1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL,. 



743 



Domestic Comb Foundation is thus made, as given in 

 Southland Queen : Take a piece of cotton-cloth, dip it in bees- 

 wax, iay it on a lot of peas, pile peas on top, press with a 

 board, and you have your foundation ! 



Italians Working Where Blacks Don't. — L. B. Smith 

 reports, in the Southlaod Queen, that bis Italian bees work on 

 a plant like Canada thistle, one variety of horsemint, and 

 prickly pear, while blacks do not touch them. 



Severe Effects of Stings, as nausea, palpitations, faint- 

 ness, etc., the editor of Revue Internationale says investiga- 

 tions show to come only to those whose hearts are affected, 

 and such persons should at any cost avoid being stung. 



Foul Brood Smoked Out. — Alex. Astor reports in Revue 

 Internationale that he cured foul brood by vigorously smoking 

 every two or three days in the evening for two weeks. Editor 

 Bertrand thinks a cure might be thus effected in the early 

 stage of the disease before any spores are present. 



A Warning is given by the Canadian Bee Journal. Last 

 winter was very mild, and those who saw their own or their 

 neighbor's bees come through safely on the summer stands 

 without protection, may be tempted to leave all without pro- 

 tection ihis winter. I5ut this winter may be severe, and the 

 part of wisdom is to prepare for the worst. 



Bees Defending Against Robbers. — F. A. Jacot says in 

 Revue Internationale that Italian bees defend themselves 

 best against robbers, Cyprians being close seconds, and Carni- 

 olans very poor unless crost. When he finds a colony that will 

 not defend itself against robbers, he unites with it a small 

 number of bees from a colony known to be good fighters, and 

 the robbers will have no quarter. The irritation caused by 

 changing seems to redouble their combativeness. 



Plain Sections as to Grading. — Byron Walker, who pro- 

 duces large crops of honey and buys and sells thousands of 

 pounds besides, says in Gleanings that honey stored in plain 

 sections enters into the fancy grade in much larger proportion 

 than that in old-style sections. W. C. Qathright says in the 

 same paper that there is no doubt about bees working faster 

 in plain sections with cleated separators. But he Insists that 

 the top of the separator should be M-inch below the top of the 

 section. 



Bee-Keeping on the Mississippi. — The American Bee- 

 Keeper copies from the New York Herald the following : "It 

 is said that the idea of moving bees to pasture is carried on to 

 a large extent along the Mississippi, where the hives are taken 

 from place to place down or up stream on flat boats, that 

 anchor during the day and are moved on at night while the 

 bees are all in the hives, thus keeping them in fresh pasture 

 all the time." Isn't that something that was done years ago, 

 but not now, Mr Hill ? 



Honey Coloring in Wax Extractor. — Complaint is made 

 by some that when cappings are put in a solar extractor the 

 honey is spoiled by being heated and made dark. John New- 

 ton says, in the Canadian Bee Journal, that he shades the 

 honey-receptacle by putting a small piece of board right under 

 whatever the wax is run into, just leaving space enough for 

 the drip to run into. Each day's cappings are put iuto the 

 extractor and melted before night. Mr. Alpaugh says it is 

 important to keep the screen and pan perfectly clean, else the 

 sediment will warm up next lime and color the honey. 



Shallow vs. Deep Extracting-Frames.— These were dis- 

 cust in a Texas convention reported in the Southland Queen. 

 With shallow frames and bee-escapes bees can be got off the 

 frames without handling each frame separately. A super of 

 dcip frames is too heavy to use the escape. Two shallow 

 trj mes can be uncapt quicker than a Langstroth. Ten shal- 

 lo^'' frames are taken off in the super and put on again in less 



time than a single deep frame is taken out, brusht of bees and 

 returned. With shallow frames, less trouble with bur-combs. 

 Shallow frames are lighter to handle and don't need wiring. 

 Shallow frames are not Interchangeable In the brood-chamber ; 

 takes more time to make shallow frames for an apiary, and to 

 put in foundation ; you have twice as many frames to space, 

 twice as many frames to handle, but shallow frames don't 

 melt down so readily as deep ones. 



