50 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 21, 



we wish a lO-frame hive for these queens ; and as we do not 

 know just which will have such a queen year after year, as 

 queens change in proliticness so often, we had better make all 

 our hives to hold 10 frames. Far more of our queens will 

 keep only nine frames filled with brood, and for this reason 

 we wish some way of reducing the 10-framehive to a9-frame, 

 when it is required. When the hanging frame is used I know 

 of no better way of doing this than by using an inch board, 

 the same being a little smaller than the inside of the hive be- 

 low the rabbets, and having a top-bar of a frame nailed to one 

 side of it, so it will hang in the hive the same as a frame. 



When we find, at the beginning of the honey harvest, a 

 queen capable of lieeping only nine frames filled with brood, 

 and we have 10-f rames in the hive, take out the one the queen 

 does not occupy, and slip in the prepared board to take the 

 place of it. But, as a rule, we shall find by far the larger part 

 of our queens will occupy only eight frames with brood, and in 

 this case we will use one of the boards on each side of the hive, 

 instead of both on one side, as this brings the top of the hive 

 in better shape for the bees to work to the best advantage in 

 the sections. 



A few of our queens may not come up to this average as 

 to prolificness, consequently we wish to reduce the size of the 

 hive still further in such cases, and for this further reduction 

 I prefer to use two frames spiked together, having ^j lumber 

 nailed on each side, thus making what is known as a "dum- 

 my." With these boards and dummies we can make the hive 

 so it will suit the prolificness of any queen at the commence- 

 ment of any honey harvest, and thus secure the best results in 

 comb honey. 



If we allow the bees to make a start at storing honey of 

 any amount in the brood-chamber, they will be loth to enter 

 the sections, and instead of doing so they are apt to keep on 

 storing in the brood-chamber, crowding the queen more and 

 more in her brood space, till at the end of the season we 

 will have very little honey in the sections and few bees in the 

 hive for winter. If there is any one thing which tends toward 

 poor success in the production of section honey more than 

 another, I believe the having much empty comb in the brood- 

 chamber at the beginning of the honey harvest is the worst. 



Strive to have every queen do her level best at brood-rear- 

 ing for a month or six weeks before the expected harvest, so 

 that the maxinum number of bees shall come with the begin- 

 ning of the harvest, then take away all comb unoccupied with 

 brood, putting on the sections, and we are as near perfection, 

 according to my views, as we are likely to get; and should the 

 season be a good one, we shall have no cause to complain at 

 the results secured. 



But I think I hear some one asking, "Why not kill all the 

 nnprolific queens we may happen to have, before the honey 

 harvest ?" Should we do this, we shall throw the colony into 

 an abnormal condition which will work against our securing 

 as good results from that colony as we would have secured 

 had we left the poor queen till the end of the harvest and then 

 replaced her. By "abnormal condition," I mean this: 



If a young, prolific queen is given near or at the com- 

 mencement of the honey harvest, she will not be content with 

 the number of combs which the old one occupied, and if con- 

 fined to these, swarming during the middle of the harvest will 

 be the result, which would blight our prospect for honey of 

 any amount from any colony which gets the swarming-fever 

 at this time ; and should we give this queen all the room she 

 needed, say eight or nine frames, it would either result in the 

 crowding her down with honey, as spoken of above, or in their 

 using the most of the honey brought in from the fields in feed- 

 ing the large quantity of brood she would bring about, which 

 brood would hatch so late that the bees from it would become 

 consumers instead of producers, and thus we would nearly or 

 entirely lose the use of that colony during the season. 



In regard to which will produce the most comb honey, the 

 swarm or the parent colony, that depends upon when the 

 swarm issues. If it comes 10 days or more in advance of the 

 harvest, and the old colony is not allowed to swarm again, 

 with proper management the old colony will give the best re- 

 sults. On the other hand, if the swarm comes at the com- 

 mencement of, or during the harvest, then every advantage 

 should be turned to the account of the swarm, for the old col- 

 ony would do little more than to secure honey enough for 

 winter under the best of management, while the swarm 

 can be made to give good results by throwing the main force 

 of bees to it. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Every Present Subscriber of the Bee Journal 

 should be an agent for it, and get all others possible to sub- 

 scribe for it. See offers on page 11. 



