THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



233 



For the American Bee Jouraal, 



Head off the Moth-Worms. 



A friend writes me tliat the moth-worms 

 trouble him exceedingly, and have made out to 

 destroy a part of his apiary, and desires to know 

 how to " head them off'' the present season. 



1st. Oct your bees into frame hives. Deter- 

 mine at once what is the best shape of hive for 

 your latitude, and use that shape only. When 

 your bees are in frame hives, the combs, bees, 

 brood, moth-worms, and all, are under your con- 

 trol. Do not forget to acquaint yourself 

 thoroughly with the system of taming bees as 

 now practiced by our best bee-keepers. 



2d. Use no moth-traps, and have the hives so 

 well made that the moth-worms can find no 

 hiding places on the outside of them. 



3d Keep your hives always supplied icith.young 

 queens. Suffer none to live more than three 

 years, or after they show signs of decreasing 

 fertility. 



4t.b. Handle the combs often, and when doing 

 so never suffer a moth-worm to pass unnoticed, 

 but destroy it at once. The heel of your boot, 

 rightly used, will generally stop its breath. 

 Make these examinations often in the spring 

 months, as a few worms destroyed then are 

 equivalent to many hundred later in the season. 

 5th. Depend entirely on artificial swarming, in 

 other words, make your bees swarm. Ri gulate 

 the number of swarms according to your desire, 

 (but do not desire too many,) and suffer no 

 family to become so reduced in bees that they 

 cannot protect the combs. Should any family, 

 however, have more combs than the bees can 

 cover or protect, take the excess away and put 

 them into a dark, cool room, and return them 

 when the colony has recuperated. It is better, 

 however, to exchange these combs with some 

 strong family for those of maturing brood. 



These directions, if put in practice, will keep 

 every hive of bees in full strength, and you 

 will have very little trouble with moth-worms. 

 Try them. M. M. Baldkidge. 



St. Charles, Kane Co., III. 



into the frames, and another to spread over my 

 transferring board when not using it. By hav- 

 ing all implements needed ready, splints with 

 tacks driven through the ends at the right 

 place, etc., it was all finished in less than au 

 hour, and scarcely a drop of honey spilled or a 

 bee injured. 



As a proof of the'r prosperity, the second day 

 after, they had built a pie'ce of new comb more 

 than six inches square, which is more than all 

 the pieces that were wasted in transferring from 

 the old hive. The combs were fortunately near- 

 ly straight and the bees were very busy on 

 the fruit blossoms at the time. A^ J. Root. 



Medina, Ohio. 



For the American Bee Journal and Gazette. 



The Experience of a Novice in Bee- 

 Keeping. 



Number 4. 



Transferring. 



Editor Bee Journal : — A few days ago I 

 succeeded in transferring a strong stock from 

 an old box hive in a simpler and quicker way 

 than the one usually recommended. It was as 

 follows : — 



In the middle of the day I removed the old 

 hive a few feet backwards ; put the new one in 

 its place ; cut the combs close to the sides of 

 the hive with a thin piece of steel-plate ; pried 

 off one side and cut the bottom free the same 

 way ; and in less than ten minutes had a frame 

 of brood comb in the new hive. I then brushed 

 the bees in front of the new hive as fast as I 

 wished to use the combs, which were imme- 

 diately placed in the new hive as fast as I could 

 get them into the frames. I was careful to see 

 that the queen entered, and after that the bees 

 worked right along without any interruption. 



I u?ed a cloth to spread over the old hive to 

 keep out robbers while I was putting the combs 



After introducing so valuable a queen, 1 be- 

 gan to think it would be advisable to feed my 

 swarm up to a point beyond the probability of 

 starving during the winter, and accordingly 

 purchased enough coffee sugar to make twenty 

 pounds of syrup, which I fed to them in 

 the top of the hive as fast as they would carry 

 it down ; but i*. being late in the season and the 

 weather rather cool, they did not take it down 

 very fast. 



A friend interested in bees, called on me just 

 as I was feeding them the last of it, and he ex- 

 pi'essed a desire to see " Her Majesty." I opened 

 the hive to find lier and was very agn eably 

 surprised to find a multitude of little "yellow 

 chaps" just emerging from their cells. At first 

 I thought it could not be twenty one days, but 

 on counting up I found it was just twenty-one 

 days, almost to the hour, on which she was re- 

 leased from the cage. 



. I was furthermore (?zsagreeably surprised to 

 have my bee friend tell me that they had not 

 honey enough to last them two weeks, AVhere 

 was the twenty pounds I had fed them gone to? 

 I was at a great loss then to tell, but now sup- 

 pose that it had entered largely into the com- 

 position of the aforesaid little "yellow chaps" 

 that I was so much delighted with ; so much 

 does it require for raising brood. 



I continued feeding them whenever they 

 would take it, as I knew of no other way ; and 

 some warm weather coming in eight or ten 

 days after, I had the satisfaction of beholding 

 a golden shower of the little fellows playing in 

 front of the hive, sporting in the sunshine, and 

 making a display more beautiful to me than 

 any fireworks, and their happy joyous hum was 

 the sweetest music. 



This was all very well for a day or to, but 

 my unseasonable feeding produced unseason- 

 able flying; and the hive still being in an upper 

 story, my young Italians would fall to the 

 ground, and were unable to get back again. I 

 now became convinced that an elevated situa- 

 tion was not the place for bees, all that had been, 

 said about their state of nature in high trees, 

 &c., &c., to the contrary. 



