333 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Decern 



can keep them year after year without 

 danger of being destroyed. When 

 bees die during the winter, in the 

 spring I take out the combs, pare off 

 queen cells and other needless bits of 

 comb, and scrape the frames clean. 

 I then scrub out the hive with boiling 

 suds, rinse with boiling water, and 

 when it is dry return the combs. 

 Then the hive is stored in the cellar. 



Sometimes I discover hives tenant- 

 less in May, and when I remove the 

 combs find the grubs of the bee-moth 

 parading through their galleries. 

 These gentry I remove with a darning 

 needle or some sharp pointed instru- 

 ment without breaking the comb, and 

 when the combs are ready they are 

 stored in the cellar. After a week 

 or ten days I examine all the combs 

 carefully, and remove all grubs that 

 have developed. I do this three times, 

 and seldom find one during the third 

 examination. Life does not come 

 from nothing, and after all the moth 

 eggs are hatched there will be no more 

 grubs. No moths are allowed to ma- 

 ture there, and the cellar windows 

 are covered with wire gauze. 



If combs that are used for extract- 

 ing are exposed to zero weather, the 

 eggs of the moth well be destroyed. 

 If they are stored where the bee-moth 

 cannot get at them to lay her eggs, 

 they will be safe from the inroad of 

 these marauders. 



Peoria, 111. 



"How TO Manage Bees," a 50c 

 book, and the American Bee-Keep- 

 ER a year for only 60c, or A. B. C. 

 of Bee Culture and the Bee-Keeper 

 one year for 75c, or including Glean- 

 ings one year for $1.65. 



Editor Am. Bee Keeper.- — ^Dear 

 Sir: It is about time now for wide- 

 awake bee-keepers to be thinking of 

 getting their sections ready for next 

 summer. In order to have combs 

 fastened at the bottom in sections I 

 have tried putting in "V" shaped 

 foundation starters 31 inches wide and 

 41 inches deep — J wide at the bot- 

 tom, and fasten them at the top and 

 bottom. 1 like this plan better than 

 filling the sections with the founda- 

 tion. 



How to keep sections clean is a 

 question that all bee-keepers are ask- 

 ing. I will propose a plan that I feel 

 sure will accomplish it, although I 

 have not given it a thorough trial. 

 It is by having sections made tight 

 on top and separators wider so as to 

 come up flush with the top of the 

 sections; then the bees cannot touch 

 the outside of the sections, and when 

 the sections are pressed together with 

 followers, the}^ cannot even put the 

 propolis on the edges. This plan 

 gives the bees free range through the 

 sections in all directions, also good 

 ventilation so that the new honej' will 

 evaporate freely. 



When the separators are perforated 

 and the sections made to match as 

 above, the separators are held straight 

 in place. I think bees will feel more 

 at home this way, and it will save 

 them lots of work building such walls 

 of propolis to stop the cracks over- 



