246 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



thins that woiihl not occnr with thick 

 packing. He thinks that thin packing is 

 particularly advantageons towards spring. 



On the other hand, Mr O. O. Poppleton, 

 who once kept bees in Iowa, places great 

 stress npon thick packing; saying that 

 out door wintering often fails because of 

 the insufTiciency of the packing. It is 

 true that bees in thickh' packed hives are 

 not so easily aroused to a flight by the 

 sun's rays; but Mr. T. F. Bingham's re- 

 mark on this point is worthy of consider- 

 ation. He says that bees so packed 

 "don't have to" fly. 



Will those who have had experience in 

 this matter please report it to the Review? 



»*»^u>ni»i«»» 



DO NOT 



Tip up or turn over. This is 

 the top of the crate, not the 

 bottom. If handled roughly 

 there will be damages claimed 

 for breakage. 



The above is what I saw printed in 

 enormous letters, and pasted upon the 

 tops of some crates standing at the depot 

 at Wauzeka, Wisconsin. Almost every- 

 bodv on the train noticed it, and com- 

 mented upon it. From this it seems that 

 the freight handlers might notice it, and, 

 possibly, heed it. It seems as though 

 something of this character might be 

 used to advantage on the tops of crates 

 of honev. 



■ >.■«<«■'«•«■« 



RKVKRSIHI.K HOXKV KXTRACTOK.S. 

 There have been several attempts at 

 making an automatically reversible honey 

 extractor; that is, an extractor in which 

 the combs can be reversed automatically 

 without stopping the machine. Some of 

 these attempts have been mor6 or less 

 successful; but there are one or two ob- 

 jections that are very difficult to over- 



come. The reversing of combs while in 

 motion results in a shock, when they are 

 stopped, that is liable to injure new combs. 

 There is also a shock to the muscles of a 

 man's arm when he suddenly stops and 

 reverses the motion of a crank that is 

 whirling four heavy comb-baskets and 

 their contents. While in Wisconsin I 

 found several men who owned automatic- 

 ally reversible extractors, but they did 

 not use the automatic feature, on ac- 

 count of the objections that I have men- 

 tioned. They stopped the machine and 

 then reversed the baskets by hand. .\ 

 brake on a machme is a saver of time and 

 muscle. According to ni)' judgment, the 

 Cowan reversible is the most desirable ex- 

 tractor on the market. It is now made 

 with a brake. 



IXTKODUCING OUKKNS. 



.\ large number of m\' customers have 

 reported how they have succeeded in- 

 troducing ([ueens by the plan described 

 and illustrated in the June Review; viz., 

 that of caging the queen against the comb 

 where bees are hatching out. A few 

 have reported failure from the bees gnaw- 

 ing under the comb and releasing the 

 queen before they were ready to accept 

 her. If care is taken to select old, tough 

 comb, this will seldom occur. By far the 

 greater number of failures have come 

 from opening the hive and looking up the 

 queen in a day or two after she was releas- 

 ed, to .see if she was all right. This dis- 

 turbance alarmed the queen, and she ran 

 and ".sciuealed," and the bees took after 

 her. In one instance the queen flew 

 away and was lost In some instances 

 she would be found all right, and then 

 the next time that the colony was exam- 

 ined the cjueen .would be missing. I 

 think that it can not be too emphaticallj' 

 urged that a colon)- be left entirely un- 

 (Hsturbed for several days after a ciueen 

 is released — until she has fully regained 

 her normal condition and is thoroughly 

 estalilished as queen of the colony. 



Mr. W. II. Pridgen suggests that, in- 

 stead of removing the cage, a hole be 



