HE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



245 



Ckowuinc. the bees in onler to get the 

 sections filled ont at the corners is not a 

 profitable proceeding; but not all seem to 

 have discovered it. This point is well 

 brought out in the reported conversation 

 between S. A. Xiver and K. R. Root, 

 published in Cileanings for August 1st. 



.\ TRir THKOrC.H WISCONSIN. 



I have just returned from a two-weeks' 

 trip among the bee-keepers and supply 

 manulacturers of Wisconsin, bringing 

 with me about forty views of apiaries, 

 factories, hives, etc., and a notebook full 

 of items of interest; all of which will even- 

 tually find their way into the Review. 



Straw is used for smoker f uel b}- some 

 of the Wisconsin bee keepers. They get 

 the fire to going well, and then jam in 

 the straw. It will burn a long time, and 

 the smoke is not so hot as that from wood. 

 I believe that this practice originated with 

 Mr. r'rance. He saw a burning straw- 

 stack smoulder for days, and this sug- 

 gested the use of straw for smoker fuel. 



Bro. n(>i,TKKM.\N, of the Canadian 

 Bee Journal has recently lost a little, six- 

 year-old boy under peculiar circumstan- 

 ces. The boy had had his hair cut very 

 short, and then went out into the hot 

 sun. Soon after h? was found in spasms, 

 from which he soon died. Bro. Holter- 

 man and family have the sympathy of all 

 their frien<ls in this sad bereavement. 



A Nkw C.\mer.\ is something in which 

 I have been rejoicing the last few weeks. 

 It is the largest and best camera I have 

 ever owned. It is what is called the Em- 

 pire State; made by the Rochester Opti- 

 cal Co., of Rochester X. V. It has a ris- 

 ing and falling front, reversible back, 

 double swing, pneumatic shutter, and all 

 the little conveniences so dear to the 

 heart of a photographer. It takes a pic- 

 ture 8 x 10 inches in size. I expect that 

 my possession of this instrument will add 

 to the picturesquenessof the Review. 



A C.\GHI) (jlKKN may be laid at the 

 entrance of any populous colony during 

 the working season, and the bees will 

 cluster over the cage and care for the 

 queen just the same as though she were 

 inside the hive. This is the way Mr. 

 John Otto, of Forest Junction, Wisconsin, 

 has his extra queens cared for in the sum- 

 mer, yueens may be left this way for 

 days. 



U^UP^P-m'm^^^ 



THICK SECTIONS. 



Page 6c Lyons made some thick sec- 

 tions to order for two bee-keepers of 

 Wisconsin. The sections were one-sixth 

 of an inch in thickness. This extra 

 thickness so increased the weight of the 

 sections that when they were filled with 

 honey, and sold, the extra weight would 

 pay for the sections. They also made 

 some nailed sections for a York State 

 bee-keeper in which two of the sides of 

 the section wert of hard maple, five-six- 

 teenths of an inch in thickness. In talk- 

 ing this matter over with a lady bee-keep- 

 er, she expressed the opinion that such 

 practices were dishonest, if done for the 

 sake of cheating the ones who bought 

 the honey stored in such sections. 



««^^*««'««^«^< 



THICKNESS OK WINTER-I'.\CKING. 



Nearly all of the bee-keepers in Wis- 

 con.sin winter their bees in cellars, but 

 occasionally there is one in the Southern 

 part of the vState, or near the lake, that 

 depends upon packing; leaving the bees 

 in the open air. R. H. Schmidt of She- 

 boygan is one of the latter. Last winter 

 he wintered 4,5 colonies out of doors with 

 no loss. He places special stress, how- 

 ever, upon the thinness of the packing 

 and packing-box. The outside case is 

 made of narrow strips only ^ of an inch 

 in thickness, and the ])acking material is 

 only three inches in thickness. His idea 

 is that thick packing deprives the bees of 

 the benefit of the sun's rays; that often- 

 times the bees are- aroused to a flight 

 when surrounded by thin packing; some- 



