56 



THE BEE-KEEPERvS' REVIEW 



iti sections is so small that the damage 

 can easily be endured. If I followed the 

 orthodox practice in regard to drones I 

 should directly have to do one of those 

 things which I don't want to do at all. 

 Those who raise a great horde of drones 

 score a heavy loss; and those who try to 

 avoid having any drones I accuse of scor- 

 ing a heavy loss. Where then is the 

 proper middle ground? Mr. Doolittle 

 says leave in the brood chamber 4 to 6 

 square inches of drone comb. I want 

 quite a bit more than that. Both Mr. 

 Doolittle and myself, I believe, would 

 have all the drone comb in the two out- 

 side frames — so there will be no .special 

 temptation to rear drones till drones are 

 earnestly wanted. 



O. O. Poppleton, A. B. J. 70.S, found 

 the freight on honey from Cuba to New 

 York 15 cents a hundred, from Florida to 

 to New York 85 cents a hundred. Also 

 he hired a very good man in Cuba for S 

 dollars a month; to get as good a one in 

 Florida cost 25 dollars a month. In the 

 same article he assails the doctrine, current 

 from Virgil's time till now, that bees 

 store more honey by being kept closeh' 

 rob1)ed of it. Store fully as much when 

 the hive is nearly full, he thinks. Guess 

 I'll continue to stand in with the old view 

 a while longer. F'uU hive and extra force 

 of field bees are apt to be found together; 

 and of course that combination can beat 

 any empt}' hive that Florida or Culxi or 

 any other where can show. 



In A. B. J., 722, that good autliorily, Dr. 

 Brown, goes over the main points of (pieen 

 rearing. He Remarks that the details of 

 the matter are so numerous that no book 

 on the subject can enumerate all. There 

 just must be a man at the job with readi- 

 ness of tact, and good sense. And tlu- 

 more experience the better of course-. 



On the next page Prof. Cook answers 

 questions about the wax moth. He feels 

 sure that the moth does not lay on the 

 anthers of flowers — never seen lurking 

 aroun<l flowers; always lurking as near 

 combs aspos.sible, in or out of the hive. 

 1 find it hard to give this up, because it 



is so very often that a solitary cell of pol- 

 len in a .section of honey hatches out a 

 larva. It is difficult to understand how 

 the moth got there to place the egg; but 

 if bees sometimes gather eggs and pollen 

 together, then what we see is just whot we 

 ought to expect. No doubt the usual 

 effort of the moth is to get directly at 

 combs; but I think the professor should 

 allow that possibly sometimes it may 

 accept a big floral anther with ripe pollen 

 as a good enough nidus. 



One of the best suggestions yet made as 

 to what to do with an obstinate fertile 

 worker colony is contributed by Bevins 

 in A. B. J., 724. Set a nucleus having a 

 good laying queen close bj^; and gradually 

 pull the old colony down, and build uj) 

 the nucleus with the proceeds. 



R. L. Taylor put paper bags on hun- 

 dreds of clusters of grapes to find out 

 about the cracking of grapes in and out 

 of shelter, and also about the hand our 

 bees take in the affair. With the kinds 

 that crack worst the loss was nuich great- 

 er inside the bags than out. The juice 

 from the cracks wrought mischief and de- 

 cay on surrounding berries inside the 

 bags. Evidently the bees in gathering 

 the juice did less harm than the juice un- 

 gathered did. A. B. J., 758. Perhaj^s it 

 would be still better to have the wind 

 dry up the escaping juice, and the bees 

 let things alone. 



S. -A.. Niv^er says about the jjlain .section, 

 and its wonderful no-hole characteristic, 

 that Danzenbaker had one with no holes. 

 Niver never saw a .second one, and is 

 apparently inclined to hint that nobody 

 else ever did. Gleanings, 81. 



(Cleanings has a bran new set of depart- 

 ment heads throughout, just to kee]) 

 things looking fresh and bright. Hardly 

 do for me to say the American Bee Jour- 

 nal has a new face. The public might 

 object to such belated news as that. Sa}-, 

 if I get my View so it is somewhere near 

 \\\) to date you may think my food regi- 

 mens are succeeding; if not, then you may 

 conclude they don't amount to vt-ry much. 

 RiCH.-VKDS, Ohio, I'eb. 11, 189S. 



