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$i£^ PERVtAn"' 'Xs ' riEDiNA- Ohio • 



Vol. XXXI. 



NOV. I, J 903. 



No. 21 



t^^ 





Hybkid bees are not necessarily high- 

 bred bees. 



Membkrship of the National has now 

 passed the 1500 mark. Whoop! [This is 

 g-ocd news, and I suppose many of the bee- 

 journal readers have not noticed it. — Ed.] 



Wisconsin, it seems, is still a savage 

 countr}', for reports are given in the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal of bears in Clark County 

 making raids into apiaries. However wild 

 the State maj' be, Gen. Manager France, 

 who lives in it, seems quite civilized — at 

 least he ate with a knife and fork when in 

 California. 



Lkt MR SUGGEST that those who use 

 stands with legs set each leg on a half- 

 brick or flat stone to make them last long- 

 er. In the South, where ants are bad, the 

 proper thing will be to set them in cans 

 filled with oil or water. [Yes, using a fiat 

 stone or brick under the legs is the inten- 

 tion.— Ed. ] 



Complaint is made of a falling-ofiF in 

 bee culture in Germany, France, and Italy, 

 the number of colonies having greatly di- 

 minished. But A. Alberti sa3's in Bienen 

 /.Hfchter that in his localitj' the falling-oflf 

 is more apparent than real; for, notwith- 

 standing the smaller number of colonies 

 now kept, ten times as much honey is pro- 

 duced as 25 \ears ago, thanks to advanced 

 methods, and especially to movable-comb 

 hives. 



It will hardly do to pin one's faith to 

 formaldehyde. Another failure is reported 

 in .hneiican Bee Journal. N. E. France 

 treated 2(jO combs, "using double Weber's 

 amount of gas or formalin, Weber's lamp, 

 etc. All were afterward put in clean hives 

 and bees put on them. Every colony be- 



came re diseased." [Reports are coming 

 in rather thick and fast now, showing fail- 

 ures in the use of formaldehyde. It is evi- 

 dent that the gas should be made much 

 stronger than has been hitherto advocated, 

 to do the work thoroughly. — Ed.] 



Admitting that Mr. J. M Gibbs chilled 

 brood by taking away drones, p. 881, would 

 he not have gained by replacing those drones 

 with an equal weight of workers? It isn't 

 a question whether drones produce heat, 

 but will they produce more than the same 

 weight of workers? and does it pay to keep 

 them as heat-producers alone, when workers 

 will produce just as much heat and do 

 something else besides? [See answer to 

 another Straw on this subject. — Ed.] 



The American Bee Journal for Oct. ISth 

 was mailed two days behind time, the first 

 time that paper was late for 20 years! A 

 printers' strike made the dela3^ The Old 

 Reliable has been so regular that 30U could 

 tell the day of the week by its arrival. 

 George W. doesn't intend to have it late for 

 another twenty years. [The record up to 

 the time of the strike was remarkable. Mr. 

 York and his predecessor during the time 

 are to be congratulated. May the Old Re- 

 liable continue to break the record for an- 

 other twenty jears. — Ed.] 



Bro. Doolittle is gratifyingly explicit 

 in his instructions usually; but on page 

 874 there seems to be an omission. He 

 hives a swarm on half-inch starters, con- 

 tracting in a day or two with dummies, but 

 he doesn't say just when these dummies are 

 taken out, nor what replaces them. It 

 looks as if the bees built all the combs on 

 those half-inch starters ; but I've always 

 understood that, after four or five frames 

 were filled, foundation or drawn comb 

 must be given if drone comb was to be 

 avoided. How is that? [Mr. Doolittle will 

 kindly explain. — Ed.] 



Ph. Kr.emek reports in lihass-Lolh. B. 

 /Aiechter success in marking queens. Hold- 

 ing the queen between the thumb and fin- 

 ger, he paints the back of the thorax bright 

 3'ellow, leaves the queen caged between the 

 combs a few hours until the paint dries, 



