Dec. 15, 1911 



745 



J. E. Ceane, Middlebury, Vt. 



Mr. Foster's fall treatment for American 

 foul brood is well worth trying. Something 

 very similar was recommended by Moses 

 Quinby nearly fifty years ago. 



That is certainly an ingenious w^ay of out- 

 witting robber bees given by Dr. C. C. Miller 

 on page 631, Oct. 15. Why could not such 

 a device be attached to each nucleus as a 

 permanent fixture when the nuclei are 

 started ? 



-^ 



Mr. Byer mentions, page 518, Sept. 1, the 

 poor outlook for next year in his locality. 

 Cheer up, my brother! You know it looked 

 very promising a year ago, and we have met 

 with failure. Possibly the dark clouds have 

 a silver lining. 



4>- 



On page 587, Oct. 1, Mr. Macdonald gives 

 some interesting facts in regard to the rea- 

 soning powers of bees. I believe two differ- 

 ent persons have told me the past season 

 that they have had colonies come out and 

 leave at once for some distant place with- 

 out even stopping to cluster. 



On page 627, Oct. 15, Percy Orton describes 

 his foot-jDOwer saw. These saws are a great 

 convenience for small jobs; but for a large 

 amount of sawing I think I would use pow- 

 er of some kind. I used a Barnes saw a 

 good deal a few years ago, with the result 

 that I have one bad leg that will bother me 

 as long as I live. 



Mr. W. C. Mollett calls attention, page 

 685, Oct. 15, to the use of brown sugar as 

 food for wintering bees. Let me say that, a 

 few years ago, we fed tons of brown sugar, 

 or, more properly, raw sugar, for wintering 

 our bees, without any serious harm to them; 

 but the difference in price between raw and 

 granulated sugar is so slight that it hardly 

 pays. 



Isn't Adrian Getaz' estimate of 200 lbs. 

 consumption of honey per colony per year 

 rather large? See page 581, Oct. 1. [We are 

 inclined to think the figures are conserva- 

 tive rather than overdrawn. In warmer 

 climates bees will necessarily consume 

 much more than they would in a temperate 

 or colder climate. Probably for your local- 

 ity 200 lbs. would be large.— Ed.] 

 -^ 



Mr. Editor, you are right, p. 611, Oct. 15, 

 in advising bee-keepers to feed and save 

 their bees. I am neither a prophet nor the 

 son of a prophet, yet I feel quite sure we 

 shall have a fairly good season next year. I 

 have observed during the past fifty years 

 that a good season is almost sure to follow a 

 very poor one, and also that, as a rule, a 

 ]ioor year is apt to follow an extra good one. 

 Bees, too, often winter badly after a poor 



season, and perhaps dwindle in the spring. 

 Let us give them the best of care this winter. 

 -*^ 

 How long after a swarm issues does the 

 young queen come out of her cell? I have 

 not observed any regular time. I have no- 

 ticed young queens hatching when a colony 

 swarmed; again, not a queen-cell started, 

 and at other times cells in all stages between. 

 I sometimes think that my bees have not 

 been properly brought up. 



I am sure the congratulations of the bee- 

 keepers of the whole country as well as 

 those over the line to the north of us are 

 due Mr. and Mrs. A. I. Root because of their 

 fiftieth anniv^ersary. After looking at their 

 photographs as shown on pages 594 and 595, 

 Oct. 1, one can not help thinking that the 

 doctrines Mr. Root has so frankly taught 

 these many years are good to live by. 



Wesley Foster hits the nail on the head 

 when he says, p. 59:), Oct. 1, "The bee-keeper 

 can learn more about the sale of honey from 

 grocers than by any amount of thought or 

 theory. Ask the man who sells it, and then 

 go further and ask the man who eats it. In 

 this way reliable pointers may be gained 

 first hand, and they will prove profitable if 

 followed." 



-*- 



Page 589, Oct. 1, C. W. Dayton speaks of 

 the ripening ferment in bees. Can he tell 

 just what this is? It is new to me. He 

 closes his article as follows: "The most 

 abundant honey-flows often follow directly 

 after such conditions of weather as produce 

 weakened colonies." That is a fact that 

 Eastern bee-keepers will do well to remem- 

 ber next spring. 



4>- 

 ' I am glad there is to be a buckwheat bul- 

 letin. Its value for bees can not be ques- 

 tioned; and here in the North it is about the 

 only plant from which the bees reap a har- 

 vest that pays to raise for seed. When vis- 

 iting a friend recently in a buckwheat sec- 

 tion I found he had secured froixi buckwheat 

 not only enough to winter his bees, but con- 

 siderable surplus, while we w'ere rolling in 

 sugar by the ton to feed for winter stores. 



A good deal has been written about winter 

 nests. I find that, as a rule, in an eight- 

 frame brood-chamber the bees cluster near 

 the front end of the hive just below the hon- 

 ey, but in the center of the combs in late 

 autumn. In the spring they cluster at the 

 further end of the hive, away from the en- 

 trance. I do not share Mr. Hand's ex^^eri- 

 ence, page 135, March 1, that there must be 

 a large amount of honey directly over the 

 cluster, for I find that, when they consume 

 that directly above them, they will move 

 along toward the back of the hive, provided 

 it is suitably protected. 



