THE BEE-KEEERS' REVIEW. 



367 



be but half the work. When all brood 

 above is sealed, the entire lower story is 

 made a nucleus by carrying it away. 

 But in this case a cell, or some sort of 

 royal daylight, will have to be given at 

 the old stand to keep them from stopping 

 work. 



Doolittle uses the fact that a colony of 

 bees greatly swells in volume when a hon- 

 ey flow comes on, as proof that field bees 

 do not put the nectar in the cells them- 

 selves. Probably it's true that they don't, 

 but the proof offered is hardly logic. 

 Nothing to hinder the hive bees from im- 

 mediately stocking up on the proceeds 

 for wax secretion purposes. He also 

 thinks that sufficient brood chamber 

 space, if filled ivith clean empty comb, will 

 always prevent swarming. Thinks it 

 isn't true that all worker larvae will be 

 sealed the eighth day. Has found in a 

 number of cases several hundred in each 

 hive after over eight days had passed . 

 Progressive, 155. 



That escaped swarms sometimes just 

 wander from place to place until they 

 find a hollow to go into can hardly be 

 doubted; but both Aikin and Doolittle, 

 on pages I [4 and u<S, give .strong evi- 

 dence that sometimes they select a home 

 before starting. During the summers of 

 '90 and '91 Mr. Aikin saw thousands of 

 bees exploring all sorts of places, houses, 

 boxes, cracks, holes and empty hives. 

 This hunting was only when they had 

 queen cells; and with the passing of 

 swarm conditions the exploring ceased. 

 Mr. Doolittle adds that the first Italian 

 bees in his vicinity selected an empty 

 hive in a neighboring apiary, were detect- 

 ed at it by their unusual color, their own- 

 er heard of it before the swarm actually 

 left home, and with the help of a lively 

 horse he stood by that hive to see his run- 

 aways come down and go in. Presuma- 

 bly in locations where hollows are scarce 

 the policy of setting decoy hives for run- 

 away swarms is more profitable than else- 

 where. 



Doolittle reminds us that when moving 

 bees if the load stops long near other col- 



onies that are at liberty, the smell of the 

 imprisoned ones will attract many from 

 the outside; and severe stinging may fol- 

 low from a cause not usually thought of. 



Aikin says that loads of supers of hon- 

 ey containing more or less bees may be 

 hauled without any fear or fussing un- 

 less there is a queen or a patch of brood 

 somezvhere . In this latter case the bees 

 will rally at that point and very quickly 

 put on their fighting clothes. 



When he first located in Colorado he 

 hit a place where the honey resources 

 were nothing at all (or almost that) and 

 the last of his twenty colonies perished of 

 starvation inside of a year. He says that 

 far the greater part of the State is in the 

 same predicament. 



Mr. Aikin tried reversing sections to 

 prevent the obnoxious and frequent bee 

 space under the bottom. Failed — and 

 decided in his own mind that it must al- 

 ways be a failure. Reversing one section 

 at a time is of course too fussy; and when 

 you reverse a whole case at once the 

 combs in some sections are pretty sure to 

 be so thin and weak as to topple over — 

 unless you wait so long that many sec- 

 tions are done and beyond any benificent 

 change. 



He also threw up the sponge about 

 close spacing with hanging frames on 

 which no spacers are used. 



It's rather late to compliment editor 

 Leahy's travel notes, which ran through 

 the early part of the year; but I think 

 that late in this case may be a little better 

 than never. I did not read them till 

 reading up fortius View. In fact, I have 

 pretty thoroughly failed in doing the 

 reading necessary for such articles as 

 these. Well, I want to say, even now, 

 that Mr. Leahy is one of the very rare 

 few who know how to write articles of 

 travel — can actually give us the little 

 touches of live nature we are delighted to 

 get — and spare us the ponderous informa- 

 tion and immaterial details which usually 

 render travel articles dreadful. It is one 

 of the puzzles hardly solved, why sensible 

 people (people who write well on some 



