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- perViar'^'x® Medina Ohio- 



Vol. XXXI. 



JULY 15, J903. 



No. 14. 



Mr. Editor, I wish you'd ask Mr. Phil- 

 lips to remove the queen from a colony, then 

 tell us the age of the larvae he finds in the 

 queen-cells started. [Mr. Phillips is here- 

 by requested to carrj' out Dr. Miller's in- 

 structions. I suppose YOU mean our head 

 apiarist, and not Mr. Phillips the scientist 

 of the University' of Pennsj'lvania. — Ed.] 



Noting the case mentioned by G. A. 

 Bostwick, p. 596, I maj' say that I've had 

 cases where the bees were ver3' slow about 

 starting cells, and I thiyik that the amount 

 oi young brood present has something to do 

 with it. I've sometimes wondered whether 

 preparation of cells might not be postponed 

 indefinitely by the constant addition of eggs 

 and joung brood. 



I SMILED to myself when I read A. I. 

 Root's desire to be free from notions, p. 600. 

 Wh^-. bless 5'our heart, friend Root, 3'our 

 fresh notions from time to time, and the en- 

 thusiasm with which 3'ou talk about them, 

 do us a whole lot of good. Don't take the 

 notion that 3'ou oughtn't to have notions. 

 Some day I expect you to be free from no- 

 tions, but it will be when you're dead, very 

 dead. 



Thk new thing in Mrs. Bulkley's plan, 

 page 552, is the stopping of a swarm with 

 smoke. If that is thoroughly reliable, I'm 

 not sure but it is less work to watch for the 

 swarms and smoke them back than it is to 

 keep going through the colonies to look for 

 cells. Yes, I'm sure it's less work to 

 smoke a swarm back than to go through 

 the colony for cells, and each colony gives 

 only one job of smoking, whereas it maj' 

 give more than one job of cell-hunting. 



Referring to the note of H. O. Vassmer, 

 p. 595, I may say that, according to volu- 

 minous literature sent me by Schering «& 



Glatz, New York, the word "formalin" is 

 patented in this and other countries, and 

 applies onl3' to the preparation made by 

 the Schering Chemical Works. It is a 

 guaranteed 40-per-cent preparation, used 

 not only in liquid form, but in the form of 

 pastils; indeed, they seem to recommend 

 pastils as the best form for ordinary disin- 

 fecting, and claim that they are stable and 

 reliable. 



There has been some difference of opin- 

 ion as to whether a member of a honey ex- 

 change has the privilege of selling his hon- 

 ej' outside the association. The secretary 

 of the California National Honej'-producers' 

 Association clears up this point in the 

 Rocky 3lou7ifain Bee Journal, so far as that 

 association is concerned. The members 

 " are not under any obligation to deal with 

 the association unless they choose," only 

 they must not sell for less than the associa- 

 tion prices. 



I've known for a long time that bees 

 would carr}' up bits of dark comb from the 

 brood-combs to darken the sections unless 

 there is quite a distance between the two; 

 I have now learned that they carry them 

 down as well. I shook a swarm from 'No. 

 61, then put the brood over the sections. 

 The queen sta3'ed in the lower stor}', and 

 worked there all right, although no exclud- 

 er was used ; but, so far as I could see, 

 every section in the upper super was being 

 built out with darkened wax. 



I've just been out to the home apiary 

 this morning, July 7, and I found 2 colonies 

 with 5 supers, 18 with 4, 21 with 3, 11 with 

 2, and 2 with 1, while most of them have 

 had taken from them one or two finished 

 supers. That averages a little more than 

 3 supers to a colony, and they're all filled 

 with bees. Now, if I should limit to two 

 supers those that have 4 or 5, what would 

 those bees be doing that are now crowded 

 in the other two or three supers? [Good for 

 you, doctor. May you be blessed with five 

 supers per colony clear through. — Ed.] 



Yes, Mr. Editor, you're right; I meant 

 " above " where I said " below," page 580. 

 I'm ashamed of such blundering work. 

 But there's a little excuse just now when 



