THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



305 



that there'll be a hot time in the old town 

 to — , well, to-morrow you can shake 

 things at pleasure, and if you maim the 

 not yet emerged cell-occupants, why it is 

 no loss. At an earlier date shaking the 

 combs will hardly do. 



The Queen Breeders' Union makes its 

 bow on page 151. Honestly purposes 

 not to be a "trust" and dictate about the 

 price of queens. Just wishes to assure 

 customers that they will not be fleeced 

 by defective queens, and to assure each 

 other that they will not be worked by 

 dead beats, or overshadowed by breeders 

 of the "cheap and nasty" article. 'Pears 

 like the Union had a sensible reason for 

 existing. 



Fred Thorington, page 152, thinks that 

 one with care and practice can test the 

 amount of honey on hand in the hive 

 with sufficient accuracy by resting the 

 rear end of the hive on the fingers — this 

 to be done about the first of March. If 

 short give them a comb with honey in it. 

 Harry Howe, who is a champion light- 

 ning operator, gives an article on page 

 153 in which he reverses himself for once, 

 and jots down the things in which it pays 

 to take plenty of time. Article so good 

 that I can hardly resist the tempta- 

 tion to chuck it in entire. Brilliant idea 

 of Harry's. Would we might all take 

 one good long look in the opposite di- 

 rection from our controlling" animus — 

 what a galaxy of gems these articles, for 

 example, would be; D — ttle on Scound- 

 relly Honey Packing, T — lor on Classic 

 English Run Into the Ground, H — sty on 

 Too Much Pop-Gun Expression, A. I. 

 R— t on Bee Keeping, M — ler on One 

 Week that Sampson Didn't Grind, Ram- 

 — r on Home, Sweet Home, and a dozen 

 more that a live editor would think of 

 and engage. Well, Mr. Howe says take 

 time to let your dinner settle. Says he 

 takes time to read four bee journals. He 

 once found it worth a day's time to watch 

 two decidedly non-electric brethren ex- 

 tract honey — expanded his mind (or at 

 least his belt) to see them lay a comb 

 flat on a board and hew off pieces of cap- 



ping off it. They kept their knife hot; 

 and their chips were as big as a silver 

 dollar. And take time to the amount of 

 several j'^ar.s in deciding to change your 

 . style of hive. Has six totally different 

 kinds himself ( not two in any one apiarj' 

 however) and finds them all about equal- 

 ly good. 



Dr. Miller says, on page 155, that he 

 suspects that fertile workers prefer drone 

 comb to lay in because it is more com- 

 fortable to back into. 



On the same page O. O. Poppleton, 

 now a migratory apiarist in Florida, says 

 the hone}- flow has been continuous 

 there, but very light. 



On page 156 the editor doesn't think 

 much of Rambler's rubber soles to keep 

 one's feet unincumbered with wads of 

 wax, honey and propolis. Says keep 

 your floor clean instead — and a whole 

 rubber suit, changed often, would be 

 needed in some honey-houses of Ram- 

 bler's adopted state. 



Does milkweed yield dark honey or 

 light ? The editor and Mr. Eggleston 

 find themselves on oppo.site sides of this 

 question — editor softening down some, 

 but not quite giving up yet. (Page 158. ) 

 In regard to the safe introduction of 

 queens, Doolittle says most of the sure 

 plans fail sometimes. The prevalent 

 method, letting caged bees slowly eat 

 their way to each other through the candy 

 of the cage, only fails about once in fihy 

 times — but when it does fail it some- 

 how happens to be with a costly 

 queen that has come a long distance. 

 As a method for high priced queens 

 he has practiced for fifteen years with- 

 out a failure caging a full comb of 

 emerging brood in the heart of a full col- 

 ony, and placing the queen and escort up- 

 on it. After .six days, if enough j-oung 

 bees are out in the cage, it is established 

 elsewhere and built up into a colon}-. A. 

 B. K., 129. 



On page 133 is somethirg about native 

 Japanese bees by a Japanese writer. A 

 little smaller than our bees, gentle, dili- 

 gent, gray, swarms never large, peculiar 



