1904 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



145 



also guilty of said damages, that other 

 bees than those of the apiarist had 

 likely taken part in the pillaging, that 

 as the bees did not open the grapes, 

 but only sucked the already damaged 

 grains, the apiarist could not be held 

 responsible only for a small part of 

 the damage done, and therefore con- 

 demned hhu to pay damages to the 

 amount of 60 cents I — Gazette Apicole. 



All ai)iarists know that foundation 

 in brood combs is liable to buckle 

 more or less. Mr. Kiihn claims that 

 in the ]irocess of manufacture the 

 wax is pressed hard and its molecule.? 

 are in an abnormal state. When the 

 comb of foundation is placed in the 

 hive, the wax softens enough to per- 

 mit the molecules to spread apart to 

 'their 'normial position; hence an in- 

 crease in the size of the sheet and the 

 consequent buckling. To avoid this, 

 he warms the sheets of foundation 

 until tbey are quite soft before put- 

 ting them in the frames Thus treated, 

 the foundation never buckles. The 

 fact is conifirmed by Mr. Ualon, who 

 had recently made 2,400 brood combs 

 with heated foundation. All are per- 

 fectly straight. — L'Apirculteur. 



the queen is left alone and sometimes 

 starves. 



Occasionally .there is a considerable 

 amount of drone brood in the old hive 

 about ready to hatch, when the opera- 

 tion is performed. After they emerge, 

 they are prisoners, die in the hive and 

 obstruct the queen excluder, causing 

 the loss of the remaining bi'ood. 



Just now, while writing the above 

 two Hues, the thought occurs to me, 

 that this could be obviated by open- 

 ing now and then the entrance of the 

 old hive and let them out. — A. G. — 

 Le Rucher Beige. 



As stated before, artificial, or, 

 rather, anticipated swarming. ha,s 

 been largely practiced in Europe. Some 

 of the methods used involve the 

 changing of place of the colonies. Mr. 

 Whathelet warns the "novices" to 

 never put a colony in the place of an- 

 other except in good weather and good 

 flow of nectar, otherwise flghting ttr 

 robbing would follow.— The Rucher 

 Beige. 



The price of honey has fallen great- 

 ly in France for the last few years. 

 The customai-y price for 100 kilo, used 

 to be from 110 to 130 francs. Now 90 

 francs is the highest price paid, and 

 many bee-keepers are thankful to get 

 75 francs for their crops. It is inti- 

 mated that the movable comb hive is 

 to blame, which makes it possible to 

 obtain from 20 to 30 kilograms per 

 hive, against five to ten kilograms 

 under the old system. It is also said 

 that large quantities of honey are im- 

 ported, upon which no duty is levied. 

 — Leipz. Bztg. 



GERMANY. 



For years the German bee-keepers 

 have used various tools for the pur- 

 pose of removing the cappings from 

 combs to be extracted. They have 

 the uncapping fork, uncapping har- 

 roAV, the spiked roller, the uncapping 

 plane, and also some more complicated 

 machinery which does the work. All 

 these tools do not see«i to satisfy. 

 Fredinand Holwek's new patented 

 uncapping plane, as herewith illus- 

 trated. Is siiid to do the work perfect- 

 ly. Nothing better need be looked for. 



BELGIUM. 



The process of transferring gener- 

 ally used in Europe consists in drum- 

 ming the bees and the queen into the 

 new hive, then put a queen excluder 

 on it, and tbe old hive on the excluder, 

 closing all openings except the en- 

 trance to the new hive. After twen- 

 ty-one days the old hive has no more 

 brood, and can be demolished. 



The process does not always suc- 

 ceed. Sometimes, if the colony is 

 ■weak and the weather unfavorable. 

 the bees remain in the old hive, and 



The invento*' says in Deutsche Imber 

 that with uniform straight combs the 

 cappings are all removed and are per- 

 fectly dry. This implement is now 

 manufactured in Sounenburg and 

 costs about $1.25. 



It has been found profitable to 

 space frames in extracting supers a 

 little further apart than such for 

 brood bearing. A. Weber, of Schoe- 

 naii speaks in Leipz. Bztg. of using 

 very thick combs of more than two- 



