DECEMBER 15. 1916 



1157 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAWS I »«-„g„, m 



" Jonathan was probably tlie 

 first Hebrew who tasted comb hon- 

 ey," p. 1081. I wonder, now, I 

 wonder. 



Hoffman frames are spaced 1% 

 inches — when they're new. The 

 bees, wise little creatures that they 

 are, think that is too close spacing, and so 

 they plug- in bee-glue, seeming to aim to get 

 in ^/8 inch of it, so as to make the spacing 

 IV2 inches. 



J. F. KiOHT, p. 1084, you think a very 

 prolific queen cloesn't deliver the goods be- 

 cause it takes so much to feed the brood, 

 and that it would be a paying thing to use 

 her as a helper to weaker colonies. If that 

 were the case, an equally paying thing, and 

 easier, would be to cag^ the queen part of 

 the time. I don't believe either pays. I 

 don't think the workers of an extra prolific 

 queen are necessarily poor storers; but in 

 any case I think it's a safe thing to rate a 

 queen, not by the number of eggs she lays, 

 but by the number of pounds her bees store. 



You say, Mr. Editor, p. 966, that you find 

 out whether another super is needed in 

 three ways: "Watching the flights of the 

 bees going into the entrances; tilting up the 

 supers at the back and looking under; and 

 by hefting or lifting the back end of the 

 whole hive." But you don't say how\ I 

 should especially like to know how you tell 

 about the need of a super by watching the 

 flights of the bees. [We can't tell without 

 the help of the two other means. Turn to 

 last edition of A B C and X Y Z, under 

 " Frames, to Manipulate," p. 286, and you 

 will see how. — Ed.] 



The Demaree plan for preventing 

 swai'ming is thus modified by W. J. Shep- 

 pard, British Bee Journal, 319 : 



The queen is found and transferred with 

 one frame of brood to the lower body, which 

 is then filled up with empty combs, and a 

 queen-excluder placed above. Next will 

 come a second body, containing empty combs, 

 to receive the incoming honey, shallow 

 frames being preferable. Above the latter 

 second story either wire cloth or a second 

 queen-excluder is placed, and the remainder 

 of the brood is then put in a third story. 

 Between the second and third stories, that is, 

 above the wire cloth or second queen -exclud- 

 er, a small entrance is provided, thru w^hich 

 the old bees will return to the main entrance 

 below and the drones can escape. All queon- 

 cells are destroyed. Should there be none at 

 the time, the bees will immediately build 

 them in the third story, where they must be 



searched for and cut out up to about the 

 tenth day, when the brood will be too old for 

 any more to be built. The wire cloth, or 

 second queen-excluder, can then be removed, 

 leaving the upper entrance intact until the 

 end of the season, if preferred. 



"Wind, just wind," is the answer from 

 somewhere near Providence. This " re " 

 apiai-y locations, pp. 866 and 966. Some 

 time before you and I were boys the gla- 

 ciers traveled down across here from north- 

 east to southwest, cutting the surface into 

 grooves and ridges. Our prevailing winds 

 are southwest — good nice strong zephyrs. 

 As bees " follow their nose " it just natu- 

 rally happened that those on the crest and 

 west of the ridges referred to worked on 

 one set of pastures while those on the east- 

 ei'n slopes worked another set, and there 

 was virtually no trespassing on each other's 

 territory. Surely bees go many miles from 

 home. D. A. Jones, when he had his 

 Cyprians on an island in the Georgian 

 Bay, found them working on the mainland 

 seven miles away. Thus writes Arthur 

 C. Miller, and no doubt he's right. The 

 bees' noses are to be reckoned with; and 

 so it may happen that they go seven miles 

 if the wind from that direction entices 

 them, while they may fail to find pastur- 

 age half a mile away if there is no wind 

 from there. 



Fifty years ago 45 degrees for a bee- 

 cellar was the orthodox thing. I don't 

 know why, but Dr. Phillips suggests be- 

 cause that was about what could b? 

 easily attained. Somewhat strangely, 

 Avithin the jiast few years 40 degrees has 

 been advocated. Now the tendency is 

 upward, probably due largely to the in- 

 veeligations of Dr. Phillips. About 45 

 or 50 is mentioned approvingly, p. 1011. 

 I think that can be safely shoved up still 

 more, partly because of my own experi- 

 ence and iiartly because of what Dr. Phil- 

 lips says. In his " Beekeeping," page 

 347, he gives between 57 and 69 as the 

 best temperature for the cluster; and as to 

 the air in the cellar, he says, " Tlie majority 

 of beekeepers consider 40 to 50 as the best 

 cellar temperature, but it is clear that the 

 temperature can usually be raised to at 

 least 50 F. with beneficial results." That 

 "at least" makes 50 the minimum, and it 

 is not unlikely that we may some day 

 sot lie down upon 50 to 55 as the best cel- 

 lar temperature. [The cellar tem])eratures 

 are going up. The new ABC and X Y Z 

 favors 50 to 55.— Ed.] 



