1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



395 



save your queens, it may be well to purchase 

 before your bees are quite all gone. You 

 will find that bees from another yard will 

 take hold and go to work just as well as they 

 ever did. Even this 10th day of June, I have 

 noticed colonies that seem not to have re- 

 covered entirely from the siege they have 

 just passed through, while stocks right by 

 their side, no heavier, but which were pur- 

 chased 10 miles away, perhaps, seem to rear 

 brood and build up equal to any thing I 

 ever saw. 



WHAT TO DO WITH COMBS FROM HIVES 

 WHERE THE BEES HAVE DIED. 



Put them safely out of the way of bees, 

 either in tight hives, or in a bee proof room, 

 and if you have not bees enough to cover 

 them by the middle of June, or at such a 

 time as you shall find moth worms at work 

 among them, be sure that all the combs are 

 spread at least two inches apart, as recom- 

 mended in bee moth. Now, whatever oth- 

 er precautions you take, you must look after 

 these empty combs occasionally. They are 

 very valuable, and must not be allowed to 

 be destroyed. A very good way to keep 

 them is to put them in empty Simplicity 

 hives, piled one over the other. This keeps 

 them perfectly protected, and yet you can 

 quickly look them all over as often as once 

 a week at least, until they are used. But 

 suppose they do get moldy, or full of worms, 

 what then V 



WHAT TO DO WITH COMBS THAT ARE 



i-'OILED, MOLDY, AND FILLED 



WITH DEAD BEES. 



When I wrote the article on dysentf:ky, 

 I forgot to mention what should be done 

 with the combs after the bees had died. 

 Many times, you will find the cells full of 

 dead bees, and anyone who has tried it, will 

 know what an endless task it is to try to 

 pick them out. Well, do not try; but just 

 take these combs and set them away, until 

 you want empty combs to build up stocks, 

 and then hang them one at a time, in the 

 centre of a populous colony. After a few 

 hours, just take a peep at your comb, and 

 see how the bees do it. If it is at a season 

 when honey is coining in, it will have un- 

 dergone such a transformation, you can 

 scarcely believe your eyes, when you come 

 to take a look at it. I have put in combs 

 that were full of dead bees, filthy from the 

 effects of dysentery, and moldy besides, and 

 found them in the afternoon of the same 

 day clean, bright, and sweet, holes patched 

 up, and partly filled with eggs, honey, and 

 dollen. In one case I hunted the hive all 



over for my bad comb, and then came pret- 

 ty near declaring somebody had taken it 

 away; there was no comb there that could 

 be identified as the bad one. Do not ex- 

 tract the honey, pick out the bees, or fuss to 

 wash them off with water; just let the bees 

 try their hand at it, and see. Do not give 

 them too many bad combs at once, or they 

 may get discouraged, and swarm out. Give 

 them one. after a few hours, another, and 

 yon will very soon have them all right. 

 How do they do it so quickly V Well, each 

 bee takes a cell, and whrti he has his cell 

 finished, they are all done. Suppose you 

 had as many boys as there are hills of corn 

 in the field. If all went to work, the field 

 would soon be clean. Combs infested with 

 moth webs, and even live worms, may be 

 fixed up in a twinkling, in the same way. 

 If you stand in front of the hive, you may 

 have the satisfaction of seeing the worms 

 led out by the nape of the neck ; to do this, 

 you want a strong vigorous colony of Ital- 

 ians. See bee moth. A new swarm will 

 usually clean out a hive of bad combs, in 

 the same way, but if too bad they may 

 swarm out. Better take them in "the way I 

 have mentioned. To be sure it pays to save 

 such combs. 



My friends, I have now got to the end of 

 my book, "The A B C of Bee Culture." 1 do 

 not mean to say that it is finished, for it will 

 probably not be finished until my life here 

 on earth is finished. The types for the 

 whole of it are standing in their respective 

 cupboards, and, as we are printing the book 

 almost constantly, there are also constant 

 revisions going on. The book was com- 

 menced two years ago last May ; and, since 

 then, new things have been coming up al- 

 most daily. Why will new things not con- 

 tinue to come up, as in times past? The 

 pages of Gleanings will give you notice of 

 all these uew things as they come, and the 

 ABC will embody all important matters as 

 fast as they are tested, and become suffi- 

 ciently established to entitle them to a place 

 in it. 



I take pleasure in acknowledging my in- 

 debtedness to Mr. Walter B. House, of Sau- 

 gatuck, Mich., for the principal part of the 

 glossary contained on the next few pages, 

 and for the very comprehensive index, 

 which he has so faithfully compiled for the 

 whole ABC book. The part of the glossa- 

 ry comprised under the head of "Hives" is 

 my own work ; the -rest, I believe, belongs 

 to Mr. House. 



