MAY 15, 1914 



Ir. C. C. 



365 



STEAY STMAW: 



Smith gets 50 pounds of lioney per colo- 

 ny; Jones gets 60 pounds. What per cent 

 greater success has one than the other? I 

 venture the guess that there isn't a man 

 connected with The A. I. Root Co. who can 

 give the correct answer in less than ten 

 words. Nor a woman either. [The answer 

 seems easy enough. What is the '' catch '"'? 

 We do not catch on. — Ed.] 



Terry and wife use 31/2 gallons of honey 

 a year, p. 280. That's 1% gallons each. T 

 use 31/4 gallons a year for my morning- 

 drink alone. All the same, you're right that 

 it would give honey a boom if all would use 

 as much as the Terrys. It would take for 

 the United States about 2,000,000,000 lbs. 

 My only reason for using honey instead of 

 sugar in my drink is that it is better for 

 health, and I'm fairly long on health. 



D. M. MacDonald, British Bee Journal, 

 72, questions calling worker-bee " fellows," 

 I suspect because they are females. The 

 Standard dictionary gives as the first defi- 

 nition of fellow: "A person or individual: 

 a term of familiarity applied to almost any 

 IDerson of the male sex, and occasionally to 

 a woman." That ought to let in worker- 

 bees, especially where " votes for women " 

 have given women equal fellowship with 

 men. But when our Scotch friend, speaking 

 of the Americanisms of an author, says, 

 " His roof is a ' lid,' his flightboard an 

 ' apron,' and he speaks of the ' Porter ' 

 ' escaping" bees,' " I'd like to have him name 

 the author. A roof is always called a " cov- 

 er " here, and I've never seen either of the 

 three terms he quotes in American writing, 

 although I have seen " lid " in British writ- 

 ing. 



" Bees can carry a blight of any kind," 

 p. 300. I wonder. "Active hold-over cankers 

 exude a sticky ooze, attractive to insects, 

 .... and any insects visiting such can- 

 kers will become covered with the germs," 

 p. 299. Now, did you ever see bees visiting 

 such cankers'? Don't they go straight for 

 the blossoms and alight nowhere else? You 

 know well that bees are strongly inclined to 

 stick to the same flower or other source of 

 sweets. Now, suppose a bee should visit a 

 canker; wouldn't it keep on visiting can- 

 kers? so Where's the chance of carrying in- 

 fection to trees with no canker? [You are 

 taking our language too literally. Bees will 

 have little occasion to visit a sticky ooze, 

 even though it might be veiy attractive to 

 other insects. What we meant to say was 

 that bees might carry blight if it were where 



they would be likely to come in contact with 

 it. We will admit we are not well informed 

 on the subject of blight; but twig blight and 

 pear blight could be, and are, carried by 

 bees, and in a form that might find lodg- 

 ment in blossoms. — Ed.] 



" The occurrence of swarms going into 

 other hives that have just swarmed " is men- 

 tioned, p. 293, as " not common." With me 

 it was painfully common when a number of 

 swarms issued on the same day with clipped 

 queens. The bees not being allowed to go 

 off with their queen, likely preferred to 

 return to some other hive than their own, 

 and the swarmy noise at other hives attract- 

 ed them. One day I had a case of that kind. 

 I moved the hive to a new place, and the 

 bees soon found it. Then I put it on a 

 wheelbarrow and trundled it about. As long 

 as I kept on the go it was all right, but 

 whenever I stopped the bees found it again. 

 [The reason it was " painfully common " 

 was doubtless because when it did come, it 

 came in a painfully inconvenient time. We 

 have had for years something like 500 colo- 

 nies in and near Medina, and the occurrence 

 of swarming bees going into other hives is 

 not common with us. As we do not clip 

 queens, because many of our customers 

 prefer them unclipiDed, it may be that this 

 explains the difference. — Ed.] 



On page 283 there seems a desire to 

 discover some artificial pollen that will work 

 out just the same as natural pollen. May 

 be that would be no real gain. 0. 0. Pop- 

 pleton says, p. 281, " My problem is not so 

 much to encourage brood-rearing as to keep 

 it down," and in Germany " late-breeders " 

 are in general preferred to " early-breed- 

 ers." If we could get a colony a month in 

 advance of others in brood-rearing, it is just 

 possible it might fall below the others in its 

 season's storing. [Perhaps with the North- 

 ern beekeeper there would be no real gain 

 by artificial stimulation ; but in the case to 

 which we were refeiTing, inciting bees to 

 breed by artificial means in Northern Flor- 

 ida to secure increase would be a decided 

 gain. If an artificial substitute for natural 

 pollen can be found that will cause bees to 

 breed up as readily as on natural pollen it 

 will mean a great deal to many Southern 

 beekeepers who desire increase, but who 

 sometimes find there is no natural pollen, 

 notwitstanding general weather conditions 

 are favorable. There is seldom a scarcity of 

 natural jDollen in the North except very 

 early in the spring; but it is often lacking 

 in parts of the South. — Ed.] 



