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Vol. XXX 



OCT. 15, 1902. 



No. 



20 



yp^/BLCCMlLLER. 



You ASK, Mr. Editor, p. 799, "Are you 

 sure that those wax scales found on the 

 floor-boards in the spring- were real wax 

 scales ? or is it possible our German 

 friends," etc. Yes, they're wax scales 

 fast enough. Have seen 'em with m3' own 

 eyes, not in Germany, but right here in 

 Marengo. [I give it up if you saw the 

 scales. — Ed.] 



No, I don't favor two inches under the 

 combs summer and winter, Mr. Editor, p. 

 800. You can't have so much space in sum- 

 mer, for the bees will fill it with comb. 

 You were, perhaps, deceived by seeing- that 

 my floor-boards were not reversed in sum- 

 mer. Nowadays, instead of reversing them 

 I put in a false bottom to fill up the extra 

 space. Less trouble than to have to lift the 

 hives for reversing-. [I accept the correc- 

 tion. — Ed.] 



Nkither do Iconsiderthe Clark "suitable 

 for only a few colonies, or for a person who 

 has an abundance of time to keep it going. " 

 A new Clark works well, and will give a 

 big smoke. But it's too expensive, for in a 

 little while it plays out in some way so it 

 must be thrown aside. [The Clark is sold 

 for a cheap smoker. We have thought sev- 

 eral times of dropping it out of our catalog; 

 but there are those who want a cheap thing 

 simply because it is cheap in price. Per- 

 haps we should be doing such people a real 

 kindness \iy denying them the cheap thing 

 in spite of their preference. — Ed.] 



What a season this has been 1 bees starv- 

 ing in June, and here it is the first of Octo- 

 ber, and bees busy working on clover, both 

 white and red! [My, oh my! what a local- 

 ity! I remember that, some years ago, aft- 

 er the time for the usual honey- flow had 

 fully passed, and you had no honey, you 



afterward secured a big crop. The strange 

 part of it is that bees should be gathering 

 honey from white clover. In our locality it 

 has been too cold and rainy for the bees to 

 do any thing for the last week or ten days. 

 —Ed.] 



George Shiber is right, p. 808, in say- 

 ing, " Do not make a brushed swarm before 

 queen-cells are started;" for, as he says, 

 the colony may not offer to swarm; and if 

 it does not you will get a better yield than 

 with a brushed swarm; at least I think 

 that is the case here. Besides, leaving the 

 non-swarmers unbrushed, and breeding 

 only from them, will be just so much on the 

 road toward a non-swarming strain. In 

 most cases the colonies that give the best 

 yields are those that never ofter to start a 

 queen-cell. 



I always said James Heddon deserved a 

 vote of thanks for giving us the slat honey- 

 board. As friend Greiner says, p. 807, it 

 lessened pollen, travel-stain, burr-combs, 

 and propolis. But when I learned to lessen 

 those things just as much with thick top- 

 bars and proper spacing, I was delighted 

 to cast aside the slat honey-board with its 

 sticky mess between top-bars and honey- 

 board, and I can't understand, friend Grei- 

 ner, why 3'ou should want to give it another 

 trial. [Just our experience exactly ; and 

 yet every once in a while I run across men 

 "who do not believe that thick top-bars prop- 

 erly spaced will lessen — in fact, do away 

 almost entirely with theburr-combnuisance. 

 I can only think their prejudice is so deep- 

 seated that unconsciously they are blind to 

 their best interests. — Ed.] 



A correspondent wants me to tell what 

 should be the gross weight of hive, combs, 

 honej', bees, and ever}'^ thing, so as to be 

 sure there shall be no lack of winter stores. 

 There can be no fixed rule. I want my 

 eight-frame hives with cover and bottom- 

 boards to weigh not less than 48 pounds 

 each. A ten-frame hive should weigh more; 

 a chaft' hive much more. Old combs weigh 

 much more than new ones. One hive may 

 have several pounds of pollen more than an- 

 other. Outdoor wintering requires several 

 pounds of honej' more than cellar winter- 



