1897. 



THE AMEHICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



695 



BEEDDIVI BOILED DOWN. 



Bees and Fruits.— Prof. Cook says in Gleanings: 

 "The fruit-meu of Califoruia have ceast to denounce the bees. 

 We rarely hear other than praise of the little honey-gatherers." 



Brimstoningf Colonies for the sake of the honey, 

 altho almost unknown at present in this country, continues to 

 be practiced quite extensively in Europe. One firm advertises 

 in the French bee-journal, L"Apiculteur, that wishing to save 

 the bees from suffocation, they will buy heavy colonies at 4}.^' 

 cents a pound. 



Xo Drive Robber Bees from the cracks of hives, 

 John Craycraft says in Gleanings to squirt a few drops of 

 coal-oil into the cracks. He says: " I have usually used a 

 bunch of wet grass at the entrance of a hive robbers were 

 trying to clean out, but not always withsuccess. Just sprinkle 

 a little coal-oil on the grass and watch the results." 



A Bee-Killer. — T. S. Ford, of Mississippi, reports in 

 Gleanings that the whippoorwill or night-hawk eats his bees. 

 He says it Is quite different from the Northern bird of the 

 same name, a specimen that he shot having a mouth I-'.,' 

 inches in width, the distance from the tip of one mandible to 

 the tip of the other, when widely extended, being 'lYt, inches. 



Drawn Foundation. — In view of the fact that the 

 bees when they have plenty of time for it try to fill up the 

 sharp angles at the bottom of the cells when flat bottoms are 

 used. Gleanings announces that hereafter drawn foundation 

 will be made with natural base, and that it is now found that 

 the natural base is made more easily and cheaply than the 

 flat. 



Honey Versus Sugar.— In L'Apiculteur the ques- 

 tion Is raised why it is that on sugar which costs about S)-b' 

 cents a pound grocers are satisded with a profit of 10 to 15 

 per cent., while on honey which costs less than 11 cents they 

 must have a profit of 170 to 190 per cent. The opinion is 

 given that organization and united action might bring about 

 a better state of things. 



Potassium Permanganate is a remedy the most 

 efficacious and the least dangerous of any used in surgery, 

 says Dr. Verbrugghen, and in view of the fact that sometimes 

 serious results come from bee-stings, it is well to have this 

 remedy constantly on hand. Promptly remove the sting, 

 moisten the wound, and lightly rub over it a crystal of the 

 salt. If convenient, apply for some hours a compress moist- 

 ened with one or two per cent, solution. — Revue Internationale. 



Raising Hives. — A "stray straw" in Gleanings 

 notes that the old-fashioned plan of raising a hive half an 

 inch or an inch on four blocks during hot weather seems com- 

 ing again into favor, whereupon the editor remarks : " I do 

 not believe that bee-keepers realize the advantage there is in 

 having plenty of space under the brood-frames, with a deep 

 entrance, during the honey-flow, when the weather is hot." 

 He thinks the time is coming when deep and wide entrances 

 will be used exclusively, and that swarming will be materially 

 reduced thereby. 



Sugar for Bees. — Advertisements may be found 

 from time to time in the foreign bee-journals of proper sugar 

 for bee-food, pure cane-sugar, sugar without bluing, etc., and 

 the British Bee Journal lays stress editorially on the fact that 

 beet-sugars are not suitable for bee-food. In this country 

 there seems to be no distinction between beet and cane sugars, 

 and it is doubtful if there is any way by which a bee-keeper 

 can tell whether a sample of granulated sugar is from cane or 

 beets. Possibly we are making a mistake'in not trying to get 

 what our neighbors across the water consider the best. 



Age of Combs. — Is it not true that fashion has a 

 good bit to do with bee-keeping matters? There are our 

 British cousins who have for years followed up the practice of 

 using a carbolized cloth instead of a smoker, while in this 

 country the carbolized cloth was tried to some extent, but its 

 use is now largely if not entirely abandoned. Another thing 

 which hardly seems to have any explanation except fashion is 

 the difference of opinion on the two sides of the water as to 

 the use of old combs. In this country there seems to be no 



brood-combs so old as to be objectionable, while in England 

 demand is made for the renewal of comb perhaps at the age 

 of four or five years, one writer going so far as to say (British 

 Bee Journal, page 234) : " I have now resolved never to use 

 a comb a second time under any pretense whatever; that is 

 to say, when combs are once removed from a hive they will be 

 melted down, and not saved for future use." That's radical 

 enough, isn't it ? 



