310 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



would remark those who run for extracted 

 honey year after year already have the nat- 

 ural comb needed ; and properly arranged 

 bait sections, and the right strain of hybrid 

 bees, prevent to a great exletit this halting 

 until pushed when running for comb hon- 

 ey. All the same we can afford to have a 

 more complete remedy. 



E. Tipper, the editor of the Australian 

 Bee Bulletin, says alfalfa honey is always 

 thin, and seems incapable of being made 

 thick. Gleanings 570. 



At a chemical works in Pennsylvania they 

 find that whenever they make banana oil 

 their bees get infuriated and go on a ram- 

 page with no other cause than the smell. 

 Valerianate annyl and valerianic acid have 

 the same effect in less degree. Contribu- 

 ted by Robert W. Riddle in Gleanings .570. 

 Couldn't we make the opposite political 

 crowd oil their hair with some of these 

 things, and then march'em by an apiary ? 



Cleveland Brothers of Stamper Miss, re- 

 port two swarms coming out without any 

 queen at all. One had been queenless two 

 days and the other almost an hour. Glean- 

 ings 561. I had a case this year where a 

 swarm without a queen hung a long time on 

 a tree. I had caught and killed the queen 

 at her door. When the cluster finally broke 

 up they went, not back to the hive, but to 

 their dead queen ou the ground where I had 

 thrown her — conclusive proof that they 

 hadn't any other queen. I see two cases of 

 queenless swarms hanging all night are 

 given in A. B. -J. 1)51. 



Don't put a queen under a tumbler unless 

 you want her to bump herself to death 

 right speedily — nor in direct, hot sunshine 

 under any sort of restraint. Gleanings .572. 



In the same article as the above Doolittle 

 expresses preference for removing a queen 

 nine days before the new one is to be intro- 

 duced, and cutting out the cells immediate- 

 ly before introduction. Introduction to be 

 by the gnawing away of a candy plug. 



Exit the Langdon non-swarmer. Matter 

 devoted to it is taken out of Root's A. B. C. 

 Gleanings .578. 



I'wo bee martins, directly after a repast 

 on bees, were killed ^.and examined. One 

 had swallowed twelve without a sting ; the 

 other had swallowed fifteen, and two of them 

 had left their ftings sticking in his throat. 

 Buugler, he was — but, sad to relate, we don.t 

 here of such bunglers being found dead, or 

 even being found seen with l)adly swelled 



neck and cheeks. Nearly immune to bee 

 to bee poison probably. E. L. Rogers, 

 Gleanings (JOl!. 



The editor of the American Bee Journal 

 wants to lay down a law that beginners 

 must keep bees five years before patenting 

 a hive. Sensible enough ; but my, what a 

 hard law to enforce ! Might as well lay it 

 down that little Loys must abstain five years 

 from wading in mud puddles. A. B. .J. .51)0. 



W. A. H. Gilstrap threatens us with 20 to 

 40 carloads of California honey this year of 

 suppossed failure, jnst to remember 'em by 

 till California gets a crop once more. A. B. 



J. cm. 



Doolittle has one of his specially meaty 

 articles on page .530 A. B. J. Queen rear- 

 ing is the subject. He is sure bees eat up 

 superfluous eggs — has often seen them do- 

 ing so. Long observation on his part fails 

 to discern any difference of a very young 

 queen and those reared from the same 

 mother two years later. Normally workers 

 begin work out doors at the age of IG days ; 

 but when there is great need of out door 

 service they will begin at 3 or -1 days old. 

 Time gained in getting queens quickly is 

 is lost again in waiting for them to become 

 ferlile. Thirteen days of queenlessness 

 must pass ere the very best queens are to be 

 expected to emerge. Teu day queeus are 

 common, but slow in getting to laying. 

 Nine day queens are decidedly slower. 

 Eight and a half day queens mostly never 

 get to laying at all, look almost like work- 

 ers ; and all die inside of three months. For 

 even a ten day queen, larv.e tliree days old 

 have to be taken to start with ; and the 

 scanty diet of those previous three days tells 

 somewhat ; and every half day additional 

 tells still more heavily until a point is soon 

 reached where the queens are worthless. 

 But between thirteen day queens and 

 tw(4ve day (|ueens I suppose the average 

 dift'erence is very small indeed. He once 

 had a queen mated the next day after she 

 left the cell, and laying at three days old. 

 This three days age was nominal rather than 

 real however. Having been held in her 

 cell several days, slie was practically a week 

 old or more. 



Sliall we stimulate bees to raise brood 

 later in the fall then they otherwise would, or 

 shall we not ? Nineteen respondents get at 

 this rather importont question in A. B. J. 

 .554. Some of tliem are a little diiflcult to 

 classify, but the response is about (5 yes to 



