August. 1(112. 



American Vee Journal 



at that time of the year. I may add 

 also, that the estimate of l")'"' young 

 bees per day is exceeded when the 

 brood-rearing is at its best. 



Concerning the half pound of honey 

 consumed to keep up the temperature, 

 keep the bees alive, etc., it seems to me 

 too small. Divide half a pound bv 

 20,(1(10 or :!0,00(l bees, and the amount 

 allotted to each one will look ridicu- 

 lously inadequate. 



The half pound for wax production, 

 and that for brood-rearing, are rather 

 too small than too large ; so we may 

 set the consumption of honey for the 

 10(1 days at something over lij pounds 

 every day, say 1(10 or 170 pounds in all. 

 After the flow comes oO or (iO days dur- 

 ing which very little work is done. 

 The daily consumption must fall con- 

 siderably, perhaps as low as K pound. 

 We may guess at 30 or 35 pounds for 

 that period. But it is a guess sure 

 enough. 



Then comes the winter to which we 

 may allow I'l pounds of honey actually 

 consumed ; this may be too much in 

 some cases and too little in others. 

 Taking it all in all, the estimation of 

 200 pounds a year is rather below than 

 above the mark for a good colony in 

 ordinary circumstances. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



Closing the Season 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes that he has 

 had considerable trouble in removing 

 the section-honey at the close of the 

 season, eitherfrom robber-bees getting 

 the start of him when he is taking the 

 honey from the hives, or from not get- 

 ting the sections free of bees, or from 

 both, and requests that I give the read- 

 ers of the American Bee Journal some 

 advice along that line. 



There is no season of the year, un- 

 less it be in early spring, when robber- 

 bees are likely to be so troublesome as 

 immediately after the honey harvest. 

 Up to this time the bees have been ac- 

 tive in the field, bringing in nectar to 

 a more or less extent every day. They 

 are now kept from work, and are on 

 the lookout for any sweets that may be 

 exposed: hence, are very readily taught 

 to become active robbers. This makes 

 the removal of the honey from the dif- 

 ferent colonies in the bee-yard, at this 

 period, a big undertaking for the nov- 

 ice. Often the veteran is caught un- 

 awares. 



When once, by mismanagement, a lot 

 of robbers have been educated to a 

 new vocation, the apiarist has some- 

 thing (juite unpleasant on hand. Suc- 

 cess lies in )iol cditcalinff. Many are 

 very careless at this point. Carelessly 

 leaving the honey-room door open, 

 leaving a frame or two containing 

 honey outside of a hive, thinking "I 

 will be back in a moment," a crack or 

 crevice here and there about the su- 

 pers, etc., where bees can get a start 

 on stolen sweets, caused an unpleasant- 

 ness about the apiary for some time to 

 come, and especially at this time of the 

 year, when we wish to work at taking 

 off honey. 



If thoroughness is used, so that no 

 bees can get a load of stolen sweets, the 

 bees will iiuiet down into contentment 



soon after nectar - gathering ceases. 

 While waiting two nr three days for 

 this contentment to come on. prepare 

 everything for the removal of the su- 

 pers of section honey, so the same can 

 be secure from robber-bees the mo- 

 ment they are off the hives. As a matter 

 of course, there will be a greater or 

 less number of bees that will adhere 

 to the supers, unless the Porter bee- 

 escapes are used, and even with them 

 some bees will remain, unless we leave 

 the supers on these escapes for several 

 days. Therefore, it is always best to 

 make some provision for the escape of 

 the bees that are carried in with the 

 supers, when they are taken to the 

 honey-room. 



.\s bees, in leaving these supers, will 

 go to the window of the honey-room, 

 and, when there, will always run toward 

 the top of the window, there is little 

 trouble with them. On the outside of 

 the window frame nail a strip of wire- 

 cloth, such as is used on windows and 

 doors to keep flies out, allowing this 

 wire cloth to extend a foot above the 

 top of the window, keeping it out and 

 away from the outside of the building, 

 immediately above the center of the 

 window ->s of an inch, and you will 

 have a bee-escape at all times when the 

 top sash of the window is lowered, by 

 means of which the bees will go out 

 into the open air, and from there 

 home; while any robbers which may 

 be attracted by the smell of the honey, 

 will not thinkof going so farabove the 

 spot where the smell comes out, to find 

 the only opening through which they 

 could reach this coveted honey. 



