

Entered at the Post-OfBce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 

 Published Weekly at Sl.OO a Year by Cieorge W. ¥ork & Co., 334 Uearbom St. 



QBORae W. YORK, Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JAN, 26, 1905, 



VoL XLV.— No. 4. 



^ 



€bitortal Hotes 

 anb (Eommcnts 



J 



Lawsuits and the National Association. 



The Board of Directors of the National have decided 

 that "in case of litigation hereafter the financial aid ex- 

 tended by the National Bee-Keepers' Association shall not 

 exceed the sum of one-half the expense incurred in such 

 case". 



That will allow more attention to adulteration, and pos- 

 sibly the time may not be far distant when something may 

 be done in general advertising of honey. Speed the day ! 



Selling Small Crops of Honey. 



One of the large honey commission dealers once told us 

 that he did not solicit small shipments of honey. He 

 thought that, for various reasons, such could better be dis- 

 posed of nearer home, and often so advised when they were 

 offered to him. 



But we find there are quite a number of bee-keepers 

 who seem to have no little difficulty in selling their honey 

 in their home or near-by market. 



Then, again, there are others who conld sell more than 

 they can produce, right in their home market. We would 

 like to invite this latter class to tell how they do it. It is 

 not necessary to tell in what particular town you have 

 worked up a good demand for your honey— simply tell how 

 you do it. By so doing you will in a measure repay the 

 debt you owe to others who perhaps have aided you with a 

 description of their methods. 



There must be many who have been successful in sell- 

 ing their own crops of honey to private families, and at 

 paying prices. Can we not hear from some of them 7 



Worker-Eggs in Drone-Cells. 



In the British Bee Journal G. B. asks : " When worker- 

 eggs are deposited in drone-cells do they develop, and, if 

 so, are the resultant workers as large as drones "? To 

 which that journal replies: "A fertile queen never de- 

 posits worker-eggs in drone-cells, therefore, the question 

 about ' resultant workers ' can not arise ". 



Ordinarily neither a fertile queen nor any other kind of 

 a queen lays worker-eggs in drone-cells ; but in exceptional 

 cases a queen lays worker-eggs in drone-cells, and from 

 such eggs are developed worker-bees just the same as if the 



eggs had been laid in worker-cells. A special case may be 

 mentioned : About 30 years ago R. R. Murphy sent to the 

 office of the American Bee Journal a piece of comb contain- 

 ing sealed brood, the comb being unquestionably drone- 

 comb ; and notwithstanding the journey through the mail 

 young workers emerged that were not noticeably different 

 in size or otherwise from workers in general. 



It has been explained that it sometimes occurs that 

 when a piece of drone-comb happens to come in the middle 

 of the brood-nest of a colony with a vigorous young laying 

 queen, the bees deposit wax on the edges of the cell-walls, 

 making the diameter at the mouth of the cell the same as 

 the diameter of a worker-cell, such cells being then occupied 

 with worker-brood. 



Felt for Winter Packing. 



This is recommended in Praktischer Wegweiser as 

 being better than straw or moss covering, and no more ex- 

 pensive. 



Does White Clover Winter-Kill? 



Virgil Weaver asserts in Gleanings in Bee-Culture — 

 apparently endorsed by that paper^that white clover nevei^ 

 winter-kills ; that in supposed cases of winter-killing the 

 plants die from drouth, such death being in no way affected 

 by the cold. Can it be possible that the general belief is so 

 far out of the way ? 



Columbus-Comb of Doubtful Utility. 



The new foundation with tin-foil base, made in Ger- 

 many and called " Kolumbuswabe " (Columbus-comb), was 

 heralded as a great acquisition ; but reports of success in 

 using it are singularly lacking. Foerster Klauke, in Prak- 

 tischer Wegweiser, reports having tried a hive filled with 

 the new foundation, also single frames put in the middle of 

 the brood-nest, but the bees made such bad work with it 

 that he concludes by saying that it has only given him 

 something more for the lumber-room. 



The Bee-Keepers' Experience Meeting. 



Personal experiences are nearly always interesting, 

 and often most profitable. Bee-keepers, we think, are 

 famous, as a rule, for their great unselfishness in the line 

 of imparting freely the results of their work with bees. We 

 dare say there is scarcely another vocation in which so 

 many have been so kind and so generous in this regard. 

 We have often marvelled at it. 



And the "experience meeting " must ever be a place of 

 helpfulness, as each contributes to the general fund of in- 

 formation or encouragement. The bee-papers are really 

 places where are recorded the experiences of those who 



