18^8 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



5 



Sorghum for Bees in Winter. — Fred S. Thorington, in 

 Progressive Bee-Keeper, tells of a case in whicli the honey 

 was talien from a colony, and a single dose of sorghum fed to 

 the bees fioisht them. In another case the bees' stores were 

 taken and sorghum given, and the bees absconded. 



The New Fence with the plain or no-bee-way section, 

 says Gleanings, can be used in old-style T supers or section- 

 holders. All that is necessary is to have the fence or cleated 

 separator made the right size to fit. The company will furnish 

 the right fence to order, and can make them all ready put to- 

 gether at a cheaper rate than one could put them together 

 himself, special machinery being used to glue the parts to- 

 gether. 



Prevention of Swarms. — L. A. Aspiuwall found this 

 year that his hives were too small to prevent swarming by 

 means of perforated dummies, and expects next year to use 

 hives a third larger. In four cases, he secured the return of 

 the swarm, queen and all, by vigorously smoking at the en- 

 trance as soon as the swarm began to issue. He thinks the 

 swarm returned because they could not scent the queen. — 

 Review. 



Bee-Stings for Rheumatism. — Reports as to the effect 

 of bee-stings on rheumatism continue to conflict, some re- 

 porting success, others failure. E. W. Moore says his mother, 

 62 years old, had for years lost the use of her left hand 

 through rheumatism. Last summer, hiving a swarm a'one, 

 her hand was badly stung and swelled greatly, but when the 

 swelling went down the joints were no longer stiff, and now 

 she can use the hand as well as ever. — Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper. 



The Wells' System. — This system of having two colo- 

 nies in one hive with a perforated division between, seems to 

 be well liked by a few, but not to gain in popularity with the 

 masses. Mr. Loveday, in the British Bee Journal, says he 

 gets as much from one double hive as from three single ones ; 

 but that one Wells hive makes quite as much work as three 

 single-queened ones. He says : " The more experience I have 

 of this system the more I am convinced that it cannot be gen- 

 erally adopted." 



Finding Queens. — The editor of Gleanings is askt the 

 easiest way to tind the queen in a hive just boiling over with 

 bees. Says there is no easy way. If he doesn't find a queen 

 in twice looking over the frames, he closes the hive and in two 

 hours more takes another look. If he still fails to find her, 

 which occasionally happens with black bees, he puts an empty 

 hive in place of the one on the stand, puts perforated zinc at 

 the entrance, shakes the bees on the ground in front, and if 

 the queen isn't too small she's sure to be caught. 



Uniformity of Supplies.— J. W. Rouse, in Progressive 

 Bee-Keeper, gives expression to the often needed but seldom 

 heeded advice to beginners, to try to use nothing but standard 

 goods, and not to be in a hurry about inventing improvements. 

 Believes in improvements, yet the inventions he has seen, 

 even those possessing merit, are no better th?.n the regular 

 goods in use. Thinks most bee-keepers who are using odd 

 sizes are doing so just because they got started that way, and 

 would be glad to change into the regular style if it were not 

 for the expense. 



A New Way of Transferring, or at least of gettinc a 

 box-hive colony to occupy a frame-hive, is given by C. Del- 

 motte in Le Hrogres Apicole. June 5 he dug a hole in the 

 {jround the full depth of the box-hive that had stood there, 

 put the hive upside down in the hole, covered it with a board, 

 having a hole V2 inches in diameter, and placed on this the 

 frame hive. A piece of comb to serve as a ladder for the bees 

 was placed between the combs of the box-hive, extending up 

 between the frames of the upper hive. Then earth was packt 

 -around both hives at the junction. ■ An entrance was made in 

 the frame hive an inch or two from the top at the front, 

 obliging the bees to go in and out there. July 22, finding 

 four frames of brood in the upper hive, he took out the box- 

 hive, filled up the hole with earth, set the frame hive back in 



its place and put the box-hive on top, with what brood and 

 bees were in it, no communication being between the two 

 hives. 2.S days later he shook down in front of the frame 

 hive all the bees in the box-hive, a young queen having been 

 reared among them, and found in the box-hive neither brood 

 nor honey. Of course the box-hive was then taken away. 



