THOUSAND ANSWERS 203 



from the field. Then it will be practically certain to swarm when 

 the first virgin emerges, and you can leave the swarm on the same 

 stand from which it issued, and set A in place of C. Repeat the 

 same thing each time A swarms, setting it successively in place of 

 D, E, and F. 



Q. I am thinking of trying the following plan this season : I 

 will find and destroy the old, inferior queen, and introduce a 

 sealed cell (in a cell-protector) at the same time I remove the old 

 queen. Can this be done safely? Or had I better wait about 

 placing the cell until two or three days after removing the old 

 queen? 



A. Very likely your plan will succeed. Waiting two or three 

 days would make the bees more willing to accept a cell, but in a 

 West cell-protector the cell ought to be safe anyhow. The cell 

 ought to be well advanced; then if it does not hatch out all 

 right, it will pay to have on hand other cells so that you can de- 

 stroy all "wild" cells (those that the bees start on their own 

 brood), and give another cell of good stock. 



Rheumatism. — Q. I have read that some people were cured of 

 rheumatism by the stings of bees. I have a customer who is very 

 fond of honey, and as she has the rheumatism badly, and is under 

 the doctor's care, she is advised against eating honey. She was 

 also at a Michigan bathing sanitarium and not allowed to eat 

 honey there. 



A. The fact that some people are cured of rheumatism by 

 means of stings does not necessarily prove that eating honey is 

 good for rheumatism. Honey and bee-poison are two very differ- 

 ent things. Yet I have never understood that the use of honey 

 was contra-indicated in rheumatic cases. It is possible that in 

 the case in question some particular condition makes it advisable 

 to deny the use of all sweets; but it is safe to say that if they are 

 at all allowed it will be better to use honey than sugar. That able 

 authority. Dr. Kellogg, at the head of one of the most noted 

 sanitariums in the world, endorses the use of honey as being more 

 readily assimilable than sugar. 



Rietsche Press. — Q. Do you know anything about the Rietsche 

 press for making foundation? 



A. Thousands of Rietsche presses are in use in Europe, one 

 reason being that so much of the foundation on the market there 

 is adulterated. In this country there is no trouble about buying 

 pure foundation, and although a few years ago a number had 

 machines to make foundation, nearly all buy now. 



