August, 1914. 



American Tiee Journal 



not stay much in a house or room that 

 is occupied by people or stock, but 

 once they get started they will soon 

 take possession of a remjte room or 

 house containing plunder or storing 

 room of any kind. 



In small colonies there will be about 

 as many roaches as bees in the hives 

 and around them, and they consume as 

 much honey, if not more, than the bees, 

 and they, too, will gnaw away the 

 comb. The bees seem to treat them 

 as their neighbors or friends, and not 

 as their foes, and live together in peace. 

 The roaches, as a rule, do not stay 

 right in the cluster of bees, but around 

 in the corners of the hives and places 

 where the bees cannot go, keeping 

 such places open so the bees cannot 

 close them up. 



I am at a loss to give a remedy or 

 plkn that will destroy this pest except 

 just killing them as you find them, but 

 I do know that though they may popu- 

 late a place ever so much, they will 

 after a while disappear entirely, and 

 possibly for several years not one will 

 be seen. 



Mr. J. M. Roach, a beekeeper of 

 Daisy, Ga., and another species of the 

 " roach " family, says " that he could 

 not get along in his bee-business with- 

 out roaches, for his wife and children 

 take an active part with him." Some 

 ■ beekeepers claim that the roaches con- 

 sume but very little honey during win- 

 ter, and that they help the bees in 

 small colonies to maintain heat. 



It is much easier to get rid of bee- 

 moths. Weak colonies should never be 

 allowed to have more comb than they 

 can occupy, for it is in this outside or 

 unoccupied comb that the moths de- 

 velop. Such comb should be removed 

 and set in a hive-body and placed over 

 a strong colony when there is no 

 honey-flow; but early in the spring 

 and during the honey-flow these 

 frames of comb can be exchanged for 

 frames of brood, and in this way weak 

 colonies may be built up to normal. 



It would not be advisable to plant 

 anything for your bees, for it would 

 surely fail during such a drouth. If it 

 had not been so dry you would at 

 least have had nectar enough coming 

 in to prevent starvation. You acted 

 wisely by feeding. 



As soon as your bees start building 

 up again, you might introduce some 

 Italian queens, but not at present, for 

 you may have some losses from the 

 run down condition. 



Cleaning Out Combs 



The cut here shown illustrates how I 

 have my combs cleaned of honey after 

 extracting. These combs are placed 

 back in the supers and then set out in 

 the open at the edge of the apiary, just 

 a few steps from the extracting room. 

 They are set on ends, so if it rains the 

 water will not fill the combs. During 

 a sultry day the bees will not make 

 much headway cleaning them because 

 the adhering honey is very thick and 

 gummy, but during the night the damp 

 cool atmosphere will soften it and it is 

 all quickly removed by the bees next 

 morning. 



I have practiced this for years, and 

 no trouble by robbing has ever oc- 

 curred, although there are over 100 



WiLDER's Method of Cleaning Up Combs. 



colonies in this yard, and sometimes a 

 number of weak ones. This keeps them 

 busy, and they never "nose" or bother 

 about the extracting house, the doors 

 of which are sometimes left open for 

 an hour or more. They seem not to 

 see or think of anything except these 

 supers. They never tear down any 

 comb in these supers. 



This picture was taken early one 

 morning, just after they had left them. 

 No bees are around them, and a team 

 is driven right up to them and they are 

 loaded on. This might appear as a 

 bad practice and dangerous to under- 

 take on account of robbing, etc. I don't 

 think it would be if they were started 

 early in the spring while the honey 



flow was yet on, and kept up until all 

 extracting was done. It is surely not 

 any more dangerous than giving the 

 wet combs back to the bees directly. 

 This is certainly convenient, and if the 

 supers set out several days, there will 

 be but little danger from the moth. 



While I am on this subject let me 

 say that as I was looking over one of 

 my apiaries with my apiarist, I found a 

 frame of comb left out leaning beside 

 a hive, and it contained considerable 

 honey. I asked him how that hap- 

 pened, and he said he overlooked it 

 while manipulating frames, but, said I, 

 " Why didn't the robber.^ take to it ?" 

 He stated that on the week before lie 

 left a super of honey setting on end 



J. J. WiLDER's Mountain Home. 



