Feb. 14, 1907 



133 



AiiK>ricaK 3ee Journaljgig^ ^ 



the combs in which they are laying, 

 leaving- no room for honey, enabling 

 any combs to be removed in autumn 

 from the hive without finding it half- 

 filled with honey— a very great con- 

 venience if you wish to store the empty 

 combs for winter. I had a large crock- 

 ery tierce in which I wished to winter 

 some bees, and, oh dear I how could a 

 man who had spent a whole life mak- 

 ing watches put 4 colonies of bees into 

 it alone? Easily done. Each hive 

 was opened in the middle and the bot- 

 tom part set in, then the other half 

 was replaced. In this way the 4 fine 

 colonies were put in the tierce and 

 packed for winter. I expect to find 

 them all right in the spring. 



The man with unusual spectacles de- 

 serves a little notice for his optical 

 illusions. Now, that little step-ladder 

 pile of 8 divisions contained 140 pounds 

 of honey, and the hive cost about $1.00 

 or less ; and one of the divisions was 

 empty, except of brood. It is now in 

 the cellar in a cubic foot of space. The 

 brood-frames referred to above are 

 piled up for next year's use. 



Theoretically, more comb honey 

 should be obtained from these little, 

 closed-end-frame hives than from 

 hanging frames, because there are no 

 waste-places in which thoughtless bees 

 inadvertently might store comb and 

 honey, as they sometimes do at the 

 ends of suspended frames. 



There are many points in the man- 

 agement of bees in which custom or 

 prejudice unduly figure. There seems 

 to be no real fault in the closed-end 

 movable-comb plan. The lamented 

 Mr. Quinby adopted it on sight. James 

 Heddon, after years of observation in 

 my apiary, and the A. I. Root Co. in 

 the Danzenbaker hive ; and last, but 

 not least, the President of the National 

 Bee Keepers' Association, Mr. Aspin- 

 wall, is building or inventing the most 

 extensive and ingenious closedend- 

 frame, non-swarming bee-hive that I 

 have seen. 



I hope the bee keepers of the world, 

 and especially the lady bee-keepers, 

 may be benefited byevery inventi m. 



Do bees winter well in such hives? 

 Yes, they never starve as long as there 

 is a drop of honey in them. 



I had 25 nuclei crowded into the small 

 space of a box 12x6 '/2Xl2 inches each, 

 and containing 387 square inches of 

 comb and some honey, weighing about 

 15 pounds each when taken to the cel- 

 lar. After they had been in the cellar 

 a few days I set another just such a 

 hive full of honey on them. One week 

 later I found all of them not having 

 much honey distributed evenly in each 

 part — the honey as well as the combs 

 on which they had previously been, 

 while those having more honey stayed 

 with their honey. I write this to dem- 

 onstrate that bees do not starve in this 

 hive with honey in it. 



T. F. Bingham. 



Mr. Bingham's presentation of the 

 case is such that if there were to be a 

 special hive for the sisters, his hive 

 would present strong claims for con- 

 sideration. So Mr. Bingham thinks 

 attention should be given to the un- 

 usual spectacles that gave rise to opti- 

 cal illusions regarding " that little 

 step-ladder pile of 8 divisions " on the 

 cover page for Nov. 22, 1906, referring, 



no doubt, to a paragraph on page 9, 

 where the quesiL^n is asked, " Would 

 it be the lightcsl kind of work to lift 

 down that 8th story 7 and wouldn't it 

 be a rather pre< arious business to use 

 a ladder to get to the top of the pile ?" 

 Now, wherein is the illusion ? Is it in 

 estimating the height of the pile ? or 

 has it reference to the weight of that 

 8th story, or what? Pity he didn't 

 give us exact figures as to said height 

 and weight. The only data from which 

 we can judge arc the appearance in the 

 picture and the fact the 8 divisions, less 

 one containing comb, contained 140 

 pounds of honey, and the further fact 

 that each little hive of empty combs 

 weighs about 5 pounds. That makes 

 it pretty safe to estimate at 25 pounds 

 that top story and contents. 



