234 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April U. 



T Supers.— R. C. Aikiu stands with Dr. Miller for T 

 supers in preference to wide frames or section-holders. Doo- 

 little thinks a properly made wide frame is better than either 

 of the others. — Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



Storing Honey in Cisterns. — Gleanings says R. Wilkin, 

 of California, has bis houey stored in a fire-proof concrete res- 

 ervoir. He is holding his 14 tons of extracted for 5 cents, 

 which he is likely to get if the crop is as poor as anticipated. 



Nailed Sections, on account of their solidity, says Doo- 

 little in Progressive Bee-Keeper, are so much better that he 

 wouldn't take one-piece or dovetailed sections as a gift if he 

 could buy material for nailed at three times the price of others. 



Another Section-Cleaner. — J. A. Golden comes out in 

 Gleanings with another section-cleaner — his third, is it ? — this 

 time the cleaner being a belt running almost horizontally over 

 two wheels. He claims that the belt will jar a comb much 

 less than a solid-surface disk or wheel. 



Taking Bees Out Early. — J. B. Hall likes to get bees 

 out of the cellar as early as March I, so as to start early 

 breeding. R. F. Holtermann has been putting them out ear- 

 lier and earlier, and wants them out as soon as they can have 

 a good, safe flight. — Canadian Bee Journal. 



Enlarging vs. Contracting. — Hasty in Review refers to 

 Doolittle's plan of starting in spring with 10 frames and then 

 at the harvest taking out what the queen doesn't occupy, and 

 says he works the other way. Starts with seven, then at har- 

 vest 811s up the extra-prolific ones to 10 or more frames. ; 



Big Average Per Colony.— Editor Leahy, in his explora- 

 tions on Long Island, has discovered a bee-keeper, John 

 Young, who year after year averages 100 pounds per colony 

 from 100 colonies, which he sells at 20 cents, making his 

 average yearly sales !52,000 ! — Progressive Bee-Keeper. j 



Bees on Farms. — The editor of the Busy Bee is pushing 

 with both shoulders to have the time come he would like to 

 see in this country, " when every farmer and fruit-grower will 

 keep a few bees, and the value of the honey-bee to the or- 

 chardist, and of honey as a food product, will be generally 

 recognized." 



Light Sections Selling Best, — G. M. Doolittle says in 

 Gleanings that last fall he assorted his sections as to weight, 

 making certain cases of 20 sections each weigh 19, 20 and 

 2 I pounds, respectively. The 20-pounders brought a cent a 

 pound more than the 21's, and the 19's 2J^ more than the 

 21's. Strong argument for lightweight. 



Floating Pollen. — Hasty takes Dr. Miller to task for 

 admitting the possibility of pollen enough In honey to set the 

 queen to laying. After a good deal of exploration in that 

 direction himself, he says : "If he will take a microscope 

 and examine different samples of honey until he has found 

 even one grain of pollen, he will thenceforth discontinue that 

 strain of speech." 



Moving Bees in Summer.— E. Ruffy reports in Revue 

 Internationale that he moved an apiary of 22 colonies a dis- 

 tance of M of a mile, in the evening, taking no special pre- 

 caution, and there was no trouble. Again, early in September 

 he moved 92 colonies 1/10 of a mile successfully, taking 

 them early in the morning. But to be successful one must 

 move the whole apiary. 



Foul Brood. — F. A. Gemmill sounds a note of warning 

 against putting too much trust in R. L. Taylor's statement, 

 that it is unnecessary to first place the bees on starters for 

 four days or so before allowing them to work out foundation 

 in order to effect a permanent cure. He thinks Mr. Taylor's 

 plan may have workt with him, but would not be wise in all 

 cases and under all circumstances. 



