1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1199 



MR. LEVI HUMMELL AND HIS HOME-MADE HIVES. 



NAILS FOR SUPPORTING FRAMES. 



Leaves for Winter Packing. 



BY LEVI HUMMELL. 



I make my own hives, which are 18 inches 

 long, 12 wide, and 12 deep inside. I made the 

 frames after the Hoffman pattern, with the ex- 

 ception that the top-bar does not extend out. 

 For a support I use a finishing-nail. I think if 

 more would use nails to support the frame there 

 would not be so much trouble with propolis. 



I built a bee-house 8 ft. wide and 10 feet long. 

 In it I can winter 44 colonies packed with leaves. 



Winfield, Pa. 



[The use of nail supports as here described has 

 been before mentioned. We have tried them, 

 and so have others. The trouble seems to be 

 lack of strength, and, moreover, they are un- 

 pleasant to handle; but some, doubtless, will 

 like them. — Ed.] 



BEE-MOTH. 



Hovv^ and Why it Becomes Destructive to 

 Stored Comb Honey. 



BY WM. W. CASE. 



It is not the intent of this article to enter upon 

 a dissertation on the bee-moth, its life, habits, 

 etc., but to answer the oft-repeated question, 

 " Why is it I can not keep my comb honey from 

 being ruined by the bee-moth unless I fumigate 

 it at least twice.^" 



The quality of honey is never improved by 

 sulphur, and quite often it is more or less injured 

 by the fumigation — a process never necessary if 

 we rightly know the conditions under which the 

 bee-moth becomes destructive. There are but 



two causes of damage to comb honey by the bee- 

 moth. The first is slovenliness; the second is ig- 

 norance. Now, it is a well-known fact that the 

 larva; of the bee-moth, like all other larval life, 

 can not grow and develop without some source 

 of nitrogen, and that, deprived of nitrogen, it 

 immediately dies; and when we consider that the 

 pure honey-comb contains absolutely no nitrogen, 

 then we must also look to some outside source of 

 destruction separate from the comb itself — a source 

 of nitrogen. 



In stored comb honey there are just two sources 

 of nitrogen, without which it is impossible for 

 larval life to develop. The first, isolated cells 

 containing pollen; second, excessive travel-stain 

 — that ear-mark of slovenliness in the bee-keeper. 

 No matter how healthy a larva may be at hatch- 

 ing, unless it can immediately find some source of 

 nitrogenous food it almost immediately dies, 

 after, perhaps, having gnawed a pinhole '4 to '2 

 inch in length — one not sufficient to mar a comb 

 in the least — in fact, hard to detect with the naked 

 eye, and leaving its little pink starved body in 

 plain view on the surface. If it hatches in the 

 immediate neighborhood of a cell containing pol- 

 len it grows with amazing rapidity, and in a very 

 short time, especially in hot weather, may muss 

 and spoil half a dozen sections. Prevention — 

 store no honey containing a cell of pollen unless 

 you expect to fumigate, and that thoroughly. 



Again, if the larva hatches upon a comb more 

 or less travel-stained it will live for quite a long 

 time on the footprints, and in its frantic search 

 for nitrogen it will eat almost all such cappings 

 off before it dies, its roads (about the width of a 

 common pin) running in all directions over the 

 stained surface, ruining the comb, while it 

 eventually dies of starvation — its work, however, 

 being frequently laid to the lesser wax-moth, 

 Achirea grissclla, where, in fact, such lesser wax- 

 moth does not exist. 



