Vol. XXXIV. 



JULY 15. 1906. 



No 14 



Not often do I think of mjself as an M. 

 D. Just now, with all the emphasis which 

 that title gives me, I want to endorse most 

 heartily A. I. Root's talk, page 892. 



I've spent no little time trying to see 

 bees on basswood with loads of pollen, and 

 failed; so it's a comfort to hav« my igno- 

 rance dispelled by Doolittle, p. 877, saying, 

 ' ' There is no pollen produced by the bass- 

 wood, or linden, as you know." 



Sane words are those spoken by J. A. 

 Green, p. 873, in his first paragraph. Un- 

 less the queen-rearer produces honey on a 

 fairly large scale, or gets his breeders from 

 some one who does, what can he know about 

 the honey-gathering qualities of his stock? 



With July, bees began working on sweet 

 clover and what few basswoods there are, and 

 we're hoping they may get enough for win- 

 ter. [Then we take it that you have not had 

 any honey to speak of thus far. One of the 

 peculiarities of your locality is sometimes a 

 late honey flow. I hope you will happily be 

 disappointed. — Ed. ] 



Referring to your other question, I might 

 have done as well as others at keeping pure 

 Italians; but my best stores were grades, so 

 I bred from them. I rear queens from best 

 stock, as the editor says, and besides that I 

 encourage best drones. Keep that up for a 

 few years, and you'll find it makes a big 

 "worth while." 



D. D. Farnsworth, referring to your 

 •question, p. 889, outdoor bees rear brood a 



month or two earlier than cellared bees; so 

 it would be nothing strange if they should 

 sometimes rear a ffew drones a month or 

 two earlier, even if the editor didn't say so. 

 [I accept your amendment.— Ed.] 



Doolittle's plan of preventing swarm- 

 ing, which I have watched with intense in- 

 terest, has now been given entire. He has 

 combined a lot of old things with some new 

 and good ones, and the entire scheme is ex- 

 cellent. [Your opinion of the Doolittle plan 

 of preventing swarming is correct. In lo- 

 calities where there is buckwheat or a late 

 honey- flow, the system will prove to be a 

 great boon. It may work well under other 

 conditions.— Ed.] 



J. A. Green is sound on the nail question 

 (I wanted to pat him on the back for that 

 hint to pick nails out of the grass with a 

 magnet), p. 873; but I want to mention one 

 thing he may not have tried. It is to have 

 12 or 15 kinds of nails all in the same box. 

 I've tried it (other people mixed them up 

 for me) . You can get any kind of nail you 

 want out of the same box — if you dig long 

 enough— but if you don't want to be tempt- 

 ed to swear, never keep more than one kind 

 in a box. 



Julius Steigel, in Bienen-Vater, insists 

 that the generally prevailing opinion that 

 sick or imperfect bees are driven out of the 

 hive is entirely erroneous. Instead of that 

 they commit suicide for the general good by 

 leaving the hive to die. The same with su- 



gerannuated queens. [This may be true; 

 ut when the bees can not commit suicide, 

 and can not fly, is it not true that the in- 

 mates of the hive carry the cripples out and 

 drop them? It seems to me I remember 

 seeing them do this very thing, especially 

 with those poor bees that have worn them- 

 selves out in the basswood flow— wings torn 

 to a point where they could not fly any more, 

 when they are remorselessly picked up, car- 

 ried aloft, and dropped. Nature knows no 



