210 



TBE BEE-KEEPERa' HE VIEW 



sections, and there are still in the hive 72 

 sections from one-fourth full to those nearly 

 ready to come off, with the fall flow yet to 

 be heard from. The queen is one that I sold 

 him, but she came originally from F. A. 

 Lockhart. 



Stakting Bees to work in the sections is a 

 subject that calls for little attention at this 

 time of the year, but every spring it comes 

 up anew. The last number of Gleanings has 

 an excellent short editorial on the subject in 

 which special stress is placed upon the ad- 

 vantage of having very populous colonies. 

 Of course, with such colonies and a bounti- 

 ful yield of honey there is no trouble, but 

 the opening of the harvest often finds a bee 

 keeper with just ordinary colonies, and a 

 flow that seems to be very slow in getting 

 started. Under such conditions the bees are 

 very slow in beginning wcrk in the sections, 

 and drawn comb are a great advantage. 

 They induce the bees to start, and once they 

 start, they will keep it up, if there is any 

 honey coming in. 



What Folly to write and publish such 

 stuff as the following that appears in a re- 

 cent article in the American Bee Journal. A 

 writer from Pennsylvania, who signs him- 

 self " Common-sense (?) Bee Keeping," in 

 condemning the bee-space says he could be 

 " induced to give strong reasons for believ- 

 ing that the bee-space in the modern hive 

 figures largely among the causes that favor 

 conditions which develop spring dwindling, 

 bee paralysis, nameless disease, and pro- 

 gress finally to that which is the worst of 

 all, and the end of all— FOUL BROOD." It 

 seems strange, in this enlightened age of the 

 world, that any one can be found that will 

 attribute foul brood, or any communicable 

 disease, to chilled brood. The chilling of 

 brood weakens a colony numerically, that is, 

 there will be a less number of bees in the fu- 

 ture than there would have been if the brood 

 had not been chilled, but no foul brood will 

 develop unless the seeds are sown in the 

 hive, any more than corn will come up 

 where none has been planted. 



Melted Down Combs have been reported 

 quite frequently this year. This is the re- 

 sult of allowing dark colored hives, or those 

 with a small entrance, standing in the sun 



unshaded. I never knew combs to melt 

 down in a white hive having an entrance 

 clear across the front, even if it did stand in 

 the sun, but I believe it pays to shade hives 

 during the hottest weather, as the heat will 

 othe:wise practically drive the bees out of 

 the supers in the middle of the hottest days. 

 Much depends upon the location of the 

 apiary, that is, whether it is surrounded by 

 trees or buildings that prevent a free circu- 

 lation of air. In an apple orchard where 

 the trees are so large and the branches so 

 long that the twigs can shake hands with one 

 another is an ideal spot for an apiary. 

 There is then shade both for the bees and 

 their keeper and nothing in the way. 

 AVhere shade must be provided for each in- 

 dividual hive, a light board two feet by three 

 in size is the most practical thing. Since 

 the above was written I visited my friend 

 Koeppen, and in passing through his apiary, 

 while under an apple tree, he remarked that 

 the bees standing in the shade of that tree 

 had done much better than those standing 

 out in the sun. He had several small losses 

 from combs melting down where the hives 

 stood in the sun and colonies were very 

 strong. 



CONTROLLING SWABMS. 



E. R. Root writes quite graphically in 

 Gleanings of his troubles this year in con- 

 trolling swarms. As a rule a swarm clusters 

 before leaving, but some of them left with- 

 out even clustering, rising up over the fac- 

 tory buildings and getting beyond the reach 

 of a fountain pump. E. R. says that he has 

 "chased and squirted, climbed trees, and 

 puflfed and fumed," until he is tired, and 

 they have begun clipping the queens' wings, 

 and if customers do not like it they can go 

 elsewhere. Queen traps will enable one to 

 control a swarm with no clipping of the 

 queen, but, do yon know, I have a sort of 

 prejudice against a ^neen trap. I have used 

 them quite a good deal, and I must say that 

 I have never been able to see that there is 

 any disadvantage in their use, still, when I 

 see the bees wiggling and twisting, trying to 

 get through the zinc, 1 feel uncomfortable, 

 and I always experience a feeling of relief 

 when I can remove a trap from the front of 

 a hive. Nothwithstanding all this I should 

 never think of attempting to run a large 

 apiary for comb honey without either clip- 

 ping the queens or using traps. Mr. R. L. 



