THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



145 



Some people grumble when they are 

 going to be hung — leastwise on all avail- 

 able occasions previous to being hung. 

 Gleanings on page 144 shows np the let- 

 ter of a man who grumbled because a 

 prominent commission house discouraged 

 him from shipping honey (just the thing 

 which rogues never do ) and soon after he 

 heard of their buying a carload. We are 

 not to "boss" a commission man's busi- 

 ness. He is supposed to know his own. 

 All that we have a right to ask is that he 

 shall not cheat us — nor tell us the market 

 is 14 cents when it is 11, nor in any way 

 inveigle us into rushing in honey to be 

 slaughtered ofif on a demoralized market. 

 That he might see no clear sight to give 

 satisfaction on a small shipment of extra 

 honey near by, and at the same time see 

 cheerful dollars in a carload of tobaccon- 

 ist's honey off in California, is as natural 

 as anything in the world. Every man to 

 his business — but the grumbling business 

 to pay a I50.00 license first. 



It seems that our prevalent assumption 

 that worker cells are five to the inch is a 

 little off. Natural ones never quite so 

 small as that it seems. Gleanings, 144. 



The Coggshall extractor (Gleanings, 

 209) seems to be altogether too good an 

 idea to be allowed to escape. Big can 

 that allows regular frame to go in as in 

 the hive— two frames side and side with a 

 tin between, and two more just so on the 

 other side of the reel. No /nrning comhs 

 to extract the second surface, but instead 

 i-////7 them from side to side. If you're 

 smart, and the combs are not too heavy , 

 all four can be taken centrally in the two 

 hands at one grab. This takes so little 

 time that self -reversing mechanism in 

 the extractor itself seems like an absur- 

 dity of complication. 



But, excellent as our ingenious brother's 

 extractor seems to be, it is not enough of 

 "anti-goat" to balance the "bane" of his 

 bee grinding and honey polluting way of 

 operating — letting robbers run at will 

 right to the extractor while in motion. I 

 do not wish to eat honey that has been 

 filtered through an inch of dead bees. 



The general public dqn't want to eat it 

 either. Sooner or later the general press 

 would get on to such outrageous proceed- 

 ings, and show us up. Then the whole 

 fraternity would suffer for the fault of a 

 few. If Mr. C. and his men can stand 

 the stings, that is their own affair, we 

 cheerfully admit. The destruction of bee 

 life can perhaps be justified, although 

 some would say no pretty loudly. But 

 when it comes to polluting a choice arti- 

 cle put on the market for human food we 

 have some rights in the premises; all of us. 

 'Spects that like the Spainards in Cuba 

 he'll have to be held up in the interests 

 of humanity and civilization. 



In Gleanings, 167, Aikin thinks the vol- 

 untary and the involuntary l)oth c<nne in 

 a little when bees are secreting wax. As 

 to the relative amount of comb honey and 

 extracted, he has done such a thing as to 

 get somewhat more of extracted — at the 

 expense of starvation the next winter.- 

 Another year the yields would be very 

 nearly the same. ( I produce both comb 

 and extracted; and ni}- best figures last 

 j-ear were scored by a comb honey colo- 

 ny. ) Mr. Aikin notes that a scale-colony, 

 when it scores a five pound run, will 

 shrink a pound or a pound and a half of 

 it before the next morning. Just so here. 



I'rof. Cook says, "I still believe that 

 melilot, while it is excellent for honey, 

 has little value as a forage plant." A. B. 

 J., 97. All right; let's have honest ex- 

 periences and views, not blowing hot 

 for lies that profit us, and cold blowing 

 for truths that cost us something. 



Several at the Northwestern convention 

 had lost queens by swapping positions, a 

 weak colony with a strong one. A. B. J., 

 1 01. Lazy man's way to strengthen a 

 weak colony. 



W. H. Eagertv, A. B J., 116, says a bee 

 in night moves in a gentle zig-zag, some- 

 what as a skater does. I think this ob- 

 servation is new, and if correct is quite 

 interesting. 



Two colonies with clipped queens swarm 

 at once, and fail to follow program in 

 coming back — cluster temporarily, and 



