THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



pect of a good supply coming. A few 

 (lays of steady feeding, or a few days of 

 steady gathering from flowers, furnishes 

 the prospect. They are, like spendthrifts 

 with easily gotten wealth, prodigal of 

 honey just brought in, though they have 

 not a pound of stores in the hive; while 

 they are very careful of stores on hand; 

 especially if scant, unless more are com- 

 ing in. These facts furnish what ground 

 there is for stimulative feeding to stand 

 on. 



RKVIEW H.\S A FAUI,TY INDEX. 



There is nothing more valuable about a 

 book or a journal, which is to be preserv- 

 ed for future reference, than a good index. 

 Without close examination I presume the 

 index to the last volume of the Review is 

 full and complete with the exception of 

 the part relating to the December num- 

 ber. That by some mischance appears to 

 be so defective as to be of little value. 



THE DISADVANTAGES OF I^ARGE HIVES. 



It will be well for those who are med- 

 itating adopting a larger hive to move 

 cautiously. The editor of Gleanings has 

 become enthusiastic on account of his 

 supposed discovery that a hive of two 

 bodie of a hive, one on the top of the 

 other, is better than any other, large or 

 small; and he has already quite a follow- 

 ing. Of course, his idea has been op- 

 posed; and when crowded by the argu- 

 ments of his opponents, he has appealed 

 from time to time to Dadant, who has al- 

 ways been uncompromisingly in favor of 

 a large hive. He is a producer of ex- 

 tracted honey. The editor has at last in- 

 duced him to write a series of articles on 

 hives; and it turns out that he has little 

 sympathy for the 'double-deckers." In- 

 deed, he condemns them unsparingly. 

 (Gleanings, 871) But the editor is after 

 information, and inquires of Dadant 

 whether his own large hive is adapted to 

 the production of comb honey. In 

 Gleanings, 907, he proceeds to reply, 

 giving the disadvantages of large hives. 

 ' 'They cost a great deal of money. ' ' "They 

 are not suitable for comb honev unless 



under special management." "Those 

 large hives are very cumbrous. It is out 

 of the question for one man to carry one 

 of them from one place to another in the 

 apiary unaided even if it does not con- 

 tain any bees." "But the worst thing is 

 transportation;" either by rail or wagon. 

 "We consider a hive a fixture after the 

 bees have b;en put into it, and we see no 

 more need of transporting it about than a 

 house. " "I want the hive to stay 

 there like a hog-shed or a chicken- 

 house." Mr. Dadant feels somewhat 

 diffident about "putting the case before 

 the jury" against himself; but there is 

 no necessity. He grants about all the 

 small-hive, comb-honey people claim. 

 Scarcely any one would claim that, for 

 extracted honey, with his methods, he 

 should change his hive. 



BOILING HONEY IN A VACUUM. 



According to a " straw " (Gleanings, 

 905 ) Mr. Hooker, in the British Bee 

 Journal, reports having removed ferment 

 from honey without injuring its aroma 

 by boiling it /;/ vacuo. Dr. Miller thinks 

 possibly that is no better than giving the 

 honey its time on the reservoir of a cook- 

 stove. Boiling in a vacuum is the meth- 

 od largely used in the production of sug- 

 ar. By it, boiling takes place at a com- 

 paratively low temperature, and 1 am in- 

 clined to think Mr. Hooker has suggest- 

 ed a valuable thing. 



POPULOUS COLONIES GREATLV GIVEN TO 

 SW.\RMING. 



Mr. Cloverdale reports ( American Bee 

 Journal, 805) having given each of ten 

 colonies an extra hive body filled with 

 worker comb in May. When white 

 clover began to hlpom he says they were 

 chock full of brood and bees. Supers were 

 put on both single-deckers and double- 

 deckers and he was interested to learn 

 whether they would work or swarm, and he 

 says ' ' As the harvest came on they began to 

 swarm, and, I must confess, to my surprise, 

 these i6-frame colonies rather too badly." 

 This must be so as a rule when comb 

 honey is made the object. The stronger 



