438 



May 23, 1907 



American ^ae Journal 



3), she had laid eggs with only halt a teacup- 

 ful of bees. Another bive had only a pint of 

 bees and I put them with her on Friday with 

 out any precautions, they having been queen- 

 less, and on Saturday, May 4, there fell from 

 -t to 6 inches of snow, and sleighs were run- 

 ning, though much of the snow had gone 

 with the sun that came out towards noon, 

 but it was freezing hard again at night. Some 

 of the snow still remains (Monday morning 

 the 6th), and although the thermometer is up 

 to :i6 degrees, it is chilly enough for Green- 

 land, and this is some 10 miles north of Port 

 Hope on the north shore of Lake Ontario. So 

 on account of the cold, I have not been able 

 to tell whether the pint of bees have killed 

 the young queen or not. Another colony has 

 perhaps 3 frames of bees and a queen, with 

 eggs and larv.i?. Another has perhaps 4 frames 

 of bees, and, I think, no queen. These frames 

 were all of the Danzenbaker type, only 9 

 inches deep and IS.V inches long, set cross- 

 wise in the hive. The only colony that came 

 out reasonably was in the same style of hive 

 with frames 11 inches deep. They had prob- 

 ably a pint of dead bees and they were put 

 out of the cellar on Wednesday, May 1, the 

 soft maples just coming out on the previous 

 Saturday. On Friday there were lots of eggs 

 in this hive from a 2-year old queen, and the 

 bees were carrying yellow pollen. This might 

 have been a big colony had I not kept rob- 

 bing it to build up the lesser ones. After 

 this much of history, that will certainly in- 

 terest some of your bee-keeping beginners, I 

 want to ask you some questions. 



1. The bees being dead, some of the beauti- 

 ful white combs are moldy, and I have read 

 somewhere that cleaning moldy combs by the 

 bees causes bee-paralysis amongst them. But 

 what troubles me most is that in nearly every 

 comb are some 50 or more cells of uncapped 

 honey that has fermented or has bubbles in 

 it. I set one of them in the house near the 

 stove, and the fermentation went on so lively 

 that the bubbles overflowed the cells in a few 

 hours. Many of these frames are from a third 

 to half full of good capped honey, but spotted 

 by excrement. Shall I have to throw away 

 these beautiful combs on account of fer- 

 mented honey in them * This same man in 

 whose cellar I wintered my bees, spoiled 

 hundreds of pounds of honey by uncapping 

 just such bubbled cells as these last summer. 

 I would rather melt them down for wax than 

 run such a risk. What shall I do with them 

 and the moldy ones that I think less danger- 

 ous? Not knowing what to do with them 

 the moth may get into them if not otherwise 

 disposed of. 



2. There have been tons of ink and paper 

 wasted over spacing combs. I saw, last sum- 

 mer, simply a strip of hard-maple wood 3^- 

 inch thick and the length of the hive, with 

 notches '^-inch deep cut in one edge at equal 

 distances apart, to slip down over the ends of 

 the frames. I think hard-maple is about the 

 only wood strong enough for these frame- 

 spacing strips. The hive in which I saw them 

 was at the time perfectly clean of bee-glue. 

 Whether the strips had been greased or not I 

 can not say, as I did not ask. They looked 

 as if recently cleaned. 



3. On page 5S3 (1906), the last letter is 

 signed by .Julius Happel, and the last sen- 

 tence reads thus: " Later on I will give a 

 plan by which iO colonies can be formed from 

 2, and still produce a surplus of honey." Has 

 he ever fulfilled his promise? or, if he did, 

 where can I find it? If he did not, stir him 

 up to do so. 



4 I criticise the American Bee Journal for 

 these half-told stories more than for any- 

 thing else, and only last week I wrote Mr. 

 York under my full name to that effect. The 

 worst article I have seen was headed, " Rear- 

 ing and Mating (Queens,' page 338, by .laoob 

 F. Hershey. " With my method I need not 

 make any nucleus colony," and so he goes on, 

 only boasting, boasting, boasting, and noth- 

 ing else. Ontario. 



Answers.— 1. Don't be in any fret about 

 those combs. They're good stock ytt. All 

 the mold that gathers in one winter can soon 

 be cleaned off by the bees. And the souring 



honey will all be cleaned up by them, too. 

 But don't be in too much hurry about the 

 matter. The worms will make little headway 

 till it gets pretty warm, and if put in the cellar 

 will do little damage till June. As soon as 

 bees are flying every day, and that ought to 

 be as soon as this gets into print, give a comb 

 at a time to the stronger colonies, giving an- 

 other every day or two. An easier way is to 

 give a whole hiveful at a time, giving to the 

 strongest colonies. Set the hive of combs to 

 be cleaned under the colony, so they will 

 have to go through this lower story when 

 going out or in. Better do this about the 

 time when bees stop flying in the evening, for 

 if given earlier in the day it is barely possible 

 that the smell of the fermenting honey might 

 attract robbers. I don't know of any case on 

 record where moldy combs or fermenting 

 honey gave any disease to the bees if given 

 thus early in the year, although such honey 

 would be sure to give them diarrhea if given 

 as winter stores. But paralysis will not come 



from moldy combs nor from fermenting 

 honey at any time of the year. 



2. This plan of spacing combs is very old, 

 but it is too troublesome and time-consuming 

 to be in general use. If you try the two 

 ways side by side, you will probably much 

 prefer to have the spacers on the frames. 



3. On page 723 will be found what he prob- 

 ably refers to. 



4 Please don't blame the American Bee 

 Journal too much, tor I don't think it often 

 happens that mention is made of some im- 

 proved plan only to keep such improved plan 

 a secret. But I quite agree with you that said 

 Journal might better omit all such advertis- 

 ing of people that possess secrets unless pub- 

 lished at regular advertising rates. What's 

 the good of advertising a secret unless its pos- 

 sessor is ready to sell it, in which case he 

 should pay for the advertisement just as other 

 advertisers do.— [.Mr. Hershey has promised 

 to descritM his methods later. — Editor.] 



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