THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



327 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



ROTHER Coleman tells us that downy 

 > oung bees often die of starvation in 

 the summer time, when there is plenty 

 of honey in the hive — and bee paralysis 

 wrongly gets the discredit of it. This new 

 suggestion well deserves some looking into 

 by all of us. Newly emerged bees feed 

 themselves, as Langstroth has shown. To 

 them, can't find the cupboard, and ' 'cupboard 

 was bare," amount to the same thing ; both 

 mean speedy death. 



" I found that the honey in the hive was cou- 

 flned to the outside combs, and that the combs 

 from which the bees were hatching contained no 

 honey at all. * * j shifted a comb con- 

 taining honey. * * The young bees quit 

 dying in a few minutes, and have not died any 

 since. A. B. J., 341. 



Another idea strikes me. Would not, 

 can't open the cupboard door, mean death 

 also ? In scarcity times the honey in a hive 

 is nearly or quite all sealed, and presumably 

 the old bees are not carrying any. Who 

 kuows that a little prilgrim, never having 

 broken fast yet, could (or would) uncap a 

 cell? 



The Review. 



Once nore the Review's turn has come 

 around. Is it the same old sixpence ? No, 

 not quite. It is gradually becoming more 

 an illustrated journal than it was. The Sep- 

 tember number was especially fine in that 

 respect ; and the apiary illustrated is one of 

 especial interest to the cause. If we should 

 only call Mr. B Taylor's apiary, The Minne- 

 sota Experiment Station, would it not be so 

 to all practical purposes ? And is it not 

 worth more to us just as it stands than the 

 average State station would be if State sta- 

 tions became universal 'i Would not the 

 State station be a ^' place ^' for some medi- 

 ocrity with influence — but not capacity 

 enough to be a valuable leader. Let's go a 

 little slow, brethren. Every wooden-head we 

 get set up in such a place, issuing semi-oc- 

 casional Pub. Doc, will tend to obscure the 

 excellent private work, and the excellent 

 Michigan station, we already have. Wonder 

 if I'm getting bilious— and is it because I 

 didn't go to Chicago ? 



Perhaps the most apparent change in the 

 Review is that relief to the tedium of affairs 

 which is afforded by giving each article a 

 heading of proverb or rhyme indicating its 



general character — as the Irishman would 

 say, "A fut-note at the head, sure." It 

 would be picking up Gleanings' thrown away 

 shoes to put a foot-note at the foot, so on 

 the head it goes. Many of these have a 

 serio-comic turn. If you don't like that, but 

 would rather have everything long faced, 

 just send in a scolding chorus to the editor, 

 and see if things don't come dignified. Some 

 want to eat their spice by the plateful, and 

 some don't want any at all, and some prefer 

 to eat it sprinkled on the food— Review 

 fashion. Is it right, or not ? 



There is a difference between the treat- 

 ment an editor may rightly give tlie head of 

 an article and the same as applied to the 

 foot. On the foot he may put a mustard 

 plaster of reproof or opposition, and some- 

 times ottght to do so. Not so on the head. 

 What is put on there must be in line with 

 the writer's thought. Hear him first, be- 

 fore you scold him or twist the reader's ear. 

 Now let us see about the wintering sympo- 

 sium in the October number. Heddon, 

 Aikiu. B, Taylor, Doolittle, Prof. Cook, R. 

 L. Taylor and the editor, take part.i_ No use 

 of trying to deny that there is a certain air 

 of woru-out ness about the lucubrations on 

 wintering. Although we winter our bees on 

 honey we winter our readers mainly on 

 chestnuts. (Subdued applause.) But, breth- 

 ren, when we get it all found out we won't 

 give you anything at all except chestnuts — 

 then what will you do ? Better winter on 

 chestnuts and save the bees than on paradise 

 nuts and lose 'em. 



What boots it, this beautiful writing. 



That sweet on the ear doth melt. 

 CriBp. novel, fresh aiid inviting — 

 CD And our bees all dead as a smelt ? 



R. L. Taylor advises feeding in a warpa 

 room tor neglected colonies that must be fed 

 when the almanac can't be turned back to 

 warm weather again. Seems to me I would 

 rather (as the simpler and less liable to mis- 

 carry plan) take out three or four of their 

 lightest combs and replace with combs 

 poured full of warm syrup. Disturbance 

 sooner over, and no possibility of their stop- 

 ping off and leaving half the syrup in the 

 feeder. Yet the fact that in this way the 

 syrup gets no chemical work put on it may 

 put the balance of advantage on the other 

 side — unless one feeds honey. And here Is 

 the simmer of his excellent putting into the 

 cellar. 



ir)th of Nov.— cloudy— 45° —a frosty day one to 

 bejshunned- -touching nothing else laterally — 



