106 



TBE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. 



June 



"A captive bee striving to escape, 

 has been made to record as many as 

 15,540 wing strokes per minute, in a 

 recent test." — San Francisco Post. 



A writer in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal adduces strong evidence that queen- 

 less bees will sometimes steal eggs 

 from other colonies, with which to re- 

 lieve their otherwise hopeless con- 

 dition. 



— o — 



F. Rauchfuss, at the Colorado con- 

 vention, stated his observation to have 

 been that in renewing their old brood 

 combs, bees choose a time when the 

 combs are free from brood, as during 

 queenlessness. An interesting obser- 

 vation, surely. 



W. P. Whitaker, of Centreville, Utah, 

 writes that he recently purchased ten 

 colonies in dry goods boxes; transfer- 

 red them in the usual way to good 

 hives, and they are now prospering in 

 their homes. Utah is coming to the 

 front as a bee country. 

 — o— 



The somewhat beclouded skies of the 

 apicultural future are illumed by the 

 light of encouragement, through the 

 introduction of recent improvements, 

 as seen by L. A. Aspinwall, in April 

 Review, who says, "we are progressing 

 towards a perfect system of bee-cul- 

 ture." Then in immediate succession 

 comes an article by C. G. Ferris, wholly 

 in line with his introductory para- 

 graph: "I am thoroughly disgusted 

 with the way that producers of honey 

 are going backward instead of im- 

 proving their product." And the 

 horizon is again obscured by sombre 

 clouds. 



We have an excellent article on the 

 management of an apiary for extracted 

 honey, by Mr". John Newton, to appear 

 in our next issue. Mr. Newton wrote 

 us May 17th that bees in that section of 

 the country, (Ontario) had wintered 

 well, and were improving the lovely 

 weather by active work on fruit bloom 

 and dandelions. 



— o — 



Dr. A. B. Mason, of Toledo, O., writes 

 that the idea of using the blind staple 

 in the end of bottom bars, as suggested 

 in the Bee-Keeper last month, "strikes" 

 him as a good thing, and that he will 

 give it a trial. We have used staples in 

 this way for the past eighteen years, 

 and would not think of trying to work 

 without them. You'll like them, doc- 

 tor. 



— o — 



The widely different traits of char- 

 acter in bees of the same variety or 

 race, as noted by every bee-keeper of 

 experience, according to J. E. Crane, 

 in Review, is a disposition to be prized; 

 as it lends substantial encouragement 

 in the work of improving our stock. If 

 all bees of the same race were of uni- 

 form disposition, invariably estab- 

 lished, our ambition in the line of im- 

 provement would be hopeless. 

 — o — 



Speaking of the fruit institute of 

 Michigan, held at Grand Rapids, the 

 American Agriculturist says: "Prof. 

 Barrows gave one talk each day upon 

 insects of archard fruits, insects of 

 small fruits, fertilization of flowers and 

 the natural enemies of insects. He 

 spoke of the importance of not spray- 

 ing with poisonous solutions while the 

 trees are in flower, as this will also 

 destroy the bees, which are necessary 

 for the cross-fertilization of the flow- 

 ers, recent experiments having shown 

 that with the exception of Baldwin and 

 Greening nearly all of our apples are 

 self-sterile and require the aid of in- 

 sects to cross-fertilize them, while 

 many of the other fruits are also self- 

 sterile." 



