rut. HEE-KfjEPERS' REVIEW. 



159 



right. The other experimeuts squinted 

 strongly toward melted whx imparting bad 

 tiavor to tl>e honej' : these contradict the 

 same. And a saitiple supposed about the 

 same as before — well, 'pears like he got 

 clover honey one time and bass wood honey 

 t'other time. The fact that both samples 

 came from the same lot of honey, or even 

 from the same super, does not weigh much. 

 Black pig and white pig may both be in the 

 same litter. 



Perhaps I owe C. W. Daptoii an apology 

 for talking about his accepting " flying re- 

 ports" when he was at detective work instead. 



In A. B. J. 218 is a very frisky letter 

 from South Africa, signed S. A. Deacon. 

 Swallows of a very large species, and with a 

 ravenous appetite for bees, exist there. They 

 are very hard to shoot also. He organizes a 

 shooting match with prizes to head them off. 

 He reports a very scant supply of rain for 

 the last three years ; so we are not alone, 

 not even continentally. Guess he reads 

 British bee papers, for his hobby in uniting 

 and queen introduction is flour, strongly 

 scented with peppermint and put on with 

 a dredge. Robbers he meets by a belt of 

 fresh paint, carefully put on at a little dis- 

 tance all around the entrance. Robbers, 

 when only reconnoitering, alight farther 

 off than honest bees, and to get their legs 

 daubed in green paint discourages Ihem. 

 Probably the method is of no use alter the 

 plundering is fairly begun ; but it may be of 

 some value when there is danger of its be- 

 ginning. Before recommending it very 

 much I should want to know whether the 

 honest V>ee who. carelessly alights in the 

 paint, and gets his legs soaked with it, is 

 ever any good any more. 



Another wrinkle for the house apiary is 

 contributed by E. Goulding in A. B. .1. 22.'). 

 The exit passage from each colony runs out 

 into a miniature house which projects quite 

 a bit from the building, thereby securing a 

 sunny entrance for winter. The Goulding 

 side walls are also made in sections that will 

 both take out and swing up ; and thus the 

 building can be transformed at pleasure in- 

 to a shed with awning-like shades. 



George F. Robbias, A. B. J. 225, jauntily 

 says he knows why bees swarm ; and he can 

 tell us ( e'enymost ) how to prevent it. Let 

 me see if I can't beat you at that, friend R. 

 Bees swarm because there is a hole in their 

 hive. Abolish the holes and swarming is 

 cured — I can warrant 'em, Pdrchance the 



Robbins remedy is not quite so illusory as 

 mine ; but it may fail sometimes, and mine 

 will not. He takes away the contents of the 

 hive, and leaves the hole — and the bees. 

 The objections are that you have doubled 

 your stock, and you may want to prevent 

 that ; you have a lot of hungry babies that 

 must starve, as there are no nurses to feed 

 them ; andiyou have a lot of sealed brood that 

 may chill in a sudden cold spell of weather ; 

 and you may get the whole thing scooped by 

 robbers. These combs can indeed be given 

 to weak colonies, but only in a small way ; 

 and we want a scheme that covers tlie whole 

 apiary. H he will take away the combs 

 from several hives each day continuously, 

 a 'd put them into a big, warm, tenement 

 hatchery ; when the young bees get numer- 

 ous ladle them a few quarts into each origin- 

 al hive^well, I think that's the direction 

 from which morning is most likely to arise. 

 Perhaps the man who works out the finished 

 details of this may be canonized as a bene- 

 factor. I have never got around to begin 

 the trial, although I have long had the 

 scheme in mind. The outcome of such a 

 hatchery is not increase of colonies, but a 

 lot of nearly empty combs. 



Don't think that this article is aught else 

 than one of the most valuable that have 

 been written on this topic. Especially does 

 friend Robbins get down to "pay gravel" 

 when he says substantially that wo cannot 

 at once, and perhaps can not ever, eradicate 

 the wants of bee nature ; but the line of 

 hope is in the line of supplying these ivants 

 in some other way than hap-hazard swarm- 

 ing. 



Those powdered bees that worked their 

 way into the winter cluster from the outside 

 in twelve days ( Gleanings 168) I am just 

 unbeliever enough to think the exprimenter 

 did not identify them in the middle of the 

 cluster, only saw there was no flour on the 

 outside and took it for granted. No proof. 

 Had dusted off one aao^hers jickets^else 

 died. Even if he did identify the floured 

 bees it would be much more probable that a 

 general stir out of the warm inner bees had 

 taken place than that the torpid oue^ had 

 moved in like the hour hand of a clock twelve 

 times too slow. 



Harry Dwight, as related in Gleanings 

 179, alterated drone and worker foundation 

 in sections to the number of 5G0, and then 

 kept watch to see when each sort was finish- 

 ed, as compared with its next neighbor. The 



