June 22, 1899. 



americain bee journal 



391 



the wrong- place, leaving- only that -(vhich is begun on the 

 starters, they will finally give up and build where tok want 

 the building done. But after they commence working in a 

 certain way they are somewhat stubborn about changing. 

 There would probably be no such trouble if the frames were 

 entirely filled with foundation, or even if two of tl:e central 

 frames were thus filled. You will make a verj' sure thing 

 of it if you put a comb of brood in the extractingf-super (on 

 the supposition that the super takes the same size of frames 

 as the brood-chamber), either a comb filled with brood or 

 honey, or an empty comb. This comb may be removed, if 

 you so desire, after the bees have begun work thoroly in 

 the super. 



■^-•-^ 



Selling Honey Cough Medicine. 



I make a very good cough medicine of honey, and have 

 so many calls for it that I cannot aS^ord to give it away any 

 longer. Would I be liable to a fine if I should take a few 

 cents for each package to cover expense ? If the law in re- 

 gard to making and selling medicine is likely to be differ- 

 ent in Minnesota than in Illinois, whom should I consult to 

 find out y MiNNKSOT.4. 



Answek. — The probability is that there never would be 

 any trouble about j'our selling a preparation of the kind. 

 but any lawyer or justice of the peace oug-ht to be able to 

 tell you about the law in your State. 



Using Moldy Combs—Sun Wax-Extractor. 



1. I had two colonies of bees that died, and some of the 

 honey is sour and working. Would it be all right to let the 

 bees clean it up and then hive bees on it when they swarm ? 

 The combs have a lot of bee-bread in them, and there is a 

 lot of mold where the bee-bread is. Will the new swarm 

 clean it out, or what should I do with the combs ? I win- 

 tered my bees in the cellar. 



2. How can I make a small sun wax-extractor ? Iowa. 



Ans-\vers. — 1. Don't put a swarm on these combs that 

 are sour and moldy, for fear the bees would object and ab- 

 scond. But let the bees first clean them uj), and then they 

 will be all right for swarms. The best way is to put a hive 

 full of the combs under a strong colony. Do so toward 

 evening-, so that robbers will not trouble, especially if bees 

 are not gathering much at the time. 



2. The simplest and cheapest way to make something 

 small is to take an old dripping-pan torn open at one end, 

 or almost any other dish of the kind, or even a piece of old 

 stovepipe flattened gut, put it in a box and have it slanting 

 enough so the melted wax will run off one end, and have a 

 dish beneath to catch the wax, then put the bits of comb on 

 this upper surface and cover the bo.x with a pane of glass, 

 setting it in a sunny place, preferably beside a south wall. 



Wax from Foul-Broody Combs, the Editor of Glean- 

 ings in Bee-Culture thinks, should not be rendered because 

 of the possible danger of infection. Surelj' it is better to 

 err on the safe side. Better burn all such combs and run 

 no possible risk by having such wax made into foundation. 



Buckwheat in Dry Weather.— Editor Holtermann. of 

 the Canadian Bee Journal, has had experience in moving 

 bees for fall pasture, particularly to buckwheat fields, and 

 he says it is not worth while to move to buckwheat fields, 

 especially those on sandy soils, if there is a prolonged dry 

 time. 



Immunity from Foul Brood. — Prof. Henry W. Brice 

 gives in the British Bee Journal as one of the most inter- 

 esting facts in connection with the subject of foul brood, 

 the immunity of certain colonies in an apiary, even in cen- 

 ters where the disease is widely prevalent. This may be 

 chiefly attributed to the very healthy condition of the colo- 

 nies, but let chilled brood be found in one of these colonies. 



and the unhealthy condition thus introduced makes the im- 

 munity cease. Perhaps it is the stretching of this a little 

 too far that makes some good men believe that chilled' 

 brood may of itself originate foul brood. 



