346 



October. 1913 



American Hee Journal 



take a screw. Lay this strip over the 

 entrance, first rounding the end. and 

 put a screw in. This makes a door 

 which can be raised out of the way, and 

 it rests on the bottom cleat when 

 closed, as the beginner will want it 

 when it is to be taken down. 



I paint my boxes with white lead, 

 then with a small brush and black 

 paint number the covers and boxes so 

 that I can assemble them quickly after 

 a busy season, for they get scant atten- 

 tion when empty if I do not want to 

 put them up again at once." Of course, 

 they can all be made to one measure, 

 and thus be interchangeable, but to 

 make them strictly so requires too 

 much time and care. 







P 



Interior View op~ End of Decoy Hhe. 

 A. end; B B, cleats. 



One may judge of the value of these 

 decoy hives when I state that in one 

 season I captured 35 colonies in 20 

 boxes, and even this season I got 24, 

 small swarms, in 50. The best marked 

 of these I used to make new colonies ; 

 the others to strengthen weak ones, 

 thus gaining 20 strong colonies at a 

 cost of about a dollar for having the 

 hives hauled to the grove. 



These decoy hives are nice to help to 

 take bees out of house walls by aid of 

 a Porter bee-escape, as a small colony 

 with a queen can be put in handy close 

 to the entrance. I got a couple of nice 

 colonies this season in this way. Also 

 if one lacks hives the bees can be left 

 in the boxes, the 3 frames put in, to be 

 removed to a hive later on, or the bees 

 united with another swarm. 



It does not seem to make a bit of 

 diflference where the decoy hives are 

 hung, only so they are well shaded. I 

 have had the bees go into one that had 

 fallen to the ground. A swarm took 

 possession of a bte-keg well under a 

 building; and 8 or 10 feet from the 

 ground seems to be as well as 40, and 

 it is a great deal easier to put them up. 



The beginner should remember that 

 the queen he gets with a swarm is apt 

 to be old, and he should rear a new one 

 as soon as possible, for fear the one 

 he gets will not live over winter, which, 

 while having no particular connection 

 with the decoy hive, is worth knowing. 



Figure 4 is a comprehensive sectional 

 view of the decoy hive. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Paraffine for the Inside 

 Hive-Bodies 



of 



BY B. KEEP. 



ALMOST every issue of the bee- 

 publications contain inquiries 

 about disinfecting hives after 

 foul brood. The usual advice is 

 to disinfect, and usually fire is 

 suggested as being the most effectual. 

 I am an enthusiastic advocate of a 

 hot paraffine coating for the inside of 

 the hive-body — originally to prevent 

 absorption of dampness. Such an ap- 

 plication acts in two ways as a disin- 

 fector; first, by reason of the heat, and 

 second, by sealing up all germs be- 

 yond any probable resurrection. The 

 application can be made to the hive- 

 body whether old or new, but far pref- 

 erably to the new. clean wood, when 

 the paraffine will sink into the wood, 

 closing all pores against germs and 

 moisture. I have found the benefits of 

 hotparaffine-coated brood-chambers to 

 be so marked that I would not now 

 think of wintering in uncoated hive- 

 bodies, whether single or double. 



At the annual meeting of the New 

 Jersey State Bee-Keepers' Association 

 at New Brunswick last December, Dr. 

 Phillips being present, was asked 

 " whether a hot application of paraffine 

 on the inner surfaces of the hive-body 

 would be an effectual disinfectant after 

 foul brood ?" Dr. Phillips gave it as 

 his opinion that it would. 



The hive-body, when so prepared, 

 can be sterilized at any time by simply 

 "ironing" with a hot Hat iron. It 

 would seem that this would be as quick, 

 as easy, and certainly much safer than 

 any use of fire, while property value 

 would not suffer in the least. 



As hinted at above, there is another 

 benefit secured by the paraffine coating 

 — the water proofing of the hive-walls — 

 "the proof of the pudding is in the 

 eating." 



Lyndhurst. N. J. 



Wisconsin Experiences 



BY H.\RRY I-.\THR0P. 



WE have had three good crops of 

 white honey in our section in 

 succession, and but for the 

 severe losses of winter before 

 last, some great crops would 

 have been produced. There is only 

 one thing the matter with southwest 

 Wisconsin as a honey-producing coun- 

 try, and that is the lack of bees and 

 bee-keepers. We have only a few who 



devote much time to the work, and 

 some of the real specialists have been 

 severely handicapped. I never felt so 

 bad for any one as I did for Sister 

 Candler, of Cassville, when she wrote 

 me over a year ago that her mother 

 was sick, the work in her large api- 

 aries behind, and no help. I would 

 have gone over to her assistance my- 

 self if I had not been up to my neck in 

 work. The great prosperity of other 

 branches of farming makes it hard to 

 get help for apiary work. Farmers pay 

 good wages for help and then are 

 short. 



The present honey season bade fair 

 to be the greatest in history, as both 

 white clover and basswood promised 

 a maximum yield. White clover yielded 

 nobly, though cut short by extreme 

 tion goes, the basswood made no show- 

 ing. The hot weather seem to ripened 

 hot weather, but as far as my observa- 

 it up in a very few days. The quality 

 of our honey, both as to color and 

 body, is the very best. Although a 

 large crop has been produced, I would 

 advise holding the price up to what it 

 was last year. My retail price for the 

 10-pound pail of white honey is $1.25, 

 and my sales are mostly made by mail. 

 In the tiO-pound cans I sell at 10 cents, 

 can included. .\t these prices a bee- 

 keeper can live, and the people, includ- 

 ing the working man and his family, 

 can have honey to eat. 



F. B. Cavanagh, of Indiana, for whom 

 I have the greatest respect and admira- 

 tion as a bee-keeper and man, says we 

 don't get more for our honey because 

 we don't ask more. He argues that 25 

 cents per pound for extracted honey, 

 to the consumer, is a fair price. I will 

 not take the time to argue the matter, 

 but I venture to say that if Mr. Cava- 

 nagh was a working man with a family 

 he could not place honey on his table 

 as an article of food at that price — it 

 simply can't be done. I had hoped to 

 see honey become a staple, but it can- 

 not if it costs the consumer more than 

 about twice as much per pound as the 

 cost of pure sugar syrups. 



In talking with old bee-keepers who 

 never read bee-journals or write any- 

 thing for publication, one sometimes 

 gets hold of a new idea. Here are two 

 that I got from an old gentleman living 

 at Elkhorn, Wis.: He says that a mix- 

 ture of sulphur and table salt, a table- 

 spoonful, placed in the entrance of 

 each hive in cellar wintering will pre- 

 vent dysentery. I shall try it at the 

 first opportunity. He also told me of 

 a new way of Ihiing- bees. 



He takes a Mason jar, quart or half 

 gallon, drills a couple of air holes in 

 the bottom, using an old file for a drill, 

 and holding the jar under water while 

 working to prevent breaking. He then 

 puts some thin honey on a sponge in 

 the cap of the jar, and proceeds to find 

 a bee on the range. He gets the bee 

 into the jar and allows it to work on 

 the honey, holding the jar bottom up. 

 The holes in the bottom furnish air, 

 and are necessary. As soon as the 

 bee fills itself, it buzzes around in the 



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