■'^Journal- 

 • deivote:. 



•andHoNeV--^: 

 •and homel- "o 



•1NTE,FIEST^ 





Vol. XX. 



MAY 15, 1892. 



iu8ll6HED8Y(^l-r\POr 



. I^perTeai^ \©) fAEDlMAOHlO 



No. 10. 



Stray Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



What a spring! 



Thksk Sthaws average longer than usual. 

 Wet weather always makes straw grow long. 



Editoi: Cowan is making a tour in North 

 Africa. Now he can procure pure Funics per* 

 private purchase right in the town of Punic, 

 Punic provinc*!. 



Bingham has made his smoker still better by 

 giving it a crooked nozzle with a cool handle, 

 so you needn't turn it upside down to use, nor 

 burn your fingers lilling it. 



Fkiend Neavman thinks it is time to raise 

 the question as to the best date for holding the 

 convention at the World's Fair. Make a mo- 

 tion. T. (J. How would the last of September do? 



ANT.S IN HIVES can be driven away, says the 

 B. B. J., by a liberal sprinkling of powdered 

 naphthaline. The Indiana Farmer says a free 

 use of common salt will produce the same result. 



A STAND.^Ki) SECTION 4}ix-i^xlX has been 

 adopted by the Utah Association. Good move. 

 They also resolved, that, hereafter, "'honey 

 shall be sold by such standard instead of by 

 weight.'" 



Isn't theke just a little bit of confusion 

 about speaking of absorbents as synonymous 

 with upward ventilation? May there not be 

 absorbents with tight covers afe well as with 

 upward ventilation? 



Golden Punics is what Alley says he's going 

 to have before the season of \S'.>2 is over. Ne.xt 

 year I suppose he'll tackle the common blacks, 

 put a few yellow stripes on them, and then we'll 

 have (iolden Blacks. 



Editor Newman is again at his post, "rested 

 and invigorati'd." Like a sensible man, he 

 has resolved to husband liis strength and let 

 some things go. If kindly wishes would 

 strengthen him, he ought to be a pretty strong 

 man. 



I TOOK my bees out of the cellar April 7, and 

 I think it was all right, as they were in bad 

 condition from not having had tire in the cellar. 

 But with fiif! through the winter, I think they 

 would have been better off in the cellar till 

 May 1. 



Wakped hoards can be treated as advised 

 on page a4-', but I'll tfill you a better way, if it's 

 warm weather. Just lay them on the ground 

 in the sun, hollow side down, without any wet- 

 ting, and see if they don't come "'straight as a 

 board." 



Ai.LEN Pringle (C. B. J.) thinks I ought to 

 get a Webster. Got one, friend Pringle, but it 



doesn't make avnilahle mean •' in readiness," or 

 "get-at-able." I'm afraid such definitions' are 

 hardly available*. Where did you get them, 

 anyhow ? 



This spring I've used 4.5 of the old-fashioned 

 Miller feeders, the bees going up at the sides, 

 and 22 with the Warner improvement, the bees 

 going up in the middle. To my surprise I don't 

 find that the bees make any difference. It cer- 

 tainly seems they ought to. 



From Medina I have a beautiful specimen 

 of imbedding wire by electricity, and Fred T. 

 Hayes sends me some thin surplus foundation 

 perfectly wired by the same method. He says 

 it is the outgrowth of Miss Wilson's heat meth- 

 od, which he used satisfactorily last year. 



A NEW SYSTEM of Working bees, by Mr. Wells, 

 is making some stir in England. He puts two 

 colonies side by side, with a perforated dummy 

 between, and queen-e.xcluder oVer, having both 

 colonies work in the same supers, and reports 

 great success. But it seems to increase the 

 tendency to swarm. 



Electricity takes the premium for imbed- 

 ding wire in foundation. It makes a more reg- 

 ular job of it than Emma does with ordinary 

 heat, and her plan is ahead of anv previous 

 imbedding. Just looks as if the wire grew 

 there. Now, friend Root, if you can get up 

 cheap batteries, may be the rest of us can use 

 electricity. 



I moved 38 colonies of bees about 10 rods, 

 ]\Iay 4. Shut them up before flying in the 

 morning, moved them to their new location, 

 and opened them at dark, putting a board in 

 front of each hive. Set a hive with two empty 

 combs in the old location, to catch returning 

 bees. Ciot less than a pint. Gave them to a 

 weak colony. 



I value supply-dealers more than I did. 

 This spring I wanted some more feeders in a 

 hurry, and had the stuff cut here because I 

 thought I hadn't time to send to Medina. I 

 found, after I had them mad(!, that I could have 

 ordered them by telegraph, and had them sent 

 by express ready made, at less expense than the 

 stuff ready to nail cost me here. 



Prof. Cook, speaki ng of a law against spray- 

 ing fruit-trees while in bloom, says, on p. 333, 

 '•I do not think such a law would need to be 

 used much, if ever; but as an educator it would 

 do signal service." Don't you think it would be 

 a good thing, professor, to have a law to prevent 

 my planting an apiary on ground fully occupied 

 by you, not to be used much, you know, "but as 

 an educator"? 



I WONDER if, for once, Doolittle hasn't got 

 things a little mixed when he speaks on p. 336 

 about bees gnawing foundation when put on 

 too early. I generally put on sections before 



