070 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



four supers of honey since, which it could hardly 

 have done had it lost all of its brood at the be- 

 ginning of the honey-flow. It was in a Danzen- 

 1, aker hive, and the brood was practically all cov- 

 ered. It was about 7:30 in the morning when I 

 discovered that they were under water. I carried 

 them out and cleared out the water as best I could. 

 I fully expected that all of the submerged brood 

 would die, and was happily surprised on later 

 examination to find it all good. I did not think 

 to take the temperature of the water that morning, 

 but did on the following morning, when I think 

 it was about the same. It then stood at 56 degrees 

 F. The ditch had ceased overflowing when I dis- 

 covered the calamity; and as the storm "assed 

 over just before midnight I am certain the lower 

 part of the brood, at least, must have been under 

 water for some time. 



Ogden, Utah, Sept. 2. Joseph H. Peter.son. 



Getting Rid of Laying Workers with a Bee-escape 



It is not difficult to cure a colony of laying 

 workers if they are taken soon after they have 

 begun their work — that is, within four or five 

 days after the first eggs have appeared. If a 

 couple of frames of young brood, with the adhering 

 bees, are given, ^ueen-cells will almost invariably 

 be started. It is well not to allow these to hatch, 

 for the queen will almost certainly be inferior, 

 so they may be replaced after two or three days 

 by a ripe cell. A queen will often be accepted 

 at this stage, but I have found introduction risky. 



But when the laying workers have been allowed 

 to go for ten days or more, so that the combs are 

 filled with drone brood in all sorts of scattering 

 stages, a cure may be said to be impossible, so 

 far as making the colony of any use within a rea- 

 sonable time. Under these circumstances the bees 

 will seldom accept a queen if offered in any usual 

 way, and the combs are too full of worthless brood 

 any way to allow a queen to lay. 



The result of a good many experiments in the 

 past two years has led me to fix on the following 

 plan, which has never yet failed me. A two-frame 

 nucleus is made from a normal colony, and a 

 queen introduced, or a very weak colony may be 

 used instead of this nucleus, if there is one which 

 needs strengthening. The laying-worker colony is 

 set on a bee-escape board over the nucleus. That 

 is all. In the course of four or five days, four- 

 fifths of the abnormal bees will have gone down, 

 one by one, and will have united themselves quiet- 

 ly with the nucleus. The few bees left above I 

 have always fancied to be the laying workers them- 

 selves ; but they do no harm if knocked out on 

 the grass. The sealed drone brood is then un- 

 capped, and left to chill over right. It may then 

 be given back to the bees, which will clean out the 

 dead larva?. 



Stouffville, Ontario, Can. F. L. Pollock. 



A Burlap Awning in front of the Hive as a Shelter 

 from the Sun or Snow 



My method for a few years past has been to 

 fill the super with good absorbents, such as saw- 

 dust, leaves, or excelsior, and to wTap the hive 

 with heavy building paper well tacked on frame 

 top to bottom, leaving the lull entrance open. For 

 a shield from snow or wind, I tack burlap along 

 the top of the front of the hive, letting it drop 

 over the entrance. In case of a single-walled hive, 

 more paper can be put on and fastened with thin 

 slats. 



When the sun shines on the front of the hive. 

 It shields the light from the bees. When warm 

 enough for them to fly I throw the sack on top 

 of the hive and drop it down as needed. I find 

 it the best front protection, in my experience of 

 fifty-two years in handling bees. 



Conesus, N. Y. D. W. Teescott. 



Living up to Their Name 



In buying old lumber last winter I came into 

 possession of a beer sign which I sawed and made 

 into a hive with the big letters on the outside of 

 the hive. Never have I had bees work as busily 

 as this colony ; for when they were put into this 

 hive on the first day of June they had neither 

 comb nor foundation. I was about to advise others 

 to use saloon and beer signs for hives, when, hap- 



pening to look into the brood-nest, it was ptain 

 that these bees had been doing crooked work from 

 the very first. The combs were all crosswise and 

 cornerwise. Would it be well to use brimstone at 

 once, or will they do straight work another year 

 if foundation is put into a new hive, and the 

 beer sign removed? 



Chelan Falls, Wash. Sept. 11. C. B. Jackson. 



[We would advise you to give the bees another 

 chance. May be they will reform if you start them 

 right once more next spring.— E».] 



A Good Record Made by an Eighty-year-old Bee- 

 keeper 



When I started this spring I had thirty-six colo- 

 nies of bees. As soon as they began to have three 

 or four combs of brood I began dividing thetn, 

 making increase following Mr. Doolittle's plan as 

 well as schemes of others, and also drawing on 

 my own fifty years of experience. 



I extracted over ten barrels of honey, and be- 

 sides this I have about 1000 lbs. of comb honey 

 in plain sections. I did all of our work myseK in 

 spite of the fact that I was eighty years old the 

 second of May. I am very busy now getting it 

 ready for market. We have a very good home mar- 

 ket here, and I think I will sell it all in jelly- 

 glasses and Mason jars. 



Newcastle, Neb. A. C. Butler. 



What a Three-frame Nucleus did on a Peninsula 

 lyi Miles Wide 



The first of last June I purchased a three-frame 

 nucleus and an observation hive. The bees en- 

 tered the super on the first of August, and up to 

 the present time I have obtained 56 pounds of 

 comb honey. Besides this I should judge that there 

 are from thirty to forty pounds of honey in the 

 brood-chamber, and the little chaps are still hard 

 at work. It seems to me that this is a good 

 showing. There is very little farming here — no 

 buckwheat or basswood, and we are on a penin- 

 sula not over 1 % miles wide. 



Wood's Hole, Mass., Sept. 20. W. K. Butler. 



Feeding in Cold Weather 



Have any of your correspondents ever tried 

 feeding in midwinter ? Last winter I fed small 

 quantities of syrup in January, February, and 

 March, when the ground was covered with snow, 

 and when the temperature was far below freezing. 

 I never before had bees come out in as good shape 

 in the spring. One colony stored about 15 pounds 

 of honey from fruit bloom. I did not lose over 500 

 bees all together by flying out and freezing. 



Kansas City, Kans. D. D. Downing. 



[If syrup is fed hot right over the cluster, the 

 bees can take it in cold weather. Sometimes, if the 

 weather warms up a little they can take cold syrup. 

 But in either case, feeding syrup in cold weather 

 is of doubtful value, since it tends to excite the 

 bees, causing them to expand the cluster unduly, 

 etc. We should say that your experience is the 

 exception that proves the rule. — Ed.] 



Bee Demonstration to Swell the Membership of an 

 Association 



The farmers of upper Bucks County, Pennsyl- 

 vania, held a two-days' picnic on the 6th and 7th of 

 September. On those two days I made demonstra- 

 tions of modern methods of beekeeping, using a 

 wire cage, and this feature proved both profitable 

 and entertaining, for several hundred people sur- 

 rounded the cage whenever I entered it. The dem- 

 onstrations stimulated beekeeping, and they were 

 the means of bringing a number of new members 

 into the Bucks County Association. 



Richlandtown, Pa. S. T. Clay. 



An Escape-board for Uniting Colonies 



Aug. 1, p. 491, mention is made of the paper 

 method of uniting bees. This is my plan : After 

 taking the escape from an escape-board I place the 

 board over one colony of bees and pour upon it 

 half a pint of honey or thick syrup. Then I set 

 the other hive on top. 



Bellefontaine, Ohio. Clyde Cordeby. 



