1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



419 



of the hive and look like queens, then it does not look like 

 dysentery. It is a very bad disease, and affects the bees and 

 queen alike. When hundreds of bees come out of the hive for 

 a week and die, you will wonder how there could be any in the 

 hive. I would call it the same as A. C. has — constipation. 

 One of my colonies has been affected the same way, while the 

 one alongside was not affected at all. I think the cause of it 

 was poor packing for winter. I found some of the combs 

 moldy, and mold on the bottom-board. I tried feeding, which 

 did but little good, and the first warm day I took out the 

 moldy combs, and put on a new bottom-board, and found my 

 colony queenless. I bought a queen, but the bees were too 

 far gone to be saved, but I managed to save the queen and put 

 her in a nucleus. 



Sweet Clover, Basswood, Etc. — Sweet clover bloomed 

 its first on June 6, basswood on June 14, which shows that 

 sweet clover does bloom the forepart of June. Basswood is 

 two weeks ahead, and loaded with blossoms. White clover is 

 better this year, and more of it than 1 have seen for years, 

 and bees are busy working on it. Bees have an abundance of 

 bloom, and I expect 150 pounds per colony — perhaps more. 

 Again I say, sweet clover is the best honey-plant in existence, 

 all things considered. Lemont, 111., June 18. 



Distance from Center to Center for Brood- 

 Combs. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTI.E. 



" What is the proper distance from center to center to 

 space brood-combs ?" is a question that I am asked 

 much more often than any other ol late, and so I believe I can 

 do no better at this time than to say a few words upon this 

 subject, as the swarming season is upon us, and we shall have 

 to decide this matter when we hive our swarms. We are told 

 by some that 1)4 inches is right; by otbers that 1?^ inches 

 is the only correct spacing, and others insist that IJ^ inches 

 is right, while many say that anywhere from 1 5/16 to 

 1 7/16 will do. Some have even figured so nicely as to the 

 closeness which brood-combs can be placed to each other and 

 yet allow the brood to hatch all right, that I almost begin to 

 fear that we might yet be able to place the combs so close to- 

 gether, were some one to carry out the ideas advanced by 

 some, that we should need scarcely any bees at all, but could 

 fill out our hives solid with combs of brood with only a few 

 bees and the queen around theoutside, which would so cheapen 

 honey that the most of us would have to go out of the busi- 

 ness, leaving a few specialists in possession of the field to 

 secure and monopolize the honey-trade, as is being done with 

 coal and oil. 



But what is the proper distance to space brood-combs ? 

 I am not going to lay down any rule for others, but I will say 

 that from an experience of 27 years, many experiments being 

 conducted along this line during that time, I am convinced 

 that 1% inches is the right distance from center to center to 

 space brood-combs, where all worker-combs are used, and 1% 

 where drone-comb is used. Some tell us they do not know 

 why 1% inches is better than 1 ,'4 or IJ^ inches, even though 

 they prefer the same, but I will tell why I believe that l^i is 

 right, and how I come to so believe. 



It has been said that Doolittle is great for following Na- 

 ture, and Nature told me that 1 )4 inches was right, more than 

 26 years ago. At that time I could not find in any of the 

 books on bees, that I then had, how far apart the frames 

 should be placed, so in order to ascertain, I went into the lift 

 of the barn where were stored all the old box-hives from my 

 father's old apiary, to the number of some 30 or more, and, 

 upon measuring the inside of the tops to the hives from which 

 the combs had been cut, I found that all of the central combs 

 were very nearly IJ^ inches apart, while some of the combs 



near the sides of the hive, where drone-combs are usually 

 found, where bees have their own sweet will, were from 1% 

 to 1% inches, those having the greatest distance being where 

 the combs run in the hive so the last one came in or near the 

 coruers. Since then, whenever I have come across a box-hive 

 where the bees were out of it, I have measured the distance 

 of the combs where they were attached to the top of the hive, 

 and have invariably found the same, as above given, or so 

 nearly so that the difference was scarcely noticeable. 



Now, is it reasonable to suppose that the bees do not know 

 what is right in this matter when they have to furnish food, 

 fuel, and the whole business ? In order to keep up the nec- 

 essary warmth for brood-rearing in early spring, the bees 

 form a living wall around the brood, thus keeping the heat 

 from escaping the cluster ; and to do this it takes the depth 

 or thickness of two or three bees all the way around, as I have 

 often ascertained by tipping up the hives at that time of the 

 year. If the reader has never tipped up hives on cool or frosty 

 mornings in April or early May, it will be an interesting thing 

 for such an one to do. It is a nice sight to see how nicely the 

 bees are packed, all with their abdomens pointing away from 

 the center of the cluster, and almost or entirely motionless. 

 This is the hive proper, and inside this crust of pointed abdo- 

 mens, brood-rearing is going on nicely, while some unlucky 

 bee on the outside is so cold it can hardly move or walk. But 

 enough on this point. 



Those who advocate close spacing always tell us that as 

 brood-combs are only % in thickness, there would be % of an 

 inch between them for the bees to loaf away their time where 

 IJ^ spacing Is used, while ?b is plenty room enough for all 

 necessary purposes in feeding the brood and keeping up the 

 necessary heat. In this statement they leave out one very 

 important item, which is, that although empty brood-combs 

 average only about % of an inch in thickness, these same 

 combs, when filled with capped brood, measure one inch in 

 thickness. 



I have many times measured worker brood-combs having 

 capped larvic or embryo bees in them, and have never found 

 a single comb, even when it had the very first brood in the 

 new comb, where it was any less than one inch through it. 

 The way I measured was as follows : 



I looked over my inch wire nails till I found one which 

 was just one inch from the under side of the head to the point 

 of the nail,'when I went to the apiary, took out combs from 

 the different hives and pushed the nail through the sealed 

 brood till the head was just level with the capping, and in no 

 instance did the point any more than just pierce the capping 

 on the opposite side, while in many cases the capping had to 

 be flattened so that I could feel the point. 



Another thing : I have often measured bees as they were 

 standing on the combs, and found that they stood about hi of 

 an inch high, and as I claim that the combs should be far 

 enough apart so that the bees can stand back to back in their 

 traveling about the combs, this would also give % inch as the 

 right distance between one-inch thick combs of sealed brood. 



From all of these experiments, and others I have not 

 space to mention, I believe IJ2 inches to be the right distance 

 from center to center for brood-combs. Borodino, N. Y. 



Some Excellent Hints on Marketing Honey. 



BY B. F. ONDEBDONK. 



A great deal has been written about the low price for 

 honey. I take it the reason is the lack of demand ; this re- 

 sults from various causes, the principal one being absence of 

 printer's ink. Go into any grocery and your eye is attracted 

 by handsome show-cards, or taking sentences — " Eat H. O. 

 and grow beautiful ;" " The sun shines the brighter for sapo- 

 llo." "Take home a cake of Bon Ami, and make your wife 



