THE BEE KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



215 



nient" would make them doubt almost 

 any of the cardinal facts of apiculture, 

 and nothing would be stable. "Hence 

 these tears." I say DeLayens' assertion 

 is indefinite, because F. L. Thompson 

 (Review, 175) refers to what I take to be 

 the same article, and from that it appears 

 that his (DeLayens') assertion is a mere 

 inference. He infers it from the fact that 

 at the end of September he found no 

 young brood, though ".some honey had 

 been coming in every day for several 

 weeks from plants." His facts as inter- 

 preted by Thompson I do not question. 

 Every bee-keeper of experience and ob- 

 servation knows them to be true, but the 

 inference is unwarranted. I know it will 

 not stand the test. The doctor com- 

 plains because I do not take the editor's 

 general statement in support of the doc- 

 tor's doubts, instead of my own know- 

 ledge. I am willing to put the editor 

 against the editor. Has he not many 

 times recommended late feeding to pro- 

 duce late breeding and given definite di- 

 rection how to proceed to make it suc- 

 cessful ? 



THE DI.SCUSSION 01- "DOES BEE-KEEPIN(i 

 1>AV?" 



The doctor thinks me imfair because I 

 bantered him for giving the results of one 

 year onl)', and that perhaps his best one, 

 in his discussion of the topic, "Do Bees 

 Pay?" I know the other side, and a good 

 many others do, also, but there may be a 

 good many other readers who do not, and 

 are liable to be misled in some degree. 

 It does not seem to me an altogether fair 

 discussion of such a comprehensive topic. 

 Perhaps, however, the editor gave the 

 article its title. That would let the doc- 

 tor out. 



BEES DON'T ALWAYS CHOOSE I.ARV^ OF 

 THE BEST AGE FOR REARING 

 OITEENS. 

 The doctor is a large "pin," and he 

 should not wonder if the "balls" of even 

 a novice sometimes make him dodge in- 

 to new corners. 



Reargues (A. B. J., 295) that in a col- 

 ony made queenless, with eggs and larviu 



of all ages present, that it looks rather 

 reasonable that the bees will select what 

 will make the best queens if it is left en- 

 tirely to them. It may look reasonable 

 that they should, but they don't; at least 

 they don't altogether; and the trouble is 

 that when they err, as they generally do, 

 I suppose, from their eagerness to get a 

 queen as soon as possible, by selecting 

 one or more larva; for the purpose that 

 are too old to produce the best queens, 

 the queen from such hatch first, and so 

 the later and better ones are destroyed . 

 The remedy is to remove the larvae, in 

 four or five da3S, from all but three or 

 four of the most .satisfactory cells. 



ARE BAIT SECTIONS A BENEFIT t 



The doctor is still using time and en- 

 ergy on "bait sections." (Gleanings, 

 422). I have been looking to see that no- 

 tion steal silently away with underground 

 ventilation and the others. There must 

 be something wrong with the doctor's 

 strain of bees. Of Ranson's plan of 

 "baiting" the doctor says: "It will prob- 

 abh- work all right with enough baits, 

 providing colonies are not equal in 

 strength. ' ' Will he explain why it would 

 not be better to have the colonies all 

 equally strong if there are enough baits? 



DECOY HIVES vs. OUEEN-TRAPS. 



The doctor (A. B. j., 374) gives, to one 

 who is forbidden to go on his neighbor's 

 land, where his swarms generally go, and 

 and who asks for some means to induce 

 them to alight on his own lot, as the first 

 remedy the putting up of a decoy hive. 

 That might be effective one time in a 

 thousand, but I doubt it. Queen traps! 

 Queen traps! The doctor thinks of them 

 later. 



BEES DON'T MOVE EGGS. 



H. Rohrs (A. B. J., 381) thinks he has 

 found the question: Do bees move eggs ? 

 answered in the affii-mative. "A comb 

 for seven "days separated from the queen 

 by a queen excluding honey -board shows 

 a queen cell with an e^g in it." Excuse 

 me, but bees don't move eggs. Let him 



