GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



tor would not accept this as proof. He said it just 

 happened so, or that the rheumatism was just ready to 

 leave me. But I have a stronger proof in support of 

 my belief. I broke my arm over thirty years ago, and 

 once in a while I have had severe rheumatic pains in 

 my wrist. Whenever that has happened (more than 

 twenty times) I have gone to a hive, caught a bee, and 

 made it sting me on the affected part, and in less than 

 a minute the pain was gone. That remedy never fail- 

 ed me. 



Lake Mills, Wis., Dec. 21. GUSTAVE GROSS. 



[The last incident seems to furnish quite positive 

 proof of the value of the poison.— Ed.] 



MOLD ON HIVES IN A CELLAR. 



We put 150 colonies in,. the cellar with ice, snow, and 

 frost upon the hives. Some of the hives have white 

 mold on the fronts. The bees have been in ten days, 

 and the thermometer stands at 42 F. It was 30 the 

 first day. The hives appear to be damp. I expect to 

 put some lime in the cellar to slack and take up the 

 moisture. What would you advise? Ike BARBER. 



Smithland, Iowa, Dec. 11. 



[If your cellar is too damp, and especially if the tem- 

 perature is down to 42, we would advise you to use a 

 small drum stove and burn chestnut hard coal. A 

 light fire for a few hours would dry out the cellar and 

 raise the temperature to about 45. It should not or- 

 dinarily go much higher than that. If it should run 

 up to about 45 without the stove, dampness on the out- 

 side of the hives would do no particular harm. If the 

 temperature was 42 at the time you wrote, it would be 

 our opinion that it might run much lower than this be- 

 fore the winter is over. If so, you might have some 

 severe lesses with considerable dysentery; for of all 

 poor places to winter bees in, it is a damp cellar with 

 a temperature running down to 40 or below. — ED.] 



LIME TO PREVENT " WEEPING " OF HONEY. 



I do not think it wise, usually, for amateurs to try to 

 rush into print; but after reading Mr. Hart's "tale of 

 woe," page 738, I am tempted to say that I am storing 

 comb honey in a basement. It is dry, but there has 

 been a little tendency to " weep," and I am trying the 

 experiment of putting a few pounds of fresh lime un- 

 der each pile of supers. I place a bottom-board on the 

 floor of the basement, an empty super on that, some 

 lime in that, then tier supers of honey right from the 

 hives twelve or so high above the lime. So far as I can 

 judge, the scheme seems to have some merit; and if it 

 is new, perhaps some who are troubled with weeping 

 honey would like to try the experiment also. 



Billings, Mont., Dec. 10. C. M. Chafee. 



[If possible some other place rather than a basement 

 should be selected for storing comb honey, for the 

 air, though apparently dry, is seldom dry enough. 

 The letter below from Mr. Wilcox covers this matter 

 pretty well.— Ed.] 



THAT "weeping" HONEY. 



A few years ago, when I was producing comb honey 

 largely I had some experience with the same trouble, 

 page 738. If honey was stored in a room much cooler 

 than the outdoor air, or one wholly or partly below 

 ground, or if the room was very close, with little or no 

 ventilation, that sweating or "weeping" appearance 

 was almost certain. I have seen it in the supers on 

 the hive where the colony was very much reduced in 

 strength after the sections were finished and a spell of 

 warm foggy weather followed. I always prevented it 

 where I stored it in a well-ventilated chamber under 

 the roof with a fire in the room below. 



There is much difference in the thickness of cap- 

 pings. That with thick cappings will not " weep " as 

 soon as that with thin ones. I thought the cappings 

 were made thicker by leaving the sections on the hive 

 after they were finished; but of that I am not so cer- 

 tain. I think comb honey can be made thicker by 

 good storage after it is off the hive, and I know it can 

 be made very much thinner by bad storage. 



Mauston, Wis., Dec. 15. F. WiLCOX. 



WHITE RATS DRIVE OUT GRAY ONES. 



In your Dec. 15th issue is an article on how to get rid 

 of rats. I was troubled with them, and secured a pair 

 of white rats and let them run on the premises. I fed 

 them at the shed where I kept my bee-supplies. They 

 are not destructive, as I have left combs filled and 

 foundation exposed, and they did not touch them. 

 They drove out all the rats and mice on the place. 



