^JOUR 



■ DElVoTE 



•To -Be. 



•andHo, 

 •AND home: 



•INTELJ^EST^ 



e;^iKooY- 



EAt^ \§) fAEDINAOHiO 



Vol. XX. 



OCT. 15, 1892. 



No. 20. 



Stray Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



PijiCEs OF HONEY arc slowly climbing. 



First frost on my place. Oct. 5. Long season. 



The crop of new bef-journals this year was 

 not unusually large. 



HoxEY-Fi-ow didn't wait for frost, btit stop- 

 p<xl some days before. 



Fp:ei)Ixg fok wixtku. Doolittle says in Rc- 

 cinr. sliould not be done too rapidly; five pounds 

 a day is better than faster. 



In i.mi'kovino a strain of bees, Hasty, in Re- 

 view, thinks ii important to encourage those 

 colonies which start very few queen-cells. 



Are you suke. dead sure, that your bees 

 have stores enough for winter? May be you'd 

 better give them a little more. They'll not 

 waste it. 



Bicycles ought to come down in price, ought 

 they not? You see^ii doesn't cost them any 

 thing for advertising. All the riders advertise 

 them gratis. 



Laying workers, in a few cases that I have 

 noticed, ceased laying when given a sealed 

 queen-cell, before the queen hatched out. Is 

 that the general rule ? 



Geo. F. Rohkins doesn't like my way of pre- 

 venting increase (p. 7r.'.">). Neither do I. But I 

 like ills still less, for it would make me have 

 additional help to watch for swarms. 



Uniting colonies or driving away robbers. 

 J. F. Shirk says in Reviev\ he does by using a 

 a spray of carbolic acid— one dram of acid to 

 seven of water, with half a drain of glycerine. 



HKAriip:R honey is a standard article across 

 the ocean, but it seems the plant will not grow 

 this side. The honey is tine, but has the pe- 

 culiarity that it can not beextractcd— too thick. 



The Medical Neirs says the records of Yale 

 College during the past eight years show that 

 the non-smokeis aie :.'u i)er cent taller than the 

 smokers. :.'."> per cent heavi(!r. and had tjii \H',r 

 cent more lung capacity. 



Be?:-escapes are in high favor in England, 

 where they are very appropriately called sniier- 

 rlcdrcrx. The Britluli Bee Journdi favors sim- 

 ple cones, letting the bees escape outwardly, 

 for early work; but as soon as honey hcnin-s to 

 fail, then the Porter. 



"Once a robber always a robber" is one of 

 the teachings about bees that has passed cur- 

 rent because no one contradicted it. I venture 

 to say. with some fear and trembling, that 

 thereis very little truth in it. To-day, with no 



honey yielding, you see robbers trying every 

 crack and crevice; and to-moirow, with a good 

 flow, not a robber is to be seen. What has be- 

 come of them, if they are robbers for life? 



Wax-wor.ms, when first hatched out. are 

 killed by a very little sulphur; but when they 

 become hoary in wickedness they need to soak 

 for hours in a tliick smoke before they will suc- 

 cumb. They are somewhat, in this respect, 

 like weeds and bad habits. 



G. M. Doolittle abuses me in Review. True, 

 he doesn't call me by name, but then he talks 

 about bee-keepers that get on a craze over a 

 new thing and try it on the whole apiary in- 

 stead of first trying the experiment on a few 

 colonies. I knew whom he meant just as soon 

 as I read it. 



Drone brood, well advanced, is recommend- 

 ed as fish-bait, particularly for trout, by Herr 

 Tirpitz. in Deutschen Blenenfreund. Can't we 

 get up a market for our drone brood, selling to 

 anglers for so much a pound, or shall we sell 

 them all otir colonies that have drone-laying 

 queens or laying workers ? 



Hutchinson has another little girl to help 

 work on the Revieir when she grows big enough. 

 The twins are Nora and Cora, and now he 

 might call the new one Dora. Then when he 

 grows rich through the Review, and retires to 

 his country estate, he can go out in the woods 

 and call one of the girls and the whole three 

 will Hock around him. 



October has come. 

 And the bees' busy hum 

 Ls kind o' dyin' away. 



The hope of a crop 

 Must surely now stop, 



But we can begin gettin' iii talk 

 about the bright prospects for another y(>ar. 



Anent laving workers. H. Fitz Hart says 

 he found two in a hive with a laying (jueen 

 only a few months old. He thinks laying work- 

 ers often the cause of queen lessness. rather than 

 queenlessness the cause of laying workers. 

 Possibly: but in that case I should hardly ex- 

 pect that giving brood or queen-cells would 

 lead to the removal of the pests. 



A robbers' exchange is Hasty's last conceit, 

 in Review. "An empty hive with a very small 

 entrance, in which a little waste honey is put 

 from time to time. TIkmi if any mischief is 

 going on any\\her(> it will be made known to 

 you by the crowd of would-be robbers bobbing 

 around the exchange: but if the exchange is 

 quiet you may feel comfortably assured that 

 honesty prevails throughout the yard." 



Prevention of after-swarms. A very 

 simple way is given by Hedrich, in Blenen- 

 Vater. Place in front of the somewhat enlarged 



