1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



527 



ing bees enter the neighboring hives. While 

 this will not always convey the disease, it 

 certainly does sometimes. Or he shakes the 

 bees off the infected combs at an improper 

 time or in a wrong way, so that the bees 

 scatter into all the neighboring hives, mak- 

 ing one case of the disease into several. 

 One man shook the bees of a diseased colo- 

 ny after all the bees had stopped flying, and 

 then went to supper, leaving the infected 

 combs exposed. When he returned, half an 

 hour afterward, the air was full of bees 

 from half a dozen colonies that were busily 

 engaged taking care of the unexpected find. 

 These things are not confined to the inexpe- 

 rienced keeper of only a few colonies. They 

 are sometimes met in the bee-keeper of 

 many colonies and years of experience. In 

 fact, the beginner anxious to learn is often 

 more successful with foul brood than one 

 whose years of experience have made him 

 careless, or who thinks he knows it all. 



Our acknowledgments are due the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal for a fine write-up, in the 

 May 4th issue, of The A. I. Root Co. There 

 appears on the front page a view of The A. 

 I. Root Co. 's buildings, and portraits of the 

 active men in the company itself. These 

 half-tones appeared originally in White's 

 Class Advertising, a beautiful monthly mag- 

 azine devoted strictly to agricultural adver- 

 tising, of the clean sort, and our thanks are 

 extended to that publication also. 



We have been having alternately hot and 

 chilly weather, with much cold rain, this 

 spring. We observed that the small baby 

 nuclei are standing these extremes even 

 better than the old-fashioned Langstroth- 

 sized two-frame nuclei. The -bees can keep 

 a small cubical space warm much more read- 

 ily than a flat oblong room with a great 

 deal of surface exposed to the weather. Two 

 hundred bees will keep warm better in the 

 former than 500 or 1000 will in the latter. 

 Another thing, we observe the bees in the 

 baby boxes with the small entrances seem 

 to resist robbers better. 



HATCHING EGGS OVER A BEE-HIVE. 



On page 324 I told you I had written Mr. 

 Decker in regard to his success which has 

 been so widely paraded through the papers; 

 but up to date he has made no reply what- 

 ever, although I sent him a copy of our 

 journal, and asked him to tell us whether he 

 authorized the extravagant claim made 

 through the papers, purporting to come 

 from him. I learn from bee-keepers in his 



vicinity that he is considered to be a relia- 

 ble man. From the fact that not one re- 

 port has come from any of our readers, of 

 successful hatching of eggs over a bee-hive, 

 we must conclude that Mr. Decker has 

 either found out that he made a mistake or 

 else in his enthusiasm he was led to exag- 

 gerate. Incubator men agree that eggs 

 must be kept at 102, or, still better, 103; 

 but you will notice by referring to page 368 

 that the temperature in the warmest part 

 of the hive does not exceed 98 right in the 

 center of the brood-nest. During the hot- 

 test summer weather the experiment might 

 succeed, but I do not think it can compare 

 with an incubator, either in the expense of 

 running or making a succesful hatch. 

 Here is another. 



Here is a clipping- which I cut from the Indianapolis 

 Sentinel. You may find out whether there is any truth 

 in it or not. I tried the same some years ajfo, and fail- 

 ed, and think this is a hoax. T. McManus. 



Rushville, Ind , Apr. 29. 



We learn from the clipping inclosed with 

 the above letter that Mr. Decker is 70 years 

 old, and has been working with bees and 

 poultry all his life; and it also contains the 

 oft- repeated story that eggs over a hive will 

 hatch in 19 days, while 21 are required with 

 a hen or incubator. The clipping winds up 

 with the following remarkable statement: 



The claim is made that one hive in this manner may 

 be made to do the work of eight sitting hens, and at 

 the same time yield 100 pounds of honey in one season. 



A. I. R. 



SHAKEN OR BRUSHED SWARMS; A COUPLE OF 

 POINTS TO REMEMBER. 



A YEAR ago when this question was dis- 

 cussed, and a great many tried the method, 

 there were some who failed. An examina- 

 tion into the conditions in such cases showed 

 that the bees had been shaken when there 

 was no indication or desire on their part to 

 swarm. A general "shake-up," and put- 

 ting into entirely different quarters, caused 

 trouble, with the result that the bees so 

 treated swarmed out, defeating the very 

 object of the anticipatory swarming, for 

 this is really what brushed swarming is. I 

 think it is pretty generally agreed that there 

 should be swarming-cells with eggs or larvae, 

 showing unmistakably a desire to cast a 

 swarm in the very near future. Not until 

 then should shaking be undertaken. 



Another factor contributing toward fail- 

 ure on the part of a few was shaking on to 

 drawn combs or full sheets of foundation. 

 While some have practiced the method suc- 

 cessfully, shaking on to either, the majority 

 seem to be of the opinion that only founda- 

 tion starters should be given in the brood- 

 nest. The forced swarm will then immedi- 

 ately occupy the super or partly drawn sec- 

 tions, which will, of course, be placed on top 

 of the swarm, and in the mean time grad- 

 ually draw out the starters below for the 

 occupancy of the queen. Some give a frame 

 of unsealed brood with the other frames of 

 starters in the new hive set on the old stand. 



Perhaps some of our new subscribers will 

 feel interested to know to what the forego- 



