(Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mall-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn St. 



QBORQE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL,, FEBRUARY 15, 1906 



VoL XLVI— No. 7 



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(Cbttortcd Hotes 

 anb (Comments 



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Sulphur and Sugar Syrup for Bee-Paralysis 



Sulphur and molasses used to be a favorite medicine 

 "to cleanse the blood." Now comes a correspondent in the 

 British Bee Journal with a somewhat similar prescription 

 for bee-paralysis. It is sulphur and sugar syrup. He says : 



" I took away all their stores, sealed and unsealed, and 

 as they were greatly reduced in numbers I contracted the 

 brood-chamber, leaving them only a few empty combs (one 

 or two contained brood), and put a chaff cushion each side 

 of the frames to keep them as warm as possible. Then I 

 made half a pint of sugar syrup, putting in a small tea- 

 spoonful of sulphur and 5 or 6 drops of Dr. Collis Brown's 

 chlorodyne. The sulphur must be made up to paste consis- 

 tency first, as it is hard to mix with the syrup afterwards. I 

 also made the syrup a little warm. This I gave them in a 

 ' Simplicity ' feeder on top of the frames. The sulphur set- 

 tled to the bottom of the feeder, but I suppose they got the 

 benefit of it. I put the chlorodyne in because it is such a 

 universal remedy for rheumatism, cramps, etc., in human 

 beings. At any rate, that treatment quickly cured them, as 

 no more died after they got the doctored syrup, and to-day 

 they are doing well and working away as if nothing had 

 happened." 



Dealing With Vicious Bees 



The following, from the British Bee Journal, is given 

 with the caution that too much of it might give an unpleas- 

 ant flavor to comb honey : 



If any reader is troubled with really vicious bees, deter- 

 mined to rush out in a body to attack as soon as the hive is 

 approached, he might try the following when there is any 

 necessity to manipulate them : 



Charge the smoker with part of an old quilt which has 

 gotten worn out by long use. It will be pretty heavily 

 propolized, possibly on both sides. Being of a rather in- 

 flammable substance generally, it may be made up into a 

 roll with alternate layers of some slow-burning material. 

 Thus treated, it will send out dense clouds of very pungent 

 smoke, which will effectually check any attack from the 

 bees on the operator. A very little of it will go a long way, 

 so that too much should not be used, because bees might 

 perhaps be injured by inhaling too strong a dose of this 

 powerful intimidant. 



What is a "Bee-Space?" 



If any one has a perfect definition for the term, it will 

 be thankfully received at this office. Perhaps in general it 

 is used to mean the space for best results between different 



parts in a hive, so that in such space the bees would do the 

 least in the way of filling up the space either by filling in 

 comb or bee-glue. But does that measure the same in all 

 places? A contemporary advised lately that there should 

 be a bee-space between bottom-bars and floor-board. If by 

 that was meant the same space that works best over top- 

 bars, then the inquirer would probably find in a short time 

 that his frames were no longer movable on account of the 

 bee-glue fastening down the bottom-bars. 



Years ago there was more or less of an understanding 

 that Y% of an inch was a proper bee-space. But with Yt of 

 an inch over top-bars there is sure to be much comb built 

 and honey stored in it. As the space becomes smaller, less 

 and less comb is built, but when the space becomes too 

 small then bee-glue is filled in. There is probably no exact 

 space where neither comb nor glue will be built in, but 

 about '4 inch has perhaps been settled on as the space in- 

 viting the least of either, with perhaps a leaning toward a 

 space just a shade less than % inch. Is that the best space 

 between top-bars ? Is it the best space between end-bars 

 and the ends of the hive ? Pretty certainly it is not the 

 best space under bottom-bars. 



Fastenings When Hauling Bees 



At the National convention R. F. Holtermann expressed 

 a desire for a more secure way of fastening bottoms and 

 covers to hives when hauling them. He had used crate- 

 staples, and so far had had no trouble with them ; but was 

 a little afraid they were not quite secure enough. Why not 

 add enough staples so that there could be no question as to 

 security? 



Sweet Clover a Boon to the Farmer 



A. Wicherts, of Matteson, 111., sends us the following 

 concerning sweet clover, taken from the Joliet News : 



" Farmers have long scolded about the encroachment 

 of sweet clover on the highways and along line fences. 

 Now comes a Lockport farmer who claims it is the farmers' 

 best friend. The gentleman, Henry Leiser, says that a 

 patch of it was allowed to grow in a corner of his farm. He 

 plowed it under, and this year got a magnificent yield of 

 corn from the clover spot. 



"Not only did this corn yield well, but exceeded that of 

 a neighbor who had used the much-talked-of rock phos- 

 phate, from Tennessee." 



Sweet clover is not only one of the best things a farmer 

 can use for fertilizing the soil, but it is also an excellent 

 nectar-yielder for the bee-keeper. With the exception of 

 the past 2 or 3 years, sweet clover was an unfailing honey- 

 producer in the region around Chicago. Had it not been 



