3o6 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



trait of always leaving some honey in 

 each flower. Guess we shall be slow to 

 believe that they are any different from 

 our bees in this last respect. Our bees, 

 if you will just watch them once, try a 

 great many florets that they hurriedly 

 abandon before they reach one which 

 they take a good long pull at; and the 

 whim that they are principled to leave 

 some behind might easily grow if it got 

 started. I presume there is some thin 

 nectar in these abandoned flowers, but 

 Mr. Bee is hunting for one which no one 

 has pumped for so long that the nectar 

 has got rich and thick. Knows his own 

 business best presumably. 



As to preventing increase, Mr. C. 

 Theilmann claims success in cutting off 

 the cells, and laying a few of the best at 

 the entrance. The prime swarm is al- 

 lowed to come out naturally, but, queens 

 being all clipped, the swarm is expected 

 to return. The queen at this time is 

 caged, and the cage laid at the entrance 

 indefinitely — still there, if I get the idea, 

 when the cells are laid there also. Even- 

 tually the old queen is to be killed, and 

 the first queen emerging from the cells at 

 the door reigns. He does not explain 

 how he makes sure of all the cells with- 

 out shaking off bees, or how he shakes off 

 bees without damaging immature queens. 

 And then the question whether doorstep, 

 foundling queens are as good as lawful 

 ones will bear some discussion. Even if 

 a small bunch of bees stays there faithfully 

 the temperature inside the bunch gets 

 low on a cold rainy night. All the same, 

 .something may come out of the plan. A. 

 B. K., 133. 



A model hive cover is illustrated on 

 page 139. It rests on the cleats of an in- 

 ner cover or honey-board so that a space 

 of unconfined air keeps the hot outer wall 

 from unduly heating the comb within. 

 A permanent feeder and a slide way for a 

 .slate also nestle within the narrow space. 

 Good thing very likely. 



On page 140 the editor nmses on the 

 not over-pleasant prospect of our being 



swamped in a sea of Cuban cheap hone}- 

 not long hence. 



On page 114 W. Z. Hutchinson gives 

 some points in producing comb honey. 

 The first is sections of nice drawn comb, 

 all you can get of them, at the very com- 

 mencement of the harvest. They some- 

 times approximate in value to finished 

 sections of honey — for the simple reason 

 that they will be finished when almost 

 nothing would be done in ordinary sec- 

 tions of foundation. The second point is, 

 make everything of a prime swarm. 

 Give it the old location and supers; and 

 a week later give it the flying bees of the 

 old hive, which has been set close by 

 with a view to carrying it away just at 

 this date. Only five frames for brood 

 nest, so that the honey will all have to go 

 above. To keep the queen from going 

 above too, there will have to be an exclu- 

 der. The next point is, don't put on 

 more than three tiers of sections. An 

 occasional colony will need more in a big 

 harvest; but when you put the fresh tier 

 on take one of the previous ones off, and 

 give it, bees and all, to some colony which 

 has not yet needed so many as three. 

 Says he has done so often, and finds no 

 objection to the plan. Point four is soft 

 your unfinished sections into two lots. 

 Those half done or more, feed back hon- 

 ey and finish them. Those less than 

 half done use as feeders to stock up your 

 light colonies for winter. 



Doolittle remarks on page 119 that for 

 some reason queens long caged, as well 

 as those shipped long distances, are much 

 more liable to be killed in introduction 

 than queens in full laying carried from 

 one hive to another in the same apiary. 

 He suspects it is because they do not lay 

 at first, and also because they run about 

 more, causing their new subjects to get 

 disgusted and vote them "no good." My 

 suspicion would be that it is the lack of 

 the scent of fertility that prevents accept- 

 ance. Doubt whether bee thinking is 

 deep enough to make any logical connec- 

 tion between eggs in the cells and a 

 queen. 



