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 ^PERYEAf^ \^ MCDINAOHIO 



Vol. XXII. 



FEB. 15, 1894. 



No. 4. 



m>^^ Fi^oM'0ar€.GJMiitLER: 



Only two weeks more of winter. 



That plan on p. 99, of giving a page of re- 

 ports in 2 inches of space, is capital. 



Editor York lias one requisite toward get- 

 ting up a good paper— a happy home. I sam- 

 pled it lately, so I know. 



Sorghum was fed by N. E. Cleveland, Miss., 

 to 5 colonies in October. Dec. 23 four were dead 

 and the fifth nearly gone. 



W. B. Webster, a prominent writer in the B. 

 B. J., claims that cross bees, as a rule, are not 

 as good workers as gentle ones. 



Illinois didn't do a big thing in honey last 

 year. The average of reports made at State 

 convention was 8 lbs. per colony. 



Are wild cucumbers of several kinds? On 

 p. 90 you speak of "the original vine." They 

 are plentiful in this region, but annuals. 



Bees prepared for winter Sept. 1 show up 

 better and stronger in spring than those pre- 

 pared Oct. 1, says W. Woodley in British B. J. 



German bee-keepers are protesting against 

 a law that prohibits the temporary placing of 

 hives within two miles of permanent apiaries. 



Special-topic numbers seem on the increase 

 among bee-journals. The Canadian starts it 

 under the name of " Bee-keepers' Parliament." 



The British " standard " frame is 14 x 83^. 

 Seven such about equal five Simplicities. The 

 square Gallup is a little larger than the British. 



St. Joe is the name of a hive two of my 

 friends have sent me circulars about. Won't 

 the chap that named that hive catch it if Bro. 

 Abbott, of Saint Joseph, gets after him V 



Herr Reepen crows— and well he may— that 

 the oldest bee-book in the world is n (Jerman. 

 Itis"Der Bienbock," Thomas Cantibratensis, 

 1448, and is owned by F. H. Wytopil, Vienna, 

 and cost $.')5. I think no bee-book was publish- 

 ed in this country till after 1492. 



Keep still, by all means, about adultera- 

 tion; at least, don't let anything about it get 

 into print, if you want to please— the adultera- 

 tors. 



Foreign competition is just now a topic of 

 interest in E'lgland, and the suggestion is offer- 

 ed that "steps must be taken in a body" against 

 foreign honey now sold at cts. a pound. 



The British B. J. characterizes syrup- feed- 

 ing to increase the yield of surplus as "a nefari- 

 ous and dishonest practice, calculated to do se- 

 rious harm to an otherwise legitimate and de- 

 lightful pursuit." 



Brace-combs are caused, according to E. J. 

 Cronkleton, in^. B.J., by loose swinging combs. 

 The bees feel their shaking, and fall to work to 

 brace up. But it doesn't seem that a bee's step 

 ought to jar much. 



Hill device improved. Place two wood 

 separators of proper length, about an inch 

 apart; bow them up in the middle, and stick 

 the ends down on the inside of the hive at both 

 sides. — Marion Miller, in Progressive. 



Eight-frame hives are preferred by comb- 

 honey men, almost without exception. How 

 many have prov(>d, by a fair and square trial of 

 8 frames, side by side with 10 frames, whiTjh was 

 better? I commend this to experimenter Tay- 

 lor. 



A stubborn colony can be made to swarm, 

 according to an item in Centralblatt. by hang- 

 ing a caged virgin queen between the combs. 

 The old queen gets out. Now tell us what to 

 hang between the combs so the other colonies 

 ivonH swarm. 



The Dzierzon theory occasioned a bitter 

 war of words about .'50 years ago. After hold- 

 ing undisputed sway for years, it has again be- 

 come a boneof contention — Reepen, SchaMifeld, 

 and others, defending it against no less an op- 

 ponent than Dzierzon himself! 



Some say honey extracted from the brood- 

 chamber can't be as good as from a super. 

 There may be more floating pollen in the brood- 

 chamber, and an occasional larva thrown out 

 brings with it ihf larval food, thus spoiling the 

 flavor as well as bringing on fermentation. 



