SKL'TEMIJER 15, 1914 



Dr. ]\Iillor, pai>e 325, May 1. iliiiiks 1 am 

 ;! lirtle hard on llie other Miller for tliini:- 

 iiiU' a colony needs 35 lbs. of heavy syrup 

 Oct. 1. Well, let's see. I have found by 

 weighino' that even heavy syrup fed to a 

 colony shrinks greatly before it is ripened 

 and stored, and it is not safe to count on 

 more than 25 lbs. cf food as the equivalent 

 of honey. I have also found that a good 

 colony will consume, from ISTov. 1 to April 

 1, on an average, 17 lbs. of honey when 

 wintered out of doors. I learned this by 

 shaking the bees from the combs and 

 weighing them, both in the fall and again in 

 the spring the first week in April. This 

 leaves only 8 lbs. for spring use. Where 

 bees are wintered in a good cellar, seven or 

 eight pounds less of feed will answer; but 

 I was speaking of bees wintered out of 

 doors. Mr. Miller's idea, that those who 

 feed do not as a rule feed half enough is 

 quite right, especially as to beginners. 



I suppose it is somewhat easier to keep 

 quiet than to report our experience when it 

 is different from that of those with more 

 experience than ourselves. I have been 

 somewhat surprised that we have had few 

 or no reports of failures in introducing 

 queens by the " smoke method." Even the 

 best methods of manijjulation will some- 

 times fail, and I find this method no excep- 

 tion. I have not found beekeepers as en 

 tlmsiastic over it as I had expected. In 

 talking with one very intelligent beekeeper 

 he said that he tried to introduce some twen- 

 ty queens by this method last year, and lost 

 more than half of them. He did not seem 

 bitter about it, but thought the reason for 

 his lack of success was that his colonies 

 were crowded Avitli bees; and the frames 

 coming down quite close to the bottora-l)oai'd 

 prevented the smoke from thoroughly pene- 

 trating to every part of the colony. It was 

 liis opinion that the method would be likely 

 to prove more successful with smaller colo- 

 11 its, or where there was more room between 

 tlie bottom of the frames and bottom-board. 



Mr. P. C. Chadwiok, page 491, relates a 

 very interesting case of the effects of a sting. 

 During the past fifty yeais I have seen a 

 good many cases of severe poisoning from 

 stings; and I might say, in a general way, 

 that some poisons seem to have a particular 

 affinity for some part of the body, as alco- 

 hol has for the brain, or bee poison for the 

 parts about the eye. There appears to be 

 an effort on the ])art of the system to expel 

 jxiisons througli the liver, kidneys, lungs, 

 skin, or mucous membi'ane. Some ])oisons 



ajtjeai' lo be e.\i)elled in one way and some 

 ill anotlier. Bee poison is evidently driven 

 out of the body through the skin or mucous 

 membrane, or both, and will, in persons 

 especially sensitive to this poison, sometimes 

 cause the whole body to be covered with 

 blotches and cause intense pain over the 

 whole surface. When jooison passes through 

 the mucous membrane it may so irritate 

 the lungs as to cause coughing and some- 

 times almost suffocation and other distress- 

 ing symptoms — even loss of consciousness. 

 The best treatment I have found is to get 

 the patient into a profuse perspiration with 

 an alcohol-lamp or hot bath as quickly as 

 possible, thus drawing the blood and poison 

 to the skin and keeping up strength with 

 ammonia as a stimulant. In every case, so 

 far as I remember, as soon as rapid sweat- 

 ing is produced the throat and lung symp- 

 toms slowly disappear. 



* * * * 



Page 531, July 15, Mr. P. C. Chadwick 

 says that he thinks Wesley Foster entirely 

 right in saying that " Bees clustered outside 

 their hive are wasting time," and, of course, 

 thinks I was entirely wrong in not feeling 

 sure about it. Well, now, did you ever! 

 Because we see a woman sitting under the 

 shade of a tree by her kitchen door when 

 the mercury is at 90 degrees in the shade, 

 it is no sign she is loafing or wasting time. 

 She may be shelling peas or paring x:>otatoes 

 for the noonday meal, oi', it may be, darn- 

 ing stockings or making a dress for the 

 baby, and, like a sensible woman, does her 

 work Avhere she can be most comfortable; 

 and it is unbecoming in us to criticise he)-. 

 For the comfort of my friends Chadwnck 

 and Foster, let me ray that I thought and 

 felt, thirty or forty years ago, very much as 

 they do iiow\ We called it " loafing " in 

 those days. If no honey is coming in, there 

 IS certainly no loss in bees clustering out- 

 side their hive. If nectar is coming in free- 

 ly we shall doubtless find every blessed bee 

 clustered outside full of nectar which they 

 are reducing to honey. That bees can evap- 

 orate the excess of moisture from nectar in 

 hot weather outside their hive I think needs 

 little proof. I will say, however, that I 

 have found a colony that had clustered on 

 a tree and remained gathering nectar, evap- 

 orating it and building their combs and stor- 

 ing their honey in the open air. Of course, 

 if the entrance is very small and insufficient 

 there might be some loss or waste of time 

 when bees cluster outside; but where there 

 is sulficient ventilation, and they cluster out 

 for a day or two in the intensely hot or 

 humid days, I have come to think there is 

 little waste of time. 



