25S 



August, 191:5 



American ISac Jonrnal j 



combs entirely from any incursions of 

 wax moths. 



Dry, clean, new combs may be pre- 

 served in comparative safety, if exposed 

 to air and light. In a honey-room 

 combs may be hung safely between the 

 joists, if not placed close enough to- 

 gether for the larva: to reach from one 

 to another. But old combs, whether 

 they contain pollen or not, will be 

 sorely riddled, if left where the moths 

 may reach them. 



In the climate of Illinois, where the 

 hermometer reaches down to — 20 de- 

 grees Fahrenheit, combs that are pre- 

 served through the winter in a room 

 without lire will be entirely free from 

 moths. It is only where the combs have 

 been protected from the cold, in colo- 

 nies that live through, or in hives of 

 which the bees have died at the end of 

 winter, that the moths reproduce. So 

 the careful bee-keeper who does not 

 leave any combs exposed in beeless 

 hives with entrances open during the 

 warm season, and who does not bring 

 into his bee-house any combs of doubt- 

 ful origin, needs fear the moths but 

 little. However, when his comb honey 

 is harvested, it will be advisable for 

 him to use sulphur or bi-sulphide of 

 carbon from time to time, as the eggs 

 of the moths may hatch in some corner 

 and soon do a great deal of damage. 



The progressive bee-keeper who 

 looks after his bees and his empty 

 combs, his sections of honey, etc., finds 

 the moth a blessing instead of a curse. 

 Were it not for the moths, the combs 

 of hives that have died from foul brood, 

 in neglected apiaries, would remain a 

 constant danger. The moths remove 

 that danger before the season is over. 



A Letter from the Kclitor 



Here we are at Rouen, one of the 

 oldest cities of France, after 10 days of 

 absence from home. We had a fine 

 trip across on the "France" — six days 

 and two hours on the way. No bad 

 weather, though we had rain and a lit- 

 tle swell one day. 



Here, in Rouen, lives Mr. Crepieux, 

 who was the editor of the International 

 Review of Bee Culture after Mr. Ber- 

 trand. He is now a contributor of 

 L'.\piculture Nouvelle. He has 60 colo- 

 nies 4 miles from Rouen, and in lilll 

 harvested nearly 8OOO pounds of white 

 honey, mainly sainfoin {Esfarcel), wild 

 mustard iSinapis artotsis) and bass- 

 wood. He says the bees get nothing 

 from white clover here, but when we 

 went to his countryplace, I saw a num- 

 ber of bees on the white clover, and it 

 looked very much as if they were get- 

 ting nectar from it, for they stopped 



quite a while on e.ich bloom. He has 

 a two-story house apiary open on the 

 north and the south. He ascertained 

 that the bees of the lower rows suffered 

 more in winter flights than those of the 

 upper rows, but found very little differ- 

 ence between a north and a south ex- 

 posure. 



We must remember that they have a 

 mild winter here; that ice rarely gets 

 over 3 inches thick. Their experience 

 is that the bees take flight at 48 degrees 

 Fahr., and not at a lower temperature. 

 Of course, this is in the shade, and as 

 the sun is much stronger in Illinois, 

 probably his tests would not work 



with us. 



Mr. Crepieux is a very eminent 

 graphologist. His testimony, in the 

 recognition of handwritings, in courts, 

 has often been quoted as almost in- 

 fallible. 



The honey crop is already quite good, 

 many supers being filled, but I am told 

 that this is not the rule throughout the 

 country this year. I will learn more 

 as I go. 



I had the honor and pleasure of 

 meeting here the renowned Dr. Car- 

 ton, the man whom we quoted in the 

 American Bee Journal of September, 

 1912, as naming alcohol, sugar and 

 meat tht "three deadly foods." He is 

 a vegetarian, and very interesting to 

 hear, though many of us might not 

 agree with his views, expressed in for- 

 cible language, and very clearly. He 

 is a bee-keeper, and has his own expla- 

 nation concerning the general spread 

 of foul brood in the United States. 

 This is based on his studies of bacteri- 

 ology at the Pasteur Institute of Paris 

 in 1900. He has promised me an arti- 

 cle, which will surely be interesting. 

 He is the author of several works of 

 note on medical subjects. 



If this nlagazine were not a special 

 publication. I might digress from bee- 

 culture and tell about "old Rouen." It 

 is a beautiful city with about 80 

 churches, some of which are magnifi- 

 cently sculptured. But the o/rf part of 

 the city is horrid. Imagine streets 

 where two cannot pass side by side, 

 where you can touch both walls with- 

 out much stretching the arms, where 

 houses, built 400 or 500 years ago, have 

 bulged out so as to threaten falling, 

 and have been braced with iron plates 

 and bolts, which already show the rust 

 of centuries. 



Magnificent sculptures are found be- 

 hind the most disgusting looking walls, 

 and priceless ornaments of stone look 

 down upon dark, narrow lanes. To an 

 American these things look more like 



a dream than the reality. 



We visited in Rouen the square 

 where Joan of Arc was burnt at the 

 stake. Fresh flowers are almost con- 

 stantly brought to the foot of her 

 statue by enthusiastic admirers. The 

 exact spot where she was burnt is 

 showji by a marble slab in the pave- 

 ment. July '5. 



Kol>biiig 



July and August are the worst months 

 for robbing in this latitude, especially 

 when there is a dearth after a heavy 

 crop. Bees do not appear to ever be 

 satisfied with plenty, and a wealthy col- 

 ony will mercilessly rob a weak or 

 queenless one. 



Prevention is better than cure. Weak 

 colonies should be carefully watched, 

 the entrances kept sufficiently reduced 

 to enable them to defend their combs. 

 The combs that the colony cannot 

 cover should be removed, or it is well 

 to strengthen it by exchanges of dry 

 combs for combs of hatching bees 

 from populous colonies. In case of 

 robbing, a weak colony of bees may 

 readily be put in shape to defend itself 

 by giving it, late in the evening, a 

 quart or so of young Italian bees which 

 never yet had a flight. The Italians are 

 much better than our common blacks 

 to fight robbers and keep out the 

 moth, .^fter supplying young Italians 

 to a weak colony, you will see them act 

 as guards, the very next day. 



A bunch of loose grass, thrown over 

 the alighting-board, at the entrance, is 

 often sufficient to enable the hive- 

 guards to defend the colony, for they 

 station themselves among the blades 

 and easily arrest the intruders, unless 

 the colony is completely demoralized. 



Colonies that have swarmed must be 

 examined to make sure that they have 

 a laying queen, else the robbers and 

 the moths will make short work of 

 them. 



Early Queen.s 



We had so many evidences that 

 queens reared very early are poor, that 

 we gave up trying to rear them until 

 the starring of the clover flow. That 

 makes it pretty late. With us the 

 clover harvest is likely to begin some 

 time during the first ten days of June. 

 Suppose it begins the oth. and on that 

 day a young queen is started from a 

 larva a day old. She will hardly be 

 laying before June 30. That seems a 

 long time to wait, if in the meantime 

 one or more colonies go queenless. 

 Better, however, to wait until that time 

 than to have a worthless queen. To 

 be sure, it sometimes happens that by 



