1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



427 



was running out of the hive. How the bees and 

 honey did come out of taat hive! I don't think 

 there was a dry bee among them, and I thought the 

 whole colony was gone up. On taking off the cov- 

 er I found every comb in its frame; but every one 

 had let go of the top-bar and settled down on to the 

 bottom-bar, the wires holding them upright. After 

 the bees had cleaned themselves up they soon re- 

 paired the damage to the combs, and I don't think 

 I lost over a handful of bees, and two or three 

 pounds of honey. I want my frames wired, al- 

 though I don't think I'll do a trick like that again. 

 Brooklyn, la. A. Batch. 



Young Bees Coming Out of the Hive and Dying. 



The trouble of wi;ich I wrote you seemed to be en- 

 tirely in the young bees. Hundreds could be seen 

 at the entrance, dying, and weak, while on real 

 warm days, about noon, they would come out, at- 

 tempt to fly. and drop in the grass. They could not 

 rise. I watched these bees closely every day, and I 

 noticed that every bee in the grass had defective 

 wings. Their wings were apparently very short, or 

 not over three-quarter length. There were also 

 some signs of dysentery in the grass where the bees 

 were crawling around, but no signs of it on the 

 alighting-board or in the hive. Perhaps this was 

 brought on by excitement while trying to rise out 

 of the grass. As nearly as I could ascertain, their 

 defective wings caused the whole trouble. 



I am glad to say now that the trouble has entirely 

 disappeared, and the colony is ajjparently all right. 

 The queen is very prolific. I might say that, during 

 this trouble, I found one queen-cell nearly capped. 

 Evidently the bees intended to supersede the queen; 

 but as the trouble was disappearing I cut out 

 this cell, and no more have been built since, or at 

 least had not been a few days ago. 



Ruscomb, Ont., May 23. C. A. Yorke. 



[It is very clear that yovir shipment of bees was 

 overheated en j-ox^e. resulting in "scorching " or 

 "cooking" the brood, as we call it. If a colony is 

 suflfering for want of air, either by closing the en- 

 trance or becau-se the entrance is too small, the in- 

 side temperature of the hive will go away above the 

 normal. While this does not necessarily kill the 

 brood, yet in almost every case we find afterward, 

 if the bees were not killed outright, that the young 

 bees will hatch out with defective wings, and will be 

 otherwise imperfect. Of course, such bees are not 

 allowed to live in the colony; and if they do not 

 walk out themselves, the other bees force them out. 

 -KD.] 



The " Shook " Plan of Swarm Prevention. 



I have a colony of bees that is preparing to 

 swarm, and I should like to prevent it. Will the 

 shook-swarm plan, as described on pages 347 and 

 348 of the A B (' book, work in my case"? The colo- 

 ny has the queen-cells about one-third completed, 

 and there will be no honey from clover for three or 

 four weeks. You say in the A B C book that it 

 should be done after the honey-flow has begun. I 

 am looking for a good flow from locust in about a 

 week or ten days. I am looking for them out in 

 less than a week. I had two swarms yesterday. 



Harrisonburg, Va. Jas. S. Bowman. 



[The shook plan of controlling swarming, such as 

 is described in the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, 

 would be fairly effective in the case described. It. 

 does very little or no good to shake before the bees 

 show symptoms of swarming; that is, start swarm- 

 ing-cells. — Ed.] 



Bottom Ventilation Prevents Swarming, Even of 

 Colonies Run for Comb Honey. 



There is ciulte a discussion going on abovit the pre- 

 vention of swarming by ventilation. I have tried 

 to my entire satisfaction the scheme of bottom- 

 board ventilation, and it works. .Just at the begin- 

 ning of the honey-flow, raise the hive from the bot- 

 tom-board about K to K of an inch, and cut out all 

 drone larvae. That entails a little work, but it pays. 

 Small apiarists can do that easily; biit the man who 

 has 600 or more colonies to look after as I have can 

 rely on the ventilation alone. I have tried it in 

 comb-honey production only, but it surely ought to 

 work for extracted honey. 



When the flow is over, the apiarist must lower 

 the brood-chamber again because of robbers. 



