298 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 12. 



Buckwheat Sown Early, according to J. T. Van Petten, 

 in Gleanings, yields honey on hot forenoons that succeed cool, 

 damp nights. He has had two crops of Japanese in one 

 season. 



Curing Paralysis by Mixing Colonies. — O. O. Poppleton 

 thinks this would not be satisfactory with him, as he never 

 had a paralytic colony to cast a swarm. Moreover, many col- 

 onies, especially those lightly affected, seem to get well of 

 themselves early enough for late swarming, and he wants a 

 cure that will act early in the season. — Gleanings, p. 29(3. 



The Disk Section-Cleaner.— James Roat (Gleanings, 98) 

 says it must be run at high speed, 3,000 revolutions a minute 

 or more, as the sand-paper doesn't clog as soon at high speed. 

 He thinks a sulBcient speed cannot be attained by toot- power. 

 One sheet of sand-paper will clean about 70 sections, altho he 

 has done twice as well. In his locality propolis is very bad. 



Spraying Fruit-Trees. — C. P. Dadant says spraying does 

 no good and may do harm before the blossoms have been off a 

 week. "The fruit being well formed, the surface retains 

 more of the poison, which is therefore more effective. It must 

 be remembered that as the fruit grows, its skin expands, and 

 a part of its surface is thus deprived of its protecting coat of 

 poison." — Busy Bee. 



Keep Up the Standard of Comb Honey is the cry of 



Editor Hutchinson. He says he would give a cent a pound 

 more for his own eating for comb honey without any founda- 

 tion, and the greatest blessing that has lately fallen to bee- 

 keepers was the failure of the deep-cell foundation. He re- 

 joices in the "change of ha^e. " on the part of the enterprising 

 Medina folks, who have sent him a sample of their latest pro- 

 duct, a foundation running 18 feet to the pound. 



May Sickness, of which much is said in Europe, and 

 which is much like, if not identical with, the spring dwindling 

 of this country, M. CI. Laurent says in Le Progres Apicole, is 

 not especially confined to May, but may come any time, and is 

 caused by eating spoiled pollen. For a cure he relies on giving 

 frames of sealed honey of best quality, and on every fine day 

 a half-pound of syrup consisting of one-third best honey and 

 two-thirds sugar with one-half coffee-spoon of wine and a 

 pinch of salt. 



The Prime Thing a Beginner Should Know First is in- 

 quired for in Gleanings. Mr. Doolittle replies very fully, rec- 

 ommending two or three times careful reading through a good 

 text-book, then getting a bee-paper. Then to know his local- 

 ity, finding what plants give the honey harvest, then planning 

 to^have laborers ready for that harvest by having the eggs laid 

 37 days in advance. For that purpose " spreading brood " is 

 advised 47 to 57 days in advance of the expected harvest, 

 using the earlier period if weather is warm. 



Plain Sections have thoroughly awakened the enthusiasm 

 of the editor of Gleanings. The man of Straws .says to him 

 (Gleanings, p. 293,) " Hold your horses, Ernest I Don't put it 

 quite so strong as to say the plain section ' seems about to rev- 

 olutionize' (p. 267.) Remember you're right in the storm 

 center, and 500 miles from Medinathe air seems quite calm." 

 The editor thinks he is j ustified in his statement in view of the 

 number of orders for plain sections, and the fact that 10 girls 

 are kept busy with the latest appliances turning out 700 or 

 800 fences a day apiece. 



Average Yield.— In this Journal for Dec. 23, in reply to 

 the question, " What would be a fair average honey crop with 

 an apiary of from 200 to 300 colonies, located in Central or 

 Northern Illinois ?" Dr. Miller replied it would be 20 pounds 

 less than nothing. M. A. Gill (Gleanings, p. 303) thinks this 

 about 20 pounds too little, altho he varies the original ques- 

 tion by saying in a (joad location, and says he knows many 

 locations in Wisconsin where 200 or 300 colonies would not 

 only haverfnade a good living, but given a fair surplus for the 

 past 20 years, with the possible exception of three years. 

 Then he tells of Utah and Colorado. Utah County is reported 



to have 30,000 colonies of bees. At Payson, in that County, 

 are 3,000 colonies on less than two miles square. Tbos. M. 

 Todd, who owns 200 oflhem, last year got an average of 200 

 pounds of extracted. 500 colonies on one block in the town 

 of Benjamin averaged 77 pounds of comb honey. 



