ov-eaning^ 

 DEE CULTURE 



Published by The A. I. Root Company, Medina, Ohio 



E. R. ROOT, Editor a. L. BOYDEN, advektisinq Mgr 



H. H. ROOT. ASST. Ed. J. T. CALVERT, BUSINESS Mgr. 



A. I. ROOT, Editor of Home Department 



Vol. XXXVI. 



APRIL 15, 1908. 



No. 8 



J. E. Hand, page 422, evidently thinks the 

 West time for spring feeding is in the fall. 

 Here's my hand on that, friend Hand. 



Illinois failed to get county option, but 

 our new township-option law is making 

 things lively for the saloons Now that you 

 Ohio fellows ha\e county option, you ought 

 to make things .just hum. 



Phillip B. Stewart, 1 don't believe you 

 will like any of the plans you propose, page 

 445, unless it be the plan with box hives. 

 Most, however, would prefer the plan given 

 by W. K. M . only by some mistake he is 

 made to say that the bees should be driven 

 out 15 days after swarming. It should be 21. 



F. Danzenbakkr thinks I shouM put noth- 

 ing in the two inch space under frames to 

 prevent bees building down, p. 447. Worth 

 thinking over. But when the bees fill up 

 the space with comb, will it not be the same 

 as if there had been in the first place deeper 

 combs with no deep space? Besides, the 

 combs are generally built crosswise, making 

 bad work lifting out the frames. 



What can possibly make such a difference 

 between F. Greiner's experience and mine? 

 He says, p. 435, that in the few cases when 

 he left nothing but a board cover over his 

 supers, with the hot sun upon them, the re- 

 sult was the loss of a super of honey. I do 

 not think I ever had a section injured, to say 

 nothing of the loss of a super, and I've had 

 hundreds and hundreds of cases of the hot 

 sun shining upon an unpainted single-board 

 cover on the super. I wonder if his hives 

 are in too close surroundings. I once had 

 combs melt down in a hive in shade so dense 

 that the sun never touched it, but with un- 

 dergrowth on all sides to hinder free circula- 



tion of air. [The difference may be account- 

 ed for on the basis of locality as well as the 

 immediate surroundings. — Ed.] 



Dysentery is mentioned, p. 418. Better 

 call it diarrhea. Even that is a pretty strong 

 term if there is nothing more than overload- 

 ing the intestines. [We have known for 

 some time that the word "dysentery" was 

 not the correct or technical one to describe a 

 certain disease of the bees in spring, and 

 that '"diarrhea" was much more exact; but, 

 unfortunately, the former term has become 

 so thoroughly incorporated in our literature 

 and the minds of our correspondents that it 

 has come to be one of those words that we 

 can not very well change. — Ed.] 



Replying, Mr Editor, to your query, page 

 411, I do not believe that ventilation at each 

 story "requires a large portion of fielders to 

 stay at home to keep up the necessary body 

 heat." The nurse bees are sufficient for that 

 at any time when a fiow is on, and are not 

 even they sometimes forced to hang out idle 

 when ventilation is insufficient? [Are you 

 sure that there will be enough nurse bees in 

 all localities to keep up the necessary body 

 heat in double or triple deckers when you 

 storify or pile one super on top of another 

 in such a way as to leave ventilating-gaps? 

 If there has been a large amount of brood- 

 rearing at the right time, it is conceivable 

 that there might be enough of such young 

 bees —Ed.] 



Taking away com*bs from a ten-frame 

 hive and filling out with dummies when the 

 harvest commences, as recommended on p. 

 417, has the disadvantage that sections over 

 the dummy or dummies at the side will be 

 slowly worked. A limited experience, how- 

 ever, leads me to believe that this may be 

 remedied by putting the dummies, not at 

 the side, but between the combs, one in a 

 place. Contrary to my expectation this did 

 not seem to hinder the work of either bees 

 or queen. [A good suggestion. If a dummy 

 be put in the center of the brood-nest it will 

 have a tendency to force comb-building in 

 supers clear out to the sides, and still the 

 center will not be neglected. — Ed.] 



