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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



ment will bring more custom than one that 

 omits the prices and simply says, "send for 

 circular." It is well enough to have a circu- 

 lar in which descriptions are given more in 

 detail, and the queries of would-be-customers 

 are anticipated. 



Don't think friends, that I am giving this 

 advice to induce you to make your advertise- 

 ment larger, in order that I may be able to 

 send you larger bills. Many a time have I 

 figured to cut down the size of an advertise- 

 ment and yet leave it just as effective. It 

 pays to do this, even from a selfish motive. 

 No business relations are long sustained un- 

 less there are profits at both ends, unless 

 each party finds it to his advantage. That 

 my advertisers make a profit upon their ad- 

 vertising is fully as much to my interest as 

 to theirs, hence it would be folly to give any 

 advice the following of which I did not be- 

 lieve would be of mutual advantage. 



MAKING A SWAKM OLUSTEH AND STAY UPON A 

 STAKE IN FBONT OF ITS HIVE. 



Every bee-keeper knows of the disposition 

 of bees to crawl uj)wards. To induce a 

 queen to leave a cage, turn the opening up. 

 Those who have watched the motions of a 

 clipped queen in front of the hive from which 

 a swarm has just issued, have probably notic- 

 ed her disposition to crawl up a spear of grass 

 or anything of this nature that she can find. 

 At the recent meeting of t'le Huron, Tuscola 

 and Sanilac Co. bee-keepers', a Mr. West told 

 how it was possible to take advantage of this 

 climbing disposition on the part of the queen, 

 to induce a swarm with a clipped queen to 

 cluster and remain upon a stake in front of 

 the hive from which it had issued. 



This discovery was the result of an accident, 

 or rather of a lucky " happen so." In front 

 of one of his hives a mullein had been allowed 

 to form a stalk. Coming home one day he 

 found a swarm from this hive clustered upon 

 the mullein stalk. He at once reasoned that 

 the queen, as she alighted in front of the 

 hive, found and climbed the mullein stalk, 

 and the swarm, upon its return, found and 

 clustered about her. Taking a hint from this 

 he cleared away all rubbish from in front 

 of all the hives, and a few inches in front of 

 each hive he thrust into the ground a branch 

 of an apple tree. He used branches perhaps 

 an inch in diameter and two feet long with a 

 few short twigs at the top. The twigs were 



cut off to a length of four or six inches. The 

 branch was not planted in an upright posi- 

 tion, but leaning away from the mouth of 

 the hive. Then it was not in the way of the 

 workers as they passed out and in the hive, 

 while a swarm clustered at the top would 

 be held so far from the entrance of the 

 hive that there would be no danger of its 

 being enticed back into the hive. 



This plan proved a perfect success. He 

 had practiced it for three years, and one year 

 had as many as sixty swarms, and it had 

 never failed. It seemed to me that the 

 queen might not always find the tree to 

 climb, but would crawl off in some other di- 

 rection, but he said not ; that the stake was 

 planted just about where she would naturally 

 strike the ground when leaving the hive, and 

 she invariably found and climbed the pole, 

 and that the bees clustered about her and 

 remained. As the queeen could not take 

 wing and the bees would not desert her, it 

 naturally followed that they would remain 

 until removed by the bee-keeper. 



If this plan only proves as successful as 

 represented, it will be a great thing for the 

 bee-keeper with a small apiary who cannot 

 always be present with his bees in the mid- 

 dle of the day. 



THE "public pulse." 



To give each reader of the Review an op- 

 portunity of seeing how the other readers re- 

 gard the Review and its management, I 

 give the following scraps selected from the 

 letters of those who have so kindly replied 

 to the request in the last Review. Some are 

 from those who are regarded as leaders in 

 apiculture, others from the rank and file. 

 As I ijromised to regard these communica- 

 tions as confidential, no names are given. I 

 only wish that more would write. 



"I feel inclined to advise you to take no- 

 body's advice. Don't allow yourself to be 

 advised clear out of yourself. — Go right on 

 and do as you have been doing. — Don't give 

 up your leaders. Your last one was as nearly 

 exhaustive as possible, yet you will have 

 plenty of good articles. See if you don't. — 

 I should not like to see you give up those 

 lengthy leaders. They bring to one's mind 

 many things that would otherwise be over- 

 looked. — Can't say which number suits me 

 best. They are all best. Why not give a 

 special number on the production of extract- 

 ed honey in the South V Our seasons, re- 