At least, after using such an arrange- 

 ment for more than 30 years, I have 

 never known of a single bee finding its 

 way into the honey-room through it. 

 No room in which honey is stored 

 should be considered linished until it 

 has such an escape on the outside of 

 each window. 



Having things in readiness for the 

 removal of the supers, at your leisure 

 raise the same on your bee-escape 

 boards, preferably in the early morn- 

 ing, when these raised supers may be 

 taken to the honey-room the next 

 morning. If you have a spring wheel- 

 barrow, you can take several of these 

 supers to the honey-room at once. I 

 consider such a wheelbarrow one of 

 the most valuable assets about the api- 

 ary. By having what is known as a 

 "robber-cloth" to cover the supers as 

 soon as they are removed from the 

 hive to the wheelbarrow, this wheel- 

 barrow load can be protected from 

 robber-bees sufficiently to allow work 

 at removing the honey all day long, if 

 necessary. 



If you do not use bee-escape boards 

 for the removal of section honey at 

 the end of the season, procure two or 

 more of the robber-cloths, using one 

 for the wheelbarrow, and the other for 

 driving the bees out of the supers. To 

 best do this, with a clamp fasten one 

 side of this cloth to the further side of 

 the super, after the cover has been re- 

 moved, allowing it to lie flat over the 

 open tops of the sections. When ready, 

 with your smoker in trim so it will give 

 a large volume of smoke, raise the 

 edge of the robber-cloth next to you, 

 blowing in two or three good puflfs of 

 smoke, when you will " flop " the cloth 



up and down by a quick up and down 

 motion of the hand while holding it, 

 blowing in more smoke with every two 

 or three flops, and almost before you 

 know it. Oil out of every 100 bees will 

 be driven from the sections to the 

 brood-combs below, the bees often 

 stampeding out at the entrance of the 

 hive., 



Now drop the smoker and cloth, and 

 lift the supers from the hive to the 

 wheelbarrow "instanter," before the 

 bees " flock " back, which they will do 

 almost as rapidly as they stampeded 

 the other way. While I generally use 

 the bee-escape boards, yet where this 

 robber-cloth-smoking process is used, 

 I get less mutilation of the sealing to 

 the sections if there is a little unsealed 

 honey in a super, than I do with the 

 escapes. With the escapes, the bees 

 never leave the supers until they fill 

 themselves with honey, and if there are 

 no unsealed cells containing honey, 

 they are always sure to bite through 

 the cappings of the sealed honey to get 

 what they want before passing down 

 through the escapes. But with the 

 smoke and the robber-cloth-flopping 

 plan, they are stampeded below before 

 they even think of taking a particle of 

 honey. 



However, if you are too slow in get- 

 ting off the supers, so that the bees 

 will flock back again, the cappings of 

 the cells will be torn far worse than 

 they will where the escapes are used. 

 Of course, the few bees which still re- 

 main in the supers, after using the 

 smoke plan, will fill themselves with 

 honey after the supers have reached 

 the honey-room; but as there are so 

 few left, it must be a more completely 

 finished super than is generally found, 

 not to give enough unsealed honey to 

 fill these few bees. And I have never 

 known bees to open sealed cells for 

 honey as long as there is honey in un- 

 sealed cells to supply their needs for 

 this filling. 



Is 90 Percent of So-Called Eu- 

 ropean Foul Brood Starved 

 Brood ? 



BY A. L. KILDOW, 



Illinois State Apiarian /nsfidlor. 



I noticed in a recent number of the 

 American Bee Journal that Mr. Mc- 

 Evoy states that 90 percent of the so- 

 called European foul brood is starved 

 brood. I must take exception to that 

 statement unless he qualifies it and 

 says " for Canada." If he does that, I 

 have nothing to say; but if it is meant 

 for the whole country, I object so far 

 as the State of Illinois is concerned. 



I have been doing inspection work 

 for three seasons, and I think I am 

 fairly well posted as to bee-diseases, 

 and am satisfied that I can tell one kind 

 from the other at a glance. In the 

 article Mr. McEvoy gives his diagnosis 

 of European foul brood, and it is prac- 

 tically the same as mine. I have ex- 

 amined hundreds of colonies this sea- 

 son, and I find a very small amount of 

 starved brood and a little pickled brood, 

 but it is no trouble for me to tell the 

 difference between starved brood and 

 European foul brood. If Mr. McEvoy 

 would just reverse his statement and 



