26 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



arators : this leaves them even and 

 flat, that they may be used in his un- 

 capping machine. By the use of this 

 machine "the beekeeper will be ad- 

 vancing one step farther in the eco- 

 nomic production of the 'peoples' 

 honey.' " 



In chapter on "Queen Rearing 

 and Increase by Nuclei" he says, 

 speaking of the queen, "she actually 

 lays eggs of three kinds because each 

 is deposited in a cell which is of dif- 

 ferent construction to the other and 

 each is destined to 'become a distinct 

 being ;" farther on he mentions that 

 bees can raise a queen from worker 

 eggs. 



The author evidently reads our 

 American bee papers and is no more 

 in favor of reversing frames than a 

 good many this side of the water, and 

 under "Caution in regard to Revers- 

 ible Frames" he says : after a frame is 

 inverted a strong colojiy will inake 

 another passage along the bottom 

 while the comb is being secured at the 

 top and that this will happen as often 

 as the comb is inverted. Has any one 

 found it so? He believes in feed- 

 ing dry sugar or rather damp sugar 

 for stimulation and to have combs 

 built and foundation drawn out as 

 has been previously published. 



The terms storyiying hives, stock- 

 chamber and stock-combs are notice- 

 able to American readers. 



Late views are here arranged in a 

 system and so plainly described that, 

 while the reader gets many new 

 ideas, he also better understands 

 those he has been quite familiar with. 



The plan of having an unfinished 

 comb at entrance is not new to me, 

 as it has been advised and followed 

 to keep back or lessen the tendency 

 to swarm but its importance to en- 

 tirely prevent swarming I have not 

 before seen advocated. Should think 

 these combs while being built would 

 receive much pollen which would 

 prevent their use in sections. 



There is an idea which has been 

 given in the 'Api' pages 93 & 98 



Vols. 2 & 4) and which I consider im- 

 portant that I expected to find in 

 this book and which Mr. Hutchinson 

 has not touched on in his able articles 

 on the use of foundation starters in 

 brood-chamber. It is that comb- 

 building is a natural instinct which 

 must be gratified, its gratification 

 rouses or stimulates all the energies 

 of the bees and queen, resulting in a 

 more industrious and profitable col- 

 ony. 



Tt is also said by a high authority 

 that bees can produce wax more 

 readily from raw nectar or new honey 

 than from ripened honey, and from 

 cane sugar than from grape sugar or 

 glucose. That it takes more of one 

 than the other to produce a given 

 amount of wax. 



This may throw some light on the 

 failure to produce comb honey, eco- 

 nomically when feeding back that 

 which has been extracted, there has 

 always been too much loss in weight 

 to make it profitable. Had all sec- 

 tions been filled with drawn out 

 combs or foundation previously drawn 

 out with sugar syrup (the syrup hav- 

 ing been extracted) and if the 

 rearing of brood was prevented, feed- 

 ing back thin new honey in warm 

 weather might be made a success. 

 I should, however, prefer to let the 

 bees store it there in the first place 

 rather than to extract and handle it 

 over. 



We may find that it does not take 

 even fifteen pounds of new honey to 

 produce a pound of wax under right 

 conditions. 



The idea of feeding sugar syrup to 

 build combs for future use and for the 

 cheap production of wax had been 

 suggested to me by past reading 

 ("Api", 1884, Vol. 2, page 19). Had 

 thought of having foundation in sec- 

 tions built out in this way before the 

 honey season. Had asked questions 

 in the "Api" (Vol. 3, 1885, page 227) 

 to draw out opinion on the plan, but 

 answers were so discouraging that I 

 partly lost confidence. I did not en- 



