Vol. X 



Published Monthly by The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co. 

 OCTOBER, 1900 



No. 10 



THE SEPTEMBER BEE-KEEPER. 



Emphasizing the Good Things in the 

 Last Number. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



ON opening the wSeptomber number 

 of The American Bee-keeper 

 our eyes alight on a scone wliich 

 at once transports us to the Southern 

 iieniisphere, to a place where the people 

 have long summer days when we are 

 <Mijoying' our long, cold winter evenings, 

 and when tlie sun hangs low down over 

 the Southern horizon at midday, with 

 the mercury often playing about zero. 

 Did I say enjoying the cold evenings ? 

 Yes. Among the many pleasant recol- 

 lections of the past, none are more 

 so than the winter evenings spent 

 around a bright, crackling wood-lire, 

 cracking walnuts, butternuts and hazle- 

 nuts, or popping corn, together with 

 the nuM'ry laughter of the young men 

 and maidens who had come in to spend 

 a social hour, or I had gone to so spend 

 an hour with them. Then, in lat(>r 

 years, what keen enjoyment has come 

 to me in reading tlie bee-books and 

 papers on these same cold, stormy eve- 

 nings, with tlie room kept warm by the 

 base burner stove, throwing out its mel- 

 low heat from the consumption of coal 

 therein, while the hanging petroleum- 

 burning lamp, with its almo'^t noon-day 

 light, gave a radiance to the page which 

 was only equalled by the radiance in the 

 heart, as the reading gave rise to new 



plans and new experiments which were 

 to be used the following summer in con- 

 nection with the bees. The soul which 

 sees nothing of fun in these things is to 

 be pitied. But I'll not enlarge on these 

 matters further. Thank yoa, Mr. 

 Editor, for giving ns a glimpse of bee- 

 keeping in the Southern hemisphere 

 tlirough this frontispiece. 



TO KEEP COMBS FROM MOTHS. 



Near the middle of the, second column 

 on page 1(34, Mr. M. F. Reeve tells us 

 how he overlooked a hive of combs 

 until the moth-worms had taken posses- 

 sion of them. Finding them tlius, ho 

 removed what worms he could handily, 

 when the hive of combs was set over a 

 strong colony for cleansing and protec- 

 tection. Good! I have had similar ex- 

 periences myself, but never thought to 

 give it in print. And allow me to say, 

 if a colony of bees will thus clean combs 

 after the larvse, of the wax-moth has 

 gotten possession of them, said colony 

 will fully protect combs, if they have 

 access to them, from worms or enemies 

 of all kinds. For this reason, when I 

 have more combs than I have colonies 

 of bees to profitably use tliem during 

 the honey-harvest, and these combs are 

 likely to fall a prey to worms, I set 

 apart one, two or three colonies, or as 

 many as are required, said colonies 

 being those which are too weak to work 

 in sections to good advantage, and to 

 these I give such combs, piling one. two, 

 three or four hives of combs top of these 



