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laiPERVtAR. 'Ns'MEDINA-OHIO- 



Vol. XXXIL 



APR I, J 904. 



No. 7 



I VOTE for bees with stings, if the thing- 

 is ever settled by vote. 



Excluders are not necessary to keep the 

 queen out of section supers, if sections are 

 filled with foundation. If you use little 

 starters in sections, it may pay you to use 

 excluders. 



Allow me to supplement the excellent 

 advice of friend Dooliitle, p. 274, by advis- 

 ing Mr. Jones to plant also cherries and 

 plums for their excellent service before ap- 

 ples bloom. 



Let me advise bee keepers, especially 

 the younger ones, not to omit reading such 

 articles as that by E. F. Phillips, p. 285. 

 A substantial foundation of the right kind 

 of theory may be worth more than you sup- 

 pose in your future practice. 



I AM SURPRISED that swcct clovcr does 

 not flourish about Borodino in muck and 

 hardpan soil. It does here. Hard pan from 

 the bottom of the cellar, in which nothing 

 else cares to grow, seems just to suit sweet 

 clover. How is it about Medina? [Here 

 too.— Ed.] 



R. A. Whitfield, I'll tell 3'ou another 

 thing that'll happen to you if you put brood 

 over your sections: The bees will seal the 

 sections more or less dark with bits of black 

 comb brought down from above. They did 

 for me. P. 288. [Yes, that is our experi- 

 ence also. — Ed.] 



Discussion at Colorado convention ( Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal, 135) shows considerable 

 inclination to return to selling by weight 

 instead of by case, although, with the lim- 

 its placed, their present method is nearly 

 by weight; indeed, Mr. Aikin said, in con- 

 vention, "In fact, we are selling by 

 weight." 



The ouekn " takes several small prepar- 

 atory fiijihts," page 286. Are they really 

 preparatory, or only unsuccessful? Is not 

 the first fiight often if not usually success- 

 ful? [Possib'y both. It is natural to sup- 

 pose, however, that the queen goes out into 

 the air for one purpose only; and, failing to 

 accomplish that purpose, she makes other 

 flights until successful. — Ed.] 



Mr. E. W. Alexander, in Eastern New 

 York, tells in Review that, with 300 colo- 

 nies in one vard, colonies on scales showed 

 a gain of 10 to 18 lbs. a day. Last sum- 

 mer he had about 700 colonies in the htme 

 apiary, and intends to have many more 

 this summer. Is it possible that C:>ggshall 

 and others are foolish to keep little bunch- 

 es of SO or 100 colonies five or ten miles off 

 that might be kept at home just as well? 



I EXPECTED to hear that you were using 

 electricity to heat a wire when cutting can- 

 died honey, p. 276; but I expected also that 

 you would be using a full set of wires at a 

 time instead of a single wire; then one cut 

 in three different directions would leave 

 your can of honey in cubes. [One wire 

 will cut the cakes fast enough. Three or 

 four wires could not be used. Sometimes 

 the wires stretch; sometimes there is a soft 

 streak, and the same pull on all four wires 

 would not give satisfactory results. It is a 

 little trick to cut with even one wire. — Ed.] 



The Ch.\ntrv introducing- cage has been 

 sent me by E. F. Atwater, who has used it 

 with great success. Its construction is 

 based on the idea that strange bees will not 

 molest a queen while both are in a cage. A 

 short cnndied passage admits the bees to 

 the queen in a few hours. Instead of paste- 

 board on theoutsideof this candy is a piece 

 of excluder, so that the bees may freely 

 pass in and out, leaving the queen still a 

 prisoner for perhaps two days more, while 

 the bees eat the candy out of another pas- 

 sage lYz inches long. Now, why isn't that 

 all right? 



Speaking of the fertilization of the &^^, 

 E. F. Phillips says, p. 286, " If it is to be 

 a worker ft^^ it receives from the spermath- 

 eca one spermatozoon." I suppose that 



