5EE CULTUDE 



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



E. R. Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Mgr 



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



A. I. Root, Editor of Home Department 



Vol. XXXV. 



JULY 1, 1907. 



No. 13. 



Abbe Pincot [UAjjiculteur, 52) says that 

 larger cells give larger workers, and that 

 cells measviring 4.57 to the inch ai'e the larg- 

 est that Italians accept for worker brood.' 



Nurse bees, during the care of the brood, 

 consume more than the brood itself, says Dr. 

 Bruennich {Leipz. Bztg., 68). From this he 

 argues the immense advantage there is in 

 having long-lived bees, allowing a large pop- 

 ulation with a small brood-nest. 



J. E. Hand, p. 843, is emphatically right in 

 saying that superseding queens in spring is 

 a loss. (Jenerally better pinch the head of 

 any spring-reared queen — at least in this lo- 

 cality. Fortunately, it is a rare thing that 

 bees supersede a queen in spring, that busi- 

 ness being attended to by them later in the 

 season. 



E. BoHM {LeijJZ. Bzig.,52) says it is a plaus- 

 ible theory that a colony made queenless will 

 start queen-cells from too old larva'; but the 

 actual fact is that, in a colony in the height 

 of its vigor (and no other should be used for 

 starting cells), with few exceptions always 

 the youngest brood is chosen for royal cells. 

 From these proceed just as good queens as if 

 the egg had been from the beginning des- 

 tined for a queen. 



Combs of brood with adhering bees may 

 be used to strengthen a weak colony; but the 

 queen of the weak colony must in that case 

 be caged, says G. Muths {Leijjz. Bztg., 54). 

 For many years I have practiced this plan, 

 having used thousands of such comLs, and 

 never caged a queen. But I am careful to 

 give only in proportion to the strength of the 

 colony, so that the strange bees may not be 

 in the majority. When more than one comb 



is given it is safer to have each comb with 

 its bees from a different colony. [You are 

 correct, according to our experience. — Ed.] 



C. P. Dadant) VAjiiriiUure Nouvelle,14S) 

 thinks my plan of breeding from best work- 

 ers without regard to purity of blood is not 

 the best plan. May be; yet I'm confident I 

 have increased my crops by it. Still, the 

 question is left whether I might not have in- 

 creased crops just as much by selecting only 

 from pure bloods. At any rate, if I nad it 

 to do over again I'd stick to pure blood, if 

 for no other reason than to avoid such de- 

 mons to sting. 



A queen-bee at $1.00 is probably about as 

 common as a bull at $50.00. May 30, at T. 

 H. Cooper's sale, a bull was sold to A. B. 

 Lewis for $11,500. That's 230 times $50.00; 

 and 230 times $1.00 is $230. Is there any 

 thing more unreasonable in valuing a queen 

 at $230 than in valuing a bull at $11,500? 

 [We once had a queen that we valued at 

 $200; and it is no exaggeration for us to say 

 that we would give $500 for her to-day if we 

 could get her back. — Ed ] 



Jung Klaus, the bright and useful picker- 

 up of items for Deutsche linker aus Boehmen, 

 has an unfortunate prejudice against things 

 American which sometimes leads him astray. 

 He says, p. 94, that Herr Schenk, of Brazil, 

 who lately visited Europe, sings a different 

 song from that of the gentleman in the north. 

 Dear Jung Klaus, this country is about as 

 far from Brazil as Germany from Central ^ 

 Africa, and the countries have about as much 

 to do with each other. Please don't charge 

 to our account the backward condition of 

 bee-keeping in Brazil; and be a little patient 

 if we do some cackling before the eggs are 

 laid. Some of these days we'll learn from 

 Germany to sober down, just as we have 

 learned many other good things from there. 



J. J. Wilder, a Georgian, thinks a hive- 

 cover with an air-space best for hives exposed 

 to the sun, saying: "I have lost some colo- 

 nies, many combs, and no small amount ;of 

 honey from the heat of the sun, but I have 

 never lost [any combs under these covers" 



