isy7. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



779 



whether there isn't something in your treatment that produces 

 such result*. Possibly you give help to the swarm in the way 

 of empty combs, or brood, or both. If so, then the thing for 

 you to do is to hive swarms in hives that are empty, or with 

 foundation at most. Larger hives would help. Younger 

 queens might help. 



If every other means fails, you probably would succeed in 

 this way : When the prime swarm issues, kill the queen and 

 return the swanu. Then in a week or so later you'd have a 

 young qneeu swarm with a still larger force than issued with 

 the old queen, and you could couut with certainty on no more 

 swarming, unless you have a strain of abnormal swarmers. If 

 your queens are all dipt, the bees will take care of the matter 

 themselves ; the swarm will issue one or more times with the 

 old queen, and then she will be put out of the way, and eight 

 days or so after the swarm first Issues it will come out with a 

 youug queen. 



BEEDDM BDILED DOWN. 



The Solar Wax-Extractor, according to W. Fitzky in 

 Centralblatt, is the invention of G. Leandri, who exhibited it 

 in ISSL at the Exposition at Mailand. Dr. Dubini made an 

 important improvement by adding a reservoir to receive the 

 melted wax. 



Paraffine Paper Over Sections. — The Canadian Bee 

 Journal says that no bee-keeper anxious to produce first-class 

 honey in sections, and willing to master the business, should 

 use such paper ; that it is not necessary, and that the best filled 

 sections cannot be secured without a bee-space above the 

 sections. 



Small Hive-Entrance for Winter. — Jacob Alpaugh, in 

 wintering bees, has slight upward ventilation in the hives, and 

 when decidedly cold weather conies, closes the entrance with 

 a piece of card-board which has cut in it a hole half an inch 

 square. This hole he has never had clogged, and when the 

 bees want more entrance they can gnaw It. — Canadian Bee 

 Journal. 



Staple Spacers for Top-Bars. — The A. I. Root Co. an- 

 nounce that because some do not like the Hoffman frame they 

 will now furnish their customers, on option, plain frames 

 with thick top-bars and staples for spacers. The staples are 

 the same that have been in use the past season as end-spacers. 

 Frank Boomhower, of New York, and his neighbors have been 

 using these staples as side-spacers with great satisfaction. 



When to Extract. — "The best time to extract honey is 

 just as the bees begin to cap the comb. Thus the labor of 

 uncapping is avoided, and the honey is in good condition for 

 the extractor." — American Bee-Keeper. But how about be- 

 ing in good condition for the consumer? Better put an eke 

 under that paragraph telling the beginner that if he has no 

 way to ripen it artificially, he better wait till the bees "cap 

 the comb " entirely. 



Smoker Fuel. — In a large dish stir about M pound flour 

 into cold water, making a thin pap. Into this stir 14 pound 

 saltpeter, previously dissolved in hot water. Add two quarts 

 of warm water and mix well. Then fill the dish with coarse 

 sawdust and knead thorouehly as a baker kneads dough. Form 

 with the hands into egg-sized balls, squeezing out the super- 

 fluous water. When thoroughly dried break into nut-sized 

 pieces and use in the bee-smoker. — Gravenhorst's deutsche 

 lllustrierte Bienenzeitung. 



Foundation and Extracting'. — The Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal copies without comment an article from the Kansas Farmer 

 which contains two items that would hardly be endorst by all 

 bee-keepers : 



"One pound of comb foundation when drawn out and 



completed will hold about 50 pounds of honey Honey for 



the extractor, like comb honey, is the best taken as the bees 

 store it. and not left on the hive any longer than it is ready to 

 come off." 



No-Bee-Way Sections. — Gleanings presents a picture 

 showing at the same time a case of the ordinary sections and 

 one of the no-beeway style. The illustration is not a remark- 

 able success in the way of showing the difference between the 

 two, but the reader is told to illustrate it for himself. Take 

 the ordinary section that has been filled with the use of sep- 



arators, and plane off the bee-ways so that the sides of the 

 sections shall be of the same width as the tops, or straight all- 

 around. Comparing it with one not thus planed down, it has 

 a fuller look, because more nearly filling up the wood. The 

 editor is inclined to the belief that by using the fence separa- 

 tors, the bees having a chance to go back and forth through 

 the slats have a tendency to fill out the combs a little fuller, 

 and are also less inclined to leave a hole at each of the four 

 corners. The editor mentions that such sections were adver- 

 tised by G. B. Lewis nearly U) years ago, but, as sometimes 

 happens, the times were not ripe for them. 



