244 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



anti-swarming device. Brother Alley rather 

 wins the honors in the former knock out — 

 and promises to keep queen "'bull lights" on 

 tap for bee folks who may properly wish to 

 see them. Brother Simmins was fooled by 

 the fact that queens fully distended with 

 eggs generally will not try to tight, sure 

 enough. They hold off because they realize 

 that they are too clumsy for any such exer- 

 cise. But only reduce them to moderate di- 

 mensions by a few days' caging and most of 

 them will fight very readily. Jennie Atchley 

 sent four in one cage directed to the Roots. 

 When the cage arrived two were lively and 

 two were " kilt." 



But this is only one of the minor matters 

 of apiculture — alas for our prime discovery 

 that gets knocked out too ! Any roof is dry 

 when it does not rain. Any pebble is a gen- 

 uine mad-stone to cure hydrophobia when 

 the dog was not mad. Last year bees did 

 not want to swarm any way. My apiary 

 which is X X X on swarming did not give 

 me as many swarms as I wanted to have. 

 But this year swarming is epidemic, and our 

 great invention, next to comb foundation 

 and the extractor in magnitude, where, O 

 where ! Two moons ago it was — 



" Here the conquering hero comes," 

 Now it is — 



" Poor old soldier 

 They drummed him out 

 Because he would not soldier." 



At least his nice little do-funny would not. 

 Never mind, friend Langdon ; as misery 

 loves company, we'uns who swallowed the 

 plan so prematurely, we have got to go 

 shares with you in your discomfiture now. 

 And next time we'll all look a little out. 



And so the Simmins fasting method of in- 

 troducing queens fails sometimes— failure 

 No. 3- 



And our persevering friend the Guide sud- 

 denly passes away— failure No. 4. 



And the Canadian gets burned out of 

 house and home— not quite a failure we 

 hope, but too much a crow of the same nest. 



The American Bee Journal has got a new 

 forehead on its face— That's not a failure, 

 sure, for it is a good one. The old chunk of 

 comb had foul brood in it : and the letters, 

 some fat visitor had squashed them by sit- 

 ting down on them before they were baked. 



Likewise the Review has a new It. L. Tay- 

 lor. The old one was a gentlemanly lawyer 

 after dinner. The new one is a bee man af- 

 ter dinner time — but he has'nt been able to 

 go, so many swarms. 



Rather late, but better late than never, 

 another section of the report of the Michi- 

 gan Experiment Station appears in the 

 American Bee Journal, page i)2. Sweet clo- 

 ver gets a black eye. Three acres of it em- 

 ployed the bees, but seemed to have no effect 

 on the results. And the old, tough, elusive, 

 ever-being-corrected problem of wax secre- 

 tion, friend Larrabee evidently thinks that 

 a rather slightly guarded experiment ought 

 to be accepted as conclusive in regard to it. 

 He admits that the results are different from 

 last year's at the same station, that the bees 

 had queens just given them (very likely a 

 little sullen over the change) and that honey 

 was fed instead of nectar. No, friend Lar- 

 rabee, not till we can have entirely natural 

 conditions, and the bees at work on natural 

 supplies, can this venerable stumbling block 

 of problems be regarded as complete. I 

 freely admit that the line of experiment is 

 an interesting one, and that the whole is a 

 commendable piece of work, all except the 

 running it for more than it is worth. It 

 should be repeated with variations, especially 

 with two second swarms of the same day's 

 issuing, and with too little feed for any 

 temptation to waste it. 



RiOHABDS, Lucas Co., O., July 21, 1893. 



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