JOUR 



• DELVoTES 

 •To 'Be. ELS 



•ANbHoNEY 

 •AND HOME, 



•INTEF^ESTi 



'ublishedby THEl\l1^00l' Co. 



l^°ptRYEAR.^^@ Medina-Ohio • 



Vol. XXVIII. 



JUNE I, 1900. 



No. II. 



M. Ambrozic, Moistrana, Austria, has sold 

 25,905 colonies of bees in the past 13 years. 



To MAKE wooden feeders water-tight, put 

 blotting-paper, when nailing, between the 

 joints. — Lpz. Bzlg, 



Hanneman, inventor of perforated zinc, 

 now over 80, lives in South America, has 335 

 colonies of bees, and raises grapes. 



Reaumer estimates that a strong colony 

 uses 100 pounds of pollen in a year. [This 

 looks like a large amount, but it may be right. 

 —Ed.] 



Bosnian bees are the latest candidates for 

 public favor. Of course they excel ; stingless, 

 and work more hours than any other bee, be- 

 sides being the hardiest. 



Appreciative notices of considerable 

 length have lately been general in foreign bee- 

 journals touching Root's A B C of Bee Culture, 

 and the wish has been expressed that it might 

 be translated into other than the English lan- 

 guage. 



The BiG-ijTTr,E-HivE controversy that has 

 been running in American bee-journals has 

 been summed in a masterly manner — where do 

 you think ? In the German Bienenziicht, by 

 Dr. Soergel. [But you did not tell us what 

 the summary was. — Ed] 



Friend A. I. Root, I think you misinter- 

 pret friend Gressman, p. 407. When he says 

 he'd take all he could get from one cheating 

 him intentionally, he hardly means he would 

 take more than is right, but that he would take 

 all he could get of what rightly belonged to 

 him. 



You RIGHTLY emphasize stimulative feed- 

 ing for rearing queens, Mr. Editor, p. 398 but 

 forget to say that nothing is more stimulating 

 than a heavy flow of nectar in the flowers. 

 At such times would feeding be of any use? 

 The swarming season is a good time to rear 

 queens, not because it is the swarming season, 

 but because the bees are stimulated by a big 

 flow. 



Reepen estimates that the bees of an ordi- 

 nary colony will visit 2,000,000 flowers in a 

 day, or 200,000,000 in a season. If one tenth 

 this number is fertilized by the bees, and the 

 fertilization of 20,000 flowers is worth 1 cent, 

 then the fertilizing labors of one colony for a 

 season is worth $10 to agriculture. 



In a PRIVATE LETTER, Thos. Wm. Cowan 

 says : " They have made me president of the 

 Museum Association here at Pacific Grove, 

 Cal., so they do not intend to keep me idle. 

 I am just setting out a botanical garden, and 

 we are going to have a flower show on the 

 plan of those we have in England. It would 

 be too far for you to send exhibits or I would 

 ask you to do so." 



Two MYSTERIES in connection with finding 

 queens. You look very, very carefully all 

 over a comb, and the queen is not to be seen ; 

 but suddenly she appears, calmly walking 

 right before your eyes. Where or how she 

 was hidden is the mystery. Another mystery 

 is that often a queen is harder to find in a mere 

 handful of bees than in a strong colony. [I 

 agree with you in both. — Ed.] 



The age AT MATING of 30 queens is given 

 in Bienen-l'ater. It varied from 4 to 9 days, 

 the largest number being at 6 days, and the 

 average of all being 6' { days. [I once con- 

 ducted a series of experiments, and, if I re- 

 member correctl}', the average date seemed to 

 be 7 days, and the earl est 3 days; but in this 

 case I had reason to suspect the queen had 

 been confined in the cell by the bees after the 

 regular day for hatching. — Ed.] 



The instruction as to finding queens, p. 

 396, is very full. The sifting process is good 

 as any in .-i troublesome case. Here's an ad- 

 ditional plan. Put the combs in pairs ; after 

 they have stood a minute the queen will be in 

 the middle of one of the pairs. If the pairs 

 are in separate hives, and you let them stand 

 long enough, the bees will become uneasy in 

 each pair but the one containing the queen. 

 [I never tried this plan, but see no reason 

 why it would not work. — Ed.] 



Cultivate in the child a love for flowers. 

 With some there seems a passion for flowers 

 from earliest childhood ; others have the taste 

 aroused not till years have passed. Until I 



