366 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Aikin tells us that a Colorado June, 

 as well as previous months, draws 

 heavily on the old stores of a colony to 

 get through it. Progressive, 307. How's 

 that for "locality" ? 



Here's a strong sentence on the too big 

 brood chamber. ''After all, the honey is 

 stored somewhere; far better than to have 

 ■A diuarfed colony not capable of storing. 

 Progressive, 309. 



Aikin 's last efforts are in outlining a 

 new hive, with trisected brood chamber, 

 which appears to have not been sufficient- 

 ly tried yet by anybody. And Doolittle 

 gives it to him hotly about his theoretical 

 bee-keeping. Quinby was an apostle of 

 big hives, and favored a brood chamber 

 of 2,000 to 2,500 cubic inches. Aikin's 

 first outline is 6, 144. But presumably he 

 doesn't intend that supers shall alzvays be 

 put on over the whole space. It seems 

 that Mr. D. once used, for two seasons, 

 some twenty hives which held liisected 

 frames. Didn't like them. 



I am a trifle surprised to see that Doo- 

 little is getting weak in the knees as to 

 his advocacy of the Galhxp frame and 

 hive. If beginning over again, and in- 

 tending to winter in the cellar, he rather 

 thinks he would adopt the Langstroth 

 frame. Progressive, 312. About the 

 same here, and I don't winter in the cel- 

 lar. 



On page 283 Aikin says that it seems to 

 be an undisputed fact that bees will not 

 rear brood freely unless they have on 

 hantl plenty of stores to back them. 1 

 guess that's about so; although hard on 

 the doctrine and practice of stinudative 

 feeding. Yet the undisputed maxim is 

 not quite aliuays true. An occasional col- 

 ony does starve to death in midsummer 

 because it has an immense lot of young 

 brood and nothing sufficient to back 

 it through a few days of cold rain. 



On page 23S a rather absurd non-secjui- 

 tur is indulged in in reference to the clip- 

 ping of queens. Mr. A. clips with scis- 

 .sors without catching the queen; and he 

 says you will not clip her feet because she 

 is walking on them. Rather strange for- 



getf ulness of the fact that a queen has six 

 feet, of which four are plenty to stand on. 

 If I am right the queen is very free to use 

 her extra feet as hands if she is touched. 

 And the cutting off of her feet is one of 

 the very common and very deplorable in- 

 cidents of clipping. Doolittle's method 

 is evidently greatly superior — pressing a 

 sharp knife blade directly on the spot to 

 be cut, and then cutting by a slight draw, 

 when you are sure there can be nothing 

 but the wing under the blade. 



On page 241 Doolittle mentions a val- 

 uable manipulation in preparing for win- 

 ter that is not familiar to some of us. ^t 

 is for the common . case where there is 

 barely enough honey for winter and 

 most of it in the outside combs. The 

 danger is that they will first eat all the 

 honey in the center combs, then move to 

 one side and eat that clean; and when 

 they need to make the long move across 

 to the other side a cold spell may be on 

 and such a move impossible^else they 

 don't remember that there is any more 

 honey to be struggled for. Mr. D. says 

 put the four lightest combs at one side, 

 and the heaviest ones right next to them. 

 Then the cluster will start on the light 

 combs and move steadily across the hive, 

 securing all the honey without necessitat- 

 ing any break up and long move. 



Aikin says he has retailed nearly a ton 

 of candied honey in three months, mostly 

 in 4-pound pails. Progressive, 217. Rest 

 of us must make a note of it. Most of us 

 think that selling honey in the candied 

 state is a desirable but unattainable trade. 



To halt swarming Mr. .\. makes nuclei 

 with the good queens, kills the poor ones, 

 and cuts off evcy queen cell. Cell cutting 

 is repeated the eighth (or preferably the 

 ninth ) day after. He emphasizes the fact 

 that the seventh day will not do — worst 

 kind of a worker-queen will result, and a 

 swarm. He has proved his method by 

 eight years' practice. Progressive, 151. 



Putting all brood, except a little for a 

 rallying point, above an excluder, and 

 the queen below on another set of frames, 

 he thinks is going to work as well, and 



