56 



GLEANINGS IN HEE CULTURE. 



.Tan. 15.- 



ity. As I have often said, this disease has not 

 appeared to be serious at all in the North. It is 

 wliat it may do and has done in the South that 

 we have been considering:. I never l^new it. in 

 fact, in the colder climates, to cause any particu- 

 lar trouble. An occasional colony, for in-tance. 

 will show that it is not in normal condition. 

 Investiiration shows that it is affected with 

 paraly.sis: out it does not seem to be infectious, 

 and, if left alone, will so off of itself: but the 

 case does not dispose of itself so easily in the 

 Snutli. Possibly soured food has something to 

 do with it: but note this fact: In many in- 

 stances the romoval of the queen elTects a cure 

 notwithstanding the bees are in the same hive, 

 on the same combs. This one fact alone by itsef, 

 to say nothing of other corroborative evidence, 

 seems to show that the trouble is hereditary 

 rather than one of food: but no doubt good 

 food, like good diet for human ills, would go far 

 toward doing away with the diffieulty. 



I am very sure that the course of queen- 

 breeders in stamping it out as soon as it ap- 

 pears is the right one. Now. this disease is 

 surely, in warm climares. making serious in- 

 roads, and the only wav to check it is for 

 queen-breedors— not for their own sake, but for 

 the sake of their customers— to stamp it out of 

 their own yards on its first appearance. So far 

 all of them have held up their hands, signify- 

 ng their purpose to carry out this policy. As it 

 will entail some expense in the loss of a colony, 

 the ready response of the queen -breeders to 

 agree to this is as generous as it is kind.— Ed.] 



JAKE SMITH ON BRACE-COMBS. 



HE KErORTS AN INTEKESTING CONA'ERSATION 

 rONCERNING THEM. 



Mr. A. I. (HeenitKjs—deer Sir;- Jim Short's 

 a good-hearted fellow, but he has some queer 

 notions. But then, a good many people's that 

 way. One good thing about Jim, he never gets 

 mad if you side agenst him. He was over the 

 other day, and Zed had been readin in your pa- 

 per about burr-combs. Beats all what that boy 

 thinks of your paper. Why, he reads it through 

 from cover to cover, and then reads the cover. 

 Well, he was a tellin Jim how it told to get shet 

 of 'em. 



Then Jim turned to me, and, says he, " Does 

 your bees build brace-combs ? " 



"Course they do," says I. "whenever they 

 have a chants." 



Then Jim laffed one of his hearty lafs. and, 

 says he, "That's what comes o' gettin so many 

 kinks out o' books. Now, my bees don't have 

 any book-larnin, and they don't build any 

 brace-combs. Not a blame comb but honey- 

 comb. What kind o' comb is brace-comb, any- 

 way ? Do they make it just out o' beeswax or 

 what?" 



"Why," says I, "brace-combs is beeswax 

 like any other comb, only it's the little pieces 

 they build in between the top-bars; and when 

 they build between the top-bars and the supers, 

 why, that's burr-combs." 



"That's it," says Jim; "you git in so many 

 new fixins with your top-bars and supers and 

 sitch that the bees jist has to start in some new- 

 way to keep up. Now I want to know if every- 



body that has these new fixins is agreed in try- 

 iu to stop brace-combs." 



" I guess they be." says I. 



" No,'" says Zed, "not all. There's Doolittle. 

 one of the smartest in the lot, and he says he 

 wants his bees to have brace-combs — wants "em 

 for ladders to climb up on; thinks they com- 

 mence work upstairs sooner." 



" Now that stands to reason," says Jim; "you 

 go to work and put on another story for them,, 

 and then you don't build no stairs- for 'em to- 

 climb on, and they go to work and build lad- 

 ders. Now, there's my house. You know the- 

 kitchen floor's two feet higher'n the sittin-room 

 floor. Now, how would it work to have that 

 two feet to climb up and down all the time with 

 no steps? Hard on the women-folks, hey? Well, 

 you see I jist decently put some steps there; 

 and if I hadn't a done that you wouldn't blame 



WHAT ARE THEM BURR-COMBS ANY WAY. 



the women for puttin' boxes and things for 

 them to climb up and down on, would you 

 now? And that's jist what the bees do too. 

 They build things to climb up on, soze they 

 won't have to split their legs a straddlin so far.'* 



"Say, Jim,'" says Zed, "how many steps is 

 there between your kitchen and sittin-room ? " 



" Let's see," said Jim; "each step's about 8 

 inches rise, ain't it? That would make two 

 steps 16 inch high, and then it would be 8 inch 

 more from the top of the step to the sittin room 

 floor. Yes, they must be jist two steps. But 

 what diff'erence does it make how many steps 

 they be? Course, they must be steps enough to 