Bobbing. — F. Chatelain says in L'Abeille that the worst 

 kind of robbing is what is called quiet or slow robbing. In 

 which the robbed colony submits without objecting, there 

 being no fighting in the case, and the robbing going on through 

 the entire season. His plan of curing is to shut up the robbed 

 colony for a day or two, then on opening it stir it up by pound- 

 ing with a stick so as to make it defend Itself. It is to be 

 hoped that such robbing is not very common. Of the ordinary 

 cases of robbing he thinks by far the greatest cause is allow- 

 ing a colony to become so short of stores that it starts to rob- 

 bing in sheer desperation. 



Bee-Space and Brace-Combs. — Dr. Miller says, in Glean- 

 ings, that with the J^-inch space between top-bars he has more 

 brace-combs than he likes, and wonders whether it would be 

 any improvement to have more or less than }i. The editor 

 thinks it possible less might be better, and says that bees pass 

 freely through -i that space, altho they "scrooeh" a little. 

 He tried it by putting over top-bar cleats 2-12 thick, and 

 placing glass over. The average bee, when walking full 

 height, stands about 3/16-inch high. 



Section-Holders vs. T Supers. — The editor of Gleanings 

 and the " stray straw " man are at swords' points with regard 

 to which is better, the latter asking for one case in which one 

 who has tried both preferred the section-holder. Mr. Root 

 and his lieutenants said there w are hundreds of them, but they 

 couldn't recall names, till I. S. Tilt came to the rescue and 

 said he was the man. Now the editor calls for a show of 

 hands from those who have tried the two arrangements, ask- 

 ing their exact preference. 



Temperature of Cellars. — Chas. Dadaut says when the 

 temperature in a cellar surpasses 47'^, the bees desiring to go 

 out are in continual movement. They leave the hives in great 

 numbers to lose themselves in following up the least ray of 

 light that enters through some crack. Dr. C. C. Miller, while 

 admitting that such experience may be correct, thinks It un- 

 necessary. With pure air in the cellar, his bees remain tran- 

 quilly in the hives at 50-2, altho not quite so quiet as at4t)3. — 

 Revue Internationale. 



Moving Bees. — The Review says when a colony is to be 

 shipl a long distance it's a good plan to set it on a new stand 

 for a few hours before shipment, so that the old bees that do 

 most of the worrying en route may be eliminated. The buyer 

 might object to getting a less number of bees, but the colony 

 on arrival will be worth more without the old bees. E. A. 

 Wander told him bees could be moved a short distance without 

 stopping the entrance. Just subdue with smoke, then put 

 them on a wagon. 



A Boston Yarn. — The Pacific Bee Journal copies it from 

 Boston Transcript. At Yarmouthport they had to stop tear- 

 ing down an old house because the bees had " made a hive " 

 (doesn't say whether dovetailed) between the walls. "One 

 whole side of the building is solidly packt with the honey, 

 and It is expected that hundreds of pounds will be taken out." 

 Say, Bennett, why didn't you agree to eat (you and Hasty) at 

 seven sittings, all that " whole side of the building " will be 

 likely to yield ? 



"Strained" Honey is generally spoken of as a some- 

 what unsavory mess, being mixt with pollen, brood an 1 dead 

 bees. Doolittle comes to its defence in American Bee-Keeper, 

 and says when he was a boy strained honey at their house was 

 all right, and a good deal better than some extracted honey, 

 taken from the brood-nest, with disgusting-looking iarvoe by 

 the score, together with their food, floating on the surface. 



Great Fall in Price of Sections. — When Doolittle com- 

 menced bee-keeping, sections cost §20 a thousand. He got 

 machinery and made them to sell. Soon the price came down 

 to $L5, then SIO, $8 and $6. At .$6 he gave up making to 

 sell, but made for his own use till .$3.50 was reacht, when he 

 concluded It was cheaper to buy. He says the sections at $20 

 didn't compare in any way with the $3 sections of to-day. 



Why Swarms Go West. — Dr. Miller having replied he 

 didn't know why so many swarms went west. Hasty makes 

 the guess that the prevailing winds being from the west, a 

 runaway swarm being in search of better supplies, goes west 

 on account of the smell of abundance coming from that direc- 

 tion. That looks more like a reason than a guess, if the west 

 is the chief direction of runaways. 



