THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



303 



beg-an the season with 25 colonies, and 

 there were several hives of empty 

 combs standino- in the yard. Three 

 swarms of those that had issued had 

 g-one directly into those empty hives 

 without so much as clustering-. 



Wedding Bells rang- out merrily, Sep- 

 tember lOth, for Miss Bessie Dittmer, 

 eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gus. 

 Dittmer, of Augusta, Wisconsin, and 

 Mr. Julius Hammer of the same place. 

 The editor of the Review has twice had 

 the pleasure of a visit at the Dittmer 

 home, and well remembers this brig-ht 

 young- lady. He wishes her and her 

 fortunate husband a long- and happy 

 life. 



Poisonous Honey is looked upon by 

 Prof. Cook as a myth. In the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal he says that sickness 

 from eating- honey comes, probably, 

 from over-eating-, or from some indi- 

 vidual idiosyncracy of the person who 

 eats it. He tells of a lot of students 

 who were made deathly sick from eat- 

 ing- honey: They cut a bee-tree late in 

 the afternoon, when they were very 

 hung-ry, and ate immoderately, as boys 

 will at such times, and very few 

 escaped punishment for their intemper- 

 ance. 



A Section of comb honey is quite 

 likely to be injured on its way from 

 the g-rocer to the home of the purchaser, 

 and J. A. Green suggests, in Glean- 

 ings, that the thin veneer, wood-sepa- 

 rators, "scored," at the right distances, 

 the same as is the case with berry box 

 material, be put in with the cases of 

 honey shipped. The grocer can then 

 easily break these strips in pieces, 

 and each piece will then be of just the 

 right size to place on the side of a sec- 

 Mon before wrapping paper around it. 

 ^r. Cxreen says that he has used these 

 scored separators for this purpose, and 

 \vould continue to use them were it not 

 that they must be ordered in larger 

 fjuantities than he can profitably use. 



E. D. Townsend writes, under date of 

 August 17, that he has secured 20,000 

 pounds of honey; 2,300 of which are 

 comb, and the rest extracted. He now 

 has three apiaries working on buck- 

 wheat, and hopes to secure an aggre- 

 gate amount of 25,000 pounds. He 

 started with 300 colonies, made 150 

 colonies of increase, and bought 50 col- 

 onies, so he will close the season with 

 500 colonies. He closes his letter with 

 the following: -'I have made up my 

 mind that I don't know anything about 

 the prevention of swarming, even in 

 producing extracted honey. Had 50 

 swarms in one yard-big, little, old 

 and young, all swarmed alike— never 

 saw anything like it." 



Carry the Bees into the cellar as soon 

 as it comes cool weather and there is 

 little prospect of their having anymore 

 flights. Leaving the bees out for two 

 or three weeks after it has come freez- 

 ing weather, hoping for that "one 

 more" last flight, is poor management. 

 Even if the flight is secured, nothing 

 particularly has been gained by it"! 

 After the bees have settled down into 

 that quiescent state in which they pass 

 the winter, they may as well be in the 

 cellar where the consumption of food 

 is much less than in a freezing temper- 

 ature. 



Caucasian Bees have been praised for 

 their gentleness by the department at 

 Washington, and by those who have 

 visited the department, but some others 

 don'ttind them very gentle. Carniolan 

 bees have also been pronounced very 

 gentle, but I did not find them so gentle 

 as Italians. As a rule, pure Italian 

 bees are gentle enough for anybody. 

 If the Caucasians possess some quali- 

 ties that are really superior to those of 

 the Italians, it will be well to consider 

 them, but, on the score of gentleness 

 we need nothing better than the 

 Italians. 



