DECEMBER 15, 1915 



1041 



Spreading Brood 



For years I liavo followed with excellent results 

 the advice of Doolittle on sprer.ding brood. My rule 

 is never to spread a brood-nest till I have four 

 combs of brood. Why ? Because there are not 

 enough bees to cover e.Ktra brood space. I never 

 shift the pollen combs, for they are as important 

 to the welfare of the colony as the honey. My 

 arrangement is as follows: 



Pollen 

 Brood 

 Brood 

 Old comb filled with honey 

 Brood 

 Brood 

 Pollen 



P. C. Chadwick, page 883, November 1, quoting 

 Mr. Doolittle, who says, page 750, September 15, 

 ■■ Any comb that is to be put between combs of 

 brood should he full of honey, and that honey pref- 

 erably sealed, adds that he would thank no one for 

 retarding the work of his queen in any such man- 

 ner. He says spreading brood should never be done 

 unless conditions are such as to induce the queen 

 to fill an inserted comb in 24 to 48 hours. 



Mr. Chadwick's comment is misleading. Doolittle 

 does not mean the honey is to be sealed when in- 

 serted in the hive. What he undoubtedly means is 

 a well-ripened comb of honey, for he says further 

 on, " The cappings to the cells should be broken by 

 passing a knife flatwise over them before the comb 

 is inserted between the frames of brood." 



ANTiat happens when an old comb of bruised hon- 

 ey is given to a colony of four combs of brood and 

 two of honey ? The bees at once set to work to 

 clean up the bruised honey ; and in moving the 

 honey the queen is offered more food, with the re- 

 sult of more eggs. Meanwhile the bees have been 

 busy polishing and cleaning the center frame, leav- 

 ing. an arc of honey ideal to the bees for an early 

 brood-nest. The old comb with its numerous layers 

 of cocoons is warmer than a thin new comb, and 

 retains the animal heat — vital to the interests of 

 the broodnest at this time of the year. The four 

 combs of brood are daily giving more nurse bees 

 necessary to take care of the increase of eggs, etc., 

 and, as Doolittle says, there is undoubtedly a gain 

 in time, but unless we want this gain in time it 

 may prove better to see to it in autumn that there 

 are " millions of honey at our house," and leave 

 the rest to the bees. Joseph Gray. 



protects them from the east winds, and the wood 

 protects them from the west. I have never noticed 

 much troulile from the bees drifting. 



Aitkin, Minn. WiLLIAM CEAIQ. 



A Simple Four-colony Winter Case 



Here is a description of a winter case which 

 Irvin Ware, of Chesaning, Alichigan, a partner of 

 mine in the bee business, built for our bees. I 

 helped to pack them before I came up here this 

 fall. 



First he makes a bottom-board about eight inches 

 longer than the length of the hive, and then makes 

 sides and ends about four inches higher. These are 

 all put together with clamps. This gives four 

 inches room for packing on both sides and ends, 

 and over the top. 



There is an alighting-board six or eight inches 

 wide. Slats half an inch thick are nailed on the 

 bottom-board, and the hive rests on these. A four- 

 inch board laid flat on these slats at the front of 

 the hive holds up the packing material and permits 

 the bees to pass in and out. 



When the hives were all packed, and the cases 

 clamped together, we covered them with tar paper. 

 With this kind of winter case we can leave them 

 packed just as long as we wish in the spring, as 

 they rest on these stands winter and summer, the 

 bottom-boards resting on blocks and stones. 



These colonies winter faring eastward, on the 

 east side of ten acres of a thick wood. There is a 

 little rise in the land just east of the bees that 



The Net-weight Law and Its Application 



Have ,vou a copy of tlic not-weiiclit law of New 

 Jersey ? If not, whore can I get it ? The groceries 

 here are selling honey without being stamped. I 

 have told them it will have to be stamped, and they 

 say, " No, we don't sell it by the pound. We sell 

 it by the box." Now, have they a right to sell it 

 that way? Whom can I write to, to stop it! 



Monroe, N. J. Johk K. Kimble. 



[Unless your own state has a net-weight law of 

 its own, independent of the federal law, the grocer 

 is not compelled to mark the net weight on the sec- 

 tion, neither is any local beekeeper. But any gro- 

 cer or beekeeper, or any one else, in fact, who 

 attempts to send a shipment of comb honey into an- 

 other state must mark every section with the mini- 

 mum net weigiit on the section itself. — Ed.] 



Onion Juice a Remedy for Bee-stings 



I am curious to know whether anybody besides 

 our family and friend have ever tried onion juice 

 as a remedy for stings. Our experience has been 

 this — that if the sting is immediately and carefully 

 removed, and if a slice of raw onion is gently press- 

 ed and worked over the punctured skin, all pain 

 ceases in about ten minutes, and little or no swelling 

 follows. The relief is immediate. 



If a small piece of ice is put on the slice of on- 

 ion, and the whole bound to the affected part with 

 a strip of cloth, the effect is even better; but ordi- 

 narily a drop or two of fresh juice squeezed from 

 the onion slice will do the business with me, if the 

 application is immediate. I am curious to know 

 what others have to say about this cure for a bee- ^ 

 sting. The whole credit for the cure belongs to my 

 wife. J. RowE Webstee. 



Lexington, Mass. 



[Any cooling application, whether it be snow, ice, 

 mud, a wet rag, or slice of an onion, would tend to 

 relieve the pain from a sting. The pain will usu- 

 ally be gone in ten minutes any way. We doubt if 

 there is any virtue in the juice of an onion itself. 

 .Vs a genera! thing the puncture made by a sting is 

 so very minute that it is entirely closed when a 

 slight swelling takes place. It is practically impos- 

 sible to get any remedial agent into the wound itself 

 unless it be opened with the point of a lance or 

 knife. — Ed.] 



Borax Exterminates Boaches 



W^hen I took charge of the Kanawha County In- 

 firmary the kitchen, dining-room, toilet-rooms, and 

 the whole building, as well as the superintendent's 

 residence, was creeping with roaches. I took pow- 

 dered borax, sprinkled it along the steam-pipes, 

 around the sinks and commodes, from the basement 

 to attic. In two weeks not a roach was to be found, 

 either dead or alive, and they have not returned to 

 this date. The roaches Iiad been in the buildings 

 for ten years. 



Institute, W. Va. M. K. Malcolm. 



Hornets Puncture the Grapes and the Bees 

 Suck the Juices 



Referring to the editorial in the November 15th 

 issue, I have liecn watching this matter very closely, 

 and find that hornets, wasps, and yellow-jackets 

 often puncture the grapes, and then the bees get 

 busy on the damaged fruit. If I were on a jury I 

 would say that bees are not guilty, for they are 

 harmless j-o far as sound fruit is concerned. 



Cabot, Pa. W. F. Ebert. 



