628 



August, 1907. 



American ^ee Journal 



a frame-hive to save the brood. The re- 

 ply is, "On no account would we put 

 the skep above a stocked frame-hive. 

 To do so would carry the wax-moth 

 pest into the latter." On this side a 

 strong colony would count it "a pic- 

 nic" to clean out that skep. But it 

 must be remembered that in- England 

 blacks are in favor, which is quite an- 

 other affair. One of the strong points 

 of Italians is the readiness with which 

 they clean out the wax-moth. 



Putting Empty Supers Over Full 

 Ones. 



"Never put an empty super over one 

 which is filled. Bees do not like to 

 pass over the honey." That's the ad- 

 vice given in L'Apiculture Nouvelle, 

 page 164. While it may not be to the 

 taste of the bees to pass over full 

 combs to work on empty ones, yet not a 

 few good bee-keepers in this country 

 oblige them to do so. In the case of 

 extracted honey, E. D. Townsend says 

 that if the empty super be placed over 

 the full one, the brood-nest will not 

 be extended up into it as when placed 

 under. In the case of comb honey, 

 even those who place the empty sections 

 under during the early part of the flow, 

 place them above toward the close of 

 the season, when I, 2, or more full 

 supers must be traversed to reach the 

 empty ones. 



Big Price for Honey in South Africa. 



In The American Bee-keeper it is re- 

 ported that D. Cairncross, Pretoria, So. 

 Africa, gets an average of 70 sections 

 per colony, which are never sold at 

 less than 2 shillings 6 pence each. Think 

 of 62 cents a section for honey ! 



The Prevention of Sagging. 



In the American Bee-keeper, page 145, 

 is given a plan to prevent foundation 

 sagging in brood-combs that is said to 

 be very successful. The process is pro 

 tected by patent, and is as follows: 



"After the sheets of foundation havt 

 been secured in the frames, by any 01' 

 the methods usually employed, it is 

 placed upon a board similar to that 

 used in imbedding wires. A small paint- 

 brush is dipped into melted beeswax and 

 3 or 4 dextrous strokes applied lightly 

 to the side-walls on each side of tht- 

 foundation along the top and down- 

 ward towards the center, where the 

 sagging is usually apparent." 



Hardiness of Golden Bees. 



An editorial in Gleanings saying that 

 golden bees were bad in the matter of 

 spring dwindling, has called forth a note 

 in Gleanings from Doolittle & Clark, 

 page 889, in which particulars are given 

 showing that their goldens come through 

 good and strong. There is a wide dif- 

 ference in the hardiness of goldens ; all 

 of them are not of the same origin, 

 and some strains seem of feeble con- 

 stitution. 



Bee-Moth a Good Thing — In Some 

 Respects. 



"1 do not look upon the wax-moth as 

 entirely an enemy to bee-keeping, as 

 there is no doubt that they render harm- 

 less many a bee-tree, hive, or other re- 

 pository in which the bees have built 



combs and in which the disease foul- 

 brood lingers." — R. F. Holtermann, 

 Gleanings, page 906. 



FooT-RooM when Uncapping or Ex- 

 tracting. 

 When one has an extractor or un- 

 capping fixture so arranged that the 

 whole affair comes down to the floor 

 for the toes to strike against, the slight 

 stooping over thus produced is tire- 

 some. C. W. Dayton (Gleanings, page 

 909) avoids this fatigue by having the 

 apparatus raised enough for the feet to 

 go under. 



Washington State Commission Law. 



The State of Washington is making 

 an experiment which will be watched 

 with considerable interest in all parts 

 of the country. A law was recently 

 passed by the legislature of that State, 

 compelling all commission houses to file 

 a bond. Houses not rated at more than 

 $20,000 have to put up $3,000 for the 

 faithful performance of their duty to- 

 ward those who ship goods to them. 

 Another provision is that an account- 

 sales must be sent to the shipper within 

 48 hours after the receipt of the goods.^ 

 Gleanings, page 890. 



That seems to make a safe thing of 

 sending on commission, but will not 

 being obliged to sell within 48 hours 

 result sometimes in very low prices? 

 Is it not possible that there is a mis- 

 take in the matter, and that the law 

 requires an account sales within 48 

 hours of the sale of the goods? 



Alexander Plan for Weak Colonies. 



J. L. Byer says in tilie Canadian Bee 

 Journal, page 163 : 



This spring I have received several 



reports from bee-keepers who have tried 

 the .A.le.xander system of tiering up weak 

 colonies over strong ones. While these 

 reports have been somewhat contradic- 

 tory, it is noticeable that where success 

 is reported, the bees were pure Ital- 

 ians, and where failure attended the 

 plan, in most cases the bees were blacks 

 and hybrids. 



A Cow with a Sweet Tooth. 



R. F. Whiteside says in the Canadian 

 Bee Journal, page 178: 



"My old cow tipped over 10 or 12 

 supers full of extracting combs (left 

 for the bees to lick out) and ate clean 

 up over 100 good combs for the sake 

 of the honey in them, last November, 

 when I was at the Toronto Bee Con- 

 vention." 



Give the Bees Their Share, 



There are some who think it poor 

 economy to cheat the bees out of their 

 well-earned stores. E. G. Hand says, 

 in Canadian Bee Journal, page 180: 



"The writer prefers not to be greedy 

 any more, but to let the outside lower 

 combs be filled solid with the best honey 

 there is, which is none too good for 

 the bees in their long winter confine- 

 ment." 



Poor Consolation. 



Aunt Lucindy was in deep distress 

 over the loss of her son Jim, and a 

 neighbor sought to console her, say- 

 ing: 



"Don't grieve for him, Aunt Lucindy. 

 He has gone to a land flowing with 

 milk and honey." 



With a dismal countenance, the old 

 darky replied: 



"Jim never did like milk, an' honey 

 always made him sick." 



Docfor NKIer^ 



%estloir;B0x^ 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, or to 



DR. C. C. MILLER, Marengo, III. 



Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Dividing Colonies— Introducing 

 Queens- Putting on Sections 



1. Will bees do all right if they are 

 divided with brood-comb and no queen? 



2. How late can I divide them and 

 have them do well? 



3. What is the best time to introduce 

 a queen? Do I have to kill the old 

 queen before I put in the new queen? 



4. What time is best to put on sec- 

 tions? Nebraska. 



Answers. — i. They may do all right. 

 and they may do all wrong. If they 

 are strong enough, especially in young 

 bees, and have eggs or very young 

 brood, they may rear a queen of their 

 own and be all right. But a full colony 



is none too strong to have a queen-cell 

 up to the time it is sealed. If you 

 give your nucleus, or divided part, a cell 

 nearly ready to hatch, then it is likely 

 to come out all right, 



2. That depends on the season. Some 

 years, and in some places, a colony 

 might be divided in the last of August 

 and do well, but if there is little pas- 

 turage after that time it would be a 

 failure. 



If you are going to make such di- 

 vision, merely separating the colony into 

 2 parts and leaving to the bees the rest, 

 let me suggest that you do it as soon 

 as possible, and proceed in this way: 

 Take half the brood and bees and queen, 

 and put in a hive in a new place, leav- 



