OC'TOUKU, lyuL' 



(J h K A N I N (i S 



1'. !■: K (' n h T U U M 



HEADS OF GRAIN 



Three Wintering I live only U' miles from 

 Commandments, the late Dr. Miller's home, 

 Marengo, 111., and liave 

 the same conditions for beekeeping that he 

 had, although 1 find I have better results 

 (so far at least) in wintering by outdoor 

 wintering, with good packing and plenty of 

 stores, than he did in the cellar. 1 tind that 

 brood-rearing begins two or three weeks ear- 

 lier than in cellar-wintering, and I have the 

 colonies strong in two stories when the white 

 clover honey flow opens about June first. 



As I see the situation, there are just 

 three essential things to abide by, namely: 

 Plenty of winter stores, not less than one 

 and one Jialf stories; a good young queen, 

 preferably introduced after the main flow 

 of Juue-.JuIy; good packing put on early and 

 left on until the latter part of April or the 

 flrst of May. I Avintered 100 per cent of 

 mj' bees the past winter while nearly all the 

 other bees in this locality died from want 

 of the above-mentioned essentials. 



Woodstock, 111. George A. Turner. 



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Apiary Rid In June Gleanings 1 see H. L. 

 of American McMurry says that no one 

 Foul Brood, has ever, to his knowledge, 

 been able to free his apiary 

 of American foul brood. Last j^ear I found 

 this disease in four colonies very late in the 

 season. I was running for extracted honey 

 and had over 100 combs infected or that 

 had been exposed to infection. I shook the 

 bees on to full sheets of foundation, de- 

 stroyed more than 100 combs by melting 

 and scorched all hives and supers with a 

 gas jet. I put the frames into the oven of 

 the cookstove and heated them until they 

 were ready to blaze. This warped them 

 somewhat, but I lost only a few. As it was 

 quite late in the season I fed thin syrup sev- 

 eral weeks, and in October gave each colouj' 

 about 25 pounds of thick syrup. All came 

 through the winter in good condition. I 

 sent 10 hives to Florida and filled them last 

 February with bees driven from box hives 

 and swarms. To this date the disease has 

 not reappeared here or in Florida. I guess 

 success was due to the severe burning given 

 to the hives and frames. The melted combs 

 furnished about 30 pounds of wax. 



South Jacksonville, Fla. O. Bromfield. 



Wedge to Avoid The careful handling of 

 Crushing Bees. bees, so as to avoid kill- 

 ing or irritating them, has 

 long been my "hobby," and 1 have given 

 this matter much study and thought. I have 

 watched some who call themselves expert 

 beemen, but who seem to care little how 

 many bees they smash, so long as they "go 

 througli" a lot of hives quickly. When 1 re- 



DIFFERENT FIELDS 



place a super or upper story on a very full 

 hive, 1 use a light wooden wedge, 4 or ;"> 

 inches long, 2 inches wide at the large end 

 and % inch thick. I carry two or three 

 of these in my tool basket. This wedge is 

 placed on top of the frames, with the large 

 end projecting over the rear of the hive; 

 then by letting the upper story rest on this 

 and using a little smoke I can slowly lower 

 the super in place without crushing any 

 bees, even with very strong colonies. As 

 the wedge is slowly withdrawn, it is given 

 a slight movement sidewise, back and forth, 

 which gives the bees time to get out of tlie 

 way. Frank L. Wheeler. 



Eipley, N. Y. 



APropolized About the middle of last 



English Sparrow. October, as I was ad- 

 justing and cleaning up 

 my beehives for the winter, my attention 

 was directed to a mass of excited bees on 

 the bottom-board. I supposed they were 

 "balling" a queen from their actions. A 

 few puffs from the smoker scattered them, 

 and I saw a mass of what I thought was an 

 accumulation of propolis. Whereupon I re- 

 moved the frames and pried the mass loose 

 from the bottom-board, and reached in to 



English sparrow coinpletely embalmed with propolis. 



remove it, thinking to place it in the can 

 for refuse comb. But on looking at it, I 

 found the remains of an English sparrow. 

 As the entrance to this hive was, perha])s, 

 two inches high, the bird would have had 

 no trouble in entering, whether voluntarily 

 or not. Perhaps it was driven into the hive 

 by a hawk, or it may have been wounded 

 and, in trying to hide, it crawled in. What- 

 ever happened to the bird, T must say it was 

 certainly embalmed for burial as few are. 

 Linden, Ala. .1. E. Sutton. 



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Peppermint for If you want to unite bees 

 Uniting Bees. at any time, try the pep- 

 jtermint m e t h o d. This 

 method was brought to my attention last 

 year by Dr. A. F. Bonney. Take a pint bot- 

 tle witli a sprinkler top, fill it nearly full 

 of warm Avater, add a dessertspoonful of es- 

 sence of peppermint and shake before using. 

 Sprinkle the bees of both swarms with the 

 peppermint water, and they will unite with- 



