July 10, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



437 



I Contributed Articles. 



— ■- " ' ■ — — ■ -'- ■» - ■■■ 



No. 8-— Bee-Keepln§ for Women. 



Methods of Caring- for Old Brood-Combs. 



BY EMMA M. WILSON. 



It is not to be expected that the beginner will have a 

 very threat number of extra brood-combs to look after. 

 Still, it often happens, even with a few colonies, that some 

 die, and then the extra combs must be taken care of or they 

 will soon be destroyed by the bee-moth. These combs are 

 too valuable to allow any to be destroyed, consequently they 

 must be looked after sharply, and upon the first indications 

 of worms at work they must be attended to promptlj*. 



I know of no better way to take care of them than to 

 give them in charg'e of the bees, by putting- an extra story 

 tilled with these wormy combs below the colony, where the 

 bees are obliged to pass through them every time they go 

 in or out. You may be sure the worms will be routed in 

 short order, and everything kept in good shape as long as 

 they are allowed to remain. It would be an ideal way to 

 keep combs, only for one thing : The bees will proceed to 

 fill these combs with honey the first thing they do after 

 they have nicely cleaned them up, providing that honey is 

 coming in freely, and that is not the place we want our nice 

 white honey put ; if we are working for comb honey we 

 want it in sections instead. Now, how are we going to 

 take care of our combs and have our honey put where we 

 want it, too ? 



Worms will make slow headway in combs that are kept 

 in a cool place, such as a cellar, and spread so that there is 

 an inch or so space between the combs, but you must look 

 them over frequently to see that the worms are not getting 

 a start, for when they once get started they work very rap- 

 idly, and your nice combs are soon destroyed unless at- 

 tended to. 



Burning sulphur has been much used in destroying 

 worms. It is very effectual in killing the young worms, but 

 it takes a great deal to have any effect on the old ones, and 

 has no effect on the eggs, so the combs must be fumigated 

 again after the remaining eggs have hatched out. Bisul- 

 phide of carbon is better, as it kills eggs as well as worms. 

 If. after the combs have been treated, they are shut up 

 absolutely moth-tight thev will be safe. 



The past spring we had a good many extra combs to look 

 after, and as we were pretty busy they were not looked after 

 quite as sharply as usual, and when I came to look them 

 over I found quite a number that needed attention. 



Dr. Miller had been reading to me about the fumes of 

 gasoline being effectual. I did not have much faith in the 

 fumes of gasoline, but I did have a good deal of faith in the 

 gasoline itself. So, without consulting Dr. Miller I con- 

 cluded to experiment a little. I had about SO combs that 

 were wormy. Some of them had full-grown worms, some 

 about half size, and some just commencing work, so I felt 

 I had a good chance to experiment. 



I took a bottle of gasoline and a small oil-can, such as 

 is usually used about the sewing machine, as my outfit. I 

 filled the oil-can with gasoline, and was ready for work. I 

 inspected each comb carefully, and whenever I saw the 

 least suspicion of worms I squirted the cells full of gaso- 

 line from the oil-can. It was very quickly and easily done. 

 and was most effectual even on the very large worms. I 

 treated the whole 50 combs, and was sorry afterward that I 



had not kept track of the time it took me, as I was sur- 

 prised to see how quickly it was done. 



I felt sure it was a success as far as killing the worms 

 was concerned, but I had a little misgiving as to the effect 

 the gasoline might have ujjon the combs, and as to- what 

 the bees would have to say about accepting them after they 

 had been so treated. I am happy to say that the combs 

 were not injured in the least by the gasoline, and the bees 

 made no objection to accepting them, so I am inclined to 

 think it a pretty good way to treat them. Of course, one 

 must be very careful not to use gasoline anywhere near a 

 fire, as it is very inflammable. 



Combs that have been out over winter and thoroughly 

 frozen will be very little bothered, if any, by the worms in 

 this locality. Combs from hives in which colonies have 

 died will need the closest watching, as such combs are sure 

 to be infested. 



Old, black combs which have been in use many years 

 seem to be much preferred by the worms, probably on ac- 

 count of the cocoons. The presence of pollen in a comb 

 will also increase the danger of its being riddled by the 

 worms : while a comb that has never had any brood in it is 

 not likely to be troubled, so I always pick out our old, black 

 combs and put them in use first. I do this for two reasons : 

 First, the bees prefer them every time for brood-rearing, 

 and in the spring we are anxious to increase our bees as 

 much as possible. I have actually known the bees to skip 

 over a light-colored, rather new comb in the center of the 

 brood-nest and fill an old, black comb on the other side of it 

 with brood, thus making a break right in the center of the 

 brood-nest. This shows how very strong is their preference 

 for the old, black comb. The other reason is, that the 

 worms prefer them, too, so it is desirable to get them in the 



care of the bees as soon as possible. 



McHenry Co., III. 



Prevention of Increase During Natural Swarming. 



BY C. P. DADAXT. 



Permit me to reply to your inquiry on page 103, on the 

 prevention of increase during natural swarming. The 

 prevention of increase by returning swarms to the parent 

 colony shortly after swarming was tried by me accidentally 

 on a large scale a number of years ago — I believe it was in 

 the years 1877-78. It happened in the following manner : 



We had at that time made arrangements with an api- 

 arist some 14 miles from us to furnish him hives for his 

 swarms and take care of his bees at the same time, taking 

 one-half of the honey and of the increase for our pay. He 

 was to harvest the swarms as they issued. The season was 

 exceedingly favorable, and we were crowded with work. 

 The number of swarms was greater than we had antici- 

 pated, and our man found himself sh"brt of hives for two or 

 three days. When I arrived at his apiary with a load of 

 some IS or 20 hives, he had been hiving his swarms in all 

 sorts of boxes, nail-kegs, etc. Upon my arrival at his api- 

 ary I at once went to work to transfer, to the new hives 

 that I had brought, all the swarms that had issued within 

 the past two days, as they had but little comb built. But 

 each of them did have several pieces of comb with eggs in 

 them, in almost every instance. They were so ill-pleased 

 with my unceremonious transfer into freshly- painted, empty 

 hives that every swarm left those new hives and returned 

 to the parent hive from which it had come forth a day or 

 two previously. 



Subsequently we ascertained that none of those colonies 

 swarmed again that season. I thought that I had made a 

 discovery, and used this method repeatedly afterwards with 

 very frequent success, but I later found that my original 