Wasco. Cal., May 22. M. S. Phillippe. 



Shaking to Prevent Swarming. 



Where can I obtain an uncapping-fork such as is 

 used in Germany? I want to experiment with it. 

 What do you think of it? 



With good swarms at 82.00 each, and sugar at 5 cts. 

 per lb., is it better to buy or raise bees? 



I am watching the discussion on shaking energy 

 into bees: and if, as some claim, a change of resi- 

 dence is all that is necessary, would not the putting 

 of empty combs above or below the brood-nest, al- 

 lowing the queen to work into them, be as good as 

 shaking the bees on to these combs, provided they 

 do not swarm out? But what makes them swarm 

 out any more in the one case than in the other? Is 

 the mysterious efTect due to the excluder, the shak- 

 ing, or both? Uo you think that the shaken colony 

 (brood above excluder) will gain niore, either in 

 brood or honey, than one in which the queen is al- 

 lowed to work down? 



Which grain is nearest to pollen in composition? 

 Would it not be the best for a substitute for brood- 

 rearing? 



St. Mary's, Ont., Can. J. H. Burns. 



[For a German uncapping-fork we would refer 

 you to Em lie Bondonneau, 56-58 Felix Faure Ave., 

 Paris, France. 



Under some conditions bees can be raised very 

 cheaply from sugar syrup. Some experiments 

 made by Mr. W. A. Selser showed they could be 

 raised at 82.00 a colony or even less. The advantage 

 of feeding would be that you would get fresh stock 

 from choice queens, while stock that you would buy 

 at 82.00 might be very undesirable. 



Your questions in regard to shaking we would 

 respectfully refer to some one who has had more 

 experience than we have. 



Finely ground pea meal is said to be the best sub- 

 stitute for natural pollen. Rye flour is very fair, 

 but no substitute is equal to the natural article 

 itself.— Ed.] 



An Easy Way to Get Extracting - Combs Cleaned. 



To produce a good quality of extracted honey it is 

 necessary to get the extractins-combs cleaned out 

 nicely of all honey that naturally sticks to them in 

 order to have them clean and sweet for the next 

 year's croj). To do this I remove the Porter escape 

 from the boards. Place the boards on the hives and 

 then place several supers containing the extract- 

 ing-combs on these boards. This being done toward 

 evening, and left on a few days, the bees go up and 

 clean the combs, and carry the honey below, with 

 no robbing, and no damage to the combs. In a few 

 days, by raising up the end of the pile of supers the 

 escape can be replaced in the board, and in a short 

 time the supers can be put away for the winter. 



Some may say this plan is too much bother, and 

 too slow; but really it is not, for by using ten or 

 more escapes, and six or seven supers (T use shallow 

 frames) on each board or hive, the cleaning goes on 

 while we are at some other work. It takes only a 

 few minutes to r>ut the supers on the hives. 



Hilbert, Wis. Geo. A. Ckessy. 



Baling-wire to Support Foundation. 



I am using baling-wire for splints. It comes in 

 straight bundles for baling hay. 1 cut it up the 

 right lengths, and heat it just enough to melt into 

 the foundation. 



Terre Haute, Ind.. May 25. J. D. Smock. 



[We see no reason why baling-wire could not be 

 used to support foundation in the manner describ- 

 ed. We suggest that a good many of onr readers 

 try it and report. — Ed.] 



Another Sure Case of Bees Stealing Eggs. 



This is my second year with bees. I started last 

 year by buying two three-frame nuclei and increas- 

 ing to six. These were pure Italians. This year I 

 have increased to twenty colonies. I bought fovir 

 swarms from parties near me and put them in 

 Danzenbaker hives. 



On April 18 I bought a swarm of native black bees 

 from a neighbor of mine and put them in an ob.ser- 

 vatory hive. I had trouble In getting them into the 

 hive, for I had to sprinkle them with water and 

 dump them on the alighting-board: and as they 

 dried off they went into the hive. I was too busy to 

 look at these until May 2. two weeks later, when I 

 found that the colony was queenless. The swarm 

 was a small one — not over five qviarts of bees. Now 



