562 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



every other day. Spring stimulation (which I think 

 is a grave mistake) will be unnecessary, as the 

 bees will have an abundance of stores, and young 

 vigorous bees to convert these stores into brood 

 just as soon as pollen is available, which, in this 

 locality, is about Feb. 10. Pushing a colony to 

 its utmost by feeding, after a winter's siege, in 

 its somewhat weakened condition, is folly, and al- 

 ways ends in a protracted lull in brood-rearing 

 just as soon as the feeding is stopped, and often 

 in a supersedure of good queens at a time when 

 every day counts. 



Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 6. Albin Platz. 



Sixty Cents' Worth of Syrup Saved Colonies that 

 had Produced $15 Worth of Honey 



Publishing a weekly newspaper for a living has 

 been my occupation for several years ; but during 

 this time I have had much experience with bees. 

 I have been associated with those who have learned 

 much about the business, and for several years 

 I have kept from twenty-five to fifty colonies. While 

 my bees have paid me well for the time I have 

 given them, they have also given me the oppor- 

 tunity of learning the business — that is, what I 

 know about it. Three years ago I began to make 

 increase, and now I am running 175 colonies in 

 one yard, and am giving about half of my time 

 to them during May, June, and July. 



In 1911, 110 colonies yielded over 7500 pounds 

 of bulk comb honey, which was sold at 20 cts. a 

 pound. I live in the sourwood belt of Piedmont, 

 North Carolina, and it is no trouble to sell this 

 fine honey at a good price. After the honey har- 

 vest was over, which was the last of July, I 

 turned my attention to the newspaper and paid 

 almost no attention to the bees until the time 

 came to prepare them for winter. They had in- 

 creased until there were 160 colonies in the yard. 

 When I examined them in October I found them 

 so poor that it was distressing. Strong colonies — 

 that is, strong in bees — were almost entirely out of 

 honey. Many had less than a pound. How to 

 feed so many, and do it at once, was a problem. 

 I had a local factory make fifty boxes the same 

 size as a brood-frame, and as wide as three frames. 

 Then I removed three brood-frames from each col- 

 ony and gave one of these new boxes to each 

 colony that I expected to feed at once. With 

 boxes ready I would pour 300 pounds of water 

 in the extractor and mix 300 pounds of granulated 

 sugar with the water. .Just before night I poured 

 ten pounds of this sugar syrup into the feeders, 

 and by the next afternoon it would all be taken 

 and stored in the combs. After giving each colony 

 20 pounds of syrup I removed the feeders to other 

 colonies and thus the whole yard was fed. It 

 was with some fear that I waited to see how the 

 bees would come out in the spring with so small 

 a quantity of feed; but, to my delight, when they 

 were examined the first of March of this year I had 

 155 colonies in what I consider fine condition, and 

 every one of them will make strong honey-gath- 

 erers. 



This experience has proven to me that there 

 is no reason why any one should let bees die for 

 want of food. Less than sixty cents' worth of 

 feed saved strong colonies, some of which had 

 given me as much as fifteen dollars' worth of 

 honey ; and why should I let them starve when 

 sixty cents would save them ? 



BEI5 P.\R.\LVSI.S. 



Three years ago I noticed two or three colonies 

 that failed to build up strong. I observed that 

 the bees would crawl about the hive, and that 

 they were unable to fly. I read up on all the 

 bee diseases, and informed myself as best I could 

 from all the literature I had. It was very evident 

 that there was paralysis in my yard. That season 

 I paid but little attention to the weak colonies, 

 and they failed to build up. In the fall, several 

 died. Last year the trouble showed itself in as 

 many as a dozen colonies or more. Then I got 

 busy. I bought a pound of sulphur and dusted 

 a tablespoonful on the combs of brood and let it 

 fall into the cells, regardless of the statement 

 that this would kill all the unsealed larvae. In a 

 week I could see an improvement in conditions. 

 Mature bees would appear to be well, and a second 

 treatment with sulphur stopped the old bees from 

 crawling about. But after a few days I noticed 

 that the queen's eggs failed to mature, and that 



the brood was not in solid sheets. From the ob- 

 servation I made, I concluded that there was also 

 trouble with the queen. Then I placed a young 

 queen in every colony where the disease appeared. 

 After the sulphur treatment and requeening, these 

 sick colonies built up, and many of them made 

 as much as a hundred pounds of surplus honey 

 during July, and without any help from other 

 colonies. And the beauty of it is, that this spring 

 these same colonies that were in such bad con- 

 dition last season are permanently cured, and 

 among the best I have in the yard. This sprin" 

 the trouble has shown itself in a few other col- 

 onies, and every one has yielded to this treatment. 



In a few cases the colonies recovered slowly, 

 and I gave two or three frames of hatching brood 

 from a strong colony, and thus strengthened the 

 working force, and all went well. My experience 

 with as many as twenty colonies of sick bees has 

 been that a tablespoonful of sulphur dusted over 

 the combs, and a new queen, puts the colony "on 

 its feet" again. 



Mount Airy, N. C, June 21. J. E. Johnson. 



A Cleated Thin Board Slid into the Entrance to Act 

 as a Storm-door 



While looking over back numbers of Gleanings I 

 came across the description of a double hive-bottom 

 for winter protection, by Joseph F. Rose, Jan. 15, 

 1908. I have a similar but much simpler device 

 which can be applied to any hive having a drop 

 bottom-board, without necessitating any change 

 thereof. The advantages claimed for the double 

 bottom-board were : Prevention of cold drafts ; bees 

 flying out on sunshiny but cold days ; stoppage of 



the entrance by dead bees or ice, and spring rob- 

 bing ; to which I would add, promotion of late 

 and early brood-rearing. All these advantages go 

 with what I designate a winter entrance-board, 

 which is simply a thin wide board suitably cleated 

 to preserve a bee-space above, and an entrance 

 underneath when pushed into the usual %-inch 

 •entrance opening between the bottom-board and 

 hive-body. 



I make these boards of red-cedar shingles (which 

 come very wide), planing them to % inch by hand. 

 The top cleat across the front is ^/4x% inch; the 

 end cleats are %xi/^ inch, all fastened with thin 

 wire nails clinched. I use two different sizes, one 

 4 inches and the other 8 inches wide. The smaller 

 one is put in when the nights begin to be frosty, 

 and is replaced by the 8 when warm days are 

 scarce. The 8 is left in place until the bees are 

 seen fanning in the middle of a warm day in 

 spring ; then the 4 is substituted, and left until 

 settled warm weather. These boards being put in 

 place late in the season are not glued fast, and 

 may be withdrawn at any time to rake out dead 

 bees. 



I am using this season two inches between the 

 bottom-board and hive-body in conjunction with 

 the winter entrance-board, to secure space under 

 the frame for clustering early in the winter ; also 

 ample space for dead bees, better ventilation, and 

 as a further preventive of excursions in cold 

 weather. I find these rims useful during the sea- 

 son when introducing queens from mailing cages, 

 for top feeding, and wherever space is wanted 

 above or below for experimental purposes. Each 

 rim has a spur (the point of a wire nail) set 

 exactly in the middle of each long side, so that, 

 when placed correctly and pressed down on the 



