1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



4G5 



STOKING AND FUMIGATING COMBS. 



Question. — I have about 800 empty combs. 

 How can I protect them from the moth '? and 

 what is the best method of fumijrating them? 



Aiisioer. — If the questioner wishes to keep 

 these combs for an indefinite time there is no 

 way except to fumigate them and then store 

 them where the female moth can not have 

 access to them, lint if he or slie expects to 

 utilize them during the present month or fore 

 part of July, fumigation may not be necessary. 

 My plan of storing combs from which the bees 

 have died the previous winter is to store them 

 in some dry airy room, where they can be hung 

 two or more inches apart. In storing them I 

 select out all that contain much bee-bread or 

 pollen, and place them by themselves where I 

 can use these first; then I select all having but 

 little pollen in them, and place these where 

 they will come to hand next after those first 

 named; then I select all which are old and 

 black, and have these next at hand, while those 

 having been used but little by the bees for 

 brooding purposes, and having no pollen in 

 them, are left to be used last or latest in the 

 season. All white combs in which no brood 

 has ever been reared, whether containing honey 

 or not, and that have been taken from the hives 

 during the fall, winter, or early spring, are 

 almost moth-proof, or, at least, I have never, 

 to my remembrance, had such combs disturbed 

 by the larva of the wax-moth, where kept as 

 above for any term of years; but when such 

 combs are taken from the brood -chamber of 

 the hive during hot summei weather, and stored 

 away as above, then they may be troubled 

 some. Combs stored two or more inches apart, 

 with those having the most pollen in them to 

 the front, need not be looked after in this local- 

 ity till June, when they should be examined; 

 and if any fine webs are noticed about the cells 

 containing pollen, these should be given to the 

 bees as soon thereafter as possible. By about 

 the tenth to fifteenth, look after those having 

 little pollen in them, and by the 2.")lh look after 

 the old tough combs, while those which ihe 

 bees have used but little for brooding will rare- 

 ly be touched before July 4th to lotli. In this 

 way I have no difficulty in using all the 

 spare combs I may chance to have befoie the 

 moth troubles them lo an extent tending to in- 

 jure them. 



But if we wish to keep combs during a whole 

 season or more they mu-^t be fumigated, or else 

 have been exposed to a temperature of about 

 zero during the previous w init r. Wlieic this 

 latter has been the case, pack ihein away in 

 early spring in some box or closet which is 

 moth- proof and they will keep forever, or as 

 long as the closet or box keeps, providing no 

 female moth is ever allowed to deposit eggs on 

 them. To fumigate, place in a tight room, or 

 in hives which will sit closely on each other, 

 without bottoms, when we burn sulphur to the 



amount of a pound to every 400 cubic feet con- 

 tained in the hives or room. In sulphuring 

 combs there is little fear of using too much 

 sulphur; for should a deposit of sulphur occur 

 on the combs, thereby giving them a greenish 

 tinge, it will not harm as it does on comb honey. 

 In sulphuring honey, too rgbiich care can not be 

 taken in guarding against the possibility of 

 fire; for a room filled with the fumes of burning^ 

 sulphur is a poor place to go to extinguish what 

 may prove to be a conflagration unless ex- 

 tinguished in time. For this reason, an iron 

 kettle, partly filled with ashes, with live coals 

 on the ashes, with the combs so hung that none 

 of them can melt and fall in the fire in the ket- 

 tle, is the best thing to use to pour the sulphur 

 on. If you wish the combustion of the sulphur 

 to be complete, too much must not be poured 

 on too small a surface of coals, otherwise a part 

 of the sulphur will not burn as it should. 



BEE-VEILS — HOW TO WEAR THEM. 



ANOTHER PLAN, ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOK 

 LADIES. 



By Mii<s Emma Wilson. 



I have been quite interested in reading about 

 the different devices used for fastening the bee- 

 veil, but so far I don't think I like any of them 

 as well as my own — probably because it is my 

 own, and is old and well tried, as I have fasten- 

 ed my veil so for years. Dr. Miller has also 

 used it for some time, and pronounces it a suc- 

 cess. He has been wanting me to write about it 

 ever since Mr. Hutchinson gave his device, but 

 I have kept putting it off. Finally some re- 

 marks of Mr. Hasty, in the Review, have-stirred 

 me up to write. What he says, like all that he 

 writes, makes very interesting reading 



I get the impression that he has formerly been 

 in the habit of tucking his veil inside his shirt- 

 collar, and Mr. Hutchinson speaks of doing this 

 also. Now, I should think tliat would be a most 

 uncomfortable, choky way of disposing of a bee- 

 veil. I don't wonder they want some different 

 device. Mr. Hasty seems to have been very 

 much pleased with the Porter method. Still he 

 says, "But (would you believe it?) I am not al- 

 together happy yet. Like the children of Isra- 

 el in Egypt, I sometimes 'fall a lusting,' and 

 want to put my honey-dripping fingers in my 

 mouth. To untie the string of the new device, 

 and loosen up, takes too much time. Who will 

 invent an elastic side entrance, or something 

 that will let me get at my 'potato-trap' with 

 the minimum of hindrance? Moreover, I am 

 sadly dependent on my spectacles, and want to 



