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$JSSPER\tAR ^TlEDINA-OHIO- 



Vol. XXVII. 



MAY i, 1899. 



No. 9. 



A sprayer, one that throws a much coarser 

 spray than the Faultless, would be a good 

 thing to fill combs with syrup. 



" IS HONEY a vegetable or animal product? " 

 is a question asked on page 317. Perhaps the 

 right answer to that question is that it is both. 



I don't BEEiEVE that one colony in fifty 

 will swarm if managed by J. F. Teel's plan, 

 p. 315. But it isn't a very good plan for comb 

 honey. 



Editor Abbott "is now thoroughly con- 

 vinced that a cluster of bees with full honey- 

 sacs will not freeze." That depends. If the 

 cluster is large enough, it will not freeze. If 

 small enough, it will most certainly freeze 

 whenever it's cold enough. 



J.J. Cosby strikes the right note when he 

 advocates rearing good drones as well as 

 queens, p. 303 ; but wouldn't it be better, for 

 the sake of avoiding in-breeding, friend Cosby, 

 to feed up for drones a colony different from 

 the one that is fed for queens ? 



Friend A. I. Root, here are my heartiest 

 thanks for that talk beginning page 322. 

 There are good people who have faith in 

 Dowie, Electropoise, and all that, and you 

 may do nothing for them ; but you may warn 

 others away from the whirlpool. 



Very SOON it will be time again for queen- 

 rearing, and I hope Messrs. Brice, Hutchinson, 

 and Taylor will make close observation to see 

 whether in any case bees make the mistake of 

 choosing larvae more than three days old from 

 which to rear a queen, so long as they have 

 younger larva; present. 



Decidedly, yes ; that short cleat in con- 

 nection with the hand-hole is a great improve- 

 ment over the hand-hole alone. The cleat 

 alone is better than the hand-hole alone, and 

 the combination is better than either one 

 alone. But some will prefer a longer cleat. 

 [Every one to his likes and dislikes. I have 

 said this several times before, and I think it is 



a good motto for a supply-dealer to adopt. 

 The one who prefers to use old-style sections, 

 for instance, should not lash himself into fury 

 because the other fellow prefers and admires 

 plain sections. — Ed.] 



Deep CELES are not a complete preventive 

 of eggs in a super, as J. A. Green says. p. 303, 

 but a deterrent, and the deeper the cells the 

 more they deter. When he put 7 frames 

 instead of 8, that made the cells only about -, 1 ,-, 

 inch deeper. With 6 frames in place of 8, 

 making the cells about : 4 inch deeper, it 

 would be a desperate case that would make 

 the bees gnaw down the cells. 



If you start to test the drug formalin for 

 foul brood, you might try izal, which S. Sim- 

 mins, editor of Bee Chat, strongly insists is a 

 success. [The trouble is, doctor, we have no 

 foul brood, and we do not want any here at 

 Medina to test either drug by ; but there are 

 some of our unfortunate readers who, dislik- 

 ing to destroy good frames of brood, might 

 feel disposed to give one or both a trial. — Ed.] 



Henry AeeEY thinks increasing the size of 

 cell-cups will not increase the size of queens, 

 p. 308. How could it make a difference, when 

 already the queen has more room than she 

 needs in the ordinary cell ? [Henry Alley is 

 quite right. I feel like kicking myself for 

 letting a correspondent suggest that an en- 

 largement of the cell would make larger 

 queens, without a protest. I knew better. — 

 Ed.] 



The Hoffman frame, p. 321, is compared 

 with the loose-hanging frame to the advantage 

 of the former ; but please remember that the 

 advantages there claimed are not confined 

 to the Hoffman, and that you can have a bet- 

 ter frame than it, and still have the advan- 

 tages of the self -spacer. [A better frame, 

 perhaps, for your locality, doctor. I suppose 

 you refer to the nail spaced frame that you 

 use. Friend Davenport would not like it 

 nearly as well, possibly, even if he lived in 

 Marengo. But Hoffman frames have certain 

 features that even your nail-spaced frames do 

 not have. Every one to his liking. — Ed.] 



J. A. Green will pardon me for saying that 

 he uses two illustrations, page 302, to prove 

 travel-stain, that hardly apply. Bees on the 



