JourHaiJ 



• DElVoTI 



•andHoNEY 

 ♦AHD HOME. 



•INTERESTS 



Pubhshedby THEAII^OOI' CO. 



$ia» PER\tAR^'\@ "Medina- Ohio • 



Vol. XXVIII. 



DEC. I, 1900. 



No. 23. 



The eggs of choice queens form an article 

 of commerce to a considerable extent in Swit- 

 zerland. — Bienen- Vater. 



It SEEMS from the British Bee Journal that 

 our British cousins are using tinted glass to 

 measure the color of extracted honey. 



The Centralblatt says that on the Lueneburg 

 heath they usually put in one apiary not more 

 than 120 colonies at a distance of at least ^ 

 mile from the nearest apiary. How many lo- 

 calities in this country would stand such 

 crowding? 



Sweet ci^over is a good example of a 

 plant that yields both nectar and pollen, says 

 R. C. Aikin, in Progressive. Locality again. 

 I've many a time watched bees at work on 

 sweet clover, to find the color of sweet-clover 

 pollen, without seeing any. 



A BRIGHT SUGGESTION comes from F. L. 

 Thompson, in Progressive. In order to have 

 outside sections finished promptly, or, rather, 

 to have no outside sections, put two very 

 thin permanent combs, one on each side of 

 the super. Might it not save most of the put- 

 ting-back of sections to be finished ? 



The time for clipping queens in this lo- 

 cality is as follows : at the spring overhauling, 

 about the last of April, every queen is seen, 

 and those with whole wings clipped. About 

 all of these will be superseding queens raised 

 the previous year near the close of the har- 

 vest. Through the rest of the season every 

 queen is clipped as soon as she is known to be 

 laying. 



One reason why double-tier 24-lb. cases 

 are preferred to single-tier 12-lbs. is that it 

 costs less for one of the former than for two 

 of the latter. Another reason is that the 

 double tiers make a better show. In a pile of 

 single tiers, 55 per cent of the showing sur- 

 face is honey, and 64 per cent is honey in a 

 pile of double-tiers. You see a single bar in 

 the' middle of the double-tier takes the place 



of two bars, a bottom, and a cover. But I 

 never had the upper sections rest directly on 

 the lower. I finally gave up double tiers be- 

 cause they were odd goods. 



C. P. Dadant was received in the most cor- 

 dial manner across the ocean, according to an 

 editorial in Revue Internationale, which 

 speaks of him as "the son of our venerated 

 master, Charles Dadant." We've no reason 

 to be ashamed of our Cajnille. [Yes, the 

 President of the National Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation gave C. P. Dadant a great send- 

 off in the form of a letter of credentials from 

 our Association to the International Bee-keep- 

 ers' Congress at Paris. Through the Dadants 

 the bee-keepers of America have a very close 

 connection with the bee-keepers of France. — 

 Ed.1 



After reading the footnote to that Straw, 

 about "ragged" hives, p. 870, a certain per- 

 son said tome, "You tell Ernest that, not- 

 withstanding new hives, we still use rags, and 

 will continue to do so with such hive-covers 

 as we get from Medina." [Now look here, 

 doctor; don't you remember that you were 

 instructed to tear that leaf out so the women- 

 folks would not see it ? But, say : suppose 

 you send to us by express two covers plugged 

 up with rags, and I'll send you two new ones 

 in exchange. Is it possible that those s me 

 women-folks have been nailing up those 

 covers? I want to see if I can discover the 

 evidences of a woman's hammering, you 

 know, and that is why I ask for the covers. — 

 Ed.] 



Editor Hutchinson, asked if he would 

 breed from a hybrid queen whose bees stored 

 four times as much as those of the best Ital- 

 ian, replies, " Certainly I would. Such a col- 

 ony might be the beginning of a most valu- 

 able strain." Right. I'd like to breed from 

 purest and most beautiful stock ; but purity 

 and beauty must give way to best perform- 

 ance. [I agree with this with one exception : 

 That a cross between two races will have a 

 decided tendency to sport back toward one or 

 the other parentage, with the result that pos- 

 sibly the very characteristic that we desire to 

 preserve may be lost, and the very one we 

 would repress is brought into prominence. If 



