250 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 19, 1900 



To Make Close Joints in Wooden Feeders, it is recom- 

 mended in Leipziger Bienenzeitung- to put a strip of blot- 

 ting-paper between the parts nailed together. 



Dead Bees in Cellar= Wintering — In Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture J. L. Anderson gives his estimate of the number of 

 dead bees that will be carried from a cellar in which 100 

 colonies have wintered, at 60 to 90 quarts, or 3-S to 9-10 of a 

 quart per colony. He says the number of dead bees in the 

 cellar the past winter has been exceptionally small. 



Grading by Pictures — In Gleanings in Bee-Culture is 

 given a picture of the grading adopted by New York bee- 

 keepers. Three sections are shown, showing respectively 

 ///£" poorest allowed in the three different grades. None of 

 them have any cells sealed next to the vfood. Aside from 

 the cells next the wood, the fancy section has 9 unsealed 

 cells. No. 1 has 43, and No. 2 has 68. 



Bosnian Bees are now on the market. Bosnia is in 

 southern Austria, and the bees are described in Schles. 

 Imker as very hardy, making successful cleansing flights 

 at lower temperature than other bees. They begin work 

 earlier and close later than other bees, so reaping larger 

 harvests. The workers are smaller than other bees, and 

 gentler than the gentlest Carniolans. But new things do 

 not always live up to their promises. 



A Woman's Plan to Avoid Lifting. — Mrs. A. J. Barber 

 is the woman, and she tells about it in Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture. A little platform big enough to hold a super has 

 casters under it and is put on the wheelbarrow. On this 

 she puts one or more supers and wheels it to the honey- 

 house, where the little platform can be rolled off the wheel- 

 barrow onto a sort of floor in front of the door so made that 

 no lifting is needed to push it right into the honey-house. 



Wintering in a Cave — John F. Millard reports in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture the result of wintering 35 colon- 

 ies of bees in what he considers the best cave in Iowa, said 

 cave being at no point less than 3 feet under the surface of 

 the soil. On putting colonies into the cave, Nov. 4, 1889, 

 the average weight was 57 31-35 pounds. On taking out, 

 April 4, 1890, the average weight was 47 18-35. Average 

 loss during the 5 months' confinement, 10 13-35 pounds. 

 Smallest loss of any one colony, 6'4 pounds. Greatest loss, 

 ISX pounds. 



Clipping to Hark the Age of Queens is considered ad- 

 visable by some, if there were no other object in clipping. 

 Without close watching an unclipt queen may be super- 

 seded without the knowledge of the bee-keeper. H. Warnke 

 reported in Centralblatt that he had a queen superseded in 

 winter, the young queen taking her wedding flight Feb. 9. 

 Under ordinary circumstances a queen thus superseded out 

 of the usual season would hardly be supposed to be other 

 than the old queen unless there were some special mark 

 such as clipping. 



n: Evergreens as Windbreaks are considered very valua- 

 ble, by A. I. Root, as a protection for bees. He says in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture: 



I — ) " I would not get evergreens from the woods, even if 

 they were near by, because you can get transplanted trees 

 grown and trained in the nursery so much better and so 

 much cheaper. Trees a foot high cost only $3.00 per 100. 

 I think our own cost about $5.00 per 100 ; thej- were planted 

 about 20 years ago, and are now almost too large (40 to 50 

 feet high, and some of_ them over a foot thru), if anything. 

 We have tried them at different distances. Only one row is 

 necessary if you let the branches come out clear down to 

 the ground, which they will do in a few years. 



" The Norway spruce is very hardy, and a very rapid 

 grower. We have not lost one tree in 100, and these would 

 not have been lost had not water been allowed to stand 

 around their roots. Trees 10 feet apart in the row (as ours 

 are) will make a windbreak for bee-hives rather quicker 



than if a rod apart ; but in a few years, where placed so 

 closely, it will bother you to get thru them if you should 

 happen to want to. One who has not tried it would hardly 

 realize what a difference it makes during a windy time. 

