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



Vol. XIX. 



JUNE 15, 1891. 



No. 12. 



3ti^;«y 3^^^^? 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Gloves axd apkoxs might be discussed, for 

 variety, by the ladies. 



Pkopolis. W. E. Burkitt (B. B. J.) uses 

 vaseline to prevent propolization. Heddon says 

 tallow. 



Ci'RE FOR ANTS which make their nests on 

 quilts. Throw away the quilts, and use flat 

 board covers. 



The British Bee Journal insists strongly that 

 beet sugar is not the same as cane sugar, and is 

 dangerous bee-food. 



Henky Alley says: "A good queen will 

 average to lay not far from 1200 eggs each 

 twenty-four hours from April 1 to Sept. 30." 



Brother Root says aluminium rules will 

 float, if carefully laid on the water. Any com- 

 mon fine sewing-needle will do the same thing, 

 and it"s a curiosity well worth seeing. 



Beauty in bees is not what we are after — 

 it's the big crop. Still. I'd rather have just a 

 little less honey, and enjoy looking at the beau- 

 tiful bees every time I handle them. 



Introducing a queen. J. H. Larrabee says 

 in Review, is more successful if the queen to be 

 removed is first caged in the cage to be occupied 

 by the stranger, so as to scent the cage. 



Clipping queens* wings. W. Woodley (B. 

 B. J.) says. " I believe the practice is dying out 

 in America — very few of their progressive bee- 

 men are doing it now." I wonder if that isn't 

 a mistake. 



Neighbor H. says colonies with imported 

 qut^ens winter best. Last winter mine didn't, 

 100 per cent of such colonies dying. Perhaps I 

 ought to add that I had only one, and that 

 starved to death. 



Price of honey. We may as well settle 

 down to the belief that high prices for honey 

 are among the things of the past. With bare 

 markets the past winter, the price has never 

 gone beyond 1.5 to 20 cents for best white. 



Cross bees abounded so much, the other day, 

 at the Hastings apiary, that it was emphatical- 

 ly unpleasant. I afterward decided that all 

 the cross ones came really from one hive, and 

 the queen of 239 was doomed. But, what work- 

 ers they were I 



Likes Italians. Ha IMichener (C. B. J.) 

 gives an interesting account of his experience 

 with black bees, Italians. Syrians, and Carnio- 

 lans. He has finally given up all but Italians, 

 and says he has "drawn a long breath and feels 

 happy again." 



If cross bees trouble you, and chase you all 

 over the apiary, watch closely and see if they 

 don't come from one particular hive, after you 

 have disturbed it. Then take the queen of that 

 hive, and mash her up very tine. 



" Prevention .of Swarming" is a caption 

 that alwaj'S makes me prick up my ears. Then 

 the instructions for prevention commence some- 

 thing like this: " U hen the swarm issues," and 

 down go my ears, limp as before. What I want 

 is to know how to prevent the swarm issuing at 

 all. 



Excluder zinc for virgin queens should be 

 made with smaller holes than that for laying 

 queens, according to some statements. Is the 

 thorax of a queen really any smaller before 

 commencing to lay than after? For it is the 

 thorax, and not the abdomen, that hinders a 

 queen from getting through. 



In the production of comb honey 1 doubt 

 whether there is a profitable method of prevent- 

 ing swarming. It may be discouraged by giv- 

 ing as much surplus room as possible; but 

 foundation does not equal drawn comb as a 

 discouragement to swarming. — Hutchinson, at 

 Ionia Convention {A. B. J.). 



Wax scales. Hutchinson says, are not found 

 on the bottom-board when a swarm is hived on 

 full combs, because the bees stick them on the 

 combs. Well argued: still, they don't stick on 

 the old combs a fourth the wax they would use 

 if they had no combs. What becomes of the 

 rest, if secreted whether needed or not? 



■■Remove a hive about noon, when most of 

 the bees are a-field, and put in lis place another 

 hive, and the returning bees will join the new 

 colony." Yes, but why the constant advice to 

 remove at noon? Try moving at midnight, or 

 any other time, and see if you will not have 

 just as many bees join the new colony. 



W. P. Hendep.son, after years of careful se- 

 lection, has succeeded in producing worker bees 

 not excelled by any thing I have ever seen, 

 beauty of coloring being standard. As to qual- 

 ity otherwise, he is candid enough to say, "If 

 they make any more or less honey than com- 

 mon bees, or winter better or worse, I haven't 

 discovered it." 



Renewing combs. A correspondent of the 

 B. B. J. asks how to renew combs three or four 

 years old. and the reply shows that the editor 

 thinks it is all right. Ought we not to come to 

 an understanding? Either we are away off in 

 keeping combs twenty years, or they are mak- 

 ing great waste in melting up combs having no 

 other fault than three years' age. 



The Punic (or African) bee is described by 

 "A Hallamshire Bee-keeper" in A. B. J. as 

 something truly wonderful. Ebony black; 

 smaller than the common black: gentlest and 



