370' AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



but then come the authorities and tell us that will do for extracted honey, but for 

 comb honey it won't do at all, for the bees once started to storing in the brood- 

 chamber will fight shy of the super all summer. How are we to know what to do, 

 anyhow? 



He starts a new theory that some may be inclined to question, when he says 

 that the let-up in the honey-flow with the attendant decrease in egg-laying has a 

 tendency to produce swarming. If he's right in that, it's worthwhile to try feeding 

 through the dearth before clover. 



Brace-Combs. — Even if Doolittle insists that brace-combs are needed under 

 supers, I doubt if any one wants them under flat board covers, so it's refreshing to 

 read that 15 years' experience given by H. E. Hill, page 307. I believe there is a 

 growing feeling in favor of the thick and wide top-bar he commends, only I'm won- 

 dering whether it isn't better to have only 14, inch between top-bars. He has % or 

 7/16. With % I get brace-combs. But I space 1% from center to center, to 1}4. 

 Can wider spacing make the difference? 



Issuing of Swarms. — That seems quite an unusual case mentioned by J. A. 

 Golden, page 309, but I'm not sure whether I entirely understand it. Do you 

 mean. Friend Golden, that the young queen hatched out and staid in the hive three 

 days with the old queen, and the swarm issued with the old queen, leaving the 

 young queen in the hive ? 



Italian Bee History. — I must give M. M. Baldridge credit for preserving some 

 degree of brevity on page 311. The tendency in all such cases is to switch off onto 

 a number of side-tracks, forgetting almost entirely the one point at issue in the first 

 place. When that occurs, it would be a good plan for the editor to switch them 

 back on the main track. 



Marking Hive-Entrances. — Friend Faylor asks, page 313, " Who knows a 

 way to mark the entrance so that the bees will find their own doorway ?" I don't 

 know that I can give a full answer, but I can help a- little. Have a tree, post, or 

 something of the kind directly in front of an entrance, and not more than six or 

 eight inches fro-n it, and I think that entrance will get all its own bees and none 

 others. Let two entrances be not more than an inch apart, with a dividing board 

 between them, projecting out six inches or so, and I think those two entrances will 

 not be mixed in the heads of the bees. 



Bees Sticking TO THE Combs.— In answer to the Riverton* man, page 315, I 

 will say that as a rule, Italians stick to the combs whether three or five banded, but 

 I think he has something new under the sun in those bees that hide in the grass 

 like quails. I have seen some well marked bees, however, that were not as quiet 

 on the combs as others, but that's exceptional. Marengo, 111. 



[*The " Riverton man " that Dr. Miller refers to in his last comment is a 

 " man " all right, for his name is C. V. Mann. It seems our proof-reader wasn't 

 " man " enough to notice the omission. — Editor.] 



, APIARY IN THE SXAXK OF ^WASHINGTON. 



BV G. T). mttoov. 



I send you a photograph of my apiary of 70 colonies, under a shed high enout;li 

 so there Is plenty of room to work with the bees and yet be in the shade. Also tin' 

 shed is a very good protection in winter, especially in this climate where we have 



