;ouR 



• deivote: 

 •To-BELEL^T 



•ANC)HoN_. ,, ^ 

 'AND HOME.- "n^" 



'PuBljiHeDBY^^-I-TfooT' 



Vol. XX. 



MAY 1, 1892. 



No. 9. 



STRJir Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



That i,EAi>-ziNC-ocHEi: paint mentioned on 

 p. 2S7 makes a very liandsome finish. 



Frke PEMVEiiY of mail would be very handy 

 for bee-keepers in rural districts, in the busy 

 season. 



Geo. W. Youk is now assistant editor of the 

 "old reliable" ^. B. J. A good man for the 

 place, and a nice fellow. 



D. L. Tracy. Longmont. Col., says no one in 

 Colorado can raise honey for lis cents, the ac- 

 tual cost being about 7 times that. 



HrmiT.vsox has made a success with his 

 little picuiri'S. and the short sketches add inter- 

 est. Wish he'd get a picture of Hasty. 



Stim. they come. The Natiomtl Bee Gdzctte 

 will make its bow to the bee-keeping public 

 May 7, hailing from St. Louis, Mo. Don't know 

 who is to straddle the tripod. 



Review voi'r figures. ;Mr. Editor, and see 

 if that heading on page ilSH) shouldn't read 

 •' One-half more honey to winter outdoors than 

 indoors," instead of "one-third." 



I WA.S suRi'RisEP to find that considerable al- 

 falfa seed is being sold to farmers about Maren- 

 go, this sj^ring. 1 shall tx' still more surprised 

 if it niak<'S any ditVerencf in my honey crop. 

 I'm quiti' willing to be surprised. 



MixNf;80T.\ goes to the head of the class as a 

 hatcher of new bee-journals. Two inside of a 

 year. The last is The Bee A<je. Spring Valley. 

 ^Iinn.. the editor being no less than our friend 

 B. Taylor. Nothing sleepy about him. 



" Pa.st exi'EHIENCK," says B. B. J., " tends to 

 prove that the b(!st honey seasons are late 

 ones." Hope that may prove true this year, for 

 up to April 2:1 we're having mostly March 

 weather in this neck of the woods. 



EcHiNoi's siMKEKocEPii.vEus is highly rec- 

 ommended by a writer in CenUydltUitt. In this 

 country, I think, it is not considered of value 

 enough as a honey-plant to pay for cultivation. 

 It was largely tried, but who raises it now? 



Spring dwindling, the B. B. J. thinks, is 

 not so likely to occur in a backward spring. 

 This accords with the view I have expressed, 

 that it is best for those who winter in cellars to 

 keep the bees in till time for dwindling is past. 



American ree - keepers,' according to R. 

 Riecken in CetitralbUttt. are able to care for l.W 

 colonies per man, often douljlc that number, and 

 harvest an average crop of 4.5 to liO pounds comb, 

 and KX) pounds extracted per colony. Hasn't the 

 ^" Bruder" got that a little steep? 



Took out bees April 7, when thev had a 

 good My, but maple bloom was either killed or 

 past, and bees could do nothing. Very cold 

 nights, ending up with a snow storm the 14th. 

 Might have been better to have left bees in 

 later. 



That bee-escape of Larrabee's has one 

 one point, I think, in its favor, that he didn't 

 mention on page 282. The large space connect- 

 ing super with hive, separated only by wire 

 cloth, makes the bees more ready to go down 

 than if the only communication were one little 

 hole. 



Tii.e Drainage, that exceedingly well- 

 written little book by Prof. Chamberlain, is 

 more interesting than many novels, and should 

 be read by every farmer and farmer boy. 

 They'll learn something from it besides drain- 

 age. I've just read it through, and I know a 

 good bit more than I did. 



Artificial heat in cellars is objected To by 

 some. Last winter I thought I would try doing 

 without. P'ound I'd made a fool of 'myself 

 again. Worst loss for years; 41 per cent died in 

 shop cellar. House cellar is warmer, and the 

 loss was less than 12 per cent. If it had been a 

 severe winter I suppose it would have been still 

 worse. 



The three single ey'es of bees have been a 

 puzzle as to their use. Mr. Grimshaw, of Eng- 

 land, starts the theory that they ai-e not eyes at 

 all, but bull's-eye lanterns that emit a very 

 feeble light to guide the bee in its work at 

 night. Such production of light is quite com- 

 mon among insects, and the source of the theory 

 gives it some title to respect, for Mr. Grimshaw 

 is an able observer. 



'"In working sections at the side of the 

 brood -nest, the bees cluster on the sections 

 nights and dull days, and that is what stains 

 the cappi'ngs," says A. B. Mellen, p. 282. That 

 may Ix; true to some extent, but if vour brood- 

 combs are all new built you'll not "find the sec- 

 tions much darkened. I'm pretty sure the 

 worstdarkening is from bits of the black brood- 

 comb actually used in sisaling t\n) sections. 



External c.\uses that induce swarming, 

 Larrabee says, "are, an unusual and increasing 

 number of bees in the hive, presence of a honey 

 flow of some degree, drones, etc., one or all. 

 Wild animals seem to breed at stated seasons, 

 because taught so by instinct, but are bees 

 guided by that instinct?" That clears it up in 

 good shape. I understood it "external '' to the 

 hive, while he meant "external" to the bees. 



After trial I am quite pleased with the 

 plan of wedging up sections in theT super. But 

 I think I like my plan better than yours, Ernest. 

 My wedges are the same hmgth as the followers 

 by J^xji^ inch, and I don't twist them after in- 

 serting. Just push one end of the stick down 