Coffee and Honey. — A writer in Bee-Chat says that in 

 Jamaica a larg^e amount of honey is stored while coffee is 

 in bloom, there being three or four blossomings of three or 

 four days each in a season. On a coffee property where 100 

 colonies of bees were kept there had been no light coffee for 

 two crops, while 8 or 10 miles away they had 40 to 50 bags 

 of light coffee. 



Somerford's Plan of Forming Nuclei, lately mentioned 

 as having been g^iven in Gleaning's in Bee-Culture — by 

 shutting up the nuclei with green leaves till they gnawed 

 their way out — E. T. Flanagan says in that paper has been 

 much practiced by him, but great caution is needed in warm 

 weather, for he has known many nuclei to be utterly ruined, 

 especially very strong ones, presumably by smothering. 



Heavy Loss of Bees by Fire. — Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture reports that T. F. Bingham, he of the Bingham 

 smoker, had 80 colonies of bees burned by means of a spark 

 from the railroad. No particulars are given, but it maybe 

 wise for us to be on guard as much as possible against such 

 things. A bee-hive with its contents burns readily, and it is 

 not well to have hives so close together that fire will readily 

 communicate from one to the other, neither is it well to 

 have the ground between the hives covered by dried grass 

 or other combustible material. 



Milkweed Honey. — On page 798 of this journal for 

 1898, Dr. Miller made a guess that milkweed honey was am- 

 ber. Clark A. Montague says in the Bee-Keepers' Review 

 it is nearly as light as basswood, a correction that Dr. 

 Miller will no doubt cheerfully accept, as Mr. Montague is 

 in northern Michigan, in a locality where he gets an an- 

 nual average of 100 pounds per colony, spring count, from 

 milkweed alone I As to quality, he says : " We think it is 

 the best honey we have, altho some prefer the stronger 

 flavors of basswood or buckwheat." 



Water for Bees in Spring is the theme that occupies in 

 the Bee-Keepers' Review the department of " Good Things 

 from Other Journals." Dadanfs Langstroth is quoted as 

 calling attention to the large amount of water used in 

 brood-rearing in the spring, and the danger that many bees 

 will be lost if obliged to go a distance for it on chilly days. 

 One writer advises to give both fresh and salt water, so the 

 bees can have their choice. Dr. Mason says his bees in the 

 cellar took water greedily at the entrances of the hives, 

 when it was given to them warm in a sponge. 



Shortened Top-Bars. — When a top-bar is so long that 

 not more than 1-16 inch is allowed for play at either end, 

 the gluing up of this 1-16, more or less, is perhaps the lar- 

 gest factor in making the frames difficult to move. To ob- 

 viate this difficulty, especially in the case of hives with 

 metal rests in the rabbets, the ends were made shorter, and 

 a staple driven in the end-bar under the top-bar at each end 

 to space the frame endwise. Some fear was entertained 

 that there would be trouble about frames dropping down in 

 the hive whenever they were moved so as not to be square 

 in place. C. Davenport says in Gleanings in Bee-Culture 

 that in actual practice there is no such trouble, and as no 

 complaints have appeared from others he is probably cor- 

 rect. Even when a frame is filled with brood and honey^ 

 the ends can be sawed off and the staples driven in. 



Travel-Stain has been a matter of considerable discus- 

 sion lately. After what has been said by J. E. Crane and 

 others, D. W. Heise, in the Canadian Bee Journal, thinks it 

 time to bid good-by to the term " travel-stain " as being 

 misleading. Now comes a brand-new theory with a brand- 

 new discovery of a special secretion by the workers, accord- 

 ing to S. P. CuUey, in Gleanings in Bee-Culture, which se- 

 cretion is the guilty culprit in cases where the substance of 

 the comb is colored thru and thru. The honey is also col- 

 ored by this secretion, which accounts for the fact that 

 honey is darker when gathered slowly. This Boiler does 

 not pretend to have proof that such a thing is impossible, 

 but would be far from endorsing Editor Root when he says 

 it " appears very reasonable." Cheshire's explanation that 

 the coloring is due to the dejections of the larva; seems a 

 good deal more reasonable. 



