Vol. XXXIV. 



APRIL i, 1906. 



No. 7 



A. I. Root, can you grow sweet clover in 

 Florida? I don't know that any one has 

 succeeded. You are just the man to try it. 



A REMARK, p. 348, sounds as if bees are 

 not taxed in Ohio. Are they not? and if 

 not, why not? [Yes, bees are taxed like 

 other property; but the proposed tax re- 

 ferred to on p. 348 was for the purpose of 

 raising: a fund for paying a foul- brood in- 

 spector only. See Editorials.— Ed ] 



Queen-rearing in England is the title of 

 a pamphlet by F. W. L. Sladen, F.E.S. It 

 follows, in the main, the Doolittle plans, 

 and is up to date. [I have seen this work, 

 and believe it to be a good one. Mr. Sladen 

 himself is not only a practical bee-keeper 

 butfa scientific man as well.— Ed.]| f^i;;^ 



Replying to your question, p. 344, I think 

 it was from a (Grerman or French bee-jour- 

 nal that I got 50 degrees as the tempera- 

 ture of a cluster of bees in winter. But I 

 should have said that that was the outer 

 part of the cluster, and probably outdoors. 

 You likely found 84 in the center of the 

 cluster. Somewhat strangely, if you had 

 tested a colony outdoors you would probably 

 have found 90 or more in the center. 



No DOUBT, Mr. Editor, you are quite right 

 in thinking that scent has something to do 

 with the calling of bees. F. W. L. Sladen, 

 F. E. S. , thinks the swarming-call "is at 

 least partly due to a scent which is emitted 

 from a membrane situated between the fifth 

 and sixth dorsal segments of the abdomen. 

 Ordinarily this membrane is covered by the 



fifth segment; but whenever the humming 

 takes place it is exposed, and the scent is 

 then given off. The scent is very pungent, 

 and suggests a mixture of that of iodine 

 with that of formic acid." 



You didn't get the point of my question, 

 p. 344, Mr. Edicor, If it works all right to 

 carry the last bees out of the cellar in broad 

 daylight, why not carry out all in daylight? 

 [There is no objection at all to carrying all 

 the bees out by daylight in case there is a 

 small number of colonies— say not over 100 

 to be moved from the cellar But it would 

 be simply impossible for Mr. Alexander to 

 move all his bees by daylight so that, when 

 it warmed up, all the bees would have a 

 chance to fly at once. The point I tried to 

 make was that we should avoid carrying 

 bees out after it warms up. Do the work at 

 night or very early in the morning, just 

 preceding a bright warm day; that is, get 

 every colony out before the bees have had a 

 chance to fly.— Ed.] 



Dr. E. F. Phillips calls attention to some 

 things which make it seem that the span of 

 life of a worker in the busy season is hardly 

 up to the orthodox six weeks. Dr. Dzier- 

 zon says, "I made a great many artificial 

 swarms from pure German bees with a pure 

 Italian queen. In six weeks there was not 

 a single German bee left." It is hardly 

 supposable that each bee Hved exactly the 

 same number of days; and if no bee lived 

 beyond the six weeks, was not the average 

 span of life less than six weeks? Moreover, 

 V. Buttel-Reepen says, "In rich forage the 

 bee lives often only two or three weeks." 

 [If I mistake not. Dr. Phillips will bring to 

 light some other fallacies that have been 

 repeated so often that they almost seem to 

 be true.— Ed.] 



I FANCY A. I. Root smiling as he reads p. 

 348, and saying, "Yes, I once tried hurry- 

 ing up things by putting bees in a hot-bed. 

 Ernest's bees in the window will likely come 



