Vol XXXIV. 



DEC 15. 1906. 



No 24 



"Fewer papers wei-e read this year than 

 last " at the National, p. 1486. Sensible. The 

 drift is steadily toward giving the question- 

 box the right of way at bee conventions, i 

 am just home from the Chicago Northwest- 

 ern, where there wasn't a paper, and their 

 conventions are tip-top. 



To QUIET BEES on a journey, F. Meier, m 

 Schweiz. Bienenzcitimg, advises the use of 

 water— much water. If they crowd the ven- 

 tilating openings, don't drive them back 

 with smoke. Spray them strongly with wa- 

 ter That drives them back so the tresh air 

 can enter; it cools them off, and it gives 

 them drink. [This is good advice. 1 have 

 tested it myself.— Ed.] 



Texas claims first place as a honey-pro- 

 ducing State. But Louis H. Scholl reports 

 in American Bee Journal "that many cai- 

 loads of mostly extracted honey are shipped 

 in from Colorado and other western places. 

 Looks strange that the greatest producer can 

 not produce enough honey for its own con- 

 sumption; or is it that Texans eat so much 

 more honey than other people? 



Editor Hill questioned my saying that 

 Cuba was not going to be annexed, and 1 re- 

 lied upon Uncle Sam's promise it shouldn t 

 be annexed. Do you know what that man 

 Hill has done? He has gone and written a 

 strong article in the Havana Post, showing 

 the Cubans that, if they are sane, they will 

 want to be annexed. Now if we are flooded 

 with Cuban honey it will be Harry s fault. 



"In regard to our buckwheat extracted 

 honey, these dealers pi'ef erred it at the 'same 

 price to clover," page 14i.'<). Quotations, pp. 

 1474 and 1475, make buckwheat the lowest. 

 What is the explanation? [The quotations 

 on buckwheat vary considerably for the dif- 

 ferent markets, and even the same dealer in 

 the same market often has a larger outlet for 

 that honey, and offers a better price.— Ed.] 

 Replying to A. I. Root's question, p. 1515, 

 I am sure it would suit the bees well to have 

 an opening so that they could l)e able to alight 

 directly on the combs on entering the hive, 

 and I should have little fear of robbers; but 

 it might be troublesome to arrange it with 

 the frames. I have had colonies with a two- 

 inch space under the bottom-bars, and it was 

 a pretty sight to see the bees sail in and 

 alight directly on the bottom-bars or cluster 

 without ever" touching the bottom-board. 

 But unless this space were at least pai'tly 

 closed during the harvest the bees would 

 build combs below the bottom-bars. 



Authorities have held that a queen does 

 her best work in her second year, and not 

 until lately, 1 think, has the statement ap- 

 peared that her first year is her best. Is 

 there any ground for a change of belief? 

 The matter is important; for if it be true that 

 the first year's work is the best, some will 

 think it advisable to allow no queen to con- 

 tinue in her second year, necessitating an 

 annual slaughter of queens, since queens ai'e 

 not o-enerally superseded until they are much 

 more than a vear old. In my own experi- 

 ence I have seen no evidence that queens 

 generally fall off in the second year. In- 

 deed, I have had many queens that did ex- 

 cellent work in their third year. I believe 

 this is one of the eases in which the traditions 

 of the fathers are correct; and if any one has 

 a desire to start a new tradition he should 

 have it well supported by facts and figures. 

 [I was not aware that any one held that a 

 queen did her best work in her second year. 