Easy so far ; the rest of the way 

 isn't so easy. Subject to more or less 



guessing. Pretty clear case, however, 

 that that Ustory pile isn't as high as 

 it looks. Nothing in the picture to 

 measure by, but the trees, and no tell- 

 ing anything about their size. Why 

 under the sun didn't Mr. Bingham 

 stand smiling beside the pile so we 

 would have something to guess by ? 

 Dollars to doughnuts that 9 out of 

 every 10 looking at the picture will 

 think of those little hives as being the 

 size of an8 frame dovetailed hive. But 

 in that case each story would weigh 

 twice as much as 25 pounds. If each 

 story is only C, inches high (and there 

 is no telling how much higher or lower 

 it is), then the pile is only 4 feet high. 

 That wouldn't be so very bad. 



But next time, Mr. Bingham, please 

 have your picture so that "unusual 

 spectacles" will not be necessary to 

 prevent optical illusions. 



C^anadian 

 i ISe^adom 



Condacted by .J. L. Byeb, Markham, Oot. 



Don't Spray Fruit-Trees While 

 in Bloom 



So they are trying to have a Bill 

 passed in Illinois to prevent the spray- 

 ing of fruit-trees while in bloom. (See 

 page 66.) Really, you Illinois bee- 

 keepers are behind the times. Over 

 here in Ontario we have had a similar 

 law in force so long that I actually for- 

 get the year it was enacted. The best 

 thing about the matter is, that the 

 great majority of fruit-growers would 

 not now spray their trees while in 

 bloom, even if there were no law to pro- 

 hibit them. They have become alive 

 to the fact that by so doing they would 

 injure their own interests ; and I won- 

 der after all is said and done, if appeal- 

 ing to the pocket-books of people is not 

 about the most powerful argument that 

 can be brought to bear in order to con- 

 iiince them. 



Formaldehyde for Fumigating' 

 Foul-Broody Combs 



David G. West's article on fumigat- 

 ing foul-broody combs with formalde- 

 hyde (page 47), contains statements 

 which, to my mind, should not be al- 

 lowed to pass without comment. 



In his first paragraph he speaks of 

 "foul or black " brood, and, if I un- 

 derstood by that that he meant " black" 

 brood, as the term is understood by 

 most beekeepers, I would not ven- 

 ture to comment on his statements, as 

 I have no experimental knowledge of 

 that disease. But as the term " foul " 

 is used exclusively when speaking of 



the disease in the rest of the article, I 

 judge Mr. West is speaking of the gen- 

 uine foul brood as we have it here in 

 Canada, and it is in connection with 

 this assumption that I wish to enter a 

 protest. Mr. West says : 



" To tree the combs of the disease, we stack 

 them up 3 or 4 hives high, on a colony that is 

 is slightly diseased— so as not to carry the dis- 

 ease farther — with a queen-excluder on to 

 keep the queen in her own hive, and use the 

 combs that season for extracting combs. This 

 saves the good brood, and makes a strong 

 colony, which will clean the combs of the 

 bad brood and ./i7i them with 7io«<!!/ " [italics 

 mine]. " The combs are extracted as often 

 as needed, and after the harvest are left to be 

 cleaned out by the bees." 



This "cleaning out by the bees" 

 takes place before any attempt is made 

 to disinfect the combs by the formalde- 

 hyde treatment which Mr. West claims 

 to be so etiicacious. The commonly 

 accepted theory is that the honey is 

 the source of infection, and it seems 

 strange that the disease would not be 

 disseminated by allowing the bees to 

 have access to these wet combs just 

 from the extractor. If this did not 

 spread the disease, I would not think 

 there was much need of disinfecting 

 said combs. 



But I mainly wish to protest against 

 the disgusting scheme of using those 

 brood-combs, reeking with the filthy 

 remains of dead larva;, for extracting 

 purposes. With foul brood as it exists 

 here, the strongest colony zuill not clean 

 out the dead larva; dried down on the 

 bottom side of the cells, and it is a 

 common thing for the bees, in affected 

 colonies, to store honey in such cells. 

 I have not the slightest doubt but that 



