•andHoNEY 

 •AND home: 



•INTE.ftEST6 



^^X^ 



fubiishedbymA l"Roo"f Co. 

 $12^ FtRrEAR.^\@"nEDiNA- Ohio • 



Vol. XXVIII. 



JUNE 15, 1900. 



No. 12. 



Did you ever notice that all basswood 

 leaves are lop-sided — oblique, the botanists 

 call it? The picture in the A B C shows it 

 plainly, but I suspect not one in ten ever no- 

 ticed it. 



C. Davenport gixes'in American Bee Jour- 

 nal a kink worth considering : Keep hives in- 

 tended for swarms in a cool, airy place. A 

 swarm put into a hot hive that has been stand- 

 ing in the sun is much more likely to desert. 



Through my fault or the printer's, more 

 is claimed for the Bosnian bees, in a Straw, 

 than the most extravagant claims I have met. 

 I wrote, or intended to write, "sting less, 

 work more," and the types make it "sting- 

 less," p. 425. 



H. L. Jones, I have respect both for scien- 

 tists and practical men (including the Jones 

 family in the latter), and when they disagree 

 it's a good plan to lean toward the safe side, 

 so I always use very young larvse for queen- 

 rearing, especially since the bees, when left 

 to their own choice, do not select the older 

 larvse. 



Nine chances in ten, those bees of E. B. 

 Beecher's, p. 441, decamped because a very hot 

 day came on after they had got a start in comb 

 and eggs. Keeping the hive shaded and cool 

 till the bees have too much to leave, is im- 

 portant. If a frame of brood is given, they 

 can haidly afford to leave that. [I am inclin- 

 ed to think you are right — Ed.] 



One of the first and surest signs of lay- 

 ing workers is to find a number of eggs in a 

 queen cell. But at length I've found an ex- 

 ception. I found a queen-cell with five eggs, 

 and on the same comb another with six, and 

 in the hive was one of the best queens I ever 

 had. She is three years old, and is laying two 

 and occasionally three eg<^s in a cell, no doubt 

 because the colony is purposely small and she 

 hasn't enough room. 



According to Prof. Lazenby, we must re- 

 adjust our ideas about the work of bees, for 



he says he never finds bees gathering pollen 

 and honey on the same trip. And there seems 

 to be an unequal division of labor, for those 

 that gather honey take twice as heavy loads as 

 the pollen-gatherers. May be it's harder work 

 to carry at arm's length, as the pollen is car- 

 ried — or is it at leg's length ? 



The plan you give, p. 444, Mr. Editor, for 

 killing cross bees, is the one I've used for a 

 generation ; but I never had sense enough to 

 tell of it. [If you had told it, doctor, you 

 would have saved me and others a lot of an- 

 noyance. I suspect it is something like your 

 " gobacks " I have described elsewhere in this 

 issue. Don't you remember that you were 

 surprised that I did not know about them, and 

 yet it was a familiar household term in your 

 home? — Ed.] 



I arise to move a vote of thanks to that 

 bright-brained tar-heel, W. H. Pridgen. I've 

 been trying his cell-cups and nurseries, and 

 they're fine. Larvse transferred with cocoon 

 into the small-bottomed cups are very prompt- 

 ly accepted, this plan having advantages over 

 that of having to use royal jelly. When the 

 cocoons are transferred, there is no question 

 about the jelly being of the right consistency. 

 [I second your motion. But I suspect it was 

 Willie Atchley who first thought of the scheme 

 of transferring cocoons into small-bottom cell- 

 cups. — Ed.] 



That summary of the big-little-hive con- 

 troversy in Bienenzucht left the matter just 

 where it is left in American bee-journals, ar- 

 guments on both sides given, and you can 

 take your choice. [The question in this coun- 

 try seems to have simmered itself down to 

 this : That some localities are better adapted 

 for the large hives, and others for small ones. 

 The training of the men, coupled with their 

 prejudices, has a good deal to do with it, so 

 that we shall never see the day when either 

 the small or the large hive will be universally 

 adopted. — Ed.] 



Don't get into a row with my friend Bur- 

 rel, Mr. Editor, p. 442. He's all right in what 

 he says. Bees put pollen in the combs al- 

 ready drawn out, whether in hive or super, if 

 only in one place. So he puts foundation in 

 the super till foundation below is drawn out 