■Wants the Place Given. — • 



can Bee Journal, p. 87, that it's 

 into the boiler, but still the Bo 

 water. I'm going to throw some 

 him because he doesn't give the 

 to. I get disgruntled in mind w 

 nal passage and can't find it." — 

 column 1. line 31-39. Bad to 

 hot water isn't pleasant on one's 

 at least part of the time. 



'It would seem, from Ameri- 



all right for hot water to get 



ler don't like to get into hot 



hot water onto the outside of 



page of the passage he refers 



hen I try to refer to the origi- 



■E. E. Hasty, Review, p. 119, 



have Hasty disgruntled, and 



back. Must try to give page 



Hot Water vs. Cold Water for Bee-Stings. — Referring 

 to Dr. Gallop's advice (American Bee Journal, p. 68) to use a 

 cold, wet-sheet pack for bad cases of bee-stings, Chalon Fowls 

 thinks it might do harm and even in some cases result fatally. 

 He uses hot water. Once a bee stung him In the bare eye- 

 ball. He groped his way to the house, applied cloths of hot 

 water, and found the pain alleviated just in proportion to the 

 heat of the water. In another case his horse and himself were 

 fearfully stung, and he thinks the hot water saved the life of 

 the horse. — Gleanings. 



Bees Eating Away Upper Honey in Comb. — The editor 

 of Gleanings said one trouble with deep frames was that bees 

 sometimes ate away all stores at top where warmest, the bees 

 starving with honey below them. Dr. Miller asking if there 

 was DO mistake about it, he replied that Dr. Miller would not 

 likely have any trouble of that kind because his bees are cel- 

 lared, but in Medina Co., Ohio, with bees wintering out, the 

 trouble happens even with frames as shallow as the Lang- 

 strolh. Now the editor of Busy Bee asks for a picture of such 

 a comb. 



Introducing ftueens. — Busy Bee says there's no need to 

 have a colony queenless before putting in the new queen. 

 Here's the plan given : 



"When your queen arrives, remove the board covering 

 from the wire screen which you will find over the top of the 

 cage. Place the cage wire down on the frames of the colony 

 where you wish to introduce the queen. Leave the cage here 

 for two or three days and pay no attention to the old queen. 

 After the bees in the hive have become thoroughly acquainted 

 with the new queen, hunt out the old queen and kill her, and 

 then turn back the wire so the bees in the hive can get at the 

 candy in the cage and eat it out and release the queen. Close 

 up the wire and let the bees alone until the next day, when you 

 can examine the colony and see bow the new queen i. 

 coming on." 



Foundation 18 Feet to the Pound — A report of actual 

 trial of this exceedingly thin-base foundation is given (Glean- 

 ings, page 312) by O. 0. Poppleton, of Florida. Sheets four 

 inches deep were put in the brood-chamber. No stretching 

 could be observed in the lower part. The upper inch stretcht 

 from 1-16 to le-'och, and he thinks the stretching of the 

 whole sheet would not exceed 3-16. This is very promising, 

 and the editor thinks it possible that hanging the sheet differ- 

 ently might have given a still more favorable showing, for this 

 IS-foot foundation is to be hung exactly the reverse of the 

 usual way. He says it is lighter than the no-wall article, and 

 the walls will prevent the warping to which the no-wall is sub- 

 ject. In a trial of thin and extra-thin, that is 11 and 13 feet- 

 to-the-pound foundation, with the 18-foot, side by side, the 

 bees accepted the latter quicker, and drew it out farther than 

 the other two I 



Cleats vs. Hand-Holes.— J. H. Martin and Dr. Miller 

 are having a little bout concerning them in Gleanings, Editor 

 E. R. Root standing by saying, "Sick him 1" Mr. Martin 

 says (p. 2-19) Dr. M. ought to know that cleats are a back 

 number. Their chief use is to carry hives into the cellar, and 

 when he did that in York State it was more comfortable to 

 grasp the hive at the bottom. In moving hives the cleat is a 

 nuisance, taking up the room of 20 hives in such hie loads as 

 Mr. Meudleson hauls. In reply Dr. Miller asks (p. 292) why 

 under the sun the California man wants hand-holes If there's 

 more comfort in grasping the bottom. Says you can take hold 

 of a cleat where you like best, it is more comfortable than a 

 hand-hole, and two can handle the same hive. Only the back 

 cleat takes extra room in a load, and to take up the room of 

 20 hives he figures out that Mendlesonjmust have had 500 

 hives in a load. 



