the box hive, even with the old- 

 fashioned farmer, is the exception. In my 



