2o8 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



while eatitifj it, and a coinmiinicablc wave 

 of activity gets started. But when the 

 honey is unusually good, or his relish for 

 it unusuall}' keen — the only time when 

 he eats too much — then the manifesta- 

 tions are identical. Second, honey needs 

 very little digestion, almost none, and 

 therefore the stomach does not telegraph 

 back its activit3\ And the moral ? Well 

 that seems to be, eat the maple sugar and 

 let her sneeze. 



Doolittle gives a pretty case of the 

 queen's ability to adapt herself to cir- 

 cumstances, in that she often when be- 

 ginning an additional comb in spring, 

 begins on the further side of it. The near 

 side is too much encumbered with pollen, 

 which same the bees will clear out when 

 she goes over be3'ond. Gleanings, 174. 



W. B. Ranson (Gleanings, iSo) thinks 

 it's more than wprth the trouble to have 

 hives level both ways, and get the bottom 

 sloped % inch by means of wedge shaped 

 strips. Correct comb building in both 

 frames and sections is what he is after. 



It is suggested. Gleanings, 216, and I 

 think I have noticed it elsewhere, that 

 corn yields so much pollen that it may 

 prove worth while to gather it artificially 

 and keep a supply for use in time of need. 

 In case some one can invent a cheap 

 machine that will go over an acre in a 

 moderate number of hours, I shouldn't 

 wonder if it would pay in some cases. At 

 present the most rapid device seems to 

 be an umbrella, held bottom side up, and 

 a stick two or three feet long whereby the 

 tassels are gently bent over the umbrella, 

 and then deftly jarred a little. And I 

 just can't tell at this writing who is the 

 inventor of this pollen machine. Ah ! it 

 was one of the sweet clover folks, and 

 clover seed not pollen was the original 

 idea. 



Mr. Leyvraz finds the bee-killing dra- 

 gon-fly so plenty in Florida that he has 

 killed as many as 440 in a day. Glean- 

 ings, 221. 



Gleanings, 224, shows a cleated l)ottom 

 board with dissected cleats. Five pieces 

 (comprising all the wall except mere 

 studs to .support the hive) pull out at 



pleasure to give ventilation. Looks like 

 a good thing — but not unless ever}' piece 

 be made exactly alike so as to be inter- 

 changeable. 



"As a man thinketh so is he." C. P. 

 Dadant says the worst feeder is the out- 

 sidje feeder to feed your neighbor's bees — 

 the next worst the entrance feeder. He 

 also remarks that he has lost more bees by 

 starvation in June, just before a big har- 

 vest, than in winter, or any other time of 

 year. A. A. J., 162. Such an immense 

 lot of young brood as some colonies will 

 have in June quickly brings famine if the 

 outside supply of food stops. 



Again on page 194 he makes the impor- 

 tant statement that beeswax can be so 

 changed in its condition ( a sort-of inter- 

 cellular change instead of a chemical one) 

 that it will hold some 25 percent of wa- 

 ter, and yet appear to be simply beeswax 

 of poor quality. I have often had good 

 beeswax "bewitched" so that it persisted 

 in remaining in a powdered or granular 

 form, and refused to cool in a solid cake. 

 This occurs usually (if not always) when 

 you try to render wax with a good deal 

 of honey in it, and lazily omit to soak 

 the hone)^ out first. 



Mrs. Effie Brown, A. B. J.. 210, seems 

 to have solved a problem which has 

 "stumped" me hitherto. In apiar}- work 

 one often gets 'badly stuck up — how to 

 remedy this without too much loss of 

 time ? I have set a dish of water where I 

 hoped it might be useful — but when the 

 crisis came it was too far off or I had for- 

 gotten where I put it. Also bought some 

 canteens to facilitate carrying water 

 about. Nothing came of it — from half- 

 heartedness in the trial perhaps. Well, 

 she wears an oil cloth apron, in the big 

 pocket of which there is always a nice 

 clean wet cloth. This gives the means of 

 putting sticky fingers in order at once — 

 all except that \allainous stuff, propolis. 

 Might we have another pocket, and 

 another cloth, wet with the best available 

 solvent of propolis? Or is that solvent 

 awaiting discovery ? 



Richards, Ohio, July i, 189S. 



