mn 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



'.>7 



cpssful, thero is a possibility that you may not 

 like this part of bee-keeping as well as the oth- 

 er, therefore it might be the part of discretion 

 to go a little slow until we are sure tliat the new 

 enterprise will be just the thing we desire. 



WINTER PASSAGES IN COMBS. 



Question. — I have noticed that, when I trans- 

 fer bees and combs from box hives, some of the 

 combs have nice round holes in them about 

 half an inch in diameter. Do bees make their 

 winter-passages in the combs thus? 



Answer. — I do not think that bees ever leave 

 holes through their combs with a view to using 

 them for winter-passages. I have transferred 

 many colonies of bees from box hives, but have 

 never seen any uniformity of comb-building. 

 I have seen the little round holes mentioned, 

 but I have noticed that they are as likely to be 

 found in one part of the hive as in another. 

 This shows that these holes are caused, as a rule, 

 by one of two things, the first of which is the 

 larva of the wax-moth. These are often found 

 at the base of the cells, where they often so web 

 the young bees together that they can not 

 emerge from the cells, in which case the mature 

 bees are obliged to cut the comb away in order 

 to remove these bees fastened together, webs 

 and all, from the hive. In doing this these 

 holes are made, after which they are left as 

 they are till a yield of honey comes of sufficient 

 amount to cause the bees to secrete wax, when, 

 as a rule, these holes are built full of comb 

 again. The next reason I should attribute to 

 the "cross-sticks" which are nearly always 

 used in box hives. Passageways are nearly al- 

 ways left around these sticks, to a greater or 

 less extent, and these were thought, in days 

 gone by, to be of great advantage along the 

 line of the safe wintering of the colony, as the 

 cluster of bees could contract during extremely 

 cold weather through these without the bees 

 being necessitated to go around the combs or 

 becoming chilled where but a few hundred were 

 in the spaces of comb at the outside. This led 

 to the cutting of holes through the combs in 

 frame hives every fall, to be filled up again the 

 next season, or filling these holes with painted 

 shavings so the bees would allow them to re- 

 main open. As these holesin the combs proved 

 to be a nuisance in more ways than one. the 

 Hill device was brought out, which is a series 

 of curved sticks held together with a piece of 

 hoop iron in such shape that the becis can pass 

 under these sticks and over the top- bars of the 

 frame, this answering every purpose of holes 

 through the combs, in allowing the bees to pass 

 from one space between the combs to another 

 without becoming chilled and dying on the fro- 

 zen honey. 



MIXED RACES OF BEES BRINGS BEEDIAKRHEA. 



Question. — Don't you think that the mixing 

 of the different races of bees has brought what 

 is known as " bee-diarrhea " into the country ? 



Years ago, when we had only (Jerman bees, 

 bee-diarrhea was unknown. 



Avsivcr.—l think the questioner is mistaken 

 in his assertion that bee-diarrhea was unknown 

 when there were only (^ermn n bees in this coun- 

 try, for Qninby tells us all !il)out the prevalence 

 of this disease several years before the Italian 

 bee was introduced, and the Italians came many 

 years before the Cyprians. Syrians, Carniolans, 

 etc. No. this trouble did not come to us through 

 the importation of the different varieties of 

 bees; and if it was not as prevalent years ago 

 as now. which I think was the case, it was be- 

 cause the country was more protected from the 

 tierce winds we now have, by the abundant for- 

 ests then in existence, but now cut down to give 

 place to the "onward movement of man." 

 When father kept bees, some thirty to forty 

 years ago. the woods came close around our 

 dwelling, and the bees could fly every time the 

 sun broke through the clouds, when the mer- 

 cury reached 45° or above. But now every 

 thing is different: for, four times out of five, 

 when the temperature reaches the degree given 

 above, during the three winter months, the 

 wind blows so hard that no flight is accomplish- 

 ed, unless it is done at a great loss of numbers; 

 hence the bees have to suffer on, or die, as the 

 case may be. From careful watching for the 

 past twenty years I am confident that the trou- 

 ble known as diarrhea in bees is caused by con- 

 finement beyond endurance of the bees. The 

 trouble is wholly incident to a continuation of 

 weather unsuited for the flight of the bees, and 

 is more of a mechanical nature than of a dis- 

 ease. Many things may conspire to shorten or 

 lengthen the struggle for existence, such as bad 

 food, great dampness, weak constitution, etc. 

 Any of these may make the struggle short, and 

 the reverse of these may vary all the way from 

 successful wintering to a long tedious hanging- 

 on to life that ends in spring-dwindling with 

 barely a building-up, to try the same thing over 

 again the next winter. With no return of 

 balmy weather, no flash of the wing in the sun- 

 shine, and no chance of voiding the fyeces out- 

 side of the hive, the end must come sooner or 

 later, and for these reasons I can not see how 

 the word "disease '' fully covers our wintering 

 troubles. 



'■hcKlAd'^rgJ^ 



CIRCUMVENTING ANTS. 



I see that some of your subscribers are trou- 

 bled with ants. I was traveling a good many 

 years ago, and late one evening sought the hos- 

 pitality of an old farmer living in the country, 

 fifty miles from the railroad. His family were 

 very primitive people, and, though in good cir- 