Ontario Foul Brood Inspector's 1897 Report. 



BY WM. m'EVOY. 



During 1897 I visited bee-yards in the counties of Wel- 

 land, Lincoln, Wentworth, Brant, Norfolk, Kent, Huron, 

 Grey, Perth, Oxford, Waterloo, Cardwell, York, Ontario and 

 Simcoe. I exami'ned 60 apiaries, and found foul brood in o-l 

 of them. I found several of the largest and best apiaries in 

 the Province very badly diseased through the bees robbing 

 foul-broody colonies that had been brought from other parts of 

 Ontario, and placed near them. Some of the owners of these 

 fine apiaries had invested from .SoOO to .SSOO in bees, one 

 man over .$1,000, and to get their good apiaries badly dis- 

 eased through foul-broody colonies being shiptinto their local- 

 ities, was pretty hard to bear with, but I am satisfied that 

 none of the parties that either bought or sold the diseased col- 

 onies that had been shipt knew that they had foul brood at the 

 time of sale. 



I also found many colonies very badly diseased through 

 the owners using old combs that they got from parties that 

 had lost all of their bees with foul brood. None of these men 

 knew that the old combs were diseased, or were able to tell the 

 stain-mark of old foul brood on the lower side of the cells. 

 Comb foundation is a very safe and very valuable thing to use, 

 and those that need combs should use plenty of it, and not run 

 any risk by using the old combs from apiaries where all the 

 bees had died. 



When going through, examining every colony in a diseased 

 apiary, I markt them according to the condition I found them 

 in, putting one pencil cross on the front of one hive, two 

 crosses on another, and three on all very bad ones. After we 

 get through examining all the colonies, we know the true con- 

 dition of things by the number of crosses on the front of the 

 hives. Some of the colonies I advised to be doubled the same 

 evening, and the combs made into wax, and when the work 

 was done in the honey season I had considerable increase 

 made from those least diseased, and, as a rule, ended the sea- 

 son with more colonies than I began with, and all in grand 

 condition. 



At our annual meeting that was held in London, in 1892, 

 I said that my method of curing diseased apiaries of foul brood 

 would in the near future be followed by the bee-keepers of 

 every laud. I am very much pleased to say that my method of 

 treatment is not only followed by the bee-keepers of Canada 

 and the United States, but is "all the go" in far-off Australia, 

 and for this nice state of affairs I thank the editors of all the 

 bee-periodicals. Everywhere that I went the past season to in- 

 spect the apiaries, I found every bee-keeper pleased to have 

 me examine his colonies, and for the very nice way that I was 

 treated by every person I return to them my most heartfelt 

 thanks. 



I burned two colonies in one apiary, two In another, two 

 in a third place, and a quantity of diseased combs, and three 

 in a fourth locality. The owners helpt to burn some of the 

 diseased colonies, and the other bee-keepers were consenting 

 to have the few worthless colonies burned. I am also pleased 

 with the way all the other bee-keepers took hold, and cured 

 their diseased colonies, that had foul brood in the summer. 



While examining their colonies to see if the bees had 

 enough honey for winter, some people found things not right 

 and I found it to be pure foul brood. I explained how to cure 

 it in the most profitable way, and put everything In order. 



My time, carefare and livery-hire, was ."5525.90 



Ontario, Canada, Dec. 6, 1897. 



V 



No. 4 — Recollections of an Old Bee-Keeper. 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 

 (Continued from page 36.) 



Now I propose to tell of things I learned from Mr. Well- 

 hausen. His queen-cage was a hollow reed, or milkweed, 

 about the size of my little finger. At one end he inserted a 

 common plug, and at the other end he used a long, sharp plug 

 of wood. In one side he cut out a slat nearly 8 ^16 of an 

 inch wide, and nearly as long as the hollow. This was for 

 the queen and workers to communicate through. When all 

 was ready he would raise or tip up the hive, smoke back the 

 bees, and stick the long, sharp plug right into the comb. For 

 introducing, instead of the lower plug he would insert a piece 

 of comb and honey, and then take a long, fine needle and 

 pierce through the center of this comb, then the bees would 

 cut all out, and liberate the queen on the most approved plan 

 now used, only we use candy. 



For a queen-cell protector he used a short piece of reed 



