Oct. 1, 1911 



ly ^(tD°ai\:^s 



581 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo. III. 



J. E. Crane, p. 551, has a vision of pollen 

 in sections when he thinks of their being 

 used over a single story of shallow frames. 

 I have a distinct remembrance of the same 

 thing in this locality. 



Arthur C. Miller, you stir us all up 

 with the idea that you've found out the 

 cause of swarming, 560, and then, just as we 

 think you're coming to the secret, say, 

 "Find out for yourself." You're a fraud. 



A THICK TOP-BAR is generally ]/& inch. 

 Louis Roehl has top-bars \^'^ inches thick. 

 That thickness, with some drone comb in 

 the brood-chamber, he thinks keeps the 

 queen out of extracting-supers. — Leipz. 

 Bztg., 116. 



Mr. Editor, on page 548 you ajiprove 

 nine parts water to one of sugar, and on page 

 550 say, "We can't use anything thinner 

 than two of water to one of sugar." Which 

 time were you in earnest? [On page 548, if 

 you will glance at the small-cap heading 

 above, you will see that we were talking 

 about open-air feeding. On page 550 we had 

 in mind in-hive feeding; for in your Straw- 

 just above you speak of one-hole feeders. — 

 Ed.] 



O. B. Metcalfe, Eevieiv, 212, tells us, 

 when cross bees annoy, to take from your 

 smoker a jiiece of burning burlap gummed 

 up with propolis, or else saturate new bur- 

 lap with kerosene, tie it to the end of a 

 small stick, wave it about, and the bees will 

 fly at the dark object and promptly fall to 

 the ground with singed wings. [This looks 

 like a good suggestion. A dozen or so cross 

 bees will sometimes follow the apiarist for 

 an hour at a time. They had better be 

 killed.— Ed.] 



Adrian Getaz' estimate of 200 lbs. an- 

 nual consumption of honey for a colony is 

 given, p. 537, for regions "M^here the win- 

 ters are cold. ' ' Where they are warm would 

 it be a little more ? [Yes, the warmer the 

 climate the more honey will be consumed. 

 For the Southern States the amount that a 

 colony would actually eat in a year's time, 

 exclusive of surplus, might be nearly 300 or 

 even 400 lbs. We should be glad to have 

 some of our Southern readers give us an es- 

 timate. — Ed.] 



Geo. H. Coulson, American Bee Jour- 

 nal, 247, says bees may be moved a short 

 distance at any time, and need not be con- 

 fined to the hive to prevent returning to the 

 old home if they are kept busy carrying 

 syrup from the super to the brood-chamber. 

 [We have no difficulty when we take the 

 precaution to smoke the bees thoroughly, 

 and then bump them on a springless wheel- 

 barrow to a new location. The work should 

 be done on a cool morning. It is quite use- 

 less to attempt it in the middle of the day 

 when the bees are flying. — Ed.] 



Dr. Walter Hein, in a paper prejiared 

 for the big German convention, says that 

 what is now named Nose ma a^j/.? was known 

 as far back as 1857 by Doenhoff. Dr. Hein 

 takes about the same view of Xosema a. as 

 Dr. Phillips. It is to be found in most colo- 

 nies, is not the originator of dangerous di- 

 arrhea, and in spite of its presence a colony 

 may remain in good health. Let us breathe 

 easier. [We have been breathing easier for 

 some time back. — P'd.] 



Wesley Foster asks, p. 517, if I ever 

 saw a double-tier case with 3-in. glass. 

 Come over to the shop, Wesley, and I'll 

 show you one 8^ inches deep inside, and 

 another 9 inches deep. The front strips are 

 not 1 in. wide, as you say, but IX- That 

 leaves exposure of glass 2>< inches in one 

 and 25'^ in the other. You say they are 

 not strong enough. As you never saw one, 

 aren't you guessing at that? I used them 

 several years; shipped tons of honey in 

 them hundreds of miles; and they were 

 strong enough to stand the racket. Would 

 your longer haul need greater strength ? 



F. E. Matzke, the inventor of that ex- 

 cellent bee-glue scraper, is told, page 572, 

 "There should be anywhere from 10 to 15 

 square feet of feeding surface, depending on 

 the number of bees." That leaves it pretty 

 loose. Can't you give us something definite? 

 How would 20 square inches per colony do? 

 Then, too, instead of corn-cobs for floaters, 

 why not use cork chips? [It is impossible 

 to say just how many square inches would 

 be necessary for a colony. An apiary of 

 strong colonies would need more feeding sur- 

 face than an apiary of light ones. Then, 

 again, something depends on whether there 

 is a light natural honey-flow or considerable 

 natural pollen. We notice that on some 

 days the bees will scarcely go near the out- 

 door feeder. On other days they will be 

 busy on them. The point we meant to 

 make was that there should be enough feed- 

 ing surface so that the bees would not be 

 crowded. When they struggle against each 

 other they wear each other out" For that 

 reason no hard-and-fast rule based on the 

 number of colonies would be jiracticable. — 

 Ed.] 



Who has been mixing the types to make 

 them say, p. 537, "The young queens usu- 

 ally hatch from the cells about the day that 

 the swarm is cast"? Shouldn't it be a 

 week later ? [Xo mistake, doctor, so far as 

 the types are concerned. We have been 

 under the impression that the hatching of 

 swarming-cells was often and generally the 

 signal for the swarm to come out if other 

 conditions were favorable. We do not 

 know how this is in your locality, but in 

 most localities that we have visited we have 

 found that this is the rule. A few minutes 

 ago we asked our Mr. Marchant, who has 



