SEPTEMBER 15. 1916 



841 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAWS I Ma.eng„,in 



p. C. Chadwick, please quit 

 talking' about a laying worker 

 heading a colony, p. 658. Dozens 

 of 'eiu, if there's one. 



Remembkr, Mr. Editor, how the 



bees were working like crazy when 



you and Dr. Phillips were here last 



year? At it again, exactly the same way, 



now. 



H. H. KoLLOSTER, you say, p. 737, " I 

 can use factory-made hives if I can afford 

 to buy foundation." I can't afford not to 

 buy foundation. I wonder really if you 

 can. 



R. F. HOLTERMANN doGsn't Want to 

 "leave me a leg to stand oh." He says, 

 p. 682, if he were at the clipping business 

 with me he'd never stop at clii3ping off one 

 leg, but would take off both. What a vin- 

 dictive cuss he is ! Well, anyway, I'm glad 

 to get off without having my head taken off 

 too. 



CiiAKLES E. Dustman says, p. 723, that 

 sealed worker combs are one inch thick, and 

 drone 1^,4. When I read that, 1 said to 

 myself, "With the usual spacing, 1% inches, 

 two combs of drone brood would have only 

 Ys inch between them, allowing no bee to 

 pass." Then I went to the apiajy and cut 

 out sealed brood of both kinds. Sure 

 enough, the Dustman measurements v/ere 

 all right. To be sui'e, it was old comb, and 

 new w^ould measure less. But bees often 

 have old comb. Now, how do they manage 

 with that %-inch space? 



J. L. Byer, you say, p. 651, you don't see 

 how you could object to a man, owning 

 property near you, keeping bees, but you do 

 object to a specialist with a large apiary, 

 and you seem to wish there might.be a law 

 against the last fellow. Now, if it's all 

 right for your neighbor to have half a doz- 

 en colonies on his own property, why isn't 

 it right for him to increase gradually to 100 

 and become a specialist? I have neighbors 

 with half a dozen to 25 or moi:fr.K;olonies, 

 and there's no hard feelings between us, but 

 I'd prefer to have it so that no one could 

 have bees in a certain territory, of course 

 paying for my privilege, just as, by paying 

 for it, I can say that no neighbor can keep 

 his cattle on a certain piece of ground, not 

 even if that neighbor has only one cow. 



A. T. Root says, p. 750 : "Years ago I 

 decided that a pound of honey in the comb, 

 well ripened and sealed up, was worth a 

 good deal more than a pound of sugar in 

 preparing bees for winter — perhaps twice 



as much. I should like to know what Dr. 

 Miller thinks about the comparative cost of 

 this manner of feeding." 



With a fine article of extracted honey at 

 6 cents a pound (see p. 711), and sugar at 

 present prices, one would hardly make a 

 lot of money to feed' sugar in place of 

 honey. But when sugar is 5 cents a pound, 

 and honey 10, and one feeds 20 pounds for 

 winter, isn't there a clear gain of a dollar 

 a colony by feeding sugar? But wait. 

 When winter is over, those bees that have 

 fed on honey, with its iron and other mat- 

 ters that are entirely lacking in sugar, will 

 have a vigor at building up and storing, as 

 compared with the sugar-fed bees, that may 

 easily recoup several times over the extra 

 dollar for the winter food. Yes, friend 

 Root, you are quite conservative when you 

 value such honey as you describe at double 

 the worth of sugar for winter. 



John H. Lovell asks some questions, p. 

 710, "Did Dr. Miller examine tlie pollen in 

 the anthers of fresh flowers?" Never. 

 " Has Dr. Miller examined the pollen in his 

 hives under a misroscope?" Never. But 

 as to the color of white-clover pollen, I 

 appeal from Lovell the botanist to Lovell 

 the beekeeper. The former is a man for 

 whom I have great respect, and whose state- 

 ments T would not lightly question; the 

 latter is a friend of mine with whom I feel 

 on a level; and when I read that white- 

 clover pollen was something else than 

 brown, it never occurred to me that it was 

 the botanist talking, but the beekeeper 

 talking about what -he saw in the comb or 

 on the bees' legs. Honest Injun, I never 

 thouglit of the powdery stuff on the flowers 

 at all. In botanists' language, I'm ready 

 to accept that the pollen of, white clover is 

 yellow, but in beekeepers' language it's 

 broAvn; for in beelceepers' language, pollen 

 is the stuff in the cells or on bees' legs. 

 ""Brew'n balls, evidently composed of white- 

 clover pollen," says beekeeper Lovell, p. 

 728. One more question : " Is he certain 

 that white-clover pollen is jis abundant as 

 he supposes?" Reasonably certain. When 

 bees are bringing in honey from white 

 clover by the ton, working almost exclu- 

 sively on it, and that for weeks, and during 

 that time bringing loads of brown pollen 

 on their legs, it's reasonable to suppose that 

 tlie mass of brown pollen accumulated in 

 the combs is from white clover. Yes, friend 

 Lovell, you're right, I've considered the 

 matter chiefly from the hive end. That's 

 because I'm a beekeeper, and not a botanist. 