Extracting— How is It?— J. F. Mclntyre said at Buffalo 

 convention that the bees stored less honey for a time after 

 extracting, being engaged In cleaning up and repairing. The 

 Canadian Bee Journal says that is a strong argument for ex- 

 tracting only part of the combs at a time, so the tees could 

 keep right on storing in the untoucht combs. Now comes the 

 American Bee-Keeper, and says that would only make double 

 trouble; " the number of gorged bees and general confusion 

 would be but slightly increast by complete extracting, as com- 

 pared with the drouble-trip plan suggested." 



Using Box-Hives.— CI. Laurent, in Le Progres Apicole, 

 advises as the most profitable way to keep box-hives in combi- 

 nation with frame hives. In November or February, place a 

 box-hive with a strong colony as near as possible to a colony 

 in a frame hive ; in the spring stimulate strongly the box-hive 

 colony ; at the time of the grand harvest take from the box- 

 hive an artificial swarm and give to the frame hive, after 

 giving the same scent to both colonies ; and set the box-hive 

 on a new stand at some distance, where its colony may build 

 up ready to go through the same performance a year later. 

 The colony in the frame hive will give good results even in a 

 middling season, but it is absolutely essential to have strong 

 colonies to begin with. A handful of bees won't do. This is 

 a little after the plan of John F. Gates, only he let his mam- 

 moth colonies in box-hives swarm naturally, taking no honey 

 from them, but keeping them as breeders. 



Can Field-Bees Become Nurse-Bees ?— The discussion 

 upon this question has been somewhat animated in Germany. 

 Gerstung asserted as a principle that the brood impulse, like 

 every other impulse, when once satisfied becomes extinguisht 



old bees are no longer capable of nursing or building comb. 



Others scouted the idea, and an instance was given in which a 

 colony was removed while field-bees were flying, but no young 

 bees playing, and then the field-bees were allowed to retura 

 to a hive with no young bees and only luiseaiecl brood, the 

 queen being allowed to remain. Work went on all right, the 

 young Iarva3 were swimming in food, the queen was fed, and 

 laid, and the opposers of Gerstung said his statement was 

 neither truth nor poetry, but error. 



A. Bohnenstengel, in an article in Deutsche Imker aus 

 Boehmen contends that this last case proves nothing, as it 

 was entirely possible that in the excitement of brushing out 

 the bees some of the younger bees should have joined the 

 force, and that they were the ones that did the feeding and 

 comb-building. He seems to take to some extent a middle 

 ground, admitting that the younger of the field-bees may act 

 as nurses. He quotes Stachelhausen, of Texas, who had 

 queens reared by old bees, but found them in every case in- 

 ferior. .... 



The practical part of the whole question, perhaps, has its 

 chief interest in connection with queen-rearing. Wherever 

 the exact truth may lie, it is certainly a sife thing not to de 

 pend on old bees for queen-rearing. 



> * 4 * * A i 



, f ***** ' 



The Alsifee Clover Leaflet consists of 2 pages, 

 with illustrations, showing the value of Alsike clover, and 

 telling how to grow it. This Leaflet is just the thing to hand 

 to every farmer in your neighborhood. Send to the Bee Jour- 

 nal office for a quantity of them, and see that they are dis- 

 tributed where they will do the most good. Prices, postpaid, 

 are as follows : 50 for 20 cents ; 100 for 35 cents ; or 200 



for GO cents. 



^ ♦ ♦- 



The Kames and Addresses of all your bee- 

 friends, who are not now taking the Bee Journal, are wanted 

 at this otlice. Send them in, please, when sample copies will 

 be mailed to them. Then you can secure their subscriptions, 

 and earn some of the premiums we are offering. The 

 next few mouths will be jdst the time to easily get new sub- 

 scribers. Try it earnestly, at least. 



