52 



GLEAXINGS IN BEK CULTUllE 



Jan. 15 



ter; aud, if it is not too much trouble. I should like 

 to find out whether I ought to enlarge the en- 

 trances, and whether the bees' present activity 

 will be likely to result in such a consumption of 

 stores as to cause bad wintering. 



Brookline, Mass., Dec. 12. Loring P. Sears. 



[It very often happens that, in the case of a very 

 powerful colony, the inside walls of a hive are cov- 

 ered with quite an amount of frost. This is due to 

 the moisture from the breath of the bees condens- 

 ing and then freezing on the walls. There is a pos- 

 sibility that your entrance is too small. By en- 

 larging it slightly the moisture will be carried oflF 

 better; or there is a possibility that the side walls 

 of your hives are too cold, this being due to insufli- 

 cient packing at the sides. If you increase the 

 amount of packing material in and around the 

 hive, you would probably eliminate the frost in- 

 side. It may be necessary to enlarge the entrance 

 also.— Ed. 



Alexander Plan for European Foul Brood. 



I have read the various articles by Dr. Miller and 

 others on European foul brood, and, to my mfnd, 

 these writers know nothing about the disease that 

 my old employer, E W. Alexander, did not know. 

 They are now traveling the same path that he fol- 

 lowed when he was developing a cure. He found 

 that, the longer the colonies were queenless up to 

 25 and 26 days, the m')re certain the cure. Mild 

 cases can sometimes be cvired by short periods of 

 queenlessness, and often by simply requeening. I 

 know one colony, in fact, that cured itself. 



I advise anybody who has European foul brood to 

 get Mr. Alexander's actual plan as published in 

 Gleanings in 1905 and follow it to the letter. A 

 first-class Italian queen in as strong a colony as 

 possible, that has been queenless 26 days, is what is 

 wanted. During the 26 days the bees clean out the 

 disease, and the flrst-class Italian queen is to keep 

 the colony in shape so that it will be kept free from 

 disease, and in condition to gather honey. 



Sloansville, N. Y. R. V. Cox. 



Bees Dying in a Cigar-box. 



I had a very strange thing happen last summer. 

 I was caging some young queens preparatory to in- 

 troducing them into full colonies. I used ordina- 

 ry Benton cages, putting in four escort bees with 

 each queen, and placing the cages in a cigar-box I 

 carried with me. After caging half a dozen, I 

 picked up one of the cages and found the queen 

 and the four escort bees dead. What caused these 

 bees to die? I had been working only about twen- 

 ty miniites. 



The queen and bees were in good condition when 

 placed in the cage. There was plenty of honey in 

 the nucleus from which I took them, and the cage 

 had been supplied with fresh candy before placing 

 them in it. 



San Jos6, Cal., Nov. 28. J. W. Kalfus. 



[We can not imagine why this queen and the 

 four escort bees should have died in the way men- 

 tioned. Could it be possible that the odor of tobac- 

 co was strong enough in the cigar-box, combined 

 with a possible lack of ventilation, to stupefy the 

 queen and bees in this one instance?— Ed.] 



Building Cells the Other Side of Perforated Zinc. 



By placing a tight-fitting division-board in the 

 brood-nest, putting, say, two frames with eggs, 

 some honey, and all the bees thereon next the hive 

 side, would queen-cells be started ? or would per- 

 forated zinc have the same effect? I am aware that 

 frames placed above zinc will cause cells to be 

 started; but my point is to get cells built without 

 in any way interfering with the usual hive work of 

 storing and brood-rearing. The subsequent care 

 and disposal of the cells is an Independent matter. 

 "When cells so obtained were removed, the removal 

 of the division-board would be a very simple per- 

 formance and without any disturbance, or that is 

 the way it appears to me, 

 Hoboken, N. J. C. D. Cheney. 



