244 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



QUEEN-CELIvS IN HIVE WITH 

 I^AYING OUEECN. 



The editor of Gleanings has been raising 

 our expectations by promising a plan ot 

 producing queen-cells in the brood-nest oi 

 a hive with a laying queen, a step in ad- 

 vance of Doolittle, ( Gleanings, 428. ) But 

 it turns out that it is done in a portion of 

 the brood - nest shut off by perforated 

 zinc. Isn't that Doolittle's plan exactly— 

 in principle? No, it is a step behind Doo- 

 little; inasmuch as the brood-nest is more 

 difficult to get at than in the story above. 

 Then the editor says " the whole secret of 

 the plan rests in hax-ing the artificial cell- 

 cups perfectly made. Without the 

 artificial cups nothing could be 

 done. " The editor is clearly wrong. 

 I have found the natural cups, of 

 which an abundance for ordinary pur- 

 poses can be easily gathered from the 

 hives, to be quite as acceptable to the 

 bees. 



[Friend Taylor, I fear you have failed 

 to catch the true spirit of Bro. Root's edi- 

 torial. I think he intends to convey the 

 idea that the success of this plan of secu- 

 ring the building of queen cells by fenc- 

 ing off, with perforated metal, a portion 

 of the brood-nest, was dependent upon 

 furnishing the bees with cells already be- 

 gun, and not that there was any special 

 value in artificial cells, as compared with 

 natural cups. I presume he would agree 

 with you that the natural cups would an- 

 swer every purpose. Of course, these nat- 

 ural cups may be saved up and used, but 

 I think the professional queen breeder 

 will find more satisfaction in cells dipped 

 a la Pridgen — ED. review. ] 



UO BKK.S KEEP DIFFERENT HONEYS 

 .SEPAR.^TE ? 



Gleanings has a picture of a .section of 

 honey ( p. 428) a large part of its center 

 being raspberry honey; the rest of a white 

 honey. The editor in his comments says: 

 " it shows only how the bees placed the 

 raspberry honey, calico fashion — or per- 

 haps, more strictly speaking, raspberry 



juice. It goes to show that bees have a 

 preference for putting honey of a kind in 

 patches rather than making a checker- 

 board as it were— a cell of one kind of 

 honey and a cell of another kind side by 

 side. " I wonder how he arrived at his 

 conclusion. It seems to me it .shows that 

 the bees gathered the raspberry honey 

 first and very naturally placed it in the 

 upper centre of the comb, and gathering 

 the white honey later they quite as natur- 

 ally put it in the part still vacant. Bees 

 do not intentionally keep different honeys 

 .separate. In other words, if the ra.spber- 

 ry honey and the white honey had been 

 gathered concurrently they would have 

 been mingled throughout the section. 

 The editor does not, I suppose, intention- 

 ally libel raspberry honey by intimating 

 that it is raspberry juice. Raspberry 

 honey, be it known, is made of nectar 

 gathered from raspberry bloom, and a 

 very fine honey it is. 



TH.\T COURT. 



In the June number of the Review I 

 appointed Dr. Miller and editor Root a 

 court to try me for persisting in error. 

 But the editor evidently has no confi- 

 dence in the court for he goes on without 

 the knowledge or consent of his colleague 

 and passes upon the whole record; 

 besides something outside of it. His de- 

 liverance exhibits some curious specimen s 

 of reasoning, but as it is extra-judicial I 

 let it pass and pray for the early conven- 

 ing of the court. 



I.AI'ICKR, Mich., July in 1S99. 



EDITORIAL 



ffcrings- 



Wisconsin's wonderfully fertile soil, 

 and the remnants of what were once mag- 

 nificent forests of basswood, explain the 

 wonderful success of Adam Grimm in 

 years that have passed. 



