372 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW- 



a menace to the honey market. Gleanings 

 707. 



Cold water dashed on plentifally upon 

 freshly spilled hot wax will lift it up, and of 

 course cool it at the same time. I should 

 have supposed that part of the wax would 

 cling and cool where it first touched, unless 

 quite hot water were used ; but Gleanings 

 editorially vouches for the cold water. 

 Gleanings 683. 



Mr. Muth of Cincinnati had an unusual ex- 

 perience with a mare nnd colt, on which a 

 swarm of bees settled when no one was by. 

 The poor beasts by the time he got to them 

 had given up all violence, and would allow 

 anything whatever to be done with perfect 

 docility. Tell your horse to do so when the 

 bees get at him. He led them slowly down 

 the road, clearing the bees ofif as he went 

 ( had to crush the bees to keep them from 

 coming right back again ) led them into the 

 river for a good soaking ; then put them out 

 to pasture, and both got well. Gleanings 

 680. 



Mr. Abbott waters his bees and chickens 

 together and makes it work all right — 

 Does'nt let them roost together it seems. 

 American Bee Journal 675. 



The bumblebee is ureeminently a Rocky 

 Mountain bird— ten species in the West and 

 fourin the East. Wild bees, mostly solitary 

 in habit, are so numerous that they expect 

 to get 300 species in Nebraska alone — have 

 already collected about 200. Some are tiny 

 little fellows less than a thirtieth of an inch 

 long. A great many species lay their eggs 

 where bees of some other species will pro- 

 vide ( or have already provided ) food for 

 the prospective larvaa. Some species have 

 drones that sting. Certaiuly looks reason- 

 able that the men should do the fighting if 

 the women do the work. 



When a nucleus or other colony follows a 

 young queen out when she takes a flight, 

 what is the outcome ? Query 33 in A. B. J. 

 deals with this question ; and there is con- 

 siderable high-mixedness in the answers. 

 Edwin France seems to hit the " bulls eye. " 

 If the queen, in pursurance of the business 

 for which she came out, gets out of sight of 

 them they will probably return ; and a little 

 later the queen will return also. If the bees 

 succeed in keeping track of her she will 

 cluster with them, and neither will return 

 unless brought back. Doolittle says that 

 some years about one virgin in eight will be 

 partner in this sort of trick ; other years not 



one in the apiary. But in his yard 'none 

 that so follow the queea come back of 

 themselves. 

 Richards, Ohio. Dec. 15, 1896. 



Drawn Combs for Sections not a New Idea — 



Their Early Use and by Whom. 



The indications now are that the next 

 great step in bee-keeping will be the use of 

 drawn combs in sections. 1 have used them 

 enough to know that they nearly double the 

 crop of comb honey. I think that any one 

 will admit that we could secure as much 

 comb as extracted honey if we could supply 

 our sections with drawn combs. Mr. Sim- 

 mins of England has for years used drawn 

 combs; our lamented friend, B. Taylor of 

 Minnesota, used them and invented a level- 

 er for preparing for use the combs left over 

 from the previous season, and now comes 

 our old friend Baldridge, of Illinois, in an 

 article in Gleanings in which he tells — well, 

 here is the article:— 



" My attention is called to an article on 

 'Drawn Combs for Sections, ' in Gleanings, 

 page 779, written by Samuel Simmins. The 

 editor, in his foot notes, says: ' I am inclin- 

 ed to give Mr. Simmins credit for first con- 

 ceiving the great possibilities and advan- 

 tages of drawn combs in the production of 

 comb honey. Now, if any one in this or any 

 other country is prior in this idea, let him 

 hold up his hand. ' Mr. Simmins says that 

 he called the attention of the public to the 

 importance of 'drawn combs for sections' 

 as long ago as 1886 in a small pamphlet that 

 was sent to Messrs. Root and Newman in 

 that year. That may all be true; but unless 

 Mr. Simmins can show that he conceived 

 the importance of such combs several years 

 prior to that date, he is certainly behind the 

 times. 



In June, 1884, Mr. E. T. Flanagan, of 

 Belleville, 111., sent to me a carload of bees 

 from New Orleans, to be managed for him 

 that season on shares. The bees were un- 

 loaded in this city, and they remained here 

 and near here until the latter part of August 

 of that year, at which time they were re- 

 loaded on a car and taken to East St. Louis 

 by the writer. There were l.TO colonies of 

 bees, all in two-story Simplicity hives; and 

 while here they were devoted chiefly to ex- 

 tracted honey. In the meantime the writer 

 prepared for Mr. Flanagan 50 Ijangstroth 

 hives, with 8 frames only, Heddon style. 

 Each of these hives was provided with two 

 supers holding 28 sections each, and these 

 were taken to East St. Louis at the same 

 time the bees were, and in the same car with 



