Ont. 4, 1906 



American Itee Journal 



847 



favor swarming, such as crowding and lack 

 of ventilation. 



3. Some years ago there were great hopes 

 that the bees could be induced to destroy 

 queen-cells if once in so many days hives were 

 turned upside down, and reversible hives 

 were invented for this purpose. But it 

 turned out that the plan was not reliable. 

 Indeed, it is found that even if reversing 

 would cause the destruction of queen-cells, 

 this would not be a sure preventive of swarm- 

 ing, for when the attempt is made to thwart 

 the bees by cutting out all cells, they will in 

 a good many cases swarm without wailing for 

 cells. 



3. Some black bees will swarm less than 

 black bees in general, and some Italians will 

 swarm less than Italians in general, but if 

 ever a non-swarming strain worthy the name 

 is attained it is more likely to be Italian than 

 black. Among Italians there can be found 

 bees just as little given to swarming as among 

 blacks, in all probability, and as Italians are 

 in general better bees, they are the ones to 

 work with in aiming toward non-swarming. 

 If you are aiming for that 100 pounds of 

 comb honey per colony in a good season, you 

 will probably reach it more quickly with Ital- 

 ian blood. At any rate, it is no great trick to 

 reach it here with Italian blood predominat- 

 ing, and Northern Michigan is supposed to be 

 a good deal better honey region than this. 



4. I don't know what makes some bees 

 swarm so much more than others; I only 

 know the fact. Evidently you have bees that 

 are bad swarmers. The introduction of pure 

 Italians, or of pure blacks, would be likely to 

 reduce the amount of swarming, and the in- 

 troduction of a good strain of hybrids or 

 crosses might reduce it just as much. The 

 advisable thing for you is to introduce pure 

 Italian blood. After you've done your best 

 in that direction, you are likely for several 

 years to have still more or less black blood. 



5. I don't know all about your locality, but 

 my impression is that in almost any locality, 

 if not in any locality, Italians will outstrip 

 the blacks in honey, and if rightly managed it 

 is possible that a cross of Italian and black 

 blood may give more honey than either blood 

 pure. But I would try as much as possible 

 to work toward pure blood. 



6. I don't know. I think not; but it may 

 be that some one with experience in the 

 northern raspberry regions, and also farther 

 south, will tell us about it. 



possession, you may safely trust them to keep 

 the moth at bay. If wax-worms are not pres- 

 ent, then I don't know what the trouble is. 



Heat Breaking Down Combs or Honey 



May be the Bee-Moth 



My bees are doing nicely now, but I have 

 trouble with combs of honey breaking and 

 dropping down, caused by the heat. I have 

 covers on all the hives, but the sun strikes 

 the hive front. Is there aoy remedy for this? 



Illinois. 



Answer. —Most likely the trouble is all 

 over before this, for by the time your ques- 

 tion reached me, a sudden change in the 

 weather made it almost too cold for bees to fly 

 at all. Yet there was some very hot weather 

 in September, and combs might break down 

 from it if they ever broke down from heat. 

 Certainly they ought not to break down from 

 the sun striking on the front of the hive. I'll 

 venture the guess that they would have 

 broken down if the sun had not touched the 

 front of the hive. The probability is that 

 two things were responsible for the trouble. 

 One was that the entrance of the hive was 

 too small, giving the bees too little chance 

 for ventilation. The other was that there was 

 too little chance for circulation of air about 

 the hive, buildings, trees, or bushes prevent- 

 ing a free movement of air. Years ago 1 had 

 combs melt down in a hive— I think I never 

 had them melt down in any other case— and 

 the sun never shone on the front of the hive, 

 nor on any other part of the hive. The hive 

 stood in a very dense shade, a thicket of 

 bushes on one side, and tall corn on the other. 

 The entrance was not very large, but I think 

 the combs would not have melted if the hive 

 had stood out in the sun all day long, provi- 

 ded there had been full chance for the breeze. 



Wintering Nuclei Over a Strong 

 Colony 



I have had only 2 years' experience with 

 bees. I like the work, but find very little 

 money in them so far. I have 5 colonies. 

 They have cost me about $50, and have gath- 

 ered but 20 pounds of surplus honey in the 2 

 years. I have a colony of black bees that I 

 gave an Italian queen about 40 days ago. I 

 see now they are busy carrying young ones 

 out that are nearly old enough to fly ; some 

 dead, and many alive. Upon examination, 

 I do not find anything like foul brood, but 

 the colony has weakened one-half, and is 

 gathering very little nectar for brood pur- 

 poses. Kindly explain matters. Missouri. 



Answer.— I don't know with so little in- 

 formation, and can only guess. You are 

 doubtless right in thinking there is no foul 

 brood in the case, for in foul brood young 

 bees dead and alive are not carried out of the 

 hive, the larvaj dying in the cells and rotting 

 there. It is likely that the bee-moth is the 

 guilty party. The colony has probably been 

 weak, and the larvse of the bee-moth have 

 made their galleries through the cappings of 

 the combs, mutilating the young bees so that 

 they are carried out by their older sisters. If 

 my guess is correct, you ought to be able to 

 6ee upon inspection the said galleries or webs. 

 It will help somewhat if you will dig the 

 worms out of them. With a wire-nail or other 

 pointed instrument, dig into one end of the 

 gallery, then beginning at the other end dig 

 along till the worm comes out where you first 

 began, when you may take your revenge. 

