1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



421 



hope suggests the idea that it may finally disappear. But I 

 am still uneasy, and cannot help thinliing that it is only 

 dormant. 



A. C. should examine his hives carefully, and if he can 

 find that the infection has not already spread to other colonies, 

 he ouKhli.to destroy the infected colony without delay. The 

 treatment that I last used, and which I would recommend, is 

 to dust each frame of the infected hive thoroughly with pow- 

 dered sulphur, and to provide a place where the bees can have 

 access to salty water whenever they want it. I use the Sim- 

 plicity feeder for this purpose, filling up a dozen or more with 

 salty water every other day, and leaving it in the shade in 

 some place about the apiary. It is astonishing what a quan- 

 tity will be taljen. 



Great care should be used in the purchase of queens, as 

 it is by this means that the infection is transmitted. It is not 

 safe to buy queens except from some reliable breeder, who has 

 an apiary free from the disease. 



Spealfing of the use of salty water gives occasion to re- 

 mark that I have had this year over 60 swarms from 47 colo- 

 nies, and an apiary of blacks and hybrids only 300 yards 

 away from mine, consisting of over 80 colonies, has sent out 

 only one swarm this season. 



I can't help thinking that salt is essential to bees. If it is 

 not supplied, they swarm in great numbers about privies and 

 urinals, and this does not happen if the brackish water is ex- 

 posed where they can reach it. I gave a friend one of my 

 finest Italian colonies thi$ spring, and be tells me that it did 

 not swarm, whereas, I did not have a single healthy one this 

 year that failed to swarm at least once, and many sent out 

 several. 



If Simplicity feeders are not available for watering bees, 

 any vessel that will not be corroded can be used, if precautions 

 be taken against drowning the bees. A cloth may be spread 

 so as to dip down into the water a little, which will do quite as 

 well. 



Though the honey-flow has not been nearly so abundant 

 this year as it was last, bees have never, in my experience, 

 been so prolific, and so strong in numbers, which fact is to be 

 attributed to their having access to salt during the spring 

 months. Columbia, Miss., May 23. 



Locating an Apiary in an Exposed Position. 



BY IRVIN OKOVER. 



The article written by Mr. C. Davenport (on page 82) 

 with regard to his apiary in an unprotected position, has in- 

 duced me to tell my experience along that line. I call mine 

 the " Lakeview Apiary." It i« situated on top of a hill 500 

 feet above the level of Otsego Lake, which is about % of a 

 mile distant, with nothing to obstruct the view. This is the 

 beautiful Glimmer Glass which was made famous by the pen of 

 Cooper, and is one of the nicest sheets of water in the State. 

 When I first located here I thought it was too much exposed 

 to winds for bees, there being no natural protection except a 

 slight rise of ground, and woods about 90 rods away to the 

 northwest. The wind has full sweep in other directions. 



I began with two colonies, locating them close up on the 

 east side of an out-building, wintering them on the summer 

 stands. I have now been here nine winters, and have a regu- 

 lar bee-yard with a tight board-fence on two sides of it. The 

 fence is 5 feet high, and is in the form of a carpenter's square, 

 the hives facing the southeast. They winter and spring hero 

 very nicely when they have good stores. Spring dwindling 

 does not trouble them. 



Now, I have a relative less than two miles from here, in a 

 Talley. His yard is well protected on all sides. I have walked 

 down to his place when the cold spring winds were blowing, 

 and my bees were not flying at all, but it would be warm 



enough there for a man to work among the bees with his 

 coat off. The first spring he was there I envied him his loca- 

 tion, but observation has convinced me that his yard is too 

 well protected. The warm sunshine induces the bees to fly 

 when the weather is unsuitable a little ways from the yard, 

 and spring dwindling is the result. I have been watching 

 both yards the past five years, and four years out of the five 

 his bees have been troubled with spring dwindling, some times 

 losing half of them, the balance being too weak to work for 

 comb honey. He has quit trying to produce comb honey, and 

 is giving bis attention to the production of extracted, and 

 never gets a good yield. He uses the same kind of hive as 

 myself, and winters them on the summer stands. 



We both use the New Quinby hive, and it suits me better 

 than any I ever saw. When the boxes are removed, and the 

 frames turned at right angles, there is plenty of room for 

 packing. My bees come through the winter strong in num- 

 bers, and breed up in season for the honey-flow, which is from 

 clover and basswood. 



My friend from the highly-protected yard came to my 

 place to see me in 1893 ; it was fruit-blossom time. I was 

 sick, and asked him if he would see to some queen-cells for 

 me. When he came in he said he would let me pick three 

 colonies from his yard for each one that I would let him select 

 from mine. Cooperstown, N. Y. 



Best Size of Hive for Comb Honey. 



BY FRANK COLE. 



I see the discussion is still in order, so I have something 

 to say in regard to the size of hive we should use. I have been 

 on Mr. Edwin Bevin's side of the fence for some time. I work 

 my bees exclusively for comb honey ; I don't use the extractor 

 at all. In the fall my hive is full of honey, and it is full in 

 the spring, and by the time the honey-flow strikes us here — 

 about the first of June — it is full of bees, ready for business. 

 Perhaps in some localities large hives are not the best for 

 comb honey, but I am convinced that here they are. 



My hives are 20 inches long by 12 inches deep, and I use 

 12 frames, and a good, prolific queen will fill those just as 

 well as an 8-frame hive. I experimented some last year, by 

 giving a surplus of bees at the honey harvest. I had hives 

 that I had four supers on, of 28 sections each, and I gave to 

 those about a medium-sized colony, and those bees gave me a 

 little over 50 pounds of nice comb honey each per week. This 

 experiment was tried with four colonies, and all four averaged 

 over 50 pounds per week for three weeks. By this time the 

 surplus of bees began to diminish, and they then fell back 

 with the rest of my bees, which was a little over 100 pounds 

 per colony, and no increase. 



If Mr. Doolittle can get 566 pounds of honey from one 

 colony in a 4-foot hive, why can't we reduce the hive one-half, 

 and get' one-half as much honey, which would bo an enor- 

 mously good yield of comb honey ? 



When my bees get to hanging out on the hive, I raise It 

 from the bottom-board one inch, and then if they don't stop I 

 raise them higher. I think that raising them is a very good 

 preventive of swarming. I have little trouble from their 

 swarming from these hives. 



I keep my bees in the cellar during the winter, with the 

 bottom-boards off, and the tops filled with dry sawdust. If 

 this gets damp, I beat some bricks and bury one in the saw- 

 dust of each hive, and it does the rest. 



PREVENTION OF ROBBING. 



I will give to the readers of the Bee Journal the benefit of 

 an implement to keep bees from robbing, which almost in- 

 variably proves a success with me, unless it is a very weak 

 colony : 



I take some J^-iuch strips and cut them nearly as long as 



