May 10, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



295 



probably from white clover. If you watch very closely, you 

 will see a scattering' blossom of white clover some 10 days 

 before the general bloom, and you will do well to put on 

 supers within 3 or 4 days of seeing this very first clover 

 bloom. 



2. I'm not sure whether I understand you. Hoffman 

 frames are used only for brood-frames, and it certainly is 

 not necessary to have separators between brood-frames. It 

 is generally best to have separators between sections, if the 

 sections are to be packt for shipping, but for home use sep- 

 arators can be dispenst with. 



3. With right management, yes. Put your prime swarm 

 on the old stand, with the mother colony close beside it, and 

 a week later set the old colony in a new place. Twenty-four 

 hours after hiving the swarm, take the supers from the 

 mother colony and give to the swarm. 



Divisible Brood-Chamber Hives and Fixtures. 



1. As I am thinking of adopting the Heddon hive I 

 would like to know why j-ou do not use it, as it seems to me 

 to possess great advantages. 



2. Mr. Heddon's patent is supposed to cover horizon- 

 tally-divisible brood-chambers ; if I use the Danzenbaker or 

 dovetailed hives — two bodies to the brood-chamber — do I in- 

 fringe on Mr. Heddon's patent ? If not, why not ? 



3. If I use close-fitting closed-end standing frames, like 

 those used by the Rauchfuss brothers, of Colorado, in ordi- 

 nary dovetail bodies ; do I infringe on the Heddon patent, 

 which is supposed to cover these constructions ? 



4. What was the thickness of the combs in those 4^x5- 

 xl>4 sections ? 



5. Will you feel like using more of them this year ? 



Yankton. 



Answer. — 1. I do not see enough advantages in them 

 to make it worth while to try them. If you do, you cer- 

 tainly ought to try them. 



2. Others claim that such things were in use before the 

 issuance of Mr. Heddon's patent. The fact that they are in 

 common use with no prosecution for infringement makes 

 it probable that you would be running no risk by using two 

 bodies to the brood-chamber. 



3. I think the Rauchfuss brothers are not supposed to 

 infringe on anv patent. 



4. About ijs. 



5. Being well stockt with fixtures for the old kind, I 

 shall not go heavily into the new. In such things each one 

 must carefully stud3' his own market. 



The Rapidity of Bees' Wings is something marvelous. 

 A. Gustin says in Le Rucher Beige that when bees are ven- 

 tilating, the wing-beats are more than 400 in a second. 

 Pretty fast work. 



For Stimulative Feeding the following is said by Bul- 

 letin de la Somme to increase brood-rearing : Boil 4 pounds 

 of wheat-bran )z hour in 7 pints of water. Strain, add 2 

 pounds of sugar, 4 or 5 pinches of salycilic acid, mix thor- 

 oly, and give to each colony 2 or 3 pounds of this prepara- 

 tion at a single feed. 



One or Many FouI=Brood Inspectors for a Province or 

 State is a question somewhat discust. At the Ontario con- 

 vention there were reasons given on both sides. It takes 

 lively travel, and much of it, for a single inspector to get 

 around, but he has more power than local inspectors, and 

 more experience. — Canadian Bee Journal. 



Early Bee=Pasturage is discust by G. M. Doolittle in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. Skunk-cabbage comes first in 

 his locality (Onondaga Co., N. Y.,) blooming somewhere 

 from March 25 to April 20, yielding pollen but no honey. A 

 week or ten days after skunk-cabbage come the pussy wil- 

 lows, of which there are several kinds, some being a month 

 later than others, yielding pollen but no honey. The first 

 honey comes from golden and white willow, plants of great 



importance, from which, when the weather is right, a col- 

 ony may store 10 to 1.5 pounds of honey. They yield no 

 pollen. Their greatest value conies from their yielding at 

 a time when they so largely afifect the building up of a col- 

 ony. With favorable weather during the blooming of these 

 plants and during fruit-bloom, colonies are in best shape 

 for the clover and linden harvest. 



