164 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



September 



tmd would not think of goin;>; back to 

 the open-yard plan. If the building is 

 planned right, you have all tools and 

 appliances^ right at your hand to work 

 with instead of being obliged to hunt 

 around for what you need. There are 

 other points of advantage which the use 

 of a bee-house will give to those who 

 once try it. 



Tidioute, Pa., Jan. 2.'), 1900. 



NOTES FROM THE KEYSTONE 

 STATE. 



BY M. F. UEEVE. 



PENNSYLVANIA BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOC" S. 



THE Philadelphia Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation, which claims to be the 

 oldest organization of the kind in 

 the United States, does not care to lose 

 its individuality by becoming the nucleus 

 for a proposed Pennsylvania State Asso- 

 ciation. As a matter of fact, its mem- 

 bership is not res};rlcted to Philadelphia 

 but includes Camden, Merchantville, 

 Palmyra, Collingswood and other New- 

 Jersey towns, and Montgomery and Del- 

 aware Counties in Pennsylvania. Mrs. 

 E. S. Starr, who is working actively in 

 the matter, has been made chairman of 

 a committee, appointed at a bee-keeper's 

 meeting, to obtain copies of the chart<>rs 

 and other data of State Associaations 

 of New York and elsewhere. A consid- 

 erable membership is already promised. 

 The need of a Pennsylvania State Asso- 

 ciation, it is claimed, is becoming more 

 and more apparent as a protective 

 measure. 



ABOUT MOTHS AND MOTH WOKMS. 



Have any of the readers of The 

 American Bee-keeper ever heard that 

 "lump indigo" is a preventive of bee- 

 moth ? I never did, until a stranger 

 in the vicinity came over to my place 

 to inquire about queens, and imparted 

 the wonderful secret. 



"I'll tell you something that nobody 

 knows anything about except myself: 

 If you want to keep away the bee-moth." 



he said mysteriously, "just leave a 

 lump of indigo inside on the bottom- 

 board of the hive, and I guarantee 

 yon will never have any trouble with 

 the worms or millers.'' 



I told my informant I had never come 

 across this before in any bee-journal 

 or heard of it, but that I was aware 

 that indigo coloring in sugar syrup was 

 considered dangerous to the brood. He 

 assured me that it was not injurious in 

 lump form except to the moth and its 

 larvaj. 



Talking about motli-worms, reminds 

 me that last spring I received a lot of 

 empty brood-combs from a Maryland 

 party, which were utilized when the 

 season began, except one hiveful that 

 were overlooked and left in the liouse 

 loft. When they were examined, late 

 in July, they were literally a mass of 

 moth-worms and cocoons. The larvse 

 had even got into the joints of the floor 

 and gone into the chrysalis state. 

 When I got through killing millers and 

 picking out cocoons from the corners of 

 frames and the floor, there was a double 

 handful. These all went into the fire. 



The hive, filled witii the frames, was 

 placed on top of a strong colony and 

 tlie bees soon cleared out the galleries i 

 made by the worms and smoothed every- 

 thing up. There the combs remained 

 as the best place for them. 



A peculiar experience in wintering. 



I don't suppose the experience was 1 

 peculiar to myself, but the bees certain- 

 ly played queer pranks with the winter 

 covering, last spring. Last fall, in 

 making things snug for the winter, 1 

 made loose burlap bottoms, which were i 

 tacked around the inside edge of the 

 deep Falconer supers, leaving a sort of 

 bagging projection beneath. The 

 supers were then filled with dry beech 

 leaves and placed on top of the Hill's 

 devices over the colonies and, after 

 fastening the supers securely to the 

 bodies, the bees were left alone for the 

 winter. It was late in the spring before 



