272 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



you will never feel quite right, as to the 

 conscience, unless said consciences are 

 impalpably small. 



Of course the ostensible idea is to have 

 the syrup fed to the young bees, and the 

 fresh nectar stored in sections; but until 

 somebody proves that this is actually 

 done we are expecting something entire- 

 ly in defiance of reason and probability. 

 The syrup is thick and ripe and cafinoi be 

 fed to brood till nmch work at bringing 

 water is done first — but it is just right to 

 put in sections. On the other hand the 

 fresh nectar cannot be sealed in sections 

 until much and long work has been put 

 upon it first; but, in thinness at least, it is 

 adapted to use in brood feeding. Let us 

 not twist our thinkers and feelers all "out 

 of whack" by expecting such wasteful 

 tactics as boiling down the water of the 

 nectar and bringing water for the syrup 

 simultaneously. There now! 



Away from the other side of the globe 

 in Australia, another Miller, to wit, H. 

 L,. Miller grinds us a surprising grist of 

 wisdom as to the piping of the queen. 

 His young queens (virgins I infer) were 

 greatly in the habit of piping when he 

 was holding the frame in hand on which 

 the queen was at the time located. He 

 often observed the operation scientifical- 

 ly and dissectively. It seemed to be a 

 work requiring considerable effort, and 

 there were three parts to it. First, the 

 queen (usually running about just pre- 

 viously ) would stop. Never a pipe with- 

 out stopping first. Second, she would 

 crouch or squat down till thorax and ab- 

 domen were pressed snug against the 

 comb. Third, the head was turned up- 

 ward until facing straight upward instead 

 of straight ahead. This third item was 

 the most conspicuous one, and would oc- 

 cur just as the sound was emitted. So 

 far I can sack the grist nicely, whether I 

 can swallow it or not, but what follows 

 rather stumps me. "Between the notes" 

 the head would return to its normal pos- 

 ition. If I am level on piping, it consists 

 of long and short notes, separated by 

 long and short intervals— and the whole 



so diversel)- pvit together that seldom two 

 queens pipe just alike, even as seldom as 

 two striped grass blades look just alike. 

 Many queens, however, close their pipe 

 with a number of short notes divided by 

 short intervals — as if a tiny saw were 

 wrestling with a tiny splinter. Now does 

 friend Miller wish us to understand that 

 the queen's head is turned 90 degrees and 

 back again during each one of those mi- 

 nute intervals ? If so I fear that mj' cre- 

 dulity will "streak it" to the woods. Or 

 does he mean no more than a return to 

 normal position between one pipe and 

 the next one ? One would hardly think 

 so from his language. Quite likely the 

 fact is the head is turned during the long 

 intervals but not during the short ones. 

 Granting the correctness of the observa- 

 tion, one would suspect that there are 

 serrations on the rear part of the head 

 and the front part of the thorax, and that 

 the sound is made by rasping the two 

 together. Gleanings, 512. 



Section cleaning by machinery is one 

 of the topics which have the public ear 

 just at present, and Gleanings for July i 

 makes sevefal noteworthy contributions. 

 Arthur Howe shows a worn-out bike 

 made over into a section cleaner, which 

 the editor thinks rather locates the high 

 water mark of machine excellence so far. 

 Having tried both ways, Mr. H. prefers 

 the rim of the cleaning wheel as a work- 

 ing surface, rather than its flat diameter. 

 Finds it a great improvement to introduce 

 elasticity by having several thicknesses 

 of felt under the sandpaper. Two clean- 

 ing wheels, one on each side of the belt — 

 one coarse to take off propolis, and one 

 fine to polish the wood. 



Harvey Perry gets the same division of 

 the work on a flat disk machine b}' using 

 a large disk, in which the center is sur- 

 faced with sandpaper and the outer part 

 set with rasps. In manipulation the rasps 

 are first in play, then the section is slipped 

 the width of it forward for sandpapering. 



Quite astonished were we to find that 

 A. I. Root, the "guide, philo.sopher and 

 friend" of beedom, has ceased to be the 



