440 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



July 11, 1901. 



and grooved for wedges. When the wedges are taken out, 

 doesn't the partition come out and make the frames of no 

 account ? It looked that way to me. 



6. How about the beveled top-bar ? 



Tennessee. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know of any satisfactory way 

 except to let the bees empty out the honey. Of course you 

 can melt the whole business, but you will not get a nice 

 article of honey. 



2. One of the bee-supply catalogs,, says of the Van 

 Deusen wax-tube: This is a very convenient tool for fas- 

 tening foundation by the melted-wax plan. It is a tin tube 

 for holding and running out melted wax. 



3. Slip the edge of the foundation into the groove, 

 then run melted wax along, or drop a few drops at inter- 

 vals. Another way is to crowd a string down into the 

 groove beside the foundation. You can use wax and rosin 

 half and half, but it is much better to use pure wax. Years 

 ago I used wax and rosin, and then when I wanted to melt 

 up an old comb I had to throw away the upper part, for I 

 didn't want wax mixed with rosin. 



4. The super is for the bees to store surplus in. The 

 excluder is to keep the queen from going up into the super. 

 After the brood-nest is established in the lower story the 

 excluder can be taken away, but of course the supers 

 remain. 



5. I don't see why the partition should come out when 

 the wedge is taken out, and I don't see that it would mattt r 

 much if it did. What do you want to take the wedge out 

 for? When it is put in once it ought to be built in by the 

 bees and last a lifetime. If the time should ever come 

 that yon would want to replace the comb with foundation, I 

 think you would want a new frame, too. I have had combs 

 that have outlasted the frames, and I have put old combs 

 into new frames, but I don't remember ever putting foun- 

 dation into old frames. 



6. I think they are not liked as well as formerly. For 

 my own use I much prefer no bevel. 



Newly-Hived Swarms Deserting. 



I have had two large swarms. Of the first one I put 

 some comb in the frames before I hived it, and a couple of 

 hours afterward they left. On examination I foun j the 

 comb had broken from its fastenings, and lay in the bot- 

 tom of the hive. The second I let go a week before dis- 

 turbing, and then only to straighten the comb, of which 

 there was a large quantity partly filled with brood and 

 honey. Two days afterward they left the hive ; after set- 

 tling I put them into a new hive, and they are apparently 

 contented. On examining the hive they left, I found comb 

 that had broken down — a piece about six inches square. 

 The weather is warm. Do you think it the right thing to 

 work with them in hot weather ? The hive they left had a 

 double handful of bees, part of which are working. 

 Would they develop a queen ? I have no frame of bees to 

 give them. Indiana. 



Answer.— There is very little for doubt that there was 

 no trouble except that the hive was insufferably hot. At 

 all times it is important that a newly hived swarm shall be 

 kept cool and well ventilated, but the remarkably hot spell 

 that occurred at the time you mention made it especially 

 emphatic. Ordinarily a swarm is safe to remain after the 

 queen has begun laying, but in such exceptionally hot 

 weather, resulting in the breaking down of combs the heat 

 may be sufficient to drive the bees out of a hive in vphich 

 even a good start has been made. The breaking down of 

 that comb did not drive the bees out of the hive, but the 

 heat that made it possible for the comb to break down was 

 what did the business. 



Yes, a double handful of bees may rear a queen if they 

 have eggs or larva? less than three days old, but it is not 

 likely to be a very good queen reared by so small a number 

 of bees. It is likely, however, to be a better queen reared 

 in such scorching weather than one reared by the same 

 number of bees in cooler weather. 



As to its being right to work with bees in hot weather, 

 if there is anything to be done with them the hotter the 

 better so far as the bees are concerned. The only thing 

 against the hot weather is the discomfort of the bee-keeper. 

