490 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



All}: 



1899. 



c; Odor and Color Hake Bees Sting, says M. H. Mendle- 

 son, in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. It is g-enerally believed 

 that certain odors irritate bees, but some dispute that color 

 has any effect. Mr. Mendleson says he buys light, odorless 

 clothes and has no trouble. A gray and a brown horse of 

 his pasture off the grass among the bees, and the brown is 

 often stung at a distance from the hives, while the gray is 

 never stung except when switching the flies. 



Does Loss of Sting Cause Death? is a question discust 

 in Gleanings in Bee-Culture, by G. M. Doolittle. Among 

 other things, he says he once mailed a queen on an eight 

 days" journey, puttings in with her a worker that had left its 

 sting in his finger, and the customer wrote him that every 

 worker in the cage was alive. Editor Root says that he has 

 several times confined in cages bees deprived of their sting's, 

 and they lived two or three weeks, or as long as they would 

 have lived with their stings. 



Two. Queens in a Hive — Anl unusual case was this: 

 June 26 I found in a nucleus a young queen with her wing's 

 gnawed entirely away. Directly I found on the same comb 

 a young queen with perfect wings. The two met and had a 

 little conference, but did not seem very hostile. Next day 

 both were present ; the 28th I saw the winged one ; 29th, the 

 wing-less one ; July 3, the winged one. So both were there 

 together at least three daj's, and whether the wingless one 

 is still there I don't know. — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



Crimson Clover — J. \V. Allison, in the National Stock- 

 man, says the chief value of crimson clover is as a soil ren- 

 ovator, for which purpose he considers it superior to any 

 other plant grown. August sowing made a failure, but 

 earlier sowing succeeded. It makes fair hay, but is very 

 hard to cure. It A-ields 6'7 bushels of seed per acre. Sow 

 from July 15 to 20, cover the seed one to three inches — no 

 danger of getting it too deep — then it will make such a good 

 growth b)- winter that if it does winter-kill you still get big 

 pay for it as a fertilizer. 



5liade for Bee«Hives — Editor Root probably voices the 

 general sentiment in Gleanings in Bee-Culture, when he 

 advocates the shade of trees as the best. He has a decided 

 dislike for grapevines nicely trelHst up, because their care 

 is laborious, and because the rapidly growing shoots get in 

 the way of the operator. Near almost every farmhouse 

 stands an orchard, and there, Mr. Root thinks, "is the proper 

 place for an apiary. A hive can be so placed under a tree 

 that it is fully shaded during the heat of the day, the sun 

 shining- upon it early in the forenoon and late in the after- 

 noon, when the heat is milder. 



Izal for Foul Brood.— While drugs for the cure of foul 

 brood are not lookt upon with very great favor in this 

 country, the case seems to be somewhat different across the 

 water. The editor of Bee-Chat, especially, is enthusiastic 

 as to the use of izal. He says : 



" It is a fatal error for our scientists to preach the inde- 

 structible nature of foul brood spores, in that they readily 

 germinate in the living- temperature of the hive, they are 

 easily disposed of in detail, and, therefore, with a little as- 

 sistance, the strong colony will have no more of them. 

 Only cause the spores to germinate where the said germs 

 find no means of continued propagation and there is an end 

 of them. We have proved conclusively, a strong colony 

 will, under certain conditions, give no resting-place to 

 spores or germs : how much more so with judicious as- 

 sistance 1" 



J. O. Beuttler reports in the same journal that by tak- 

 ing- the disease in its early stages he is entirely successful 

 with the following mode of treatment : 



" If I suspect a hive, I take out the brood-combs, and 

 find in its early stages the disease exhibited here and there 

 in two or three cells by a j'ellow-looking grub or a dark- 

 sunken-looking covered cell, or even one pierced with small, 

 irregular openings : directly I see this, all such cells, if pos- 

 sible, are cleared out II use the end of a match) and sealed 

 cells are broken open ; when this is done, the bees clear 



them out, but if not they often leave them sealed up, and 

 give rise to a possible source of infection hereafter. I then 

 see that the napthaline supply in the hive is a liberal one — 

 in fact that the hive on opening it smells of the napthaline. 

