224 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



a hole in through the candy until she turn- 

 ed up her toes and died in the cage. 



W. H. Ritter thinks, on page 173, that six 

 to ten acres of berries, running from April 

 to August, would not make their owner wish 

 a big apiary in addition. 



And Doolittle, on pages 180-182 goes into 

 economics and practical politics at a smash- 

 ing rate. Wonder if that sort of thing is to 

 have a run in our bee papers. Worse topics 

 have got loose in them before now. 



Fred S. Thorington, page 183, tells of a 22 

 day queen, when Iti days is supposed to be 

 the normal time. 



The editor has some samples of suspected 

 honey. ( Page 18(1. ) He guesses one of 

 them to be altogether bogus, although rath- 

 er pleasant to the taste, and the other to be 

 genuine honey half spoiled by melting up 

 the entire contents of the hive. 



There seems to be a general consensus of 

 folks in the middle west that this is a rainy 

 season. Hardly the case here in N. W. Ohio; 

 but, as our weather mostly comes from the 

 west, we will take it for a happy indication 

 for the coming months of the season — hard- 

 ly so likely to suffer from an autumn 

 drouth if our winds sweep over well watered 

 plains. 



THE GENERAL ROUND-UP. 



Just because we are bee keepers is no 

 reason why we should be nibbled to death — 

 off in the wilderness with that migratory 

 apiary. The Canadian geologist, A. M. 

 Campbell, whose duties require him to camp 

 out in some of the most desperately 

 "skeetery" districts of the world— job 

 assortment of the thirty recognized species 

 of North American mosquitos, and lots of 

 other exasperation critters, including what 

 the Indian graphically calls the " bite-em- 

 no-see-ems" — well, he is well qualified, and 

 he tells us what to do. Have a good tight tent, 

 and burn slowly inside as much insect pow- 

 der as will lay on a penny. Put it on a 

 chip and touch fire to it, and it will slowly 

 smoulder and smoke. Finishes'em off. 

 Even the bite-em-no-see-ems kick the in- 

 visible bucket that hanges in life's sweet 

 well. And for outdoor protection rub your 

 hands and face with a proprietary cream 

 made by a Yankee in Portland ( Hind's 

 Black Fly Cream ) He finds it an actual 

 protection and easily washed off. Netting 

 worn around the head fell mostly into disuse 



in the geological camp as too uncomforta- 

 ble and bothersome. Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal 82.5. 



Friend A. Norton of Monterey Cal. gives 

 us in Gleanings, ;500, a long article on some 

 of the lesser lights of California's honey re- 

 sources. The illustrations are of the Cali- 

 fornia lilac, said to be quite beautiful, and 

 manzanita, a shrub with flask shaped flowers 

 like the huckleberry to which it is a relative. 

 Friend N. once cut down a bee tree in which 

 nearly all ttie honey was uneatable tarweed 

 honey, green and abominably bitter. None 

 of the tar weed for us, thank you. 



A correspondent on page 299 of Gleanings 

 says a protracted sun bath is the best cleans- 

 er of oilcans for bee keepers. A brad hole 

 is easily soldered up ; make a brad hole in 

 each one, and turn it strictly down in the 

 sun. After several weeks of this give them 

 a grand scrub with gold dust washing pow- 

 der and hot water ; then a few weeks more 

 in the sun. Capital. But neither sun nor 

 scrub will remove ( or ought to remove ) the 

 wholesale man's idea that it isn't safe to buy 

 honey in oil cans at any price. If you can 

 have the honey retailed by your own agents 

 all right. 



W. S. Fultz, American Bee Journal 291, 

 has seen what few of the rest of us have 

 looked upon, I imagine, bees eating straw- 

 berries at a rate tliat there were from three 

 to five bees on each berry in the patch. 

 Raspberries and rareripe peaches are quite 

 liable to suffer in that way ; but strawberries 

 almost always escape. Same article rubs us 

 with a brickbat for putting on such airs to- 

 wards fruit growers ; as if we know all things 

 in heaven and earth, and they were simple- 

 tons, not knowing the details of their own 

 business. Now maybe we deserve some of 

 that. Who knows ? 



In a very excellent article on the swarm- 

 ing mania, A. B. J. ;50(), Mr. Doolittle speaks 

 as foUowes about the cause ; 



" The conditione requisite to excessive swarm- 

 ing are, a -warm, favorable spring, with a warm, 

 wet summer, thus giving just enough honey to 

 keep brood rearing at its best, and still not 

 enough so the bees st<jre any great quantity, so 

 as to diminish tiie brood. " 



This agrees well with my own observation. 

 Another way to make a colony build all 

 worker comb is proposed, besides Mr. 

 Uoolittle's well known way of keeping them 

 just a little too weak to think of swarming. 

 It is to take away most of the sealed brood, 



