158 



THE Bt:E-KEEPEhS it:^/_- 



very little of vim, but great endurance — 

 waiting for a stray queen to come in, I sup- 

 pose. As some colonies, after the third or 

 fourth swarm, drive out a lot of virgins to 

 find homes for themselves, the chance of one 

 coming is not so slender as one might at 

 first suppose. 



If the French keep on stuffing us with 

 such reports as 5G1 pounds from three col- 

 onies confederated, when the average for a 

 single colony was 88 pounds, first they know 

 they'll get "we'uns "into Confederate S'.ates. 

 Review 121. And then perhaps we'll hear 

 from the man who confederated a dozen 

 colonies and didn't get any surplus. 



With brother Thompson I can say, what's 

 the harm of keeping up a little smell of cam- 

 phor or carbolic acid in each hive as ?i pre- 

 ventive when foul brood infection is all 

 around ? 



Friend C. C. Miller, on page 34 American 

 Bee Journal, bears down pretty hard on the 

 idea that bees ever play in front of the hive 

 after they are old enough to work in the 

 fields. How is it on a warm day in February, 

 friend Miller ; don't they all play then ? 



Only ;? out of 24 respondents to A. B. .J's 

 question box had a good word for keeping 

 bees queenless during the honey harvest. 

 The three were P. H. Elwood, J. A. Green 

 and E. France. 



And here is a good man, a very good man, 

 whom I must quote because he is at anti- 

 podes with myself. 



" We never practice doubling up colonies in 

 the fall. If two colonies have only honey for 

 one, kill one, and feed their honey to the other. 

 E. France in A. B. J. 95. " 



Still I imagine friend France would find 

 it hard to prove that the slaughtered bees and 

 queen would do any harm if added to the 

 establishment. ' Feered he's afflicted with 

 the idea that bees eat so much per head, 

 just like soldiers. 



Prayer is a good thing ; but beautiful 

 prayers recited parrot-like to keep the bees 

 from stinging, as related by C. P. Dadant in 

 A. B. J. 99, are a good thing decidedly run 

 into the ground. And what a queer lot he 

 makes those Norman French peasants to be! 

 Nearly impossible to make one say yes or no. 

 And though you fire away for an hour with 

 questions about his bees, he will continue 

 to find polite answers that give no informa- 

 tion. 



Query five of the new series in A. B. J. 

 asks for the best surplus arrangement to 



take comb honey. Out of 22 respondents 6 

 advise the T super, (3 the wide frame, and 6 

 more take to the woods on various dodges. 

 The remaining 4 are for the slatted bottom 

 super. 



Doolittle has had a three comb nucleus 

 build 15 new combs in one season. Keeps 

 taking the new combs away, so as not to let 

 the colony get big, and want to build drone 

 comb or swarm. A. B. J. 113. 



E. B. Thomas, A. B. J. 114, says cypress 

 hives, without any paint whatever, may be 

 bequeathed to one's children. 



Twenty-four years ago C. Theilman had 

 12 rough hives made for !|24, and;12 nice 

 painted ones for $48 ; and to-day the 

 the painted ones. A. B. J. 243. 

 the cheap ones are in about as good order as 



C. Monette, A. B. J. 130, describes a queen- 

 catching cage which I think some will like. 

 It is a conical spiral of fine steel wire, base 

 broad enough to set over a queen as she runs, 

 and apex slender enough that she can not 

 turn round when put up there with a follow- 

 er. Then with a fine wire hook, her wings 

 can be pulled through the spirals and clipped 

 deliberately, without the operator getting 

 the trembles, and without the possibility of 

 her " putting her foot in it " for amputation 

 at the last quarter section. 



It is plain from the report of the Colorado 

 convention, page 214 A. B. J., that practical 

 men feed flour there. There are but few 

 localities of which this can be said, I imag- 

 ine. Of course experimenters, and begin- 

 ners who follow a book, do it more or less 

 everywhere. 



The following are the bottom prices for 

 first class honey for the several years named, 

 as given by Doolittle in A. B. J. 1G3. De- 

 lectable mountains of old fashioned prices, 

 and the toboggan slide whereby we got down 

 to our present low estate. 

 18G8— 25 1875—27 1881—18 



1869—50 1886-23 1882—22 



1870—25 1877—20 1883—18 



1871—25 1878—12 1884—17 



1872—25 1879—20 1885—15 



1873—27 1880—18 1886—14 



1874—28 



R. L. Taylor's last tests in heating honey 

 show strongly how much discretion it requir- 

 es to be an experimenter, if one would do 

 aught than mislead himself and others. The 

 other experiments indicated that we must 

 not use such high temperatures as we had 

 been using ; these indicate that we are all 



