• DE.VOTED 



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 •ANDHoNEV-7't 

 •MDHOMEL- <^' 

 •1NTE.PIEST4) 



uBiiiHEDbY (£;^1 • rtp r 

 ioorerYeaf^^ \©) Medina Ohio 



Vol. XX. 



NOV. 15, 1892. 



No. 22. 



Stray Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



TnK BEES now spend much time in medita- 

 tion. 



To PAiN'T HIVES, a writer in UApiculteiir 

 uses propolis dissolved in alcohol. 



The British bke-keepers seem quite^ en- 

 thusiastic about making a good show at the 

 World's Fair. 



If you haui. bees, do it as soon as possible, 

 so they can be sure of a fly before going into 

 winter quarters. 



It looks straxgk to see in the French bee- 

 journals the Clark and Hill smokers quoted at 

 the same price, and the Bingham less than the 

 other two. 



If the horse in 40 years has increased from 

 2:40 to 2:04. Secor. in .-1. B. J., thinks careful 

 breeding might make the bee beat its present 

 record. And why not? 



The aktificiax- r omb of Pastor Wamstoif, 

 with full -depth cells, it seems, is made with 

 cells on only one side. In Germany it is sold 

 for about 45c per pound. 



Do Tou take Gleanings and never yet had 

 ABC? Better stop a year when your time is 

 out with Gleanings, and get the A B C— that 

 is, if you can't afford both. 



Finished hauling bees home Oct. 2.5. Never 

 had them more heavily stocked for winter; so 

 if I didn't get any crop to sell, at least I don't 

 have to feed. Always something to be thank- 

 ful for. 



President Secoh iA. B. J.) would like to see 

 Apis dorsata introduced, but adds, •' I have no 

 hope that they will prove an acquisition." But 

 he thinks a hundred years of cultivation might 

 mollify their tempers. 



Mr. Editor, do stop letting Rambler tell 

 about those "bands and bands of quail that 

 needed to be put on toast." It makes my mouth 

 water. But then, what does the old bach 

 know about making toast? 



Chas. Dadant Thinks nine-tenths of the 

 bee-keepers in France are yixi-s^es, or box-hive 

 men. and nine-tentlis in this country mohilLstes, 

 or movable-comb men. I'm afraid he's too 

 complimentary to tliis country. 



"Can the findei: of a bee-tree on my land 

 claim the bees and honey ?" is in substance a 

 query in A. B. J. The answers are varied 

 enough to make oti*- who reads all of them con- 

 clude that, if the tinder of the land removes the 

 tree without injuring the honey, he is liable to 

 trespass on the bees. 



Box HIVES have more consideration across 

 the water than here. The Centralblntt, an ex- 

 cellent German bee-journal, devotes a page of 

 each nunibei' to hefjiniiers with box hives. 



That bevf.l edge on the under side of the 

 Hoffman top-bar is a good thing to give extra 

 stiffness, only I believe my bees do just a little 

 better when no bevel is cut away at all, but the 

 whole top-bar left>^ thick. 



"Bices IN their natitral homes have the 

 benefit of this capillary force," says friend 

 Scudder, p. S03, speaking of pores in the wood. 

 That points toward the value of porous sur- 

 roundings; but its force Is somewhat impaired 

 by the fact that the bees seem to do all they 

 can to stop up the pores with propolis. 



A. Teynac reports an experiment in which 

 five colonies with queens raised under violet 

 light stored 5 per cent more honey than five 

 colonies equal in all other respects, except that 

 their queens had been raised under ordinary 

 light. It reminds one of the blue-glass craze 

 that swept over this country a few years ago. 



M\ PATCH of Chapman honey-plant, after 

 being well cultivated till it had a good start, 

 was left untouched till this year, when a good 

 crop of hay was taken from the ground with 

 never a stalk of the honey-plant. It will not 

 hold the groinid any more than Indian corn. 

 As a honey-plant I doubt its great value, even 

 if it would grow without cultivation. 



Make sure that mice do not make havoc 

 with bees wintered in cellar. Close up all en- 

 . trances with heavy wire cloth, three meshes to 

 the inch. Don't wait till they are cellared, for, 

 as soon as the bees become dormant with cold, 

 the mice will take up quarters in the hives, and 

 it's no good to shut them up after they are in. 

 Shut them out while the bees are lively. 



An ESTABLisirED REPUTATION is woi'th Some- 

 thing among bees as well among men. When 

 a colony is set in a new place, or brought from 

 another apiary, you need to give it more pro- 

 tection against robbing than another colony of 

 equal strength that has always been there. 

 Bees bent on mischief will give it a thorough 

 trial till they find what stuff it is made of. 



Did you ever notice that, if you put brood- 

 combs in an upper story, not allowing the 

 queen to go up, not only will the cells become 

 emptied of brood but of pollen as well ? Before 

 the days of excluders, I kept upper stories for 

 extracting, a small auger-hole between; and, 

 no matter how much pollen was tbere, it grad- 

 ually disappeared, although there was no brood 

 present. 



That Hoffman-frame trouble, that friend 

 Peete so graphically describes on page 798, 1 do 

 not believe will prohibit their use in his local- 

 ity. In the spring, when the propolis is hard 



