BEE CULTUDE 



Published by The A. I. Root Company, Medina, Ohio 



B. R. Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising: Mgrr. 



H. H. Root, Asst. Ed. J. T. Calvert, Business Mgr. 



A. I. Root, Editor of Home Department 



Vol XXXV. 



APRIL J 5, J 907. 



No. 8. 



by Dr. C.C.mLLER 



Last winter was unusually warm, the 

 coldest day being only 8 below zero; and the 

 last week in March runs up to 70 or 80 de- 

 grees, day after day 



G. M. DooLiTTLE advises against trying 

 to raise queens before fruit- bloom. Not 

 many beginners will follow that advice, but 

 they will after enough years of experience. 

 After trying a good many early-reared queens, 

 first and last, I have come to the conclusion 

 that the best thing to do with any queen that 

 comes into the world before fruit-bloom, and 

 pei'haps even before clover, is to take off her 

 head. 



Light frames in a ten-frame body are 

 mentioned as discouraging the queen from 

 laying in extracting-combs, p. 490, top of sec- 

 ond column. I puzzled some little time to 

 think why a queen should object to light 

 frames, and then it occurred to me that in- 

 stead of ' ' light frames ' ' it should read 

 "ci^^/iMrames. " [This is certainly a typo- 

 graphical error. It should have been eight 

 frames, not light frames. — Ed.] 



E. W. Alexander talks, p. 474, as if he 

 wanted others to try two or more queens in 

 a colony. I am afraid not many can try it 

 unless he tells how to introduce them. I 

 never had but one case of two unrelated 

 queens in a colony — I think I reported that 

 one case in Gleanings — and I'm not sure 

 how they got there. A German bee-journal 

 reported five or six queens in a colony, but 

 I wasn't interested, and don't remember how 

 it was done. Now that Mr. Alexander says 



that it prevents swarming I'm all interest, 

 and anxiously waiting for further word from 

 him. 



Bro. a. I. Root, you seem to be trying to 

 bull the market by advocating the eating of 

 a lot of eggs, p. 497. But you can't persuade 

 me, and yet we have plenty of eggs. Mrs. 

 Miller brings in 25 to 29 a day But I seldom 

 eat one; I do better. I just drink 'em. 

 Break an egg into a bowl, whip it well, add 

 cream and sugar, pour in about a teacupful 

 of hot coffee, till up with hot water, and you 

 have a drink fit for a king. That's what I 

 have for breakfast every morning, and all 

 I've had for breakfast for more than two 

 years. 



Gleanings for April 1 mailed March 23! 

 What is this world coming to? [We will ex- 

 plain that we send Dr Miller a copy of 

 Gleanings hot from the press in order that 

 he may have it in time to prepare his 

 Straws for the issue following. We have no 

 doubt our readers will appreciate the earlier 

 mailing. But, notwithstanding Gleanings 

 is practically finished a week {mead of time, 

 it is doubtful if many of our subscribers, 

 owing to our rapidly growing subscription- 

 list, will get their journals much earlier than 

 usual. —Ed. J 



C. P. Dadant thinks less than two per 

 cent of colonies in progressive apiaries are 

 in shallow hives, p. 485. A curious thing 

 about the Heddon hive is that more seems to 

 be said in its favor in Australia and Canada 

 than in this country. [We doubt if the esti- 

 mate of two per cent for colonies in shallow 

 hives is anywhere near high enough. In our 

 travels over the country we find the shallow- 

 hive or divisible-brood-chamber men feel 

 that they are out of the orthodox channel of 

 bee culture, and therefore do not say any 

 thing about the hive they use. The corre- 

 spondence in this office of late seems to in- 

 dicate that the percentage of shallow-hive 

 men, and those who use divisible brood- 



