664 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Sept. 21, 19(5 



strong so as to take advantage of the generally good weatber 

 we have during the clover and basswood bloom. 



The point I wish to impress on the reader is : First, we 

 have the field or location we are in, of which we should have 

 a thorough knowledge ; next, we have the bees to get in large 

 numbers 7«5< in time to take advantage of the main honey- 

 flow of the field ; and, third, a bee is of little value as a honey- 

 gatherer, only as it can be placed in the field of action just in 

 the right time. In this way the quantity of nectar which a 

 bee can gather in a lifetime becomes of interest to us, that we 

 ma}' work faithfully and intelligently to have that lifelirne 

 come when our field is yielding nectar. At all other times we 

 are wise not to work for bees in a greater number than is suf- 

 ficient so that we can take advantage of their numbers to 

 bring the colony up to this " high water " mark, with the 

 rolliug around of the honey-flow of each season. 



Onondaga Co , N. Y. 



# 



A Top and Bottom Frame-Spacer 



BY C. W. DAYTON 



I HAVE mailed to the office of the American Bee Journal a 

 top and bottom spacer as I use in my hives — the spacer 

 described on page 541. I put them in my hives in 189S. I 

 expect to make 300 new hives between now and another sea- 

 son, using this spacer. 



The wire for the bottom is simply woven about headless 

 nails driven in proper positions into a piece of hard wood, and 



uua 



then soldered to the strip of galvanized iron before it is slipped 

 off the nails. 



The top or end spacer is marked out of galvanized iron 

 from a pattern, snipped with the tinner's shears, and then 



FlaZ 



bent over in a vise having wide jaws. I made a stamping die 

 to cut the notches, but it left the edges too sharp, and, besides, 

 it is so short a job that it is impractical to construct a ma- 

 chine. 



Although I never have seen a " St .loe" hive or spacer, I 

 suspect these notches, when % inch deep, are exactly like it. 

 But my notches are only ij, inch deep instead of % inch. And 

 bent over instead of being cut out. The only need for deep 

 notches is in moving. When a wagon runs upon a consider- 

 able-sized stone, and then slips suddenly ofl" one side, or the 

 stone is a loose one and rolls over, the ends of the frames are 

 apt to jump out of the shallow notches unless beeglue holds 

 them in place. 



Another thing, there should be a half-inch space or more 

 between the side frame and the side-wall of the hive. Mr. 

 Abbott wrote me that wire would not work as a bottom spacer. 

 I would like to know what he uses that is better than wire. 



The strips of wood on the top spacer sample are the 

 sequoia (big tree) redwood, which shrinks and swells endwise, 

 never warping or checking sidewise. My hives, constructed 

 of this %-lumber, IJ-^-story. full of frames, bottom-board, 

 cover and shade-board, average about 16 pounds in weight. X 

 am not well pleased with it. It is too soft, and fades to 

 almost black. It is not so pleasant to look at as white, clean 

 pine- Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Sulphur Treatment of Bee-Paralysis 



nv II. S. PHILBROOK 



I SEEM to have made a valuable discovery in regard to bee- 

 paralysis, which might well be called the O. O. Poppleton 

 plan modified. 



I had moved my bees to the hills, had succeeded in build- 

 ing up most colonies to fiimous strength, and was just glory- 

 ing in my prospect of an immense yield of sage honey, when 

 the bees began to show unmistakable signs of bee-paralysis. 

 It first appeared in one colony, and I immediately closed it at 



evening, and moved it 2 miles away, but it soon broke 

 out nearly all over the yard. Out of 153 colonies S3 were 

 affected. I was not discouraged, but was ready to fight it, 

 but the question was how to proceed. I disliked the Popple- 

 ton plan on account of destroying the brood or else cutting 

 strong colonies up by formine nuclei for the brood. So I tried 

 various other remedies, among the rest a spray of sulphuric 

 acid diluted, which was very effectual, l^'Ut also had the bad 

 effects of ruining the unsealed brood. Some colonies were so 

 badly affected that they would carry out a full quart of dead 

 bees in a single night. 



I reasoned that the disease was a microbe or germ dis- 

 ease, and it must enter the hive at the entrance. If the Pop- 

 pleton plan worked, sulphur was death to the germ or microbe. 

 I wondered if it were necessary to cover the brood with sul- 

 phur, for it does not attack the brood, but only the old or 

 adult bees, and especially the queens. I reasoned that the 

 diseased bees being the adult ones, by covering the entrance- 

 boards with the sulphur and throwing it well back into the 

 hive, the adult bees would come very much in contact with it 

 in trying to keep it up, as the disease seemed to attack them 

 on the tongue, and thence enter their bodies. So I treated 

 every colony in the apiary to a dose of sulphur by throwiijg it 

 well into the hive-entrance in the evening when all bees 

 were in. 



At first the results scared me, for the quantities of dead 

 bees increased, and I drove a distance of SO miles to Mr. M. 

 H Mendleson's, to see if he might not suggest a remedy. But 

 my only consolation was this : " Philbrook, you are in a bad 

 fix just at the beginning of the honey-flow, and you will get 

 no honey this year. You have my sympathy, but I can not 

 help you, except to give you my salt-and-water recipe, and it 

 will take the entire season to get it out of your bees." 



I was somewhat discouraged, and drove home wondering 

 what I should do, when, presto, change I there were scarcely 

 any dead bees carried out the next morning, and after 4 days 

 I treated the entire yard to another dose of sulphur, and very 

 few dead bees appeared. My yard was free from disease, and 

 all so quickly and easily that it seemed that I had only had a 

 horrid nightmare, and not the real thing. 



It appeared later in the season, but I promptly dosed with 

 sulphur, when it vanished once more, and I have seen no 

 further signs of it. My honey crop amounted to a trifle over 

 IS tons from those 153 colonies. 



My first experience in the bee-business was in my father's 

 apiary in the Simi Valley, in California, in 1879. He was in 

 the business for 10 years, and one year took off 47 tons of ex- 

 tracted honey. He shipped this crop to Chicago, New York 

 and Boston, but the experiment proved very disastrous, 

 although he went with it and carried samples in the comb. 

 But people would believe that he had the means of putting it 

 in the combs and sealing it over artificially, thus practicing 

 adulteration Ventura Co., Calif., Aug. 20. 



(Eonpcntion 

 Procecbings 



rJ 



Report of the Chicago-Northwestern Bee- Keep- 

 ers' Convention, held at Chicago, 111., 

 Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 1904 



[Continued from page 61'' J 



SECOND DAY— Morning Session. ' 



At 9:.")0 a. ni. Pres. York called the convention to order 

 and requested Dr. Miller to invoke the divine blessing. 



Dr. Miller— Our Father, we thank Thee for another 

 night's rest. Prepare us for the work of the day. We pray 

 Thee that the same kind feelings, and the same kind spirit, 

 may prevail here to-day as did on the past day. We thank 

 Thee for the acquaintances of the other bee-keepers, and that 

 we may meet together in a kindly spirit and discuss the 

 things in which we are mutually interested. We pray, O 

 God, for Thy blessing upon us. Wilt Thou care for the dear 

 ones at our respective homes. May we feel that they are safe 

 under Thy care. We pray that Thy blessing may be upon us 

 as bee-keepers, and may we learn something to-day. May we go 

 from here better men and women ; better fitted to do the 

 work that our Heavenly Father has for us to do here upon 

 the earth. Bless the President and the other officers. May 