Warming Honey Before Extracting. — Before taking 

 the combs for extracting, John Newton goes around to the 

 hives and places the entrance-blocks on, giving a few pufts of 

 smoke. This causes excitement which warms up the honey, 

 making It easier to extract. After the combs are taken from 

 a hive for extracting, the entrance-blocks are removed. He 

 objects to removing extracling-supers from hives to let bees 

 leave of their own accord, as it cools the honey too much, 

 making it sticky and stringy to extract. — Canadian Bee 

 Journal. 



Price of Honey in Canada. — Editor Holtermann says 

 honey is higher on this side of the line, but it doesn't pay to 

 ship across on account of duty and other charges. Montreal 

 papers quote comb honey right along at 7 cents a section. In 

 Toronto it is quoted higher, altho Montreal has the wider, and 

 therefore the heavier, sections. He thinks the inferior quality 

 of some of the honey thrown on the market has the effect to 

 lower the price, dragging down the good with the bad. On 

 this side of the line poor honey on the market has the oppo- 

 site effect, according to Editor Abbott. 



Why Hybrids Are Preferred. — Hon. R. L, Taylor, in the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review, says bee-keepers do not keep hybrids 

 because it Is too much trouble to keep pure Italians, but be- 

 cause the hybrids are better bees. "They are as good honey- 

 gatherers, they go readily into the comb-honey supers — no 

 fussing with bait sections — combs and comb honey supers are 

 freed from them very much more readily ; and as to the color, 

 handsome is that handsome does." If that is true, those who 

 hold the theory that pure Italians are better are on pretty 

 safe ground, for in most cases the attempt to keep pure Ital- 

 ians results in the best grade of Italians. 



Large Hives. — C. P. Dadant continues in Gleanings his 

 discussion in favor of large hives. He says It is a mistake to 

 think you can calculate just how many cells a queen needs, 

 and furnish that number feeling sure she will use all of them. 

 She works with a good deal of regularity till she gets to the 

 edge of the comb, when "she quite often loses considerable 

 time in regainiug the thread of her work." In hunting for 

 cells she wastes time and drops eggs which are wasted when 

 much needed. With a larger number of cells these eggs would 

 be saved, and an incentive to swarming reiioved. With large 

 hives, the few swarms that do issue are larger and more pro- 

 fitable. The man with a small hive is not able to tell how 

 much room his queens would fill. 



Hive-Making and Stimulative Feeding. — Critic Taylor, 

 in the Bee-Keepers' Review, doesn't advise bee-keepers to 

 make their own hives with hand-saw and chisel. " If one has 

 no saw-table of his own he can easily get the use of one by 

 going not far from home." In reply to the intimation from 

 H. F. Moore, on page 596, that said Taylor is heretical for 

 holding the view that stimulative feeding does not pay, said 

 Moore flanking his assertion by the statement that he can rear 

 colonies by stimulative feeding for less than §2.00 a colony, 

 hives not included, Mr. Taylor thinks it would be safer for 

 Mr. Moore to figure out his profits after he has sold his colo- 

 nies, and thinks more money could be made making hives with 

 a hand-saw. 



Florida Bee-Shed. — John Craycraft is very enthusiastic 

 over his bee-shed which he writes about in Gleanings. It Is 

 cheaply constructed, contains 112 hives, Is octagonal, each 

 side being \^\i feet on the outside. "The posts are 3x4 

 inches, and rest on pine blocks. All the other timbers are 

 lj^x3, using this size for rafters, ties, and roof-strips to nail 

 the boards on, which are of cypress, 5 feet long, making the 

 shed about 8 feet wide, so that my hives will lean back about 

 a foot, leaving a walk 3 feet wide, as my hives are all 10 

 Inches square, outside. But for the Langstroth hive the shed 

 should be rooft about 10 feet wide, so that the hives could be 

 placed back under the shed about a foot, leaving about a 3- 

 foot passage. i''or ease of handling, the entrance to hives 

 should be at the side, so that the operator can work from the 

 side Instead of from the end of frames." 



