FEBRUARY 15, 1913 



1-27 



thing sprayed with it. The disease of which 

 I have written is the real so-called Ameri- 

 can foul brood, with which I have had to 

 contend most of the time, in- one or more 

 yards, for more than a dozen yeare, twice 

 having to melt the combs from an entire 

 yard. 



Meridian, Idaho. 



BEEKEEPING IN THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS 



The Progress in Apiculture as Seen by a Veteran 

 Beekeeper 



BY M. G. DERVISHIAN 



I am glad to say that, about twenty-nine 

 year ago, when I started beekeej^ing at the 

 town of Larnaca, on the island of Cyprus, 

 I was a reader of Gleanings for a few 

 years. Then I received a copy of the A B 

 C of Bee Culture. I sincerely confess that, 

 during the period of twenty-three years, 

 when I was without Gleanings^ I was a 

 loser. Two years ago I subscribed again 

 for Gleanings. I take great pleasure in 

 mentioning that the improvements in bee 

 culture during the last twenty years appear 

 to me to be wonderfully great. These im- 

 provements are, no doubt, attained to a great 

 extent through the instrumentality of the 

 beekeeping journals in which the exjoeri- 

 ences of many prominent beekepers are 

 concentrated and discussed for the benefit 

 of all the readers. 



Naturally, in the past twenty-three years 

 necessity and close observation have taught 

 me a few things which I now have the plea- 

 sure to put before my fellow beekeepers. 

 covering the tops of frames. 

 Many years ago I used to cover the tops 

 of the frames with oilcloth or with a thick 

 cotton cloth. I discarded the oilcloth be- 

 cause it kept the inside of the hive damp. 

 The use of the cotton cloth was becoming 

 \erj expensive because the bees were always 

 gnawing and piercing the cloth; and besides 

 this they wasted a great deal of their energy 

 in propolizing it. Each time, when the 

 cloth became worthless on account of many 

 holes in it, it was thrown away, together 

 with the propolis, as this could not be 

 scraped off and returned to the bees. I 

 therefore discarded the use of the cotton 

 cloth also, and commenced covering the top 

 of the frames with a thin wooden lid in 

 three pieces. At first I used to nail wooden 

 bars half an inch wide by one-fourth inch 

 thick around this lid in such a way as to 

 provide a bee-space between the tops of the 

 frames and the inner surface of the lid. 

 Seeing that, in so doing, the bees were 

 building bridges and wasting wax and pro- 



polis I discarded this kind of lid and replac- 

 ed it with wooden bars about three-eighths 

 inch thick and two and three-quarters inch 

 wide, each bar to cover exactly the tops of 

 two frames from end to end. These bars 

 are put flat on the lops of the frames with- 

 out leaving any bee-space. I have twelve 

 frames in each hive, and I use six such 

 wooden covers for eveiy hive. This ar- 

 rangement gives me great facility of move- 

 ment, as I can remove as many as I like of 

 these six covers; and I scrape off the small 

 amount of propolis, which I return to the 

 bees. For re-covering the tops of the frames 

 I slide the scraped faces of these bars (cov- 

 ers) on the frames longitudinally, commenc- 

 ing from the ends of the frames. In this 

 way not a bee remains between the tops of 

 the frames and the cover; for when sliding 

 the bees (if any) are pushed away. I found 

 this last method of covering bees to be the 

 most economical and the safest. The use of 

 smoke for driving bees down from the tops 

 of the frames is obviated. I find that it is 

 desirable to make use of smoke as seldom as 

 possible. 



MY WAY of manufacturing COMB FOUNDA- 

 TION. 



Within twenty-nine years I have received 

 three comb-foundation machines. Accord- 

 ing to my idea I have made a step forward 

 in the manufacture of foundation. I make 

 use of sheet glass (strips of ordinary win- 

 dow pane) dipi)ers instead of sandpapered 

 wooden dii^pers. So I save the trouble of 

 sandpapering the wood, and I get better 

 and more even sheets. Another advantage 

 of the glass dippers is that glass cools 

 quickly. In case, through a mistake, the 

 wax sticks to the glass, I immediately clean 

 it with a very small piece of linen soaked in 

 a solution of carbonate of soda. For melt- 

 ing the wax T make use of a tall enameled 

 vessel. I put into this vessel about three 

 inches of water, and over this water I put 

 the wax and set it on a petroleum-stove. 

 When the wax has melted I reduce the flame 

 of the stove to such an extent as to keep 

 the wax in liquid state, but below the boil- 

 ing-point. All the imiDurities, if any, settle 

 down into the water. Then I wet the glass- 

 es and dip them one by one into the liquid 

 wax. I repeat this dipping three or four 

 times just to get the sheets of wax suffi- 

 ciently thick for passing them through the 

 rollers of the machine. Before putting the 

 wax sheets through the rollers I dip them 

 in water, warmed to about 90 F., until the 

 sheets become sufficiently soft. I find it is 

 essential that the rollers should be cool and 

 the wax just warm — i. e., soft enough to get 

 the desired even and thin comb foundation. 



