DECEMBER 1, 1914 



J2S 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



ITMAY 



Marengo, 



For a small apiary, what better uneap- 

 ping'-tank than that given by "The Outlaw," 

 p. 866"? 



Grace Allen stands worthily with Eu- 

 gene Secor as a poet for, if not among, 

 beekeepers. Tell us about her. 



Gleakings does well to endorse Good 

 Housekeeping. Besides Dr. Wiley's valuable 

 writings, it is worth while for its good and 

 clean fiction Nowadays clean fiction is 

 none too plentiful in magazines. 



Major Shallard, sorry not to be in 

 company with yoii, p. 857, but I have not 

 used quilts for years. A cover having a 

 %-inch dead-air space, covered with zinc, 

 serves for all covering of my hives. 



T. P. Robinson seeks to explain the im- 

 pulse that causes an aged worker to make 

 her final exit from the hive. Is it certain 

 thei'e is any such " impulse "? Doesn't she 

 try her best to get back, and then fail be- 

 cause lacking strength of wings? 



It is not so well known as it should be, 

 as pointed out by Dr. Neumann, Deutsche 

 Bienenzucht, 165, that one of the things 

 that make honey especially desirable is its 

 content of enzym, which seems to aid diges- 

 tion by its mere presence — none in sugar. 



Dr. Phillips is innocent of the charge 

 you make against him, Mr. Editor, p. 881. 

 I laid that trap for you, and then told him 

 to watch you walk into it, as I knew you 

 would. I'm sure I would have walked into 

 it, for it seemed absurd to tliink that when 

 bees were packed close together they could 

 have room to fan with their wings. 



P. C. Chadwick deserves thanks for par- 

 ticulars of failures as to rearing queens in 

 upper stories, p. 796. I think I was the first 

 to report rearing a queen in an upper story, 

 but my failures about agree with his. He 

 lias, however, given an advance step of value 

 in rearing a queen above and below at the 

 same time. 



G. M. Doolittle gives it straight, p. 797, 

 about bees working on same or nearly re- 

 lated flowers, but I remember one case in 

 which I saw a bee fly back and forth upon 

 unrelated flowers. I suspect that bees do 

 not give a button for relationship, but have 

 preferences; and when there are enough 

 flowers of their first choice they will work 

 on no others (and that's nearly always the 

 case when there's a surplus) ; but when 

 flowers are scarce enough they have no 

 scruples about mixing. 



The i^aragraph about feeding sugar, p. 

 794, is enlightening, even though Bro. Crane 

 and Editor Root do not entirely agree. But 

 in accepting the testimony that bees drew 

 out six frames of foundation half way from 

 a quart of syrup (1 lb. of sugar), I should 

 want proof that nothing was yielding, for 

 generally bees are gathering a little, and 

 tlie slow feeding would give considerable 

 time. [See answer to P. C. Chadwick in 

 this issue, on a similar matter, in the de- 

 partment of Beekeeping in California. — 

 Ed.] 



The average beginner is deeply impressed 

 with the idea that whatever his bees are 

 doing in the way of brood-rearing may be 

 doubled, or at least increased, by stimulative 

 feeding. I don't think I have seen the time 

 in 50 years when any amount of stimulative 

 feeding would yield a cell more of brood in 

 my apiary. How could it if the bees already 

 have all the brood they can cover? Of 

 course there are places, as mentioned by P. 

 C. Chadwick, p. 885, where at times there 

 are such breaks in pasturage as to stop the 

 queen's laying, and then stimulative feeding 

 pays big. But in general the notion that 

 the queen should be whipped up in sj^ring 

 to lay more is all wrong, does no good, and 

 may do harm. [We agree with you entirely. 

 In queen-rearing, stimulative feeding is im- 

 peratively necessary. If there is not a steady 

 light flow of nectar secretion we believe in 

 stimulative feeding in the fall; but seldom 

 can it be practiced in the spring to advan- 

 tage. — Ed.] 



Migratory beekeeping is an interesting 

 thing in Europe. A great expanse of buck- 

 wheat within 12 miles of Vienna is in con- 

 trol of the beekeepers' association, to which 

 members may take colonies certified as to 

 health, paying 20 cents each for the care 

 of skeps, and 24 cents for movable-frame 

 hives, a skillful beekeeper being on hand 

 day and night during buckwheat bloom 

 (July 24 till about Sept. 8). For hiving 

 swarms, 24 cents each. — Bienen Vater, 146, 

 [We wonder how much migratory beekeep- 

 ing has been practiced in and about Vienna 

 during these troublous war times. Too bad, 

 too bad, that the greed of the war-lords 

 should involve millions of innocent ones, 

 make children fatherless and motherless, 

 and rob wives of husbands, and all for 

 nothing. The poor and unfortunate are 

 paying the penalty, and not the ruling 

 classes, scarcely a man of whom has been 

 even wounded. — Ed.] 



