312 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



WHY HYBRIDS ARE PREFERRED. 

 The writer of Beedom Boiled Down 

 ( A. B. J., 5S6) quotes Gleanings as think- 

 ing "that the majority of progressive bee- 

 keepers use hybrids because they secure 

 as much honey as the Italians and more 

 than blacks" and says the American Bee- 

 Keeper thinks that is not the true reason, 

 without giving any other. The Boiler 

 then asks "Don't they have hybrids just 

 because it is too much trouble to keep 

 pure Italians.'*" That is not the true rea- 

 son I opine. They keep them because 

 they are better bees. They are as good 

 honey gatherers, they go readily into the 

 comb-honey supers — no fussing with bait 

 sections — combs and comb-honey supers 

 are freed from them ver}' much more 

 readil}^; and as to the color, handsome is 

 that handsome does. I discovered re- 

 cently that I especially admired the ap- 

 pearance of the sorts of grapes of which 

 I am the fondest. 



PREVENTION OF ABSCONDING. 



Reference is made on the same page to 

 D. VV. Heise's complaint of trouble from 

 the desertion of swarms and his request 

 for a remedy. In one of these articles I 

 gave a remedy that has worked well with 

 me so far, viz. : plenty of room in the 

 brood chamber for three or four days, till 

 the swarm becomes reconciled to their 

 new home. 



HIVE MAKING AND STIMULATIVE FEED- 

 ING. 

 H. F. Moore of Cook Co. 111. writes in 

 the American Bee Journal, 596, tha am 

 "promulgating some rank heresies and 

 must be 'called down. ' ' ' The first heresy 

 he points out is my advice to those who 

 keep many bees to make their own hives. 

 He thinks a show of hands would prove 

 me wrong by a large majority. He goes 

 astray however when he imagines that 

 my advice implies that one .should make 

 his hives with a hand-saw and chisel. 

 If one has no saw-table of his own he can 

 easily get the use of one by going not far 

 from home. 



The opinion I hold that stimulative 

 feeding of bees does not pay, he esteems 



another heresy. He started vdth one 

 colony last spring and "fed small amounts 

 of honey and water every evening for 

 weeks" and as a result has now eight 

 colonies. He concludes by saying "I can 

 rear bees for less than 12.00 a colony by 

 this means; not including the hives of 

 course.'.' I think it would be a safer 

 course to pursue to arrive at the exact 

 amount of profit in this operation for Mr. 

 Moore to offer his increase ( seven colo- 

 nies) for sale without the hives at |2.oo 

 each and when he has succeeded in sell- 

 ing them then sit down and count his pro- 

 fits. Whether he will admit it or not I think 

 he will conclude that he could make more 

 money making hives with a hand-saw. 



MICHIGAN RHETORIC AND GEOGRAPHY. 



Though I have no remembrance of 

 criticising any one's rhetoric he says that 

 all will agree that my criticism of gram- 

 mar and rhetoric are entirely out of place 

 in a bee-paper; but he seems to be in a 

 measure reconciled to it, for he says "it is 

 nice to understand Michigan rhetoric and 

 know wherein it differs from that of the 

 settled portions of thie country. " I have 

 a copy of an old Gazetteer which de - 

 cribes Michigan as lying largely under 

 water the greater part of the year. Mr. 

 Moore no doubt has drawn his geo- 

 graphical knowledge from some equally 

 ancient source. I'll write some railroad 

 office to have some modern literature sent 

 him. 



SOME CLAIMS FOR FENCE SEPARATORS 



THAT DO NOT SEEM WELL 



SUSTAINED. 



Mr. Golden in Gleanings, page 689, 

 discusses the result of using three differ- 

 ent kinds of separators with plain sec- 

 tions, and illustrates the matter with a 

 photograph of three samples of comb 

 honey produced with the use of those 

 separators, severally. The separators 

 are his own, the A. I. Root Co's. 

 and the plain. He would make out, 

 and the illustration seems to sustain 

 him, that the whiteness of the honey de- 



