1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



551 



they came to their death by freezing or 

 starving. But when the bees are ahve, ca- 

 pable of enjoying good health, and of doing 

 a fairly good summer's work, and yet seem 

 to be dead just because they are frozen at a 

 temperature of zero or thereabout, it is im- 

 portant to know that they are alive, espe- 

 ■cially since they require assistance to re- 

 main so. Wm. a. Stewart. 

 i^Elkin, Pa. 



[As, perhaps, Mr. Abbott's position has 

 not been made entirely clear on this freez- 

 ing question I have thought best to quote an 

 editorial from his paper, the Modern Farm- 

 er and Busy Bee, under date of February, 

 1905, and here is is: 



Dr. Miller requests in Gleanings that the editor of 

 "the Modern Farmer tell him how many bees it re- 

 <iuires for them not to freeze in the winter. A normal 

 colony, doctor, such a colony as one would expect to 

 come safely through the winter in a cellar. There is no 

 use of hair-splitting- about one bee, two bees, or how 

 many bees. Bees enough to make a normal colony, as 

 many bees as one would expect to winter safely under 

 other conditions, will get through the winter all right 

 if they have plenty of honey, or, better, a sugar-cake, 

 directly above the cluster, and are pi-operly protected 

 with a store-box, or something of that kind, to keep out 

 the wind and prevent the sudden changes, and danger 

 -of bees being chilled before cluster forms. A full colony 

 of bees formed in a cluster for winter does not freeze. 

 "They starve if thty do not have plenty to eat in the 

 right place. 



We intend to test the proposition enunci- 

 -ated in 1 and 2, this summer, by putting 

 .some bees between cakes of ice. — Ed.] 



FOUL BROOD NEAR ; WHAT IS TO BE DONE ? 



I have about 50 stands of bees, and foul 

 brood has broken out about one mile from 

 me; in fact, nearly all the bees for 20 miles 

 down the valley are dead or have the dis- 

 ease. I don't think my bees have it yet, 

 as I have looked and can't find it in any of 

 the hives. What would you advise me to 

 do? We have now no law in regard to foul 

 brood in this Territory. Is there any pre- 

 ventive I can use? Can the frames and 

 hives be used again ? I have read a good 

 'deal in Gleanings in regard to the disease, 

 but I don't understand it. 



Cedar Hill, New Mex. W. C. May. 



[A most excellent preventive against the 

 inroads of foul brood is to practice shake 

 -or brushed swarming, putting the bees on 

 frames of foundation. In the fall, if it is 

 necessary to feed syrup or honey put in a 

 :small quantity of naphthol beta, which is a 

 foul-brood germicide. 



During a dearth of honey it would be ad- 

 visable for you to look the combs over pret- 

 ty carefully every ten days to see if any 

 foul brood starts. You need have no fear 

 so long as honey is coming in. — Ed.] 



TWENTY BALLED QUEENS IN A CLUSTER. 



I ran up against a proposition the other 

 day, and it is this: I called on a neighbor 

 bee-keeper, and he had just found a stock 

 •of bees on the outside of a hive in his apia- 

 ry, acting as if swarming. He found twen- 

 "ty queens in the cluster, and all balled. He 



had just got them caged when I called. All 

 of them looked like laying queens. I can 

 find nothing in the ABC book nor in Lang- 

 stroth on the Honey-bee, touching this mat- 

 ter, and I am at a loss to account for it. 

 He hadn't missed any bees from other hives, 

 and they don't start swarming till about the 

 first of June in this locality. Possibly you 

 can explain it to me. M. Townsend. 



Ontario, Oregon. 



[I should question very much whether the 

 queens found in balls were laying ones. It 

 would seem like a case of an after-swarm 

 that had taken with it several virgins. Aft- 

 er flying ab(iut in the air for some time the 

 bees attempted to go into a hive already 

 containing bees. This would result in a free 

 fight, and probably the loss of all the 

 queens. Even the bees of the swarm might 

 take a hand at the balling business after 

 they had got stirred up. —Ed.] 



A FREE-PASSAGE FENCE. 



I send you by mail a sample of the kind 

 of fence which I have been using for two 

 years, which seems to give freer lateral 



communication than the ordinary fence. I 

 know it said there is nothing new, but I 

 have never seen or heard of any thing like 

 it. A. M. V. Hager. 



Athol, Mass. 



[We have had numerous models like the 

 sample here illustrated submitted to us in 

 the last three or four years. Theoretically 

 they have the merit of allowing the bees to 

 pass back and forth over the surface of the 

 sections, making a more even filling. But 

 the trouble with the fence here shown, and 

 many others like them, is that they are too 

 expensive to make. No bee-keeper would 

 be willing to pay what a factory would have 

 to charge to make fences like the sample 

 shown; and it is very doubtful whether the 

 comb honey produced with such fences 

 would be any better filled than that produc- 

 ed between ordinary standard fences. The 

 best free-passageway fence I know of is the 

 Hyde-Scholl. Quite a number who have 

 used them have reported that they secured 

 better filling of the comb. While this is 

 more expensive than the standard all-wood 

 fence it would not cost as much as the one 

 here shown. —Ed.] 



SENSE OF SMELL IN BEES; WHY THEY CAN 

 FIND THEIR WAY BACK TO THE HIVES. 



I notice the remarks of J. W. Porter, in 

 the April 15th issue. He says, "If honey- 

 comb be burned in a manner that the smoke 

 from the burning comb can not be seen, 

 how do bees recognize the fact ? Why, by 

 the same sense we use when we perceive 