 One can work in comfort when shielded by evergreens, 

 when it would be very tedious if not dangerous to under- 

 take the same kind of work where the wind has full sweep." 



Stimulative Feeding is called by the Germans specula- 

 tive feeding, because it is considered a speculation, and the 

 speculator may lose or gain. L,ast year Editor Gerstung, 

 of Deutsche Bienenzucht, got the opinions of IS able Ger- 

 man bee-keepers as to stimulative feeding in spring. They 

 were about equally divided as to its being advisable or 

 otherwise. All were agreed that when practiced it should 

 only be with strong colonies, and in regions where the har- 

 vest comes early. The feeding should begin about 6 weeks 

 before the harvest, or about the time of gooseberry bloom. 

 All were agreed that injudicious stimulation might do much 

 harm, and that it was a very good thing for beginners to 

 let alone. 



Bottom Starters in Sections. — R. C. Aikin says in the 

 Progressive Bee-Keeper : 



" Doolittle said no bottom starters for him. Here again 

 comes in location and methods. If j'ou can crowd your col- 

 onies in the sections and keep them so, never letting them 

 have much room ahead, nor yet ever without room ; and 

 more, if the honey-flow that is to fill these sections comes 

 freely and work goes steadily on to the close of the flow, 

 and not only so, but comes reasonably rapid, say 3 to 5 

 pounds daily on the average, then a bottom starter is of lit- 

 tle use ; but take it in slow and intermittent flows, and bot- 

 tom starters — or their equivalent by having the full sheet 

 come so close to the bottom that it will be fastened there — 

 is a necessity to obtaining the best shipping sections." 



Not Stung to Death by Bees. — The statement that a 

 Mr. Carson owed his death to the stings of bees enraged by 

 burning sulphur is thus contradicted in Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture by G. E. Martin : 



"The facts as told me by a brother-in-law of Mr. Car- 

 son are these. Mr. Carson went to his apiary before break- 

 fast, to do some work with his bees. He was stung four 

 times — once on the temple, ear, wrist, and thigh. He went 

 to the house and requested his wife to get a veil, as the 

 bees were cross. In a few moments he said he would go 

 outside, as he felt faint. He went out and sat down on the 

 porch and died there.' There was no sulphur burned. Mr. 

 Carson had heart-trouble, which, combined with the stings, 

 upon an empty stomach, the doctor says, was the cause of 

 his death." 



Perforated Zinc Against Robbers.— Says G. M. Doo- 

 little in American Bee-Keeper : 



" Robber-bees do not like to squeeze thru any hole when 

 there are defenders behind such hole or holes ready to seize 

 them while they are squeezing thru, or immediatel)' after 

 thev are thru and while squeezing out again. And for this 

 reason a piece of perforated zinc placed at the front of an 

 'awning' of wood which juts out from one to two inches 

 from the hive in front of the entrance, is an admirable 

 thing to use for the prevention of robbing or to suppress 

 robbing after it has started. As soon as it is placed in front 

 of the entrance, the robbers will all be seen trying to get 

 in where the awning comes up against the hive, rather than 

 out where the perforated metal is ; while the loaded robber- 

 bees which are in, and the hive-bees, go out from the per- 

 forated metal, and the hive-bees go in there." 



The Use of Separators is a topic well considered by 

 R. C. Aikin, in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. For home use, 

 or to sell to families who take a case at a time, there is 

 clearly no need for separators. For the retail trade sections 

 must be nearly of the same weight, and must be so straight 

 that the average grocer's clerk will not set them leaking by 

 lifting them out of a case. In 1889 Mr. Aikin produced 8 

 tons of section honey so straight and true that not more 

 than 200 of the lot were too bulgy to pack, and he used only 

 two separators in each super of 28 sections. But he has not 

 been able to do the same thing since. Bees, weather, 

 honey-flow, all the conditions must be just right — a thing 

 that may not occur a second time in a lifetime — or separa- 

 tors are indispensable. Even if less honey should be ob- 

 tained by using separators, a better price will more than re- 

 pay the loss. 



