JUNE 15. 1916 



469 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAWS r^^^^^s^ 



J. L. Byer, you are quite risrht, 

 p. 430, in saying thai " dysen- 

 tery (?) " (isn't diarrhea the better 

 word?) can be caused "without any 

 cold weather, and by so short a 

 continement as five or six days." 

 I've known bees to spot their sur- 

 roundings in summer, with no confinement 

 whatever, apparently because badly scared. 

 [The word " diarrhea " is more accurate 

 than "dysentery;" but the latter term is a 

 little smoother, and has become so engrafted 

 into our literature that it seems impossible 

 to make the change. — Ed.] 



" First covering the entrance with net- 

 ting so that the bees would not fly out, the 

 hive was placed in the house cellar," p. 398. 

 Some beginner may understand that to 

 mean that it is all right to have bees fast- 

 ened in hives in cellar, which would be a 

 mistake. Of course the netting was remov- 

 ed after the bees quieted down. 



Mrs. Allex, p. 428, either you have made 

 a new observation or you haven't obsei'ved 

 closely enough. It's the first mention I've 

 seen of bees handling eggs with their an- 

 tennae instead of their jaws. [Evidently 

 Mrs. Allen meant " mandibles " instead of 

 " antenna?;" because, so far as we know, the 

 latter are never used for any sort of work 

 in the hive. — Ed.] 



If you have only a small amount of cap- 

 pings, and want to drain all the honey out 

 of them, here's a kink worth knowing. Aft- 

 er letting them drain perhaps a day, put the 

 cappings down cellar to finish draining, and 

 the honey will become thin, and drain to the 

 last drop. You can feed it to the bees, or 

 use it for vinegar. An easier way is to let 

 the bees clean the cappings. Put them in a 

 shallow box, put something under one side 

 of the box so as to make it slanting, and as 

 often as the bees dig the cappings level 

 turn the box around. 



A. I. Root, in speaking a word in appre- 

 ciation of the dandelion, p. 463, you might 

 add a word as to the beauty of the flower. 

 One who can look closely at it without ad- 

 miring it is lacking in appreciation of the 

 beautiful; and a bank thickly studded with 

 the bright blooms is a thing to delight the 

 eye. [A lot of good people in Medina think 

 we scattered dandelion seed ; in fact, prac- 

 tically every beekeeper, because his bees 

 pollinate the dandelion blossoms so that all 

 the seeds mature, is accused of the same 

 thing, whether he lives in Medina or else- 



where. It is these very people who see 

 anything but beauty in something that re- 

 quires cons' ant warfare to keep it off a 

 lawn. — Ed.] 



R. F. HOLTERMANN, you Say, p. 405, that 

 " Colonies have been found with the swarm- 

 ing impulse week after week, altho I con- 

 tinue to break down the cells." That sounds 

 as if you could prevent swarming by con- 

 tinuously killing cells. With me that's the 

 unusual thing. Either the colony gives up 

 starting cells after about the second round, 

 or else it swarms without waiting for cells 

 to be sealed. If I persist in killing, a per- 

 sistent »olony will swarm with an egg in a 

 cell. You say, " If I could have foreseen 

 this I would have shaken . , as we all know 

 such a colony will not gather the usual 

 amount of surplus honey." By " such a 

 colony " I suppose you mean one kept from 

 swarming by continuously killing cells. Of 

 course such a colony will not equal one that 

 never thinks at all about swarming, but I 

 don't notice such a gi-eat letting-up in colo- 

 nies where cells are killed. At any rate, if 

 I could keep a colony from actually swarm- 

 ing by continuously killing cells, I'd never 

 think of shaking, for ' I believe shaking 

 would interfere with the crop more than 

 the sulking of swarmy bees, if they can be 

 kept from going on to actual swarming. 



" Queens dearly love to lay eggs in new 

 comb," p. 437. My observation has shown 

 that bees decidedly prefer old black combs 

 for either eggs or honey ; yet several times 

 I've seen the statement that they preferred 

 new comb, so that it is possible that, under 

 some conditions, they do. Who can tell us 

 what the conditions are? I can think of 

 one ; and that is, when drone comb is gi-eatly 

 desired and new drone comb is built. In 

 that ease I've known eggs to be laid in new 

 comb a long way from the brood-nest. [We 

 have noticed that queens seem to have a 

 liking for new comb, particularly that built 

 from foundation. It is not the newness of 

 the comb or wax, but, rather, the physical 

 condition — the convenience of the shallow 

 cells.. We have very often seen a queen 

 take up with a partly drawn comb from 

 foundation, and supposed that the reason 

 for this was one of pure convenience, both 

 for laying the egg and for determining 

 whether the cell is eggless or broodless; for 

 the queen in this neck of the woods always 

 makes an inspection of the cell before she 

 lays the egg. She will turn around unerr- 

 i)igly and deposit the egg in the cell in- 

 spected. — Ed.] 



