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Vol. XXXIII. 



JAN. h J 905. 



No. J 





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ii-u J Us 



The value of that article on page 1155 

 depends upon the truth or falsity of the 

 statement that white clover never winter- 

 kills. What do the authorities at the agricul- 

 tural experiment stations say about it ? 

 Please look it up, Bro. A. I. 



C. E. Woodward, p. 1157, thinks the 

 merits of the break-joint honey-board have 

 been overlooked. Some of us who used them 

 for years appreciated them highly, but we 

 were glad to throw them away for some- 

 thing better. In any case I wish Mr. Wood- 

 ward would tell us how a honey-board would 

 prevent the bees from fastening the frames 

 together or fastening the bottom-bar to the 

 floor. 



The editor says, p. 1159, "Your form of 

 agreement is all right, except that you leave 

 out all reference as to who furnished the 

 hives— for the increase that goes to the 

 operator." Doesn't the first sentence, p. 

 1159, say the proprietor shall do it? Clause 

 5, Management, is rather loose— gives chance 

 for a scrap as to how much increase "is con- 

 sistent with good management. ' ' [Thanks 

 for the correction. — Ed.] 



"Mr. Abbott insisted that bees did not 

 freeze to death if they had plenty of stores— 

 that they starved to death." P. 1150. I 

 understand him to say in the last issue of 

 Modem Farmer that a single bee will quick- 

 ly freeze, and I suppose he would admit that 

 two bees on a solid comb of honey would 

 freeze. What I'd like him to tell is what 

 number of bees must be reached before they 

 will stop freezing and begin to starve. 



I MOVE an amendment to Bro. Doolittle's 

 rule, p. 1147, where he says he prepares " sec- 

 tions to the amount of 125 pounds for each 

 colony I have in the fall. ' ' That would leave 



him short if he should have 166§ pounds'per 

 colony, as he reports for one year. , My 

 amendment is to have for each colony enough 

 for the maximum crop, with about 10 sec- 

 tions thrown in for empty and unfinished sec- 

 tions—not less than 175 in his case. ..^ ». >j 

 G. M. DooLiTTLE, p. 1147, tells about ly- 

 ing awake one to three hours studying up 

 what to do with the bees. Tut, tut, Bro. 

 Doolittle, don't you know it's bad for the 

 health to do that sort of thing? When you 

 go to bed, go right to sleep; do your study- 

 ing in daytime. And yet— and yet— the man 

 who has never lain awake studying about 

 his bees is hardly a genuine bee keeper. I' ve 

 learned a whole lot about counting when try- 

 ing to let go of some tough bee problem aft- 

 er the ' ' one to three hours ' ' were up. 



" The rabbet, as now made in the Dove- 

 tailed hive," says Dr. Kerr, p. 1164, "is its 

 weakest point." I strengthen it very satis- 

 factorily by nailing on each end a IJ-inch 

 cleat as long as the outside width of the 

 hive, the cleat coming flush with the top of 

 the hive. Such a cleat is worth while for 

 that purpose alone, and is worth while for 

 the sake of handling the hive, even if the 

 rabbet didn't need reinforcing. [Each bee- 

 keeper can do that for himself, but the sup- 

 ply-dealer can not very well. — Ed.] 



Never run across extra-yellow bees that 

 were not cross, Mr. Editor? p. 1162. I had 

 them from G. M. Doolittle that were prob- 

 ably as golden as any on the face of the 

 earth, and I do not remember any trouble 

 with their tempers. [We have on file a list 

 of several customers who bought some of 

 the Root Company's bees that had a dash of 

 yellow blood. All were pronounced cross. 

 One man is even now so mad that he swears 

 he will never again deal with the Root Co. 

 He called the bees "vixens," the meanest 

 and crossest bees he ever saw or heard of. 

 You see, the drones of some of these yellow 

 bees got to flying, and the result was we 

 had some quite bad complaints of queens 

 that had mated with them. The yellow 

 drones referred to were not from Doolittle's 

 queens. This stock came from one of our 

 Southern breeders. While I do not deny 



