A 



^ • DELV0TE.C5; 



To -Be. ELS." „ 

 •INTEf^ESTvS 



Published by fl. I. Koot, JVIedina, O. 



Vol. XIX. 



FEB. 15, 1891. 



No. 4. 



Fi?03f DJ?. C. C. MILLER. 



A State society is beginning to be tall\ed of 

 in Illinois. 



HuTcniNsox calls jne a "gossiper." Wait 

 till I catch him away from home. 



A TKAr)p>MARK for a body of bee-keepei'S is 

 talked of. It might be a good thing. It might 

 be a bad thing. I don't know. 



Drones. Prof. Cook thinks, depend on the 

 nnrse-bees for their albuminous food — an addi- 

 tional argument against tolerating them. 



Ii>iJNOis doesn't pi'ojxjse to be left in the rear. 

 She has a bee-keeper in her legislature — J. M. 

 Hambaugh. Spring. 111., a good square man. 



FiKE IX BEE-f'Ei,LAKs is needed if too cold. 

 I use it oftener for ventilation. Heat the air, 

 and the cold outside pure air will rush in to 

 take its place. 



Heddon says the black bee is most amiable 

 of all, but stings more, because it takes wing 

 more readily. I'd rather have bees that don't 

 take wing so" readily. 



The editorial " we " has been banished 

 from the columns of the Review, and Hutchin- 

 son slings around his I's as easily and graceful- 

 ly as if he had (tJirays talked good English. 



I swept out the shop cellar for the first time, 

 Jan. 13. I got about two quarts dead bees — not 

 many from ll;2 hives after 66 days' confinement; 

 time enougli for bushels, though, befoi'e spring. 



Painted muslin is not advisalile for hive- 

 covers unless it is better than oil cloth. I tried 

 ;.'00 covej-s of extra good oil cloth, and th(!y 

 lasted so short a time that tin is much cheaper. 



No FIRE in my bee-cellars this winter tillJan. 

 10. Then I saw some mold on dead bees on 

 cellar bottom: didn't smell just the best. Tem- 

 perature 42°; raised it to 53°. This was in shop 

 cellar. 



A SMALL BEE-SPACE between top-bars and 

 sections was considered, at the Northern Illi- 

 nois convention, of as much or more conse- 

 quence, in preventing brace-combs, as thick 

 top- bars. 



Poison for mice is thus daintily served up 

 by E. C. Eaglestield (A. B. J.). He says, ■'! 

 take a cooky and moisten one side, then place 

 the crystals of strychnine all over it, and lay it 

 where nothing can get at it but rats and mice." 



" OnsERVEK," in C. B. J., wonders what I'll 

 think when I hear that " steps are being taken 

 to put a stoj) to the im|)ortation of bees by the 

 pound from Uncle Sam's, unless they have 

 passed tlirough quarantine." I think that 



Canadians will show good .sense to take any 

 steps to make the danger from foul brood less. 

 If I had smallpox at my house. I shouldn't want 

 any of the family to go to a neighbor's. 



Lamps and oil-stoves have been used to 

 warm cellars, but I never tried any thing of the 

 kind till this winter. Then I piit a gasoline- 

 stove in the shop-cellar. It's better than none, 

 but I don't like it. The combustion fouls the 

 air. 



" Bees visit only one kind of flower on the 

 same trip." That's old but not always true. 

 When forage is plentiful it may be true; but 

 when scarce they'll change fi'om one kind to 

 another several times on the same trip. I've 

 seen 'em do it. 



A HONEY house OR SHOP, a number of writers 

 in the Review agree, should be at the.sicZcof 

 the apiary, never in the center. Heddon makes 

 a good point in preferring it at the south side, 

 that you needn't look against the sun in watch- 

 ing for swarms. 



Taylor's secret is out. The Review says 

 he keeps his honey in a wai'm honey-house, 

 with tire in winter. Of course, it's a good plan. 

 More than that, I suspect if the place is kept 

 hot enough long enough in the fall it will do 

 with little or no tire through the winter. 



" Do BEES eat EGGS?" That's the question 

 up now, and I hope we'll learn when they do 

 and when they don't. I know I've had bees 

 starve to death, leaving eggs in the hive; and I 

 know if I remove a queen from a hive, I expect 

 nearly all the eggs to disappear within 24 hours. 



The Review is getting down to business, re- 

 viewing. Hutchinson knows how. Now that 

 I've had my fling at him. I must own up that 

 he has furnished jjlenty of material from which 

 good cream could be liad. He did a good job 

 of skimming, too, on the new books that were 

 published last year. 



Another idol fallen. I've always had 

 such faith in Prof. Cook, but I've found him 

 out at last. Friend Root tells (p. 61) about a 

 man being hasty, and imagining evil of otliers, 

 and then .says "Pn)f. Cook has done much to 

 bring about this state of affairs. And to think 

 that I had loved the professor as a brother! 



Manager Newman says: "Suppose now, 

 that in America it were once established by 

 law, that, to wantonly kill bees, were a punish- 

 able ci'ime! How (luickly the owners of the 

 deadly cider-press and sugar-refineries would 

 have to screen out the bees — or the Union 

 would be after them!" Well, " suppose now" 

 the Union gets such laws made. 



Legislation is coming to the front as one of 

 the needs of bee-keepers. Daniel VVyss. in 

 American Bee Jo«rnat, calls for laws forbid- 

 ding poisonous spraying when trees are in 



