■i^J£ BEE-&EEPERS REVIEW. 



3H*l 



tinue to keep them ) about tlie ouly serious 

 drawback comes in when there is a youtiy 

 queeu ready to go out. Dr. (xallup says 

 post a uotice over her door for a few days at 

 that time, aud she will almost never enter 

 the wrong door. Use an old black hat for 

 one notice, a newspaper for another, add an 

 inflated paper bag for another. A. B. J. CA't. 



According to an editorial note in A. B. J. 

 (>(>,") the honey-shark firms in Chicago keep 

 multiplying as fast as they are exposed aud 

 broken up. About all that's broken up is 

 the name — same rogues directly get up a 

 new firm. 



For SOO miles send 8 bees with the queeu ; 

 11 bees if the weather is at all likely to be 

 cool. For more than son miles, but not to 

 the most distant and difficult corners of the 

 continent, 12 bees in July and August, or 20 

 for other times. For the rest of the world 

 30 or 40 bees. Doolittle in A. B. J. (!r>7. 



The General Round-Up. 



Dr. Stell who writes on poisonous honey 

 in the Southland Queen for August seems to 

 be rather superservicable in his efforts. 

 Could 't wait for actual honey to test, and 

 so mixed common honey with a decoction of 

 laurel. He made the bees store it after 

 mixing — and then upset his own stomach, 

 and nearly killed a boy with the stuff. 

 " 'Nuff sed, " so far as that kind of poison is 

 concerned : bnt our knowledge of laurel 

 nectar elaborated by bees is hardly enlarged 

 by such crude experiments. Rather inter- 

 esting to see that the bees that stored the 

 Dr's poison for him did not show any symp- 

 toms of V^eing poisoned : but whether such 

 food will kill growing brood or not seems 

 not to have been tested. Laurel is a well 

 known sheep killer; but it seems goats eat it 

 unharmed, and no one has noticed any poi- 

 sonous qualities in their milk. Mules aud 

 donkeys are reported as refusing to eat 

 laurel leaves. 



Several cases where honey ( presumably 

 laurel ) seemed somewhat poisonous are 

 given (xleanings 637. 



The "simmer "of our editor's Country 

 Gentleman article on honey to the commis- 

 men is, select the best market and the best 

 man ( especially the best man ) and then 

 trust the whole thing to him. 



See here Dr. Miller, I'm going to come to 

 the rescue of A. I. Root about that — 



" And we'll settle on the banku 

 Of the pleasant Oliio. "' 



1 lieard the liallad sung in my childliood, 

 and the v/ord picdsiint v/a^iu it all right— 

 and no A. I. Uoot rooting around either. 



(i leanings for Sept. 1st has a symposium 

 of leading honey dealers. They seem to 

 agree rather better than bee-keepers do at 

 tlio same kind of job. As to shipping case 

 for sections, ouly L' out of 15 mention two 

 story cases now ;aud only 1 gives tliem pref ■ 

 ference. Some others may have intended 

 to include them as a matter of course. For 

 extracted the stiuare '> gallon tin has a fav- 

 orable mention from 12 : and none speak 

 ajaiust it. Seven speak favorably of barrels 

 aud kegs. In some places there is trouble 

 to get rid of barrels, because few purchas- 

 ers want so much at one time. As to size of 

 section, quarter pounds, halves, 2 pound 

 and l^,, pound do not get a single mention. 

 Back numbers already. Pleasant to see 

 that ;? ask for plump weight for either the 

 whole or part of the trade ; and four 

 more do not stipulate for light pounds. 

 The Colorado firm especially think sections 

 should be Iti to 1. 



Muth bucks hard against the current rules 

 of grading ; and says, not a dealer has the 

 quality he is quoting on as a general thing. 

 Gleanings (138. Yet Muth himself proceeds 

 to suggest five different grades. A little 

 doubtful whether the general market can 

 well carry more than three. 



Whew I Out of ;>()0 voters in the Califor- 

 nia township where C. H. Dayton lives 81 

 are bee-keepers— aud they average about itO 

 colonies each, (ileauings (!.'i7. 



C. C. (ireiner in (xleanings 073 gets at an 

 important problem, in which I take interest 

 as one of the most important to me of any. 

 A swarm is found clustered, atid it is desir- 

 ed to return them, Init where among the 

 hundred and odd hives of the apiary did it 

 come from ? The methods the books give 

 for such a pinch won't work as a general 

 thing. His idea is to take away their queen, 

 or queens, and make them go home them- 

 selves. I have practiced this scarcely at all, 

 on account of the feebleness of my faith as 

 to their going to the right hive. The young 

 bees don't know : aud those that know would 

 rather go somewhere else. My bees when 

 they feel compelled to go some place are apt 

 to goto the hive which was last in a Hurry 

 from any cause, and therefore exhaling odor 

 freely, aud not to their own which is liable 

 to be very quite, cool aud nou-exhalent. 

 Perhaps I'm too mucli of a doubting Thorn- 