 After a fair number of Italian bees have taken 



1. Can a nucleus be wintered on top of a 

 6trong colony by placing a queen-excluding 

 board between ? That is, put two or three 1 

 or 2 frame nuclei in a hive and put it over 

 a strong colony with plenty of honey? 



Nebraska. 



Answer.— 1. I don't know that any one has 

 ever tried exactly the thing you mention. 

 Something like it is done in the Alexander 

 method of putting a weak colony over a 

 strong one in spring ; but in that case it is not 

 continued more than 3 or 4 weeks. If con- 

 tinued through the winter, it is very likely 

 there would be more or less loss of queen6. A 

 safer plan would be to use wire-cloth instead 

 of a queen excluder, so that there would be 

 no communication between the bees below 

 and above. Of course an entrance to the out- 

 side would have to be allowed to each of the 

 nuclei. If outdoors, the6e entrances should 

 be very small, and the entrance to the lower 

 colony would need to be less than with no en- 

 trances above. 



That Lapse-of-Memory and Bee- 

 Stlng Case 



however, I think it would be possible, and I 

 can but think that this has taken place with 

 the young man. The paralyzing effect of 

 formic acid may have quickly closed the 

 capillaries in the natural channel, thus forc- 

 ing it into some unnatural course. 



Of course, this is only theory, and intended 

 as pleasant discussion. 



Davis R. Emmons, M. D. 



This view may be entirely correct, 

 the only thing to which exception 

 should be taken is that Dr. Langer's 

 investigations show that the active 

 poison principle Is something separate 

 and apart from formic acid, and, if I 

 am not mistaken, alkaline. That, how- 

 ever, makes no material difference in 

 the case. 



As a further contribution to the 

 lapse-of-memory case, on page 759, I 

 am glad to give the following note 

 from Dr. Davis R. Emmons : 



1 have read with interest your answer in the 

 ease of the bumble-bee sting on the ear. I 

 wish to compliment you for the manner in 

 which you sum it up, and certainly in writing 

 for publication in a bee-paper it would be 

 very hard to improve upon. However, in 

 private it looks to me as if the poison, diluted 

 and in small quantity, had in some way 

 reached the brain-cells that have to do with 

 memory. I think that a few of the small 

 branches of both the posterior and anterior 

 auricular arteries pierce the cranium, but 

 ordinarily in this case it would be returned to 

 the heart through the lateral sinuses without 

 entering the brain. In exceptional cases, 



Frame-Spacers— Best Size of Section 



1. When I started my apiary, 2 years ago, 

 I bought 5 Danzenbaker hives, but after one 

 season's use I considered them too shallow, 

 for the bees carried too much propolis into 

 the sections; moreover, I consider it unneces- 

 sary labor to handle 10 frames when an 8- 

 frame dovetail hive contains the same comb- 

 space. I had the good fortune to sell the 

 hives and replace them with the 8-frame dove- 

 tail hive with Marbacb-Hoffman frames. Do 

 you consider these Marbach metal-spacers 

 preferable to the V-edge? The revson why I 

 ask is, because I intend to buy more hives 

 soon. I find in using the metal spacers that 

 the bees always fill with propolis the space 

 beneath the tin, and I have wondered whether 

 the self-spacing V-edge (which I never have 

 used) would not save the work for the bees, 

 and at the same time answer my purpose as 

 well. 



2. What do you consider the best size sec- 

 tion? lam using the 4x5 plain section, be- 

 cause I thought the bees more likely to begin 

 work in them than in those of smaller size. 



Subscriber. 



Answers. — 1. The chief objection to the 

 Hoffman frame is the amount of surface in 

 contact between two adjoining frames, the 

 greater such surface the greater chance there 

 being for bee-glue and for killing bees. The 

 Hoffman was considered an improvement on 

 the closed end frame, because only part of 

 the end-bars came in contact, instead of hav- 

 ing the end-bars touch throughout their 

 whole extent. It may be said in passing, that 

 notwithstanding the objection to having so 

 much surface in contact, some still prefer the 

 closed-end frames because of the indisputably 

 greater warmth. The first Hoffmans had not 

 only the end-bars touching, but quite a space 

 of the top-bars, and it was an improvement 

 when they were made with only theend-birs 

 touching. It was counted a still further im- 

 provement when one shoulder of the end-bar 

 was cut to the V-form, both because there 

 was less impinging surface, and because the 

 sharp edge would cut its way into the bee 

 glue when the frames were crowded together. 

 Some, however, think the square shoulder 

 better than the V-edge, as the bees have only 

 the greater temptation to fill the angle with 

 glue, and there is a greater tendency on the 

 part of the sharp edge to split off. The Mat- 

 bach metal spacer is an improvement, because 

 anything that makes the point of contact less 

 is an improvement. Whether it will prove as 

 great an improvement as anticipated, remains 

 to be seen after the bees have had a chance for 

 a few years to get in their work at gluing, for 

 where the space is less than ' 4 inch it will be 

 glued up. Even after the bees have done 

 their worst it will be an improvement. 



Whatever the difference between the two 

 kinds, there is still greater difference between 

 the better of the two and the simple metal 

 spacers used by myself and others. The 

 smaller the point of contact the better, so 

 long as it is not small enough, or sharp 

 enough, to force its way into the opposing 

 wood. That metal spacer is nothing more nor 

 less than a common wire-nail, rather heavy, 

 l'„ inches long, with a head something less 



