284 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIE'VU . 



retreat, and retrench, and take in sail, which 

 is current upon the apicultural high seas. 

 Its constant writers and departments are 

 about as follows : Poet, Will Ward Mitch- 

 ell (I went off at half cock when I reported 

 his supersession.) Then there is the Star 

 Apiary over which S. E. Miller presides, an- 

 other set of notes by Mrs. Hallenbeck, and 

 part of the time a somewhat similar set of 

 paragraphs by ''Observer." Also Doolittle 

 is now a very frequent contributor ; then 

 there is the regular lesson in law by lawyer 

 Sprague ; and " Somnambulist." O yes, 

 there are also some articles and editorial 

 notes. If one was contrary, and hunting for 

 some fault to find perhaps he might say the 

 Progressive was a little overloaded with re- 

 viewing and itemizing — but some of it is un- 

 deniably a good quality of itemizing. The 

 paper has this merit also, that it makes the 

 reader feel that he is not in exactly the same 

 crowd as when reading other papers. Som- 

 nambulist deserves a word of separate notice 

 at least. When the papers under that name 

 first came out one naturally wondered if the 

 quality would hold out. Perhaps there was 

 a little come-down from the highest levels ; 

 but interest has been wfell kept up ; and 

 probably more readers still look first to see 

 what Sommy has to say than scramble for 

 any other particular thing in the journal. 



THE GENERAL ROUND - UP 



Mercy, doesn't Dr. Peiro of the American 

 Bee Journal go for the kissing habit ! (A. 

 B. J., 364.) Sets his face against it, as it 

 were. Had we only plenty of Dr. Peiros an 

 anti-kissing reform would sweep over the 

 country equal to that which in some former 

 age must have swept over Japan. There it 

 is a very rare thing for a mother to kiss her 

 own babe. Who knows but what the Prohi- 

 kissem party is glready being organized in 

 secret ? To arms ! to arms ! ! it's a coming. 

 *' I know not what course others may take, 



but as for me, give me " no — let her 



come. 



.Jennie Atchley (A. B. J., 367) invitesus to 

 believe a sizeable snake story, which her 

 young " olive plants " have put up on her. 

 The present champion yarn-spinner— inven- 

 tor of 1,000 bushels of corn that popped out, 

 and the feeble-minded old mare that came, 

 saw, thought it snow, and lay down and 

 froze to death — will have to look out for his 

 la,urel8. Little tree, size of a candy jar ; 

 hollow in tree ; bees in hollow ; at the top of 



the hollow, resting on the combs and well 

 bathed in bees, an 8 foot snake. He was 

 coiled up, he was, and peace reigned. How 

 would an 8 foot snake look coiled up 

 in a candy jar sized hole ? If we might 

 read 8 inches for 8 feet, and suppose his 

 snakeship had a separate apartment until 

 the fall of the tree crushed his walls, why 

 then — why then the whole thing would be too 

 hum-drum for notice. 



Two pieces of string and some bits of lath 

 make a rope ladder. And with the said rope 

 ladder you can tie a layer of straw against 

 the two sides and back of a hive for winter. 

 Dadant's way. A. B. J., 440. 



" The bees around queen cells will fight with 

 a vengeance equal to a tiger's when being rob- 

 bed of her cubs, unless the precaution is taken 

 to coax them to fill themselves with honey." 

 Doolittle, A B. J., 309, 



'' When the bees undertake to tear down queen 

 cells they never miss any, as you do." Dr. Mil- 

 ler, A. B. J., 235, 



" Never in all my life have 1 had a swarm ab- 

 scond when I gave a frame of unsealed brood, 

 honey and eggs." Mrs. Atchley, A. B. J . 269. 



Evidence, well, not quite strong enough to 

 convince Mr. Alley, is given in Gleanings, 

 607, that a queen may meet a drone from \% 

 miles away. The affair was closely watched, 

 and she was gone three hours. Her offspring 

 proved crosses, with Italian blood in them ; 

 and the nearest Italians were at the distance 

 named. This is from a German bee paper. 



Dr. Miller vouches for two eggs laid in 

 two cells half full of pollen, and the colony 

 in normal condition. {Gleanings, 607.) 

 Very interesting, and I think very rare. But 

 then I believe we have evidence to the effect 

 that fertile workers sometimes lay in a per- 

 fectly well regulated colony. Perhaps this 

 is it. By the way, are there not many other 

 insects that lay eggs resembling those of 

 bees ? And are there not cuckoo bees of sol- 

 itary naughtiness, that dodge into a hive and 

 lay an egg or two ? 



Allen Pringle is making strong demands 

 on our credulity when he bids us believe 

 that more Yankee honey is old in Canada 

 than Canadian in the U. S. Gleanings, 610. 

 What ails those hyi)erborean fellows, that 

 they can't hold their own market ? 



Contradictory reports on the quality of 

 apple honey appear on page <i2'2 of Glean- 

 ings. There seems to be constant jarring on 

 this point among bee-keepers at large. One 

 says " quinine," and one ranks apple honey 

 as among the best of honeys. 1 think the 

 true solution is that apple honey is .isxially 



