NOVEMBER IS. 1915 



933 



A NEW WRINKLE IN HIVE -COVERS 



BY E. M. CROW 



The accompanying illustration shows a 

 device which I am using with a great deal 

 of satisfaction in my beeyard. For want of 

 a better name it might be called a combina- 

 tion hive-cover and nucleus-box. 



The box is made of tw' pieces of 5%- 

 inch bevel siding 20 inches long (i/2-iiich 

 stuff of even thickness would be better), 

 and two end blocks % x 5 x 5% inches deep. 

 It will hold three shallow extracting- frames. 

 Projecting from the lower edge of the box 

 on either side is a double cover made of tAvo 

 pieces of bevel siding 20 inches long, held 

 apart by three %-inch cleats. This makes a 



cover just right for a ten-frame hive. A 

 %-i"t:'i board, G inches wide and 20 long, 

 makes a good cover for the nucleus-box 

 part. 



The uses to which this appliance may be 

 put are varied. In the first place it is a 

 No. 1 hive-cover for hot or cold weather; 

 and if kept painted it will last as long as 

 any other cover. Should you wish to re- 

 queen a colony, put a frame of brood and 

 bees with a ripe cell in the box over the 

 doomed queen, with a wire cloth between, 

 and the flight-hole open to the rear. When 

 the new queen has mated, and is laying, 

 quietly remove the old queen and the wire 

 cloth, and there you are with no time lost. 



Do you wish to feed a colony? You have 

 but to place four pepper-box feeders in the 

 box directly on the brood-frames, and the 

 work is done. Queen-rearing can be carried 

 on in almost any kind of weather by the 

 use of these boxes over a strong colony 

 with wire cloth between. 



The use of the bevel siding for the roof 

 part gives a good pitch to the upper sur- 

 face while the under side is held level by 

 end cleats. 



De Soto, Mo. 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE IN WASHINGTON 



BY T. D WIGHT WHITMAN 



There was practically no crop of honey 

 locally, and considerable loss of bees from 

 what I consider a form of the disease known 

 as Isle of Wight disease. Either from this 

 disease or the fumes from our local smelter, 

 which was treating more copper than usual, 

 and which killed the peas t.nd beans, and 

 showed on the foliage of my trees, I lost 

 eighteen out of twenty stands. The two 

 that survived were helped out with brood 

 from Puyallup. I used the uncapped honey 

 from the hives that died to see if it had any 

 injurious effect on the bees. Apparently it 

 did not. Only the adult bees were affected, 

 the loss of brood leing from chilling. The 

 colonies lost strength so rapidly that they 

 could not take care of the brood they had. 

 The queen laid to the last, but with fewer 

 and fewer eggs. 



Of the two hives that I have left, one still 

 shows symptoms of the disease. The other 

 seems to have got entirely rid of it. Both 

 were treated exactlv alike, and both fed 



with the uncapped honey from the stands 

 which died. 



I am watching them closely to see what 

 the outcome will be. The bees were work- 

 ing and carrying in pollen in both hives 

 today. Goldenrod and catnip are in bloom. 



The disease, whatever it was, seemed to 

 affect old and young adult bees except the 

 drones, which were not affected. In the 

 early morning the ground in front of the 

 hives would be covered with bees seemingly 

 unable to fly. If the sun came out and 

 warmed them up, a large proportion would 

 fly away, but few would return to the hive. 

 Their bodies would be distended. When 

 squeezed, some appeared to be empty, oth- 

 ers full of a white watery matter, otliers as 

 when thej' have dysentery. Dead bees had 

 protruding tongues. There was no trem- 

 bling, nor motions of the wings. They 

 gathered in bunches on a rock or piece of 

 wood in front nf the hive, and seemed with- 

 out ambition to do anything. 



Tacoma, Wash. 



