OCTOBER 15, 1915 



863 



it is almost impossible to rear queens artificially, for 

 the larva' almost always die. Even in colonies that 

 showed no trace of the disease among other brood, 

 it would develop in the queen-cells. The giving of 

 Itali.in nui'ens nft*r keeping the colonies queenless 

 for ten da\ s or longer removed all traces of the dis- 

 ease amoTjg worker and drone brood in all but two 

 colonies, and these were not very strong when the 

 queeiis were introduced; so the queens were re- 

 moved and brood given from healthy colonies from 

 wnich tJiey succeeded in raising queens, and there 

 are no traces of disease among them since the young 

 q'leins have begun laying. 



I tried the McEvoy plan of treatment at first, but 

 found it useless, as the bees were all blacks. It did 

 succeed, however, with an isolated colony of a 

 neighbor, though they were almost if not quite pure 

 Italians. 



Tangent, Ore., Sept. 23. H. E. Weisnee. 



[Your difficulty in requeening by tJie use of ripe 

 queen-cells is rather unusual. We don't know how 

 to account for it unless it was the peculiar season 

 we have been having of rainy, cool, and chilly 

 weatiier. Our own queen-rearing operations early 

 in the summer were greatly handicapped, and we 

 uttiribute it to the bad weather. During bad days 

 many virgins would get lost — at least a much larger 

 percentage tuan usual would fail to mate. 



Wo have not heard of cases before where the 

 l<irv;n in iiueen-cells would die in colonies where 

 there had previously been European foul brood. 

 Have otJiers had a similar experience? It would 

 look as if European foul brood could be in a colony 

 and not show itself in the worker brood. — Ed.] 



Well-known Beekeeper Loses Hand in Circu- 

 lar Saw 



Dear Mr. Jioot : — I fell on a circular saw yester- 

 day, and cut off all my fingers and the tihumb of my 

 left hand, and I want you to help me in my trouble. 

 You must have among your fifty thousand readers 

 some beekeepers who are or have been in the same 

 predicament as myself, and who can, perhaps, sug- 

 gest some attwchment that I can get made to put on 

 tiie palm of my hand to enable me to pull combs out 

 of the hives and carry on my business as a beekeep- 

 er. I c.in hear of no artificial fingers here, although 

 I an' told I can get an artificial hand if I have mine 

 rut off at tlie wrist. If any one can make any sug- 

 gestions, will he kindly come along and thus help a 

 brother beekeeper who has a large business to attend 

 to, and a large family to maintain ? 



Major SHALiiARD. 



Sciitii Woodburn, N. S. W., Australia, Aug. 17. 



[1£ anv of our readers can suggest anything we 

 are sure that our friend would appreciate it if they 

 would communicate with him direct. It is fortunate 

 iiiderd ihat it is the left hand and not the right. 



Mr. S'lallard is greatly worried, of course. The 

 nccident took place Aug. 16. With the spring in 

 Australia opening about Sept. 1, it is not hard to 

 reaVize that such a handicap is indeed serious. — 

 Eu.l 



No Trouble in Wintering 



It has been ov.r practice for the past few years 

 to winter tlie cxtracting-supers on the hives. Some 

 are plaied above and some below as the case may 

 be. Our plan is to extract during midsummer, and 

 place the supers back on the hives, with the usual 

 qacen-exch'der between. 



During the fall, after the aster flow, we examine 

 all hives for winter stores, and test by weight. 

 Those found with just sufficient stores, or a little 

 more, are merely left alone, after removing the ex- 

 cluder, giving the queen access to the twenty frames. 



Tiie iioney will be found partly in all of the frames, 

 both above and below ; so if we extracted the upper 

 set, wo would have to feed back into the lower to 

 have sufficient stores. 



Those found with most of the stores in the lower 

 are sometimes simply reversed. Entrances are closed 

 down with the usual stick furnished with bottom- 

 boards, and about 6x i4-inch opening, which effec- 

 tually excludes mice. We are never troubled with 

 robbers. When the bees are wintering in the upper 

 super the lower stores are generally sealed, and do 

 not give ofi' sufiicient odor to attract. Besides, it is 

 coid and dark on bright days in the lower brood- 

 bodies, and strange bees do not readily enter. And 

 liien. again, when it is' sufficiently warm the occu- 

 pants, of the hives are down on deck and on guard. 



We find in the double hives that the bees do not 

 come out as often as those in a single body, and, 

 furthermore, breed up quicker and stronger in the 

 spring. The frames are protected from moths, which 

 is another advantage. Some of these twenty-frame 

 hives ,ire shaken down the following early summer 

 and used for comb honey. Others, again, are run 

 for extracted after locating the queen and placing 

 that super below, with the queen-excluder between. 

 YCe wint«>r on the summer stands, and never have 

 any trouble with aster stores. 



Cincirinau, Ohio. J. E. RoebLing. 



Empty Super under Colonies Wintered in a 

 Cellar 



Last fall I put ten-frame hive-bodies full of 

 honey over five very strong colonies. The bees 

 worked up into the upper hive-bodies. Very few 

 Ijtes died. I put an empty super under a strong 

 colony and another empty super under a weak 

 colony to observe the effect. Less than a hundred 

 bees died in either colony. All the hives are set 

 on bottom-boards two inches deep with screen in 

 front. The temperature of the cellar where they are 

 kept was from 42 to 50 degrees. The hygrometer 

 sliowed moisture from 20 to 60. The cellar is ven- 

 tilated by a chimney, and has a cement bottom in 

 which is a spring of water covered by a plank. I 

 used a fire in a wood-burning stove occasionally, to 

 dry excess moisture. I wintered thirty colonies and 

 lost none. I shall put empty supers under all my 

 colonies this fall. 



Plymouth, N. H. Geo. W. Doli.off. 



Home-made Mittens 



On page 527, .Tuly 1, Grace Allen asks, " Shall 

 \vc wear gloves?" This reminds me that when I 

 began handling bees I did not use either gloves or 

 laittens; but as I sometimes got my hands so badly 

 stung I soon decided to change. For years I have 

 used mittens which my wife makes of medium-weight 

 iied-ticking, with the ticking cut so as to make the 

 part for the fore finger like the fore finger of ;i 

 glove. The wrist is made flaring, and is about six 

 inches long so as to come up over the sleeve of what- 

 ( ver garment is worn. If such mittens are made to 

 fit neatly they will be quite satisfactory — at least I 

 have so found them. 



Huntington, Ind. J. W. Southwood. 



What would the Coroner Decide? 



Who can describe the appearance of a larva that 

 died froni arsenical poisoning as distinguished from 

 a larva dead from pickled brood, chilled brood, or 

 some other familiar cause? 



One consolation to those of us who find our bees 

 on staivation rations now when there normally 

 would be a surplus in the supers is that this is great 

 weather for producing white clover for next year's 

 crop. Benjamin F. Kirk 



