OCTOBER 1, 1916 



905 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAWS I Mareng„,in. 



A Missouri correspondent asks 

 how late in the season bees will 

 build comb. They will build it as 

 late as they gather any surplus, 

 proN'ided they need it for storing. 



Paper division-boards for intro- 

 ducing queens and uniting, p. 873, seems a 

 variation of the newspaper plan that was 

 born here. The variation is, no doubt, ef- 

 fective; but the plain newspaper plan is no 

 doubt just as effective, and a good bit sim- 

 pler and easier. Kill the old queen, lay a 

 sheet of newspaper on the top-bars; over 

 this set a hive-body containing the nucleus 

 having the queen, and close bee-tight. 

 That's all ; in three, four, or more days you 

 can shift brood-combs from upper to lower 

 story. 



Mr. Editor, it might be a good plan to 

 have a lot of labels printed with the words 

 " Demaree plan," so as to label properly the 

 plan every time it is sent in as something- 

 new. Its latest appearance is at the top of 

 page 804, Sept. 1. Briefly, Put in upper 

 stoiy all but one brood, leaving in lower 

 story one brood with queen, and filling va- 

 cancies with frames filled with comb or 

 foundation. An excellent plan to prevent 

 swarming, but please let it always have the 

 IDroper label. [The suggestion is a good 

 one. As the Demaree plan has been spoken 

 of considerably it will be incorporated un- 

 der the head of " Swarming, to Control," in 

 the next edition of the A B C and X Y Z 

 of Bee Culture. — Ed.] 



John A. McKinkon 

 has sent me two queen- 

 cells I would not have 

 supposed possible, and 

 T am forwarding them 

 herewith. The extreme 

 length of one is Yo 

 inch ; of the othler 

 9-16. They are seal- 

 ed, and he says con- 

 tain larvEe less than 48 

 hours old, built by a 

 strong fhree-story col- 

 ony fed a quart of syrup daily. I don't 

 think I ever before saw a sealed queen-cell 

 with a larva less than 72 hours old, and the 

 cell was always full length. 



P. C. Chadwick, p. 718, I'm with you 

 and fornenst Wesley Foster. I'm a bit 

 skeptical about there being such a great 

 danger of disease thru surplus sold on the 

 market. I've had some experience in feed- 

 ing honey stored by colonies having Euro- 



pean foul brood, and never knew it to 

 convey the disease. Of course that doesn't 

 prove it never does. I know of two cases of 

 American foul brood treated in this way: 

 The colony was allowed to store a story of 

 sealed combs. In the fall its brood-combs 

 were exchanged for this story of sealed 

 combs. Thus it was left with no honey but 

 that wliich it had itself stored. Next year 

 no sign of the disease appeared. 



H. H. Root, even tho you claim the role 

 of the " little dog," the beekeeping frater- 

 nity is indebted to you for a valuable con- 

 tribution to apicultural literature. In nice- 

 ty of exactness, that repoi't of M. T. Pritch- 

 ard as to the stages of tlie development of 

 a young queen, p. 805, is the best of any- 

 thing I know of on record. Many thanks, 

 Mel. The most difficult thing I found in 

 such experiments was to know within an 

 hour just when the eggs were laid; but I 

 never thought of emptying eggs out of the 

 cells. Of course there will be variations, but 

 under proper conditions for queen-rearing 

 it is likely that Mr. Pritchard's figures may 

 be taken as standard : from the laying of the 

 egg to hatching, an hour or two less than 3 

 days (which agi'ees with the orthodox "three 

 days" of many years) ; time from hatching 

 of egg to sealing, from 5 days to 5 days 

 3 hours, which agrees with Cowan's 5 days 

 (I have known \arvse in sealed cells so small 

 that the time could hardly have been more 

 than 3 days) ; and the time from laying of 

 egg to emergence from cell from 15 days 

 lacking 2i/2 hours to an hour more than 15 

 days. This last is the most important item. 

 It agrees with observations I made, plead- 

 ing that, instead of continuing to say " 16 

 days," we should call it " 15 days." Fifty- 

 five years ago it was 17 days, then for many 

 years 16 days, and it's time now that we 

 should say — correctly — 15 days. 



You give my estimate of time from 

 hatching of egg to sealing in direct quota- 

 tion, " never more than five days." Please 

 play fair, Huber. I made no such positive 

 assertion — didn't know — merely asked the 

 question, " does it ever happen in more 

 than five days?" Replying to your ques- 

 tion, " What would tliese figures have been 

 under less favorable circumstances, cool 

 weather, weaker colony, etc. V I reply, if 

 it's any comfort to you, tliat the time might 

 be "six to eight days " or more; but do we 

 want to raise queens under such circum- 

 stances? 



I'm ready to sic, but hardly see occasion 

 to sic the " big dog." 