Lebanon, Pa., Dec. 26. W. H. JONES. 



WIRE CLOTH IMBEDDED IN FOUNDATION. 



Having read the arguments pro and con in regard to 

 fastening combs in frames by wiring or with splints, 

 the idea suggested itself to me why wire cloth could 

 not be used with a soft thin wire, and a mesh of about 

 the size of a worker-cell, and milled right into the 

 foundation at the factory. The size of wire and mesh 

 best adapted could soon be determined by a little ex- 

 perimenting. It would be cheap and effective. It 

 would not be necessary to have it the full width of 

 the foundation sheet. One-third or half the width 

 would certainly be enough. I think it would not 

 cost much to try it. I never saw this idea mentioned 

 before, so there is no patent on it. 



Fredericktown, Mo., Dec. 13. J. Bachler. 



[Wire cloth such as you describe would be too ex- 

 pensive. Then, too, it would be practically impossible 

 to run it through a mill as you suggest.— ED. 



HOW TO AVOID AFTER-SWARMS. 



How would you treat a colony with a clipped queen 

 that has swarmed and lost its queen, and the queen- 

 cells hatching? I want to save absconding. The bees 

 seem to have such a desire to swarm that most will 

 leave if they are not divided quite small. 



Canton, S. D. L. A. Syverud. 



[After the prime swarm has come off from the colo- 

 ny there will be a number of virgin queens, and each 

 one of these will be likely to lead off an after-swarm 

 until there is nothing left of the old parent colony. 

 After the first swarm has been cast, all cells should be 

 destroyed but one. If the virgins are hatched they 

 should all be removed but one. While this plan will 

 not necessarily stop after-swarming in every case, it 

 will go a long way toward it. For a further discussion 

 of this subject see "Swarming" in our ABC and 

 X Y Z of Bee Culture.— ED.] 



UPWARD VENTILATION VS. SEALED COVERS. 



Sealed covers should always be made from half-inch 

 white pine. They should not be disturbed too late, for 

 the bees should have them sealed before cold weather 

 sets in. If bees are packed in chaff hives, as they 

 should be, with a Js x 8 entrance kept free from snow 

 and ice, this entrance will take care of all ventilation 

 required to carry moisture from the colony. Wild 

 bees do not have absorbing cushions. Who ever heard 

 of an absorbing cushion in a bee-tree? The moisture 

 is taken care of by the entrance to the cavity. Bees 

 will propolize all cushions where they can get at 

 them; and since this is true, why do we put such ma- 

 terial there? I have always used sealed covers — the 

 tighter the better. I have not lost a colony of bees in 

 wintering with sealed covers in 25 years. 



Ashtabula, O., Nov. 6. THOMAS Clark. 



WINTERING ON SUMMER STANDS. 



My hives are eight and twelve frame, also twelve- 

 frame sectional. The latter I like better for many rea- 

 sons. AH except the eight-frame are made of 1^ red 

 cedar, with flat covers of the same cleated on the 

 ends. These are fitted snugly over the frames with- 

 out packing of any kind. When the wet season ar- 

 rives, the hive is blocked up in the rear as high as it 

 will go without sliding off the stand. This allows con- 

 densed moisture to run down and out at the entrance 

 without any falling among the bees. At the same 

 time it makes a deep hive out of a shallow one, which 

 is no small advantage. Do not hesitate to try it. 



Sonora, Cal., Nov. 11. A. V. Herold. 



COLORADO GRADING-RULES ALL RIGHT. 



Friend Trickey, of Reno, Nevada, says. p. 723, Dec. 1, 

 "We must depend very largely upon the honesty of 

 the producer. If he does not grade honestly and fair- 

 ly, cut him out." Our Colorado rules do this to a T, 

 and no one person or committee is called upon to do 

 the cutting. Our rules saved us this year of light 

 weight. 



Platteville, Col., Dec. 13. R. H. RHODES. 



SIZE OF BEE-SPACES BETWEEN SUPERS. 



When one runs for comb honey, and has two or 

 more supers on one hive, what would be the right bee- 

 space between each two supers — 54 or Vz inch? 



Bellaire, Mich., March 8. A. SCHOOLCRAFT. 



[One-half inch would cause trouble. One-fourth 

 inch is about right.— ED. J 



