1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



357 



by the pound, saying that they would likely be 

 worth $3.00 per lb. Getting drones by the pound 

 would be a handsome job for both parties, the send- 

 er to catch them and the receiver to save them 

 from being killed, as that many drones turned in 

 on a colony would not be agreeable. Our way of 

 managing a nucleus received with drones is to 

 make the nucleus queenless when putting them in 

 a new hive, and give them a frame of hatching 

 worker brood. They can be kept queenless quite a 

 while by giving young brood at times until plenty 

 of drones are hatching from other colonies in their 

 season. J no. Nebel & Son. 



High Hill, Mo., March 28, 1889. 



THE ENTRANCE TO THE SIMPLICITY. 



I should like to ask if there is no need of an 

 alighting-board; and does not drawing the hive 

 forward on the bottom-board make too long an 

 opening, giving better chance for robbers, etc.? 

 Please tell me how you space the frames in the 

 hive. Is it not troublesome to change them about 

 till they are just right? E. Calvert. 



Nashville, Tenn., Apr. 1, 1889. 



When robbers are troublesome we would 

 use an alighting-board, as described in our 

 price list and in the ABC. With an alight- 

 ing-board you have the entrance more per- 

 fectly uuder control than in any other way I 

 know of For strong colonies no alighting- 

 board may be needed. We space the frames 

 in the Simplicity hives, simply by placing 

 the end of the fingers between the supports 

 at the ends ; and one who is in the habit of 

 doing it will do it without thinking of what 

 he is doing, and almost as rapidly as his 

 fingers can touch them. 



A WASP'S NEST ; DO THE YOUNG LARVA) CAP 

 THEIR OWN CELLS? 



Last summer there was a wasp's nest in my shop. 

 1 knocked it down and laid it away, and the larva? 

 capped themselves over. I uncapped them, and in 

 two or three days they were capped again. I un- 

 capped them four or five times, and they replaced 

 the capping. But each time the capping was thin- 

 ner and whiter. You will say that the old wasps 

 did it, but they didn't, for I shut the nest up in my 

 shop, and worked there every day. Will the larvae 

 of the honey-bee do the same? E. J. Shay. 



Thornton, W. Va., Apr. 8, 1889. 



Will Prof. Cook please answer? 



BEES AND SORGHUM SYRUP. 



In Gleanings for April 1 were some comments 

 upon feeding sorghum to bees, in lieu of honey, as 

 a support until the honey-flow should come in. I 

 can not conceive how any bee-man could success- 

 fully do this, unless in connection with other food; 

 bees will cluster around an empty sorghum-barrel 

 in which the staves have absorbed all the moisture, 

 and draw from the saturated wood, or will sip of 

 the fresh cane juice before any fermentation has 

 begun; but sorghum molasses they will pass by in 

 disdain, as it were. Last fall was very dry, and 

 honey very scarce. The mill was visited a little by 

 the bees. The fall of 1887 the season was extremely 

 dry, honey crop short, the crusher was thronged, 

 and thousands of bees were killed. Water was 

 so scarce that it was sold by the barrel. We made a 

 trip of four miles for all we used. Some hauled it ten 

 miles, in tanks holding four or five barrels. The bees 



were compelled to drink the juice, yet they did not 

 disturb the new molasses. In my evaporating- 

 room the juice tank and buckets would be covered, 

 the interior part of the building was liKe the center 

 of a moving swarm, and yet they did not disturb the 

 condensed sweet. 



You are aware that there is an acid principle in 

 sorghum that is quite plainly discernible to the 

 taste, and I think this is not relished by the bees; 

 and from the fact that I've been handling both bees 

 and sorghum for quite a number of years, and the 

 two not 200 feet apart, I am assured that bees would 

 come out in worse shape than Dr. Tanner in his 40- 

 days' fast, if any one should attempt feeding en- 

 tirely upon it. W. N. Root. 



Assumption, 111, April 10, 1889. 



While all you say is true, I have known 

 bees to take with avidity a very good article 

 of sorghnm syrup, and syrup made of a 

 pretty good article of brown sorghum sugar 

 is taken by the bees just as well as any 

 brown sugar, for all I can see. Of course, 

 they will not use it when they can get bet- 

 ter. Enough sorghum molasses has been 

 fed, however, to make it pretty clear that it 

 does not answer at all for winter stores. 



HOW WE CURED FOUL BROOD. 



You have not as yet (at least I have not seen it) 

 published the method by which you cured, or ex- 

 terminated foul brood from your apiary. Will you 

 please tell me how it was done? We have the dis- 

 ease here, and I want to exterminate it this spring. 

 I have the ABC plan, Cheshire's, McLain's, and 

 Kohnke's methods. Is there any other? Send me 

 Jones' cure and your own, please. H. Smith. 



Ionia, Mich., Feb. 25, 1889. 



The method by which we cured foul brood 

 is the one given in the ABC book. If you 

 have either the edition of 1887 or 1888 you 

 will find it under the head of Foul Brood. 

 The editions before 1887 do not contain the 

 plan ; not having had any experience prior 

 to that time, we simply gave two or three 

 methods of curing foul brood which were 

 said to be reliable. The only plan which we 

 could make work successfully is the one pre- 

 ferred by 1). A. Jones, so that the method 

 which we used differs in no important par- 

 ticular from that of Mr. Jones. 



TO CONTROL INCREASE. 



Would you advise controlling increase of bees, in 

 the following manner, taken from an article by 

 quite an experienced bee-keeper? 



" Suppose colony No. 1 to send out a swarm. I 

 move hive No. 1 back from its old stand about 3 ft., 

 and place an empty hive, filled with combs, where 

 No. 1 formerly stood. I hive the new colony in the 

 empty hive, filled with combs, where No. 1 stood. 

 Then shake all the bees from frames of No. 1 into the 

 new swarm. I shake the new bees, that hatch from 

 No. 1, into the new swarm every day, until another 

 colony sends out a new swarm, when I use hive No. 

 1 for an empty hive to receive the second new 

 swarm, and treat No. 2 the same as No. 1. 



Ellsworth, O., March 26, 1889. L. B. B. Bingham. 



The plan you give is one that has been 

 often recommended through the journals, 

 and answers very well, only I should not 

 want to shake the bees off those combs ev- 

 ery dav, as you suggest, for there would 



