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'ublishedby-THEAl^OoYCo. 



lia^pERYtAR 'N® "Medina-Ohio- 



Vol. XXVI. 



JULY I, 1898. 



No. 



13 



p. A. Newcomer says alfalfa in Iowa yields 

 no nectar. — American Bee Journal. 



A SECTION-CLEANER that I hope to see tried 

 is a revolving wire brush with stiff steel wires 

 two inches long. 



The American Bee-keeper values s'aples as 

 spacers at each end of the bottom-bar to pre- 

 vent killing workers and queens between 

 frame and hive- wall. 



That booklet on " Child Training " would 

 save lots of heartache if it were put into the 

 hands of every one who has to do with chil- 

 dren. I want a dozen copies. 



The British Bee Journal says average Brit- 

 ish clover honey weighs IS^:^' lbs. to tlie im- 

 perial gallon, which would be about 11>'2 lbs. 

 to our gallon; 7 lbs. sugar to 3 of water makes 

 a syrup of the same weight. 



Referring to p. 478, I don't believe the 

 man lives who can tell by examining a queen- 

 cell whether it's meant for swarming or super- 

 seding. But he can easily tell whether it's 

 meant to supply a missing queen. 



June 8 I saw two bees on clover-blossoms 

 with yelloiv pollen on their legs. The expla- 

 nation came when one of them flew on a dan- 

 delion blossom, then back on the clover. But 

 it hardly meant that clover was yielding well. 



C. Davenport makes a practice of swapping 

 the two outside combs of the brood-chamber 

 for two frames filled with brood. He thinks 

 it helps to keep pollen out of supers, and also 

 to prevent swarming. — American Bee Journal. 



Sending sections by mail seems to be 

 practiced in England, as gleaned from British 

 Bee Journal. It would cost too much in this 

 country, and perhaps would not be allowed 

 anyhow. England is ahead of America in 

 some things. 



You say I once had "decimeters square" 

 instead of "square decimeters." It was an- 

 other man (I can't recall his name, but think 

 he lived down south) who translated from 

 French journals that made the mistake, and I 



made the correction in Straws. But it's an 

 easy thing to get things mixed. [I'll take it 

 all back.— Ed.] 



A CASE is reported in British Bee Journal 

 in which the bees of a colony fought among 

 themselves day and night, caused, as the 

 editor thinks, by feeding honey from an alien 

 stock. [A case of quarreling of this kind 

 must be very rare indeed. — Ed.] 



That bee-suit mentioned p. 480 I've worn 

 two years with great satisfaction. If you wear 

 the bib pants as overalls — excuse me, too 

 warm. If you wear them next the shirt, all 

 right. For constant work you need four pairs 

 unless your folks wash often. 



An Alsatian bee-journal mentions that, 

 at the request of bee-keepers, a law was passed 

 making it a criminal offense to offer for sale 

 at fairs and markets sweets except under 

 glass, severely forbidding the enticing by 

 sweets and destroying of bees. 



Harry S. Howe mentions in American 

 Bee Journal that he found many colonies this 

 spring that had eaten the honey away from 

 the top-bar, leaving that below. I gave up 

 my skepticism on this point some time ago. 

 Perhaps this will settle Bro. Abbott. 



I just believe that 6 square inches of en- 

 trance at bottom and 6 more at top gives more 

 ventilation than 24 inches all at the bottom — 

 ventilation thivugh, you see. [Ye-s-s-s. But 

 ventilation through the top would be too much 

 of a good thing, would it not, doctor? — Ed.] 



vSoME SAY that nails as frame-spacers make 

 trouble with the wire cloth of extractors. 

 Some say they don't. Perhaps the explana- 

 tion lies in the diameter of the nail-heads. 

 With a head as much as % inch across, there 

 is no trouble in this locality. [But you do not 

 extract much, doctor. — Ed.] 



June 18. A remarkable month this has 

 been — wet, but especially cool and cloudy. 

 Within a week, killing drones and robbing 

 has been the rule. First clover-blossoms four 

 weeks ago, but no real weather for work on it 

 till yesterday, and I don't know whether 

 there's honey in it. [See editorials elsewhere. 

 —Ed.] 



What a FARMER can do in the alfalfa 

 regions with a few colonies of bees is shown 



