March 28, 1901 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



201 



ing^ to my own bees? I fear they got some of their honey. 

 The diseased colonies have been destroyed by fire and 

 water, and every caution preserved all summer, or while I 

 have been suspicious. 



4. I went to a sale of a bee-keeper who made hives to 

 sell of his own invention, and bought several for almost 

 nothing. Knowing nothing about the hive, I would like to 

 be enlightened. I enclose a pen outline of it. There being 

 no space at the ends of the hive, will the bees winter as 

 well as on Langstroth frames ? It is what I would call a 

 closed-end frame. Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know what the trouble is, but it 

 can not be charged to the moth. 



2. Whatever disease of the brood, or whether any, 

 there seems to have been some wintering trouble that 

 would produce such loss. 



3. Keep everything as snug and clean as you can, tak- 

 ing special precaution to prevent all robbing of infected or 

 suspected colonies by allowing no cracks or too large 

 entrances to invite robber-bees. Be sure that none of the 

 suspected colonies are weak. If they are, unite them. 

 There will be no real loss in this, even if nothing is wrong 

 with them. Carefully study all you can find that will 

 inform as to the brood diseases of bees, including what has 

 been said in back numbers of this journal and Dr. Howard's 

 brochure on foul brood. A thoro knowledge of the whole 

 subject will enable you to judge more intelligently what is 

 to be done than can any one at a distance. 



4. It would seem from the pen sketch that the end-bars 

 of your frames form the end-walls of the hive, after the 

 fashion of the Quinby-Hetherington standing-frame hive. 

 Not a large number of bee-keepers use this hive, but a few 

 use it in very large numbers. The end-bars are sufficient 

 for the end-walls of the hive, but some use an outside case 

 to set down over the whole as additional protection in 

 spring. 



Basswood for Brood-Frames— White Clover— Honey in 

 Candles. 



1. Is basswood all right for brood-frames, or will they 

 be short-lived ? 



2. Is there more than one variety of white clover ? 



3. Is there much honey used in candies ? 



Wisconsin. 

 Answers. — 1. Basswood is not too short-lived for 

 brood-frames, but entirely too lively. You probably know 

 that it is unusually bad to swell and shrink, and it twists 

 out of shape altogether too much for anything that needs 

 to be as exact and permanent as a brood-frame. 



2. There is the common white, and the white Dutch. 

 The latter is said to be a large kind, and sown on rich soil 

 it grows quite large. But so will the common, and I feel 

 sure the two are one and the same thing. 



3. Probably not. It would be very much better for the 

 public if some of the glucose in candies were replaced by 

 honey. 



Bees Dying— What is the Cause ? 



Of 76 colonies that were in fine condition about Dec. 

 1st, there remain alive at present 30 colonies, and I expect 

 some or all to die soon if nothing can be done for them. 

 They all had plenty of honey so that was not the cause, or 

 at least the quantity. The bees could not fly one day for 

 nine weeks. Of those that are dead, part of the bees are 

 on top of the frames in a mass, and part in some lower 

 corner; and all, alive or dead, have the inner part of those 

 hives, including frames and bees, perfectly wet and soiled ; 

 also it smells very strong. All are on the summer stands. 

 Some were in single-wall hives, some in chaff hives, some 

 had chaff cushions over the frames, and some had none, 

 but all are affected alike. There was hardly any honey for 

 the bees to gather last fall, and they workt freely on half- 

 rotten and bruised apples in various orchards ; but some 

 received their entire suvplv of winter food by feeding 

 granulated sugar as late a» Sept. 20th. 



May it have been caused by doses of poison not suffi- 

 ciently "strong to kill them while gathering it ? It is very 

 probable that they received some. What shall I do for 



West Virginia. 



proba 

 them ■ 



Answer— This is o le of the times when it is painful 

 to say I don't know, and vet I am obliged to say it. Work- 

 ing on rotten apples in <irchards could hardly do so much 

 mischief, unless there were cider-mills from which they 



obtained large supplies. It will hardly do to lay the trouble 

 to the general stores, for some had their entire supply of 

 granulated sugar. The guess that there was poison in the 

 case seems a reasonable one, but if it were poison would it 

 not have killed the bees sooner ? The thought comes that 

 the entrances may have been closed so tight that there was 

 something like suffocation in the case, but a man with 78 

 colonies has in all probability had too much experience to 

 make that mistake. In any case the trouble was no doubt 

 aggravated by the confinement of 9 weeks. 



It is nearly certain that in your latitude bees are now 

 flying, and there will be some good done by cleaning up all 

 the hives and getting out the dead bees. If the trouble 

 continues after the bees have had a good flight, try at least 

 a few by taking away their stores and giving them sugar 

 syrup. It is to be hoped that a good flight will do much 

 good. 



Sugar-Candy for Winter Feeding of Bees. 



In the " A B C of Bee-Culture" (1891 edition, I think), 

 there are directions for making hard candy for feeding 

 bees, by boiling sugar with a little water. I believe Mr. E. 

 T. Abbott has also frequently recommended such candy. I 

 wish you would tell me thru the American Bee Journal if 

 you have ever tried such candy, and with what results. I 

 considered the above authority so good that I recommended 

 it in a couple of instances before trying it myself. I also 

 riskt a few colonies on such feed and just happened to dis- 

 cover in the nick of time that it doesn't seem to do for this 

 "locality." In short, one colony was dead — clustered 

 right up against the candy — and one was about half dead, 

 that is, a large portion were just able to hang to the combs 

 — too far gone to crawl around. The other colonies all had 

 a little honey yet and were all right. I hastened to give 

 them combs containing some honey. The candy had 

 been on only a week or two, and the colonies were in good 

 condition when it was given. They are packt with leaves 

 on the summer stands, and there has been no cold weather 

 to speak of^a very mild winter here. They gnaw thru the 

 candy and it falls on the bottom-boards about as granulated 

 honey looks when the bees have such in their combs to use. 

 I am sure the candy is not burned, in fact it looks just as 

 Mr. Root says it should — " dry and hard as slabs of 

 marble" — and about as valuable, according to my experi- 

 ence. What say you was wrong ? Iowa. 



Answer — I have never had occasion to feed candy, but 

 would have said with no little confidence that you would 

 have no trouble whatever. I must confess that your experi- 

 ence staggers me, and I don't know enough to account for 

 it. I suppose that tons of candy have been fed, and I do 

 not remember to have read a single report like yours here- 

 tofore. It looks somewhat as if there had been so much 

 stirring that it was stirred down to sugar, but that could 

 hardly be the case if it stuck together as candy. If any 

 of the good friends can throw any light on the case, it will 

 be a great favor. Has any one else had a similar experi- 

 ence ? 



Convention Proceedings. 



Report of the Michigan State Convention. 



IIV \V.\[. (,. VOOKIIKIS. 



The Michigan State Bee-Keepers' Association heid its 

 annual meeting at Traver.sfi City, Mich., Dec. "26 and 27, 

 19U0. The meetins was called to order by the president, and 

 Mr. A. I. Root offered prayer. 



The president made a few remarks referring to present 

 needs, and the purposes and educational work of the Associ- 

 ation. 



GF.TTINO BEES TO WOKK IS THE SUI'KHR. 



A.' S. Dobson— How can we get bees to work in the 

 supers? 



Mrs. George Jackson — Smoke them up into the sections 

 when the brood-eombs are filled with brood, and they will 

 work there if you put on some unsealed sections. 



W. Z. Hutchinson — Put on unsealed sections. 