[A tight-fitting division-board for making two sep- 

 arate colonies In one hive will accomplish the re- 

 sult sought much better than perforated zinc. Ol 

 course, one side is supposed to be queenless. and 

 the other you can have queenless or not. as you 

 like. With a perforated zinc division-board such 

 as you describe, the bees will build cells on the 



queenless side of the hive providing cells are al- 

 ready started. You can not get them to start cells 

 in the first place, nor, for that matter, can you get 

 them, unless there is a good honey-flow, to start 

 cells in the upper story with perforated zinc be- 

 tween the two stories. In any case. In order to 

 do much work in cell-building In a lower story the 

 bees should be queenless, and should be fed a small 

 quantity of syrup dally. For further particulars 

 on the subject you are referred to queen-rearing in 

 the A B C of Bee Culture.— Ed.J 



Separating Cocoons from Old Combs. 



Could I soak old combs, containing cocoons, a 

 day or two in water, then put them in the extract- 

 or and throw the cocoons out, leaving the comb 

 clean again? 



Eraser, Idaho. F. F. George. 



[It is impossible to loosen cocoons to any appre- 

 ciable extent by soaking the combs in water. Per- 

 haps a lew of the looser ones might fly out in the 

 extractor If you soaked the comb several days, but 

 we think that not many of them would. .jj 



It is better to continue using combs right along, 

 even though there are a good many lajers of co- i 

 coons in the cells. However, if the coiubs become 

 so thick and the cells so small as to leave too little 

 room for young bees they had better be melted up, 

 and the wax rendered out of them. For the very best 

 results, extracting-combs should not be used that 

 contain many layers of cocoons, although many of 

 the most successful producers prefer to have brood 

 reared in the exiracting-combs a few times to make 

 them stronger. — Ed.] 



The Somerford Method of Forming Nuclei; what 

 is Done with Old Queens? 



I should like an explanation to the article appear- 

 ing in the A B C of Bee Culture, entitled " Nucleus 

 —Confining to keep the bees in," by W. W. Somer- 

 ford. He says. " Reniove the queens or cage them 

 after getting the brood-nest well filled with brood. 



Wait ten days after removing the queen 



Leave or loose the old queen on the old stand," and 

 the bees from it will work straight ahead. Now 

 what I want to know is, what Is done with the 

 queen In the mean while? How do you keep her 

 from starving while the nucleus Is being formed? 



Columbine, Col., Nov. 16. T. W. WijlsoN. 



[When Mr. Somerford wrote the article describ- 

 ing his method ot making Increase he probably took 

 It for granted that his readers would understand 

 that a queen could be caged in her own hive for a 

 considerable length of time, and her own bees 

 would take care of her. When he spoke about re- 

 moving the queen he implied that those same read- 

 ers would cage or introduce her in some other col- 

 ony, in the next edition of the ABC book we will 

 see that a suitable explanation is made.— Ed.J 



Alfalfa in Texas. 



Will you please state whether alfalfa and sweet 

 clover yield honey In Louisiana and Texas? P'rom 

 what can I learn the sources ol honey in those 

 states, especially the southern part of Louisiana? 

 Does LesDcza striata, or Japan clover, yield honey? 

 What hives are most popular in Louisiana or Texas? 



Plalnfield, C, Nov. 24. W. E. Dean. 



[Alfalfa does not usually yield nectar outside of 

 the irrigated regions; but after It has been in a lo- 

 cality for some years it will secrete some honey. 

 This will be found to be true in parts of New York. 

 Sweet clover, so far as we know, yields honey eve- 

 rywhere In the United States. We are not able to 

 advise you with reference to the other clovers men- 

 tioned.— Ed.] 



Only One Division of a Sectional Hive Used for a 

 Brood-chamber. 



If only one section of a sectional hive is used for 

 the brood-nest, and a honey-board is placed on top 

 with one or more section supers above, will the 

 bees store pollen in the sections ? I do not mean 

 to use this shallow brood-nest all the while, except 

 when there is a honey-flow. 



Richard A. Weatherwalks. 



Pompton Lakes, N. J. 



[Under such conditions there Is apt to be consid- 

 erable pollen In sections; but this can be largely 

 o\ ercome by placing a comb containing pollen on 

 each side of the brood-nest.— Ed.] 



