JUNE 1, 1913 



387 



the pollen trees and shrubs are killed from the late 

 heavy frosts v hii h visited us in all parts of Califor- 

 nia. The willows and cottonwoods will, no doubt, 

 bloom later, as only the limbs are dead. Other shrubs 

 seem to be completely killed. 



Lonoak, Cal. C. K. Ercanbrack. 



Equipment for Production of Comb Honey 



Dr. C. C. Miller .- — After nine years' experience 

 with extracted honey I think I'd like to go back 

 to the production of comb honey. Now, if you were 

 to start over with a new outfit, what super and style 

 of section would \ ou use ? How would you arrange 

 the inside, of the super? What kind of furniture? 

 Would you have two extracting lombs, one on each 

 outside? I had thought I'd like section-holders with 

 top-bars, then I would put the sections into the sec- 

 tion-holders and put the foundation in afterward 

 (full sheets). I have done so on a small scale, and 

 in this way no foundation is ever broken loose. Does 

 Fifty Years among the Bees give the whys and 

 wherefores ? 



Mr. Townsend speaks as though he likes the T 

 supers with two extracting combs, one on each out 

 side. He too figures the cost of production and tries 

 to cut it down. 



Battle Creek, Mich., April 27. Wm. C. Brown. 



[Dr. Miller, to whom the above questions were 

 addressed, replies:] 



I would use the T super, and it would likely be 

 with a ten-frame hive. Besides the T-tins, the only 

 furniture would be plain wooden separators and 

 little sticks to crowd between the tops of the sections 

 to keep sections square and prevent bee-glue. These 

 sticks are about 1/4 -inch by 3-32. I think I would 

 at least do some experimenting with an extracting- 

 comb at each side of the super. The sections would 

 be 4Vi X414 xl% beeway, tilled with full sheets of 

 foundation, top and bottom siarters. 



You will find twenty pages or so devoted to the 

 subject in " Fifty Years among the Bees." 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



Bee Paralysis or Poison ? 



We are experiencing a trouble here with our bees 

 that we have never had before in this section that I 

 know of, which is this: The bees are dying right 

 along. It seems to be the old bees that are affected, 

 and one would think it was caused by spraying were 

 it not for the fact that there has been no spraying 

 at all in this section. The brood is in fine shape, and 

 the young bees seem to come out all right ; yet the 

 colonies do not build up ; in fact, many of them are 

 going back rapidly, yet practically all colonics are 

 affected, and all yards that I know of are affected 

 about alike, and I know the conditions over quite a 

 bit of territory. We have never had any disease 

 here at all, to my knowledge, before the present 

 trouble. 



Some think it paralysis; but I do not think it is. 

 I have ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, and have 

 made a study of bees more or less for the last twelve 

 years, and must say that I am puzzled : but I am in- 

 clined to think that it is caused by gathering honey- 

 dew from the excessive amount that we have had 

 here all the spring on pine-trees. It has been in such 

 quantities that one could rub his hand on the grass 

 under the trees and get them coated with the sub- 

 stance. We have had much cool weather and espe- 

 cially nights, many days being so cool that the bees 

 would hardly get any flight at all ; and if I can see 

 any difference I think we have more dead bees after 

 the coolest weather. The ground in front of the 

 hives is covered with dead bees ; and in some in- 

 stances where there is grass it is even killed by the 

 dead bees. The combs are full (in all colonies that 

 are at all strong) of this honey-dew, and the queens 

 are laying finely. It is now 9 A. M., and I have 

 stopped writing long enough to run out and examine 



the fronts of the hives, and find fewer dead and dy- 

 ing bees than on last Tuesday morning when it had 

 been cooler than now. For the last day or so, say 

 three days, is has been fairly warm, almost hot. 

 Many of the bees are carried out alive, but sick, and 

 hop around on the ground, sometimes living over 

 night in this sick condition. They look swollen and 

 slick, while the majority are dead when carried out. 

 Rock Mount, Va., May 2. B. L. Fisher. 



[Notwithstanding what you say to the contrary, 

 we should be very strongly inclined to believe that 

 what is killing your bees is paralysis. Your prelim- 

 inary description rather points in that direction, and 

 the last sentence of the next to the last paragraph 

 seems to leave no doubt of it in our minds. No form 

 of honey-dew, nor any honey, in fact, that we have 

 ever known any thing about, will cause the kind of 

 malady you describe. Your bees might possibly have 

 b?en poisoned ; but we hardly think that is prob- 

 able in view of the last sentence referred to in the 

 next to the last paragraph, especially where you say 

 " they look swollen and slick." This is a very unmis- 

 takable symptom of bee-paralysis, and, taken in con- 

 nection w'ith all the rest you say, makes it very clear 

 to us that there is nothing else the matter with your 

 bees. 



If you will follow the directions given by Mr. O. 

 O. Poppleton, who has had as large an experience 

 with it as any one, as given under " Bee Paralysis," 

 in the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, you wiU 

 be doing about all that you can do for them, because 

 we do not know of any easy and simple cure. One 

 thing we would suggest, we would isolate all the sick 

 colonies and locate them in a yard by themselves. 

 We would change the queen in all the colonies, and 

 then practice the treatment recommended by Mr. 

 Poppleton. — Ed.] 



Why do Swarms Cluster Before Leaving ? 



On p. 502, Aug. 1.5, 1912, you give my theory as 

 to the possible reason " why swarms cluster." I 

 wish you would again put it before your readers, 

 asking those who might desire to test it to report 

 results. 



We have by the " wing-clipping method " a decid- 

 ed aid in handling primary swarms; but it is the 

 after-swarms that not only can and do make us 

 climb, but that sometimes beat us completely; and it 

 wouldn't hurt a bit if one more slat could be added 

 to the knowledge our older veterans have given us 

 on handling this problem. 



One day after the issuing of a swarm from a hive 

 wherein all eggs had been hatched and all brood 

 beyond the possibility of making into queens, I de- 

 stroyed all the queen-cells and allowed the swarm 

 witli a queen to hang as long as the bees would. 

 After remaining clustered for an hour and a quarter 

 they quickly broke; and before I got to the second 

 fence they were ahead of me, though I was doing 

 my best to keep up. At a distance of about 50 rods 

 they had abruptly held up, and I was under them 

 again; but instead of being enmassed as they had 

 been, they were scattered ; and while I stood out in 

 front of their line of advance for a time, on getting 

 back to the apiary I found the swarm nicely hived 

 at the stand from which it had come. 



Sterling, 111., May 6. A. B. Anthony. 



Bees that Would Not go Out of the Pound Pack- 

 ages 



In a shipment of some half-pound lots of bees I 

 received from Alabama there was one cage that had 

 been placed over the brood-frames in a super with 

 one end removed so they could escape to the brood- 

 frames. All had escaped from cages in 24 hours; 

 but in this one they would move back and forth to 

 brood-frames for several days. So, upon examination 

 I had discovered they had started to build comb in 

 the little cage in which they came. I also may add 



