1HE AMERICAN BEE-KEhPER. 



125* 



away and keep for wintering. Au- 

 gust is a splendid time for Italianiz- 

 ing if you have reared queens for the 

 purpose, or if you intend to purchase 

 queens, and one very good reason is 

 that queens are cheaper at this season 

 than earlier, or even later. The 

 stocks are not disturbed by introduc- 

 ing new blood, and they go into win- 

 ter quarter.- with young queens and 

 just right to turn out good Italian 

 workers for next season. Have as 

 much brood reared this month as you 

 possibly can, even if you have to 

 feed ; hives strong with young bees 

 in the fall winter much better and 

 have more strength and vigor the next 

 spring. I think I can safely say that 

 a stock of young bees in the fall will 

 be worth two stocks of old bees in the 

 spring; they gather honey faster, 

 work harder, and thus their queen is 

 stimulated and commences to lay ear- 

 lier than those who were worn out when 

 .they went into quartexs. There is a 

 fair chance of a honey drought in 

 some part of this month. In this I 

 may be mistaken, but we generally 

 get it, and I always look and prepare 

 for it. However, what I intended to 

 say was, should the bees cease to find 

 honey in the fields they are apt to be 

 very much harder to handle, and they 

 rob each other like perfect little sin- 

 ners. I might add that should they 

 commence robbing it is more difficult 

 to prevent them than at any other 

 season of the year. Hence I say when 

 you open a hive always smoke it well 

 before opening, and I would say puff 

 a few whiffs in the entrance of hives 

 standing near the one to be manipu- 

 lated , as this has a tendency . to keep 

 them at home and mind their own 

 business. Keep all stocks strong. 

 If you have any weak one help it 

 along by giving it a frame of brood 

 from some stock that is able to stand 

 it. Keep the entrances partly closed 

 to prevent robbing. Leave no broken 

 bits of comb, or sweets of any kind, 

 exposed. 



If box honey is placed in a cool dry 

 cellar, setting one or two inches apart 



so as to allow a free circulation of air 

 around them, there will be very little 

 danger of hatching worms. Still they 

 should always be fumigated before 

 sending to market, for some of our 

 bee-keepers have had very sad experi- 

 ences who failed to do it. There is 

 no telling how the worms get into box. 

 honey that has not been in a hive for 

 weeks or even months, and they have 

 been all sealed and glassed ever since 

 taken from the hive. No, there is no 

 telling how, but I am "just chuck 

 full', of theory as to causes, and I 

 think there is no question but that 

 moth has been all through the hive 

 from which the boxes were taken, and 

 has laid her egg in these lioxes. How 

 the worms evade the bees is another 

 thing 1 cannot say — but for all that 

 they do — and should the weather be 

 very warm these eggs will hatch and 

 become moths, and after standing in 

 the store awhile will not only be un- 

 sightly, but unsaleable and cast aside 

 as ■• wormy honey." In order to fu- 

 migate honey sections I would say, 

 take them into a room that can be 

 tightly closed and arrange them on 

 strips of wood about the width of a 

 lath but thicker, resting the corners 

 of the boxes on two strips and thus 

 spread them all out; they can be built 

 up as high as you like or the quan- 

 tity of lioxes demands, all you want 

 is free circulation. Then place an 

 old iron kettle on a few bricks placed 

 on the floor under the sections ; in the 

 kettle throw a shovel full of live coals, 

 on the coals throw about one pound 

 of sulphur, then leave and close the 

 door tightly. This will kill all worms 

 — cannot say whether it would de- 

 stroy the eggs or not, but 1 doubt 

 it — therefore I would advise you to 

 fumigate them at least three times 

 defore sending to market, at an inter- 

 val of every two weeks. I would 

 say. as a mild suggestion to the be- 

 ginner, if you have Italian bees there 

 is little danger of the bee-moth, as 

 they seem, to- protect themselves from. 