Queen = Excluders Mal<e the Difference of opinion be- 

 tween large and small hive men, says H. H. Hyde in the 

 Progressive Bee-Keeper. With excluders in use, the queen 

 never has a chance properly to spread herself, so the ex- 

 cluder man thinks a small hive is large enough. Mr. Hyde 

 wants no queen that is not able to have 12 frames filled with 

 brood by the commencement of the honey-flow, and he has 

 had queens at that time with 18 frames of brood. 



" A Trust, or Co°operation, needed in bee-keeping," is 

 the heading of an editorial in the Bee-Keepers' Review, 

 which ends by saying : 



" I believe that this question is one that might be pro- 

 fitably discust. If there were some way by which we bee- 

 keepers could know what the crop is as soon as it is off, and 

 could then decide what prices ought to be, and would all 

 stand by those prices, it would be accomplisht. Sounds 

 simple enough, but how can it be done ?" 



To Avoid Bubbles in Bottling, here is something that 

 seems important from H. Rauchfuss, in the Progressive 

 Bee-Keeper : 



" In bottling honey, it should be of a certain tempera- 

 ture, no more and no less, to avoid incorporating bubbles 

 of air. If too thick, the down-flowing stream of honey will 

 waver from one side to the other, lapping over itself when 

 it reaches the honey in the vessel, thus enclosing streaks of 

 air. If too thin, it will pierce right into the honey below, 

 dragging down the air with it in the form of small bubbles. 

 It should be of just the right thickness to spread out in the 

 form of a cone when it strikes the honey below, neither de- 

 pressing its surface nor piling upon it, but uniting with it 

 at once whenever it touches." 



Black Brood. — Dr. Howard's words with regard to the 

 New York bee-disease are not very reassuring. He says in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture : 



"Here is a disease in which it is strongly suspected 

 that flying bees are affected ; and of these, thousands daily 

 leave their hives never to return, scattering the germs far 

 and wide, to be borne by the strong winds, or wafted by 

 the gentle zephyrs to new fields of infection. 



"In conclusion let me say that sufficient evidence has 

 been presented to show that we have something new, and 

 at present, apparently, more malignant and more destruc- 

 tive than the worst enemy hitherto known ; but careful, 

 practical, and experimental work in the presence of this 

 disease when at its worst will, I feel confident, discover 

 some practical plan for its successful eradication." 



Closing Hive=Entrances. — In reply to an inquiry, Dr. 

 Miller tells in Gleanings in Bee-Culture how he closes the 

 entrances of hives for hauling, and also for carrying in the 

 cellar if they must be carried in at a time when closing is 

 necessary. He says : 



" A proper entrance-guard that will quickly close and 

 unclose a hive is a very desirable thing. The ones I now 

 use are entirely of wire cloth, with a single stick to fasten 

 them on the hive. They are made especially to suit the en- 

 trance when the bottom-board has the deep side up, making 

 an entrance 12,' sx2, but might be varied for any entrance. 

 A piece of wire-cloth 13 '2x4 inches is doubled over at the 

 bottom, and at each end J4 inch or less (bending it over a 

 saw-blade), so that it will be just long enough to fit inside 

 the 12' s entrance. Then a piece of lath holds it with one or 

 more nails. This gives all the ventilation needed for spring 

 and fall hauling. 



" But the wet cloth is far and away ahead of a wire 

 entrance-guard when it comes to shutting bees in the hive 

 when carrying in the cellar. Shut bees in with wire, and 

 they are more anxious than ever to get out, the excitement 

 being mischievous. They shrink from the wet cloth, and 

 conclude they donU want \.o f^e\.o\xi\ so the cloth can be 

 taken away as soon as they are placed in the cellar, leaving 

 them quiet. Ordinarily, however, there ought to be no ne- 

 cessity for fastening the bees in when carrying them in 

 cellar." 



