298 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEit 



and now in any other condition than the 

 usual one — that is with a bee space above 

 the bar for at least half way across. Another 

 fact also misleads. Most of the said sena- 

 tors have lots of extra combs for the extract- 

 ing supers; and they are nicely fastened to 

 the bottom bar, those not so originally soon 

 becoming so. It is not in the super but in 

 the brood chamber that this gradual mis- 

 chief transpires. And the question, What 

 can bees want a second bee space there for? 

 also helps to mislead. The fact is they do 

 not want it. It is not on account of the 

 passage, but on account of the everlasting 

 call for just a little more wax to cap the 

 brood with, and because it's so handy 

 to go down to the bottom of the comb 

 and pinch off a little there. 



Dr. Miller says that he has seen queen cells 

 sealed up when the occupants were quite 

 small; which he thinks would add to the usu- 

 al time between sealing and emerging. A. 

 B. J. 523. 



Carson Van Blaricum of Ellis, Michigan, 

 answers the query about peppermint for 

 houey. He keeps bees by a peppermint 

 distillery, and in reach of 500 acres of the 

 plant. Yields well; but fun is spoiled by 

 the habit of catting it soon after it blooms. 

 It blooms in July, August and September. 

 The honey is clear, and has a quality supe- 

 rior to clover, or anything else he is familiar 

 with. 



THE GENERAL ROUND - UP 



One of the too numerous errors in last 

 View needs correcting. Bees should not al- 

 ways be expected to destroy queen cells 

 while in the unsealed stage. The word 

 " not " got left out. 



Doolittle's article on getting pure bees 

 where neighbors all round keep impure ones 

 is pretty nearly exhaustive. Read the whole 

 of it. Gleanings 5G4. First, and best, raise 

 plenty of drones in each approved colony, 

 and patiently keep killing the impurely 

 mated queens and trying again — giving 

 thanks for the final mismates, which will be 

 better than your pure ones any way. ( 2 ) 

 Hustle in spring, and do the job before the 

 neighbors get any drones — and half spoil 

 your honey crop. ( 3 ) Keep some drones, 

 and doit after the adjacent drones are all 

 killed off in the fall — at a risk of some poor 

 queens, and some wintering consequences. 

 ( 4 ) Whisk your nuclei and drones away 

 somewhere out of reach of other bees. ( 5 ) 



Put your nuclei and drones down cellar; 

 feed with warm honey and water ; and set 

 them out facing the sun just after all other 

 drones have ceased flying for the afternoon. 



There is general stir in Gleanings about 

 the best movable numbers to fasten to hives. 

 I will risk repeating myself too often, and 

 say once more that a hive needs a visible 

 number on it no more than a toad needs a 

 tail, if a strict arrangement by groups is 

 followed. I can instantly give the number 

 of any one of my hives that you may touch ; 

 yet there are no figures on them, and never 

 have been. I use a compound number, the 

 first part for the group, and the second part 

 for the position in the group. So my hives 

 are 4-7, or 11-2 or l(J-9 as the case may be. 

 The number 16 9 means the ninth or last 

 hive in the sixteenth or last group. If yon 

 read in your record book of No. 131, yon 

 may still have to waste a little time in find- 

 ing No. 131. But if I read in my book of 

 12-8 I can go right to it at midnight. 



Concerning the big and small hive discus- 

 sion Ernest draws seven tentative conclusions 

 on page 638 ; of which the most important 

 are (2) "A larger number find the ten 

 frame hive preferable to the eight frame 

 than we had any idea of ; " and ( 6 ) "The 

 eight frame hive is not as generally accepted 

 as about the right size for all bee-keepers 

 as we have thought. " 



That dummy of the Root hive, for con- 

 venience in removing the first frame — Emma 

 Wilson says she pries out a frame first in 

 order to get the dummy out. Gleanings 622. 



Sweet clover pollen is a faded yellow ; 

 and bees sometimes gather it. Stray straw. 

 Gleanings 619. 



Friend Salisbury of Syracuse N. Y. has a 

 feather in his cap — reward of a demonstra- 

 tion, in Gleanings 655, that bees notice col- 

 ors, and notice them very strongly. His 

 house apiary is long and painted in vertical 

 strips of five colors. One yellow strip had 

 no bees in it ; yet when lots of young bees 

 were flying from the other yellow strip, 

 quite a distance away, a considerable crowd 

 of them blundered in, attracted by the yel- 

 low color. 



Dr. Miller's method of warming his cellar. 



"The hives standing on all sides around and 

 facing the stove. " Canadian 618. 



And he testifies that his worst losses have 

 been when the fire was omitted. Many facts 

 of many kinds is what we need to make os 

 wise — or do conflicting facts make some of 



