THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



207 



that it was unsafe thus to shut up robbers with a 

 weak colony. 



In all cases Avhere it may be desirable to shut 

 up the robbers, I would advise the bee-keeper to 

 cage tlie queen, and keep her caged for at least 

 three days. But I cannot even then recommend 

 such a process. The robber bees, after having 

 been thus confined for eight or ten days, return 

 in great numbers to their former hives, and in 

 most cases recommence robbing immediately. 

 Only where the bee keeper can remove the robbed 

 colony a mile or more from the old stand, would 

 I advise shutting up the robbers, for the purpose 

 of uniting them with tliose attacked, in order to 

 strengthen the weak colony. Even in such a case 

 I should greatly prefer to strengthen a weak col- 

 ony by intioducing in it a supply of bees pro- 

 cured from another apiary. A quart of bees 

 taken from a distant apiary, kept confined in a 

 liive with food, bnt without brood, can, without 

 the least danger, be united in the evening with 

 a weak colon_y that has a fertile queen. In this 

 way, I liMve frequently in the spring, strength- 

 ened colonies which were so weak that they 

 would certainly have perished, even if tlu'y had 

 escaped the notice of robbers. A. Grimm. 



Jefferson, Wu., Feb. 1870. 



[For the American Bee Jouvi 



Patent Comb Guides. 



1.] 



I see by the Amkuican Bee Journal and the 

 Rural New York(U- that K. P. Kidder has pur- 

 chased of G. H Clark, the ])atent right for the 

 triangular comb guide. I have used the Lang- 

 strolh hive for ten years, and have never used 

 this comb guide ; and I do not know what any 

 one else Avants to use it for. It is not a sure guide 

 in the Lan^slroth frame, and I never saw a 

 Laugstroth hive with that kind of guide that had 

 all straight combs; and I never saw a Clark 

 hive that had all straight combs. As a general 

 thing, six combs in the Clark hives are straight, 

 while the seventh is very thick, and on one side, 

 about half way down, tiie bees will start a thin 

 comb, too thin to store honey in, and not thick 

 enough for brood comb. I have seen a great 

 many Clark hives where the combs ran exactly 

 ucroHn the guides. 



There is but one sure and simple comb guide, 

 and that is the one that I have used for years. 

 It IS sure in all hives, and in every instance where 

 it has been used it has proved a success. I have 

 nothing new to recommend to most old bee-keep- 

 ers, but to new beginners it is worth knowing, to 

 say the least. 



Instead of this patent triangular comb guide 

 that has caused so much trouble during the last 

 ten years, I use a " flat bar." To this I stick any 

 old worker brood comb — no matter how old and 

 mouldy it is, it is a sure guide. This I cut into 

 strips, from one to two or three cells in thickness, 

 according to the quantity I have on hand ; but 

 when such comb is scarce, one cell deep will do. 

 AVith melted rosin and beeswax (not honey and 

 beeswax, as your printer ouce made me say), I 

 .stick the combs to the "flat bar." The wax 

 must be hot, and the work is done quickly, and 

 the combs will not come off. When no old comb 



j is at hand and cannot be obtained, I would turn 

 an old box hive bottom up, and cut ort' two or 

 three inches of the worker comb. This should 



i be done early in the spring, before it is filled with 

 brood. If no box hive is handy, take one or 



i more frames from a movable comb hive and cut 



j from them enough comb to make guides for a 

 larire number of frames, if needed. 



The idea of raising the rear end of Lingstroth 

 hives, to make the bees build straight combs, is 

 all moonshine. I have never seen an instance 

 yet where the bees have done it. 



I hope no reader of the American Bee Journal 

 will be found foolish enough to pay Kidder, or 

 any one else, one cent for the right to use tiiis 

 patent comb guide. 



It is but a small job to put guide combs on 

 frames enough for twenty hives. Simmer the 



I wax and rosin in a shallow tin vessel, saj'' two 

 inches deep by six inches wide, and ten or twelve 



! inches long. Old combs cut easy with a thin 

 knife that has a straight rough sharp edge, made 

 hot by dipping it in hot water just before draw- 

 ing it across the comb. H. Alley. 

 We}i?)am, Muss. 



1^" To attach strips of guide comb to frames 

 or bars, the German bee-keepers use a cement 

 composed of curd cheese and slaked lime, adding 

 a little borax dissolved in water, to keep the ce- 

 ment plastic during the operation. This is more 

 easily managed than a composition of wax and 

 rosin, with no risk of destroying the guide comb. 

 Dzieizon has always used the flat bar provided 

 with such foundations to secure straight combs. 

 —Ed. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Puzzling Points. 



In Vol. 5, No". 3, page Gl, of the Bee Journal, 

 Mr. Argo is somewhat puzzled. I have never 

 been in the queen raising business— only raising 

 queens for my own use ; therefore will not attempt 

 to answer his question, but will give some of niy 

 own experience. 



I have had queens raised from pure mothers 

 feitilized by black drones, that produced all three- 

 striped workers, but would produce a majority of 

 black queens. I have had queens raised from 

 hybrid mothers and fertilized by pure drones, 

 that produced handsomely marked workers and 

 very light-colored queens. I have had queens 

 from pure mothers fertilized by drones from a 

 hybrid queen, that produced well marked Avorkers, 

 though all their queens were very dark-colored. 



I am strongly inclined to be on the side of Mr. 

 Thomas and Mr. Benedict, as to the impurity of 

 drones from a hybrid queen. At all events, give 

 me my choice and I will always take the queen 

 that is raised from a pure mother and fertilized 

 by a drone from a jnirely impregnated queen. On 

 the other hand, let a person take for granted that 

 drones from a hybrid queen are pure, breed in 

 and in fi'oiu such stock, and he will very soon 

 find that he has mixed blood. There is something 

 about this that has never j'-et been satisfactorily 

 explained. We have queens that are partially 

 fertilized, so that a small proportion of their eggs 

 hatch workers and the rest drones. We have 



