July, I!il2. 



American Hee Journal 



tliu bees. I miiilit sprinkle around the hives 

 at night after dark, and the solution would 

 he all soaked in the ground by mornine. 

 Some have ativised ine to use crude oil. such 

 as they sprinkle the streets, but I would just 

 like to know that, in the event of my using 

 anythins;. wouUl the bees get poisoned by 

 drinking some of it. I got my idea from the 

 fact that the bees have been poisoned from 

 peo[>ie spraying fruit-blossoms: although 

 that is <!iflerent. for the bees are after pol- 

 len and nectar in that case. 



New Jersey. 



Answkrs.— 1. It doesn't seem at all like a 

 case of foul brood. 



2. tiiving more bees will, of course, 

 strengthen the colony, but it is no more 

 necessary than if no brood had been killed. 

 .■\s the bees occupy increased room for 

 either brood or stores, they will clean out 

 the deatl brood, 



^ 'riiere is no use in having eggs laid that 

 will not mature, but a queen will keep on 

 for some time laying more than the neces- 

 sary number of eggs when suddenly cut 

 down as to the room she occupies, provided 

 she is a prolific queen. But she is not likely 

 to continue very long laying more eggs than 

 the bees can care for. 



4. I don't believe you need fear killing the 

 bees by poisoning the grass as you propose, 

 especially if the work is done at night as 

 yon suggest. But it will be an easy matter 

 to try it before a single hive before you go 

 over the whole apiarv. 



Melting Up Old Combs 



I have a lot of combs from hives in which 

 the bees winter-killed; also from late 

 swarms of last year that starved out during 

 the long, cold winter. How can I convert 

 these combs into beeswax ? Nebraska. 



.■\NSHEK. — If you have enough to make it 

 worth while, the best way to get the wax out 

 of your combs is to get one of the wax- 

 presses or extractors that will leave in the 

 remains a very small amount of wax. To be 

 sure, you can get out quite a bit of wax with 

 a solar extractor, but if the numberof combs 

 be large it will pay to get something more 

 effective. l*"or a very few combs, however, 

 it may not pay to spend much, and the solar 

 will do. Von may also get out a large per- 

 cent with a dripping pan. Take an old drip- 

 ping-pan .of course a new one would an- 

 swer . split it open at one corner, put it in 

 the oven of a cook stove with the split end 

 projecting out of the oven so that a vessel 

 set under it will catch the dripping wax. 

 I'ut a pebble or something else under the 

 inside corner, so as to make the wax flow 

 outward. If the comb be previously soaked 

 wich water for several days, and a single 

 comb at a time be laid in the pan. the wax 

 will not be tempted to hide in the cups made 

 by the cocoons. But it will be slow work. 

 Y()u may also break the combs up into bits, 

 provided you can have them cold enough to 

 be brittle, put them in a gunny sack in a 

 boiler or other vessel on the slove. weight 

 down tlie sack, working it occasionally with 

 ,t stick, and skim off the wax as it rises. 



Having made this attempt at answering, it 

 is only fair to add that I feel like a baby in 

 long dresses compared with the editor-in- 

 chief when it comes to working wax. He 

 has waxed wise in wax-working through 

 many years of experience that I have not 

 had. So I cheerfully yield the floor to him. 

 to make such emendations as he sees fit. 



ITheonly thing the Editor would add is 

 that, with old combs in which many gener- 

 ations of bees have been reared, it hardly 

 pays to render the wax without water, for a 

 .;reat deal of it is soaked in the cocoons and 

 cast skins of tlic larvae. Soaking these in 

 water first, prevents the wax from adhering 

 to the residue, or slum-gum as they call it. 

 The last method given is. in our opinion, the 

 best, unless a regular wax-extractor is used. 

 — EniTiiR 1 



Is Requeening With Pure Italian Stock Sure Cure 

 for European Foul Brood ? 



I wouki like to know if requeening from 

 healthy Italian stock is a sure cure for Eu- 

 ropean foul brood; if not. what is ? 



