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VoL XXXIII. 



JUNE 15, 1905. 



No. 12 



BnCCMiLLER. 



Isn't page 601 a beauty? I don't know 

 whether our Eugene or Rob Murray has done 

 the best job. 



What ails you, friend Townsend, to use 

 dirty bait sections ? page 594. In this local- 

 ity we prefer clean ones. 



"By aid of Ihe government- bred bacte- 

 ria," says Prof. Cook, page 586, alfalfa is 

 now grown in the Eastern States. It may 

 be no harm to say again that such bacteria 

 are not needed if alfalfa is sown on land 

 where sweet clover has grown. 



The new Dibbern queen-trap is on one of 

 my hives, and now it will be just like that 

 colony to refuse to swarm. But any queen 

 ought to feel that her wants were carefully 

 consulted when she sees how easy is made 

 the passage up into it, and also the passage 

 down out of it. 



You didn't report, Mr. Editor, the size 

 of the larvse the bees selected for queen- 

 rearing when you made a colony queenless. 

 [Why, I thought we did report that last 

 summer, and in doing so acknowledged that 

 your contention on the point was well taken. 

 What more do you want?— Ed.] 



I'm afraid some may think, upon reading 

 that footnote, page 584, that formalin may 

 be intended as a cure for foul brood, to 

 take the place of the McEvoy treatment. 

 Hardly that ; it's only a question as to 

 whether we can save melting up the combs 

 after using the McEvoy treatment. 



Right you are, Stenog, in saying that 

 more attention must be paid to having ex- 

 tracted honey well ripened, page 587, but I 

 doubt the wisdom of fooling with machinery 



"for thickening green honey" in a vacuum. 

 Machinery will hardly do it as cheaply, and 

 I don't believe machinery can be trained to 

 make as good honey as the bees. 



Years ago I used brood-combs in the 

 same super with sections, and the bees used 

 some of the black comb in sealing the sec- 

 tions. If extracting-combs are to be used 

 in the same super with sections, the combs 

 should not be at all dark. [Very likely. 

 Years ago, when the old-fashioned double- 

 tier wide frame was used in the brood-nest, 

 there were many reports to show that a 

 dark or black comb next to such wide frame 

 was quite liable to cause a discolored cap- 

 ping in the sections. There is no reason 

 why the same principle would not apply on 

 the Townsend plan in case of a one-tier wide 

 frame or section-holder next to dark shallow 

 extracting-combs. — Ed. ] 



My experience is like yours, Mr. Editor. 

 I get more stings on my wrists than on my 

 fingers. But that's not so much the case 

 when I wear tight wristbands, as I gener- 

 ally do in the working season. Doesn't the 

 dark cavern made by the loose wristband 

 invite stings ? [Yes, you are exactly right. 

 It is the dark cavern that seems to invite 

 the onslaught of the bees particularly. But 

 the backs of the hands are also sensitive as 

 well as the insides of the palms. Detach- 

 able sleeves can be easily made in a short 

 time that will protect these parts as well as 

 the wrists, whether wearing a coat or an 

 open-sleeve shirt. I will send you a pair of 

 fingerless gauntlets that I believe you will 

 like, and continue to use. —Ed.] 



That a queen acquires the scent of the 

 bees is a doctrine that has worked in its way 

 within recent years, isn't it? The tradition 

 of the fathers was just the reverse. A 

 queenless colony protects itself poorly against 

 robbers. Isn't that partly because, having 

 no queen to give them a distinctive odor, 

 they can not distinguish their foes? Work- 

 ers eagerly hunt over your fingers where 

 the queen has been. How's that unless the 



