1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



45 



I am so situated that I have to drive five 

 miles all the year round to my place of busi- 

 ness, rain or shine; and when it is time for 

 bees to leave the cellar it is my busiest time 

 also. Since I have adopted the ventilation 

 outdoors and in, I have not had ten swarms 

 per year from 100 colonies; yet I run my 

 bees chiefly for comb honey. When very 

 hot weather comes I use the wedge as illus- 

 trated in Gleanings some two years ago. 

 When it gets to be 100 in the shade, as it 

 does here most summers for a time, each 

 hive is raised at the back with a wedge the 

 same as at the sides. This appears to be all 

 the ventilation needed for the bees to keep 

 on working, no matter how hot it gets. If 

 this ventilation is allowed to remain for the 

 rest of the hot weather, according to my in- 

 variable custom, the bees will use it as an 

 entrance, providing they are well supplied 

 with a strong working force of bees. Thf n 

 if enough room for storage above is given 

 them they will not swarm— at least that is 

 my experience. Always let this ventilation 

 at the back remain until there is danger of 

 robbing, then go along and remove the 

 wedge. 



Le Mars, Iowa., Nov. 24. 



THE CHICAGO-NORTHWESTERN CON- 

 VENTION. 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



The above association held its thirtieth an- 

 nual meeting at Chicago recently with G. W. 

 York, the president, in the chair. The con- 

 vention in one respect was like our recent 

 Ontario meeting. It spent a very consider- 

 able time over the question of foul brood 

 (American and European), and the conven- 

 tion was unanimous in its desire to secure 

 legislation for the State of Illinois, by means 

 of which it could secure authority for the in- 

 spector to examine colonies of bees, even if 

 contrary to the will of the owner; also to au- 

 thorize the inspector to destroy badly diseas- 

 ed colonies. It appears the State has, up to 

 the present, no such law. 



TREATMENT OF EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD. 



Doctor Miller gave the following condens- 

 ed treatment of European foul brood: Brush 

 from all but one comb of brood the bees. 

 Allow this comb to remain in the hive, put- 

 ting beside it two empty combs. When eggs 

 are found in one of these combs take out the 

 original comb. Take away the queen; ten 

 days later destroy all queen-cells and give 

 the colony a virgin queen. Dr. Miller rec- 

 ommended making colonies with European 

 foul brood very strong. Mr. Cavenaugh sug- 

 gested shaking the strongest diseased colo- 

 nies, giving the brood to weak diseased 

 stocks, strengthening them, yet not increas- 

 ing the number of infected combs. 



BETTER-KEPT BEES. 



Is it better to keep more bees or to keep 

 fewer bees better? This was a question be- 

 fore the convention. A member said, keep 

 more bees and keep them better. It was al- 



so stated that badly kept bees are a menace 

 to the good bee-keeper on account of the 

 foul-brood danger. 



W. Z. Hutchinson stated that the idea that 

 many had (that the one having many colo- 

 nies of bees must neglect them) was not so. 

 He had traveled about a good deal, and found 

 that, when a man had many colonies, he was 

 more likely to look after them, his attention 

 is drawn more to them, and he becomes more 

 interested in that line. 



POLLEN IN SECTIONS. 



A method was given to remove pollen from 

 sections. Take a toothpick, break down the 

 comb about the pollen, and break into the 

 pollen and return the section to the hive. 

 The bees will remove the pollen. 



SIZE AND KIND OF HIVE. 



This question came in for consideration. 

 Qne who had several hundred Heddon di- 

 visible-brood-chamber hives, and had used 

 them for many years, stated that he found 

 the divisible feature a weak point in outside 

 wintering. What next? Here I had almost 

 become a convert to the divisible-brood- 

 chamber hive because I had been told and 

 believed that the above was a strong feature; 

 also that bees in such a hive would build up 

 better in spring when a man of long and wide 

 experience states the first is not correct, and 

 Mr. Townsend, in Gleanings, states that the 

 bees in such a hive do not build up as quick- 

 ly in spring. Such divergent conclusions 

 only go to show that a government apiarist, 

 who is only a man after all, had better leave 

 tests along such lines alone, for in that capa- 

 city his experience must be very limited 

 compared with men we know of who come 

 to diametrically opposite conclusions. We 

 do not find other departments testing and 

 giving out orders of merit in reapers, mowers, 

 plows, manure-spreaders, etc. The bee- 

 keepers, in my estimation, can get better 

 value for the money expended in having the 

 governments — federal, dominion, state, or 

 provincial, carry on experiments where 

 equipment and time needed make them be- 

 yond the bee-keepers' reach. The number 

 in favor of the large hive showed an increase. 



A question was propounded as to what 

 constitutes an eight or ten frame hive; and 

 to settle this question for all time a vote was 

 to be taken. Some claimed that, if the su- 

 per was used as a brood-chamber, then the 

 number of frames in the lower story no lon- 

 ger constituted the size of the hive. The 

 convention voted contrary to this idea. 



HOW MUCH WAX IN TEN LANGSTROTH COMBS? 



In reply to this questioa it was stated that 

 N. E. France had secured 3 lbs. uf wax from 

 ten Langstroth combs. Hoitermann stated 

 he had no doubt this was correct, for he had 

 experimented in this direction, weighing 

 the wood frames, then puttmg 2)4 oz. of 

 foundation (a full sheet) in each frame. Up- 

 on weighing the combs after completion he 

 had found that the bees had added 2)4 oz. of 

 wax to the foundation in each comb, thus 

 completing it. This would make a total of 

 3 lbs. 2 oz. of wax to a set of ten combs. 



