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•INTEREST'S 



Tubiishedy theA-I^ooY Co. 

 pervIar. 'Xs "Medina- OHIO' 



Vol XXXIII. 



SEPT, J, J 905. 



No. 17 



That spurt that I reported Aug. 7 didn't 

 amount to much. Clover is still plentiful, 

 Aug. 21, and bees do a little in the forenoon, 

 but nothing to amount to much has been 

 stored since July 20. But it's something to 

 be thankful for that bees are making their 

 living, and they're doing at least a little 

 more than that. 



"Virgin" is a w^ord that may be used 

 alone more than it is. Gradually we have 

 come to use it altogether in our work in the 

 apiary for any but a laying queen. "No. 5 

 has a virgin" means No. 5 has a young 

 queen not yet known to be laying. " No. 6 

 has a queen" means it has a laying queen. 

 Economy of language, you see. 



Griggs Bros., page 859, speaking of sec- 

 tions only half filled, say that "this kind of 

 honey is worth too much to the bee-keeper 

 to keep as bait sections for another season. " 

 They probably do not mean just what they 

 say, for that kind of honey should not be 

 kept, but the comb in the section after the 

 honey has been emptied out by the bees. 

 This by way of caution to the beginner. 



L. Burr writes that the right kind of a 

 putty-knife is sufficiently strong to lift 

 heavy supers— the blade four inches wide at 

 the edge, and fastened in the handle with 

 two screws. He thinks no better hive-tool 

 need be sought. [One of our apiarists pre- 

 fers a broad-bladed putty-knife to any thing 

 else. With it he does every thing that one 

 can ordinarily do with any tool; and it al- 

 ways has the merit of being the best propo- 

 lis and wax scraper that can possibly be 

 devised. — Ed.] 



W. G. Hutchinson, page 858, says the 

 survival of Italian blood shows them fittest 

 for the tropics. Here it is black blood that 



is most persistent. Very, very hard to keep 

 up any thing Hke pure Italian blood. [I be- 

 lieve it is a fact that a locality pretty well 

 Itahanized will, if left to itself, without the 

 infusion of fresh yellow blood, in time revert 

 to the black blood. Apparently the condi- 

 tions in this country are such as to favor 

 the increase toward the black brood rather 

 than toward the yellow. — Ed.] 



Some remarks, page 857, about cubical- 

 shaped hives lead me to say that it should 

 not be forgotten that the depth of the Lang- 

 stroth hive is as great as either of its other 

 dimensions during that very important por- 

 tion of the year when bees are laying up 

 surplus. However you may limit the depth 

 to that of the brood-chamber, the bees don't 

 recognize any such Hmitation. They count 

 the sections or the extracting-chamber just 

 as much a part of their home as the brood- 

 chamber. [Your observation is quite cor- 

 rect. A good many who use cubical-shaped 

 hives forget the fact that the Langstroth 

 hive may be any depth from a story and a 

 half to three stories or more. — Ed.] 



If A SECTION of honey is taken off just as 

 soon as it is sealed, the honey will not be as 

 rich as if the section is left on two or three 

 weeks longer. But that two or three weeks' 

 improvement, instead of raising the market 

 value of the product, will lower it. The 

 consuming public knows that the earlier- 

 harvested article looks nicer, but it doesn't 

 know that the darker, better-ripened article 

 tastes nicer. If it knew the whole truth, 

 would it not prefer the really better article ? 

 Ought or ought not some pains to be taken 

 to educate the consuming public as to the 

 real truth? [What you say is all true; but 

 I am afraid it will take a long time before 

 we can educate the dear pubHc to believe 

 that dark dirty-looking honey may be a 

 whole lot better than the fancy white goods 

 selling at a much higher price. — Ed.] 



Responding, Mr. Editor, to your request 

 for report from any one who has success- 

 fully wintered duplicate que-ns, I may say 

 that I wintered many a queen much as Wm. 

 Reiber says, page 871, only I used, instead 

 of screen divisions, thin board partitions. 