California. 



Answkk.— Xo; the mere fact of requeen- 

 ing is not a cure. It is generally believed 

 that good Italian stock resists the disease 

 better than others, so that the introduction 

 of an Italian queen may be a help, although 



not a cure. Some believe that the only way 

 to treat European foul brood successfully 

 is to treat it the same as American foul 

 brood, by brushing the bees upon the foun- 

 dation. The late 1^ W. .Alexander made the 

 colony tiucenless. and 20 days later gave it a 

 queen-cell or a very young virgin of Italian 

 stock. That left the colony 27 days or more 

 without any eggs being laid. I have treated 

 cases without any eggs being laid for a week 

 or 10 days, a number of cases that were not 

 very bad, merely having the queen caged 

 the proper time. While this deciueening 

 plan may be said to be on trial. 1 have much 

 faith in it. and in my own practice prefer it. 



Increasing Ventilation— Dividing 



I. As I am ;i ■-tu<leiu in bn'ilom. I am try- 

 ing to learn a little every day. not only in my 

 yard, which I started 2 months ago. but also 

 from all obtainable reading matter. 



Now. there is one main question whichi 

 do not find answered anywhere. In Root's 

 " A B (.' of Bee Culture" it is suggested to 

 put 4 blocks under the brood-chamber in 

 order to give the colony more ventilation. 

 This I have tried for the first time today, 

 and found that it was just the thing. I have 

 never seen my bees as busy as today. 



But, while the colony can hardly be guard- 

 ing all 4 sides of the hive all day long, is 

 there not danger from robHiie' And how 

 about the wax-molh miller? Is it advis- 

 able to leave those blocks intheir places 1/.71' 

 i;w./«/i-///, or should they be taken out eve- 

 nings ? 



2- I bought some bees this spring, and one 

 colony had two brood chambers, one on top 

 of the other. Now. I have read somewhere, 

 if a man is after toinh honey, c/z/r ^wc of those 

 brood-chambers should be allowed. So I 

 took off the h'u-fr hive, expecting all the 

 bees to be above. But I was mistaken- 

 There was a bunch also in the lower story. 

 I put this liive on a new stand, and expected 

 the bees to return to the main colony. But 

 they stnvrd and worked as though nothing 

 had happened. So I ordered a queen and 

 introduced it according to the directions, 

 but I could not find any eggs when I investi- 

 gated about a week later. The bees are 

 carrying pollen and honey, and what I would 

 like to know is this: Is it a sign of young 

 brood when bees carry pollen ? Iowa. 



Answers.— I. While I value greatly the 

 matter of giving abundant ventilation. I'm 

 afraid you are giving it more credit than it 

 deserves, when you think it increases no- 

 ticeably the amount of work a colony does 

 the very first day. The special value of this 

 abundant ventilation lies in the fact that it 

 does something toward making the bees 

 more comfortable, thus doing at least a lit- 

 tle toward keepingdownswarming. It would 

 be too much work to raise the hive and 

 lower it daily. No need to lessen the venti- 

 lation until cooler weather comes for good, 

 or at least uniil danger of swarming is over 

 Don't worry about moths or robbers if the 

 colony is strong. The bees will take care 



of themselves, I don't know just how the 

 moths manage it, but they seem to work 

 their way into a hive even if the entrance be 

 only large enough for a single bee; but the 

 bees will not allow them to make any head- 

 way even if all the combs are exposed, al- 

 ways provided the colony be strong, and es- 

 pecially if the bees are Italian. 



2. Bees can protect their stores better if 

 these stores are above the brood, so you 

 would generally find the bees in the lower 

 instead of in the upper story. However, 

 they may have their brood-nest in either, or 

 in both. 