 As I write this the thermometer stands 99 degrees in the 

 shade with a chance that it may be higher later in the day, 

 and I am eager to get out to work at the bees. But that 

 does not say that the bees should be kept as hot as possible 

 in their hives. Raise the hives half an inch to an inch 



from the bottom-board by putting a block under each 

 corner. It may be well to raise a hive still higher when a 

 swarm is hived, and the cover may be left partly off for 

 two or three days, so that a draft of air can pass directly 

 through the hive. Sprinkling the hive with cold water 

 will bring temporary relief. In the case of your swarm 

 which left the hive after occupying it a week, the proba- 

 bility is that there would have been no such desertion if 

 the weather had been normal, or if you had raised the hive. 



^ The Afterthought. ^ 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By e. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



.MR. DONALDSON S SWARM-CATCHEKS. 



Nice-looking swarm-catchers for a nice-lookiiis apiary» 

 and a nice report Mr. Donaldson makes of their success. 

 Pages 305, 312. Other swarm-catchers of the same patent 

 have been known to fail, however. Get to olay — and then no 

 sound less than thunder, and no sight less flamboyant than a 

 regiment of soldiers marching close by, would be altogether 

 sure of attention. 



W.4.TER, POLLEN, AND HONEY. 



Man's mouth calls for two indispensables — food and 

 drink; and therefore he easily forgets that the bee's mouth 

 calls for three indispensables — water, honey and pollen. It 

 appears that when he supplies the two former abundantly, 

 and they can not find the latter in the fields, nuclei swarm 

 out at a terrible rate, and he, perchance, scratches his head 

 and can't imagine whafs up. Page 319. 



THAT PROPOLIS CHAP. 



Aha ! That chap offered 25 cents a pound for propnlig. 

 because he didn't intend to /)aj/ anything. Told you so. Put 

 the price high to get many offers: and figured (correctly), 

 that some of them would consent to the bargain of pay on 

 delivery. Page 322. 



native breeds not always best. 



The maxim that the native breeds of a country are the- 

 most fit for that country (as per page 323) is liable to some 

 very heavy discounts. That which is the most fit to run wild 

 is usually not the most fit under man's care. Again, aborigi- 

 nal fitness is often only the lack of severe competition. Most 

 countries have their native rats; but they all have to yield to- 

 the Norway rat when he comes around. Most countries have 

 their corresponding little birdsr; but they all have to yield to 

 the English sparrow when he comes around. .South America 

 has a great many species of honey-storing bees (Meliponas, 

 Trigonas, etc.), but they will doubtless yield the ground, to a- 

 great extent, to the foreign bee with which we are familiar. 

 The same may apply to breeds as well as to species. Had 

 South America a breed of Apis mellifera it might be nearly 

 on a level with the Meliponas and Trigonas, and much 

 inferior, even on its own soil, to the foreigner. 



COM.MENTS ON DR. M'LEAN'S SUGGESTIONS. 



I incline to tell the doctor (Dr. McLean, page 324) that 

 if he mixes a pound of honey with a quart of water it will be 

 likely to get spoiled long before a family will take it up a 

 spoonful at a dose. Say one-fourth of the quantities. 



Canton flannel to hold honey on the skin for medicinal 

 objects, eh ? Thanks. But when honey is used for stings it 

 will hardly do to have it in the nap of flannel, as the main 

 object then is to keep the pores of the skin from letting in 

 air. 



MR. DOOLITTLE and OUR COUNTRY. 



Anent Mr. Doolittle's lost $4,000,0^0,000. I'm glad the 

 old motto has been amended, It used to be, "Figures can not 

 lie." Now it reads, "Figures seldom do anything else but 

 lie." Not quite sure we need the amendment this titne^ 

 Thousands go pleasuring in Europe with full pockets and 

 come home with empty pockets. Millions of cash have been 

 sent here for investment, won large profits, and then went 

 home profits and all. Many millions every year are sent 

 abroad as interest on all sorts of bonds and things — and that's 

 the last of those millions. Once in awhile a rich Amerian 

 (Waldorf Astor fashion) expatriates himself, millions and alL 



