• Journal- V-' 



• DELVOTED' 



•andHoNEY- 



•ANDHOMEL- ■n ' 



^\•^KooT' 



\ \©) /Medina Ohio 



Vol. XX. 



JULY 1, 1892. 



No. 13. 



Stray Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



What causes swarming? 



Look out for those empty combs. 



Didn't it come hot when it did come? 



To-day. JrxK 20, I'm going to put on first 

 supers on strongest coloni(>s. (/ it doesn't rain. 



Aqi'A AMMtjxiA is a specific for bee-stings, 

 says a late medical journal. Will that old error 

 be kept up for ever? 



CuTTixii HAY with a binder is higlily com- 

 mended in the Stockman by a correspondent 

 who has tried it. Why not? 



Some bkk-keepeks, according to correspon- 

 dents of the Revue, have such a keen sense 

 of smell that they can distinguish the odor of a 

 queen. 



Hiccough can gi'nerally be stopped by a few 

 drops of strong vinegar dropped on a small 

 lump of sugar and held in the mouth till dis- 

 solved. 



Dkoxes set up an exciting roar in the mid- 

 dle of the day. and, in the opinion of the B. B. 

 J., that rouses the bees to swarming. That's 

 worth thinking over. 



We have the A. B. J.. B. B. J.. C. B. J., and 

 several I). H. J.'s. The number of the latter is 

 increasing, for ev< ry bee-journal that gives up 

 the ghost is a D(ead) B. .1. 



A spiDEH FAHM is suggested by Eugene Secor, 

 in Fdnncr and Breeder, as a possibly good 

 thing to be started by bee-keepers who have 

 many empty combs to keep from moths. 



The Mvehs spkay pump is perfection for 

 spraying rose-bushes, or for anything not too 

 high. I wish it had a nozzle long enough to 

 reach the top of apple-trees, and still throw as 

 fine a spray. 



Allen Pringle (C. B. J.) wants tlu; women 

 removed from the Boaid of Lady Managers of 

 the World's Fair, and men put in thcsir places. 

 But would there then be any lioard of Lady 

 Managers left? 



DoE.s SOUR stomach trouble you ? Don't take 

 saleratus or any other alkali, but try this: 

 Drop ;iO drops of dilute hydrochloric acid into 

 two-thirds of a glass of sweetened water, and 

 lake a swallow as needed. 



Fears are expressed in the C. B. J. that 

 the women will get the upper hand and run the 

 whole business at the World's Fair. Don't 

 worry. They'll only run the women's depart- 

 ment: and when it comes to fried cakes, crazy 

 quilts, and such things, why, a woman will beat 

 a man at managing that department all hollow. 



Doolittle says (Stnckman). "With me. 

 bees will not half work in sections without a 

 laying (pieen." Seems so to me: but it's so hard 

 to be [)ositive. Fd like to hear Elwood; and 

 Doolitlh; discuss the question. CZZZI — IJ [ ; 



Fruit trees were never, I think, -so full"of 

 blossoms in this region as this year. But there 

 is now very little fruit on them. Was it because 

 the bees flew so little? There was some bright 

 weather when tamt^ plums were in bloom, and 

 they have set full of fruit. 



The Bee keepers' union is doing a grand 

 work in the prevention of trouble. Does it seem 

 just exactly right that a very few should bear 

 the expense and all have the benefit? There 

 ought to be such a large membership that^ the 

 annual dues would be nominal. 



Decoy hives are having some discussion in 

 the B. B. J., some thinking a law should forbid 

 their use. Others claim they have a right to 

 place empty hives for their own bees to enter 

 when they swarm. If a swarm runs away from 

 me, I don't know that I care whether it goes 

 into a neighbor's decoy hive or goes off to the 

 woods. 



'• Foul brood," John F. (Jates says in Amer- 

 ican Bee-keeper, he knoivs, " is caused by whirl- 

 ing the combs of brood in an extractor." The 

 thousands who have extracted honey from 

 brood-combs without ever seeing foul brood 

 might dispute: but Mr. Gates' earnest protest 

 against putting brood in the extractor may be 

 a good thing on other grounds. 



Here's A chance for a fight with Doolittle. 

 He speaks in Stockman as if it were a common 

 thing for colonies to issue ten days or more 

 before the main harvest commences. Not one 

 swarm in a hundicd. with me. issues till after 

 the commencement of the main honey harvest. 

 But thiMi. we couldn't get up much of a fight, 

 either, for his main harvest is linden and mine 

 is clover. 



Sections left on the hive without being 

 used by the bees for two or three weeks in May, 

 or ev(ui in June, seem hardly the worse for it; 

 hut if left on in August or September, when no 

 honey is coming in. the bees are loth to use them 

 afterward, because they are varnished with 

 propolis. The same is true of sections that have 

 been partly filled. I wonder if that isn't the 

 reason that some find the bees so slow about 

 finishing up '" bait"' sections. 



Thp; Britinh Bee Journal says an American 

 writer complains that British bee-journals are 

 always writing about the weather. That writer 

 was only envious because he couldn't write 

 about the same thing. The weather is talked 

 about in America just as much as in England, 

 but it won't do to write about. If you say, 

 "The weather is so cold that it is not safe to 

 bring bees out of cellar yet," some one will howl 