I ha\e great respect for men of the cloth, 

 and it would not be polite in me to dispute 

 your word, but I feel quite sure you are mis- 

 taken in thinking that when you put the 

 lower story on a new stand the bees " stayed 

 and worked as if nothing had happened." I 

 don't want to encourage you to become a 

 gambler, but if you were one, and if I were, 

 too. I'd count it a safe thing to stake heavy 

 odds on it that every last tiehl-bee returned 

 to the old location the first time it returned 

 from the field. 



That you found no eggs in the hive a week 

 after the introduction of the queen raises 

 thesuspicion that no ciueen may be present. 

 Yet it sometimes happens that a queen may 

 be present more than a week after introduc- 

 tion before the eggs can be found. Although 

 it is generally said that carrying in pollen is 

 the sign that a queen is present, it is not 

 always reliable. You will find more pollen 

 generally in a quccniess colony than in a 

 queen right one. which shows that the bees 

 continue to accumulate pollen after they 

 have ceased to have brood to use it up. But 

 after a little there will be a falling otf in the 

 amount of pollen brought in. and you will 

 see the bees of the queenless colony bring- 

 ing in smaller loads, if they bring any. 



Bees Killing Each Other Remedy 



1. Will bees kill each otlur in their own 

 hive? 



2. I had a strong colony a month and a half 

 ago and they have almosJ gone to-nothing. 

 They are constantly fighting amongst them- 

 selves, and are neglecting the brood which 

 is dead in the cells. I can gather by the 

 pint bees that they have killed. At first I 

 thought they were robbing, so I moved the 

 hive about 4 miles, and I find it is still the 

 same. Kindly tell me what is the cause and 

 the remedy. New York. 



ANSVVER.S.— I. It often happens that one 

 bee will kill another in their own hive, pro- 

 vided they are young queens But under 

 normal conditions a worker will not kill an- 

 other worker of the same colony. 



2. I don't know what the trouble is. It 

 looks a little as if what you call fighting 

 might be the bees driving out diseased bees. 

 If there is further trouble, please give as 

 full particulars as possible either to this 

 office or to Dr. E. F. Phillips. Department of 

 .Agriculture, Washington. D. C. 



Binding Bee Journals — A Veil and Shirt 

 Combined 



I have learned some good things by study- 

 ing some back articles in the Bee Journal, 

 so I nail the old journals together one year 

 at a time with small nails driven in from 

 both sides, so that the nails pass each other 

 about four on a side. Tack a piece of board 

 or leather on each side. This will keep the 

 nails from pulling through. 



I would like to describe a veil for the 

 benefit of all bee-keeping friends. It is a 

 perfect bee-veil I read about it in Glean- 

 ings in Bee Culture for Sept. i. igio. page 

 55rt. Kor those who do not want to look it 

 up. I will describe it. Take an old work 

 shirt and cut the collar out large enough so 

 that you can get your head through easily. 

 Hem in a small piece of wire in lieu of a 

 collar. Now get a piece of l-i inch rope and 

 sew it to the wire collar all around to form 

 a lip to hold the rubber-cord of the veil. 

 The top elastic goes around the hat. and the 

 bottom one around the wire in the shirt, 

 thus you have a perfect veil, fixed so the 

 bees can not get in, and yet you are free and 



comfortable. I want to thank Mr. Fowls for 

 this, for I had never been fixed so that bees 

 could not get in my veil until I read his plan. 

 R. E. HlCKOK. 

 Christiansburg. Va.. May 4. 



Foul Brood in Nebraska 



This is 25 miles from Hastings. Nebr. The 

 loss of bees here last winter was about w 

 percent or more. What are left pick up 

 slowly. We are having rains now and they 

 are doing better. We had some foul brood 

 last summer, but I have not seen any this 

 spring. I have insisted on all the old combs 

 being burned, and am in hopes that it is gone 

 for good, but that is too good to expect. 

 1. T. Kellie, 



Heartwell. Xebr. Hen- Inspector. 



Spring Dwindling Causes Loss 



I think this is the worst spring I ever saw 

 for bees. My bees wintered in good shape, 

 but April and May have been so cold and 



