338 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' RE'^ZE 



and do it more economically than on honey 

 furnished the previous fall. Then in those 

 localities 15 pounds of actual honey is 

 enough. On my part I'll be clever, and 

 come down a cat or two. Won't recom- 

 mend 4 pounds or 5 pounds any more, ex- 

 cept as an alternative a little better than 

 destroying the colony at once. Great Britain 

 has hauled in her horns a long way for the 

 sake of peace, and so must we. I said actual 

 honey, because I am impressed with the 

 idea that many of those who pompously 

 say, "I let my bees have 30 or 3.5 pounds 

 of honey to winter on — 40 sometimes, " 

 really never do anything of the kind. 1 

 say to such a one, " How many combs are 

 those 40 pounds in, aid where are they lo- 

 cated ? " " Why eight, same as always win- 

 ter and summer. " " Thought so. " He has 

 seen, sometimes, combs filled iii a super, with 

 extra space given them that contained six 

 pounds of honey ; and so he says " ' Six times 

 eight is forty-eight. " Possibly he puts in 

 two pounds more for "stub-shot" and says 

 " My bees have 50 pounds of honey. " He 

 doesn't reflect on the impossibility of getting 

 any such amount into the thin combs of a 

 brood chamber. Let us take an inventory 

 of a hive in the apiary of one of these 35 

 pound fellows. The two outside combs are 

 indeed pretty heavy, but the average weight 

 of the eight is only 3 pounds each ; total 24. 

 For tare he thinks only of the weight of a 

 new frame of comb : but these are 15 years 

 old. Fifteen years' accumulation of spin- 

 ning and plastering and dirt has made them 

 weigh quite a bit over a pound each — total !> 

 pounds. Two pounds more is pollen ; mak- 

 ing a deduction of 11 pounds to come out of 

 24. His boasted 35 pounds for winter is 13 

 pounds of actual honey. 



Of course I do not say this of such as the 

 Dadants ; who seem to come rightly by their 

 40 pound tactics. They use very large hives 

 and some big ones got filled with crossed 

 combs, so they couldn't well do else than 

 let the bees keep all they had below. The 

 performance of these hives for several years 

 was better than those from whose lower 

 story part of the honey was taken. A. B. .J. 

 660. 



1 suspect from what I hear that Mr. Doo- 

 little is in error where he says it takes more 

 honey to winter where winter means the 

 time from the middle of October to (he mid- 

 dle of April than it does in the South. A 

 few mouths of mild weather with absolutely 



no honey flow is a pretty trying experienct., 

 which we at the North know scarce anything 

 about. 



Elwood says the lack of spring brood in 

 sugar fed colonies has often been observed. 

 A. B. .J. .588. 



Dr. Gallup gives a case where corn honey 

 was furnished from the silk of the corn, 

 which would make it a true nectar, and not 

 an exudation from under the leaf sheaths, 

 as is more common. A. B. J. 



Dr. Miller says he likes to have his sections 

 weigh a good deal less than a pound : enough 

 less so no tricky dealer can buy them for 

 what they actually weigh and sell them for a 

 pound each. A. B. J. 614. It is to please 

 the dealer that sections less than a pound 

 are worked for — aud'spects the Dr. will find 

 that the dealer refuses to be pleased the 

 moment the point is reached where nobody 

 will admit that they are pounds. 



One of the finest examples of " many men 

 of many minds" is found in the answers to 

 Query 29 in A. B. J. 621. A brother with 

 more bees than he wants asks whether to 

 unite this fall or in the spring. " Surely " 

 one might say •' this is such a simple, prac- 

 tical question that the authorities will agree 

 for just once. " But no ; two contrive to 

 split the matter up ; one or more think it bet- 

 ter to murder the poor little critters : and 

 six say next spring. However twelve is a 

 fair majority, and twelve say unite this fall. 



It strikes me that Adrian Getaz has given 

 us about the best description of paralysis 

 ( A. B. .J. 628) which has yet appeared. 

 Brood probably affected, but only on rare 

 occasions enough so as to be thrown out. 

 Young bees apparently about as usual, but 

 probably not really sound. Later in life 

 some unnatural motions seen. Still later 

 some apparent stiffness and sluggishness. 

 Still later the hairs disappear, and a pol- 

 ished look is noticed. Whenever there is a 

 strong force of young bees not yet much 

 affected they busy themselves at hustling 

 out the more advanced invalids. Paralysis 

 most apparent in the spring because nearly 

 all the bees are old then. Its disappearance 

 later on mainly an illusion, caused by the 

 passing away of the old generation of bees. 



E. T. Abbot thinks that giving drawn 

 comb to increase the honey crop is pushing 

 quantity at the expense of quality. A. B. J. 

 542. 



When hives stand side by side close to- 

 gether on a bench ( as some people still con- 