Going to the Fairs. — Editor Hutchinson's description, 

 in the Review, of the way he travels from one fair to another, 

 makes a page of very interesting reading. He has his traps 

 and calamities all with him in a freight car, in which he some- 

 times spends two days and two nights, but when it comes to 

 being jounced off the car floor at night and being obliged to 

 /loW 071, your victuals while they're cooking on an oil-stove to 

 keep them from being jiggled or jerkt off, one might prefer to 

 stay at home with cross hybrids so as to have a civilized meal 

 and a stationary bed. 



Fence Separators — S. Brautigam, in Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper, says the fence makes a good, strong separator, the 

 objection, however, is the time it lakes to put together, a min- 

 ute to each separator. (That needn't matter, however, if 

 thsy are sold ready made up, and if the price is low enough.) 

 He proposes to avoid the necessity for using them by having 

 sections made with the usual inset, and then have a thin saw- 

 cut on the outside of the 1% section, say ^s inch from the 

 edge, and 1/16 or 'd/3'2 inch deep. Then when the section 

 Is filled, a knife will split off the H inch, and you will have 

 the no-bee-way section. 



Rearing Glueens on a Stick. — A. E. Dewar, of Austra- 

 lia, gives in Gleaniugs his plan of rearing queens. Cells are 

 made after Doolittle's plan, a small quantity of royal jelly in- 

 serted, then a larva from choice stock. The frame with the 

 cells is put in the upper story of a colony whose queen is kept 

 below by a double honey-board, and when about ready to 

 hatch the cells are given to nuclei. The same colony is kept 

 at work starting the queens all through the season, fed at any 

 time honey fails, and liberally supplied regularly with hatch- 

 ing brood, and 90 per cent, of the cells are accepted ; 18 to 

 20 cells are generally put on one stick, but as many as 27 in 

 one lot have been accepted. 



Sweet Clover. — The October number of the Busy Bee 



was a sweet clover number, and it seems Editor Abbott could 

 not stop all of a sudden, so quite a hit about sweet clover is 

 found in the November number. Win. Belshaw says : "As a 

 bee-plant it is one of the best, equalling white clover in qual- 

 ity of flavor, doubling it in quantity on the same amount of 

 ground covered, and it appears to possess the rare quality of 

 being stored away as surplus honey rather t!»an stimulating 

 swarming." The editor thinks the last item valuable from 

 the standpoint of the bee-keeper. But isn't the same thing 

 true of buckwheat, or of any plant that comes as late as 

 sweet clover ? 



TJse and Abuse of Foundation. — Editor Hutchinson 

 refers in the Review to the discussion in these pages concern- 

 ing foundation by Deacon, Dadaiit and "Sage-Brush," copying 

 the articles of the two latter, and then gives his own views by 

 quoting a chapter from his book, "Advanced Bee-Culture," in 

 which he finally sums up : 



"If the bee-keeper lives where the honey-flow is light, 

 but perhaps prolonged, he will find it more profitable to allow 

 his bees to build their own combs. If he can't get perfect 

 brood-comb>, ho certainly can allow bees to build their combs 

 for the surplus comb honey. If honey comes in ' floods,' as it 

 sometimes does in some localities, the man who allows his 

 bees to build their store combs unaided at such a time, loses 

 dollars and dollars." 



Do Bees Freeze ? — A^kt whether bees may not freeze to 

 death outdoors wh(>n the mercury sinks to 30- btlow zero, 

 Doolittle says in Gleanings they may starve but never fren'ze. 

 A small cluster may freeze, but not a whole colony. Quiuby 

 said that the bees inside the cluster, on a zero morning, could 

 fly as readily as in July, should the cluster be suddenly 

 thrown apart. Gallup, when in upper Canada, said, "The 

 thermometer for 60 days in succession was not above 10^ 

 below zero, and fur eight of these days the mercury was 

 frozen ; yet my bees, in box-hives, with a two-inch hole at the 

 top, and the bottom plastered up tizht, came through in excel- 

 lent condition." (American Bee Journal, Vol. 5, page 3o.) 

 Doolittle finds in the hive, with the bulb of the thermometer 

 touching the outside of the cluster, a temperature of 45 ' to 

 46-", and in the center of the cluster, 63^ to 64^^, when it is 

 10^ to 25^ below outside. 