Foul Brood in the Fall.— Here is the advice 

 given by the editor of (Jleanings, a man who has had much 

 personal experience with foul brood: Extract and boil the 

 honey, burn the combs and frames. Immerse the hive in a 

 vat of boiling water — perhaps at a cheese factory — keep it un- 

 der at least 40 seconds — 60 would be better. The plan to 

 disinfect the hive is less trouble and perhaps just as good. 

 Paint the inside of the hive with kerosene, set fire to it with 

 the cover off, and let it blaze until it is charred just enough to 

 show that fire has been inside the hive. Then put in two or 

 three tablespoons of water and put on the cover. As late as 

 first of October it may be worth while to save the bees. Shake 

 them on frames of foundation, and after they have starved 

 long enough to be weak, dump abbut three lots into one hive, 

 thus making one colony out of three, and commence feeding. 



S'Warming Bees.— That's what Geo. L. Vlnal, in 

 Gleanings, page 740, calls the treatment he gave two colonies 

 of bees that persisted in hanging out and buildiug queen-cells 

 in spite of his repeatedly cutting out the cells. He caged the 

 queen with a few attendants, fastened a branch of a tree in 

 the ground, tied the cage on the branch, placing a piece of 

 canvas near the branch. He brushtthe bees all off the frames 

 and out of the hive, and they clustered on the branch just 

 like a natural swarm. He put the frames back into the hive, 

 set the hive in a new place, and hived the swarm in it after 

 he had let it hang an hour. The bees went right to work and 

 never hung out again. Now he wants to know whether it was 

 changing the location of the hive, or letting the bees hang in 

 a cluster for an hour that made the bses give up swarming. 



The thought with some will be that this plan is as much 

 trouble as natural swarming, perhaps more. But a good many 

 would be willing to take extra trouble if only it could be at a 

 time to suit the bee-keeper instead of the bees. A radical 

 difference, however, is that natural swarming divides the 

 force and breaks in badly on surplus work ; whereas with Mr. 

 Vinal's plan the whole force is left to go right on in the 

 supers, just as if they had never thought of swarming. The 

 important question is, will it work iu all cases, or did it just 

 happen to work right in these two cases? It's a big thing if 

 It will always work. 



How Mucb Honey Does a ^Vorker Store? 



— W. C. Macy, as reported in Pacific Bee Journal, failing to 

 find In the books how much honey a bee produced in a year, 

 determined to settle the matter for himself. He says : 



" I selected one of my colonies of average size and killed 

 the bees by smoking them with sulphur. By means of a tooth- 

 pick and a goodly stock of patience I bad the swarm scattered 

 over the kitchen floor and counted inside of three hours. I 

 found the number and kind to be a queen, 270 drones, and 

 10,480 workers. From a colony of this size the yearly out- 

 put is 50 pounds of honey, or 1 2 1 of an ounce. This, of 

 course, does not include the amount consumed by the inhabi- 

 tants of a hive." 



Of course, it will be remembered that during the working 

 season the life of a worker spans only about six weeks, and as 

 it does not begin field-work till 10 days old, there are only 26 

 days spent in field labor. If the honey harvest should last 

 just 26 days, and if the honey stored during that time to- 

 gether with the honey consumed should amount to 50 pounds, 

 then 1^'21 of an ounce would fairly stand to the credit of one 

 worker. But if the harvest extends over six, eight, ten or 

 more weeks, the case is quite different. On the other hand it 

 must be remembered that the 50 pounds of surplus is the 

 smaller part of what the bees gather, their own needs requir- 

 ing at least more than 50 pounds, so it is quite possible that 

 1/'21 of an ounce may not be so very far out of the way as 

 representing theamountof honey gathered by a single worker. 



Xbe McEvoy Foul Brood Treatment is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " Foul Brood ; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for $1.10. 