 I then feed regularly, and in as great a quantity as they can 

 take down, with syrup medicated either with izal or napthol 

 beta. Directly the bees take this down, there is a noticea- 

 ble alteration in their behavior, they become more ener- 

 getic, and a week after the commencement of this treat- 

 ment, on opening the hive, you will notice the foul-broody 

 cells cleaned out, and healthy brood in its various .stages ail 

 around the infected area. Again, any more cells which ap- 

 pear infected are opened up and cleaned out, and the feed- 

 ing, etc., is kept up until the hive has a clean bill of health. 

 If the bees will not take down the medicated food, I force it 

 into the cells with a syringe." 



Alsike Clover will yield honey for six weeks, with fre- 

 quent rains, and a heavj- flow for a full month when all 

 conditions are favorable, says F. A. Snell, in Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture. It may be cut for hay when just nicely in 

 bloom, and thus made to yield honey later. A strong point 

 in favor of Alsike is its hardiness. Mr. Snell has never 

 known it to winter-kill, and it has repeatedly wintered well 

 when red clover has killed out entirely. If not wanted for 

 seed, it is well to sow a little timothy with it, as it stands 

 up better. The length of stalk is usually two to three feet 

 — sometimes on rich land four feet. 



Powdered Sugar for Queen-Cage Candy .—"Cogitator" 

 says, in the American Bee Journal, that if powdered sugar 

 is almost always largely cornstarch, it has an important 

 bearing on the provisioning of queens for journey. Worth 

 thinking- about. [We have used what is called confection- 

 ers' and powdered sugar; but the former contains starch, 

 without a doubt, and it is liable to kill bees and queens in 

 queen-cages provisioned with candj- made with it. We 

 have, during the last few years, ordered powdered sugar, 

 and specified that it should contain absolutely no starch. 

 Since we have discovered that confectioners' sugar contains 

 starch, and have used nothing but the powdered sugar 

 without the starch, we have had very much better success in 

 sending queens long distances. With powdered-sugar candy 

 we provision long-distance cages, sending them to Italj', 

 and then have them returned with queens and bees. We 

 have had several shipments by mail, of a dozen each, with 

 scarcely the loss of a queen. — Ed.] — Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture. 



A Simple Solar Wax=Extractor, for those who have not 

 more than 20 colonies, is given in the British Bee Journal, 

 by Walter Reid, as follows : 



"The first requisite is a wash-hand basin, preferably 

 white, and as round as possible inside — not flat-bottomed. 

 Into this is placed an enamelled colander about six inches 

 in diameter, with a small piece of muslin to cover the holes 

 and strain the melted wax. Upon the basin is placed a sheet 

 of glass, and the extractor is ready for use. For the colan- 

 der a small pudding-basin maj' be substituted, with a piece 

 of muslin tied over the top. The pieces of comb are placed 

 on the muslin, and the wax will be found in a cake at the 

 bottom of the basin. In order to secure the highest effi- 

 ciency, the outer basin may be placed in a box full of dry 

 sawdust, or, better still, cork-dust. Cork-dust prevents the 

 radiation of heat so effectually that at S p.m. I have found 

 the wax nf the consistency of butter, and could easily re- 

 move it with a spoon. Instead of one piece of glass a 

 double thickness may be used, or a piece of old plate-glass. 

 The temperature in this or anj- other form of solar extrac- 

 tor can be considerably raised by placing'- a sheet of glass 

 almost vertically upon the glass cover in such a position 

 that the rays of the sun are reflected down into the appara- 

 tus. Careful thermonietric measurements have shown that 

 the temperature may be augmented more than SO degrees 

 Fahrenheit by this means. 



" Before placing the comb into the extractor it is worth 

 while to cut it up and wash it in cold water. This gets rid 

 of much of the pollen, which otherwise absorbs a consider- 

 able proportion of wax. Those who wish to obtain a maxi- 

 mum yield, especially in the case of old combs, should soak 

 the crusht combs for 24 hours in cold water ; then boil for a 

 few minutes, and extract the crude cake of wax in the solar 

 extractor." 



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