THE BER KEEPERS' REVIEW 



235 



one of A. I. Root's daisy wheel-barrows, 

 with a comb of bees and brood in hand. 

 I appear there just as I was working with 

 the bees, as the photographer came along 

 while I was busy at work. 



Probably, friend H., you would like to 

 know something more about the writer, 

 personally; well, for your private ear, will 

 say that I am twenty-six years old, and 

 live with my parents. My bee-keeping 

 dates back some fourteen years; when 

 I beca:he greatly interested in the 

 queen bee of the hive; and at once went 

 to rearing queens for pleasure. After 

 my nuclei were filled with laying queens 

 I used to kill them otT and begin over; 

 but I finally found there was a market 

 for queens; and, when about 18 or 19 years 

 old, I began to offer them for sale through 

 Gleanings; and have continued rearing 

 them for market ever since. I often 

 think I am too far north for queen rear- 

 ing, as the seasons are so short, and I have 

 for some time been thinking quite seri- 

 ously of going fartlier south, where queen 

 rearing could be engaged in much earlier 

 in the season. 



Bhu.HVVK, Ohio. June, 17, 1898. 



NOTES FROM FOKEKIN BEE JOURNALS. 



F. L. THOMPSON. 



As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good 

 news from a far coatitry. —B/ei£. 



EITHER the "kobold in the compo.si- 

 tor's case," or the transcriber, has 

 thoroughly mixed a sentence on page 

 176, first column. Read " During an 

 abundant flow, the only fluctuation con- 

 sists of a slight decrease in the early 

 morning, caused b}- the departure of bees, 

 after which there is a steady increase un- 

 til evening. The increase during any 

 fixed space of time," etc. 



L'Ai'icoi/roKK. — Water from an exter- 

 nal .source as a means of softening gran- 



ules of honey has a very subordinate in- 

 fluence, or none at all, asserts Editor Von 

 Ranschenfels as a result of experiments. 

 ( Lately I fed several hundred pounds of 

 granulated honey in crooked and drone 

 combs, by simply setting them outside in 

 receptacles. When the bees got through 

 with them, they appeared about as light 

 as etupty combs; 150 lbs. of granulated 

 honey in cans was also removed almost 

 without residue. All this honey, how- 

 ever, had a very fine and uniform grain.) 



The editor has tried giving water in 

 the hive on the rare occasions in March 

 when eggs are present but no unsealed 

 brood; but without appreciable results. 



He thinks Prof. Cook in error in assert- 

 ing that bees frequent watering-places in 

 summer in order to quench their thirst. 

 As proof he refers to the numerous in- 

 stances in which bees have been success- 

 fully sent from Italy in midsummer to 

 all parts of the world, without a drop of 

 water. Drones are never seen drinking 

 water. 



Homeopathic doses in stimulative feed- 

 ing bethinks are worthless. 



Colonies belonging to N. Jozelli which 

 were in the shade all winter and most ol 

 the day in spring were nearlv a mouth 

 later in development than those which 

 received the sun's rays. 



The editor reports that 27 stations of 

 observation in Switzerland take minute 

 observatians the year round by means of 

 steelyards and thermometers. At each 

 place a colony is weighed once every ten 

 days in winter, once a day before and 

 after the main flow, and twice a day dur- 

 ing the gathering of the principal crop. 

 Notes are made of the population, wind, 

 flight, plants that bloom, rains, dews, etc. 

 Many stations emphasize the fact that 

 those colonies which have the brood sur- 

 rounded by a compact circle of full hon- 

 ey-cells are the best. The hive that has 

 brood and pollen promiscuously contains 

 p33r workers. .\t so tie stations it was 

 observed that combs of sealed honey lost 

 from 32 to 50 grammes in weight in two 

 months. 



