374 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



frames of sections, which, by means 

 of a wedge or key, is held firmly in 

 place. 



Thus it will be seen that 4 wide 

 frames, or two tiers of sections with 

 the follower and key, will just fill the 

 5-inch space at either end of the hive, 

 beliiiid the slotted division-board. I 

 also now make a wide frame of the 

 same dimensions as my brood frames, 

 except that it is 2 inches wide. This 

 frame holds 6 sections, 3i^xo%x2, out- 

 side measure, which sections weigh 

 when well filled 1,14 pounds. 



When sections are inverted in the 

 brood-chamber proper, as they are 

 where but 6 frames are used, I gen- 

 erally use this size, although the 

 others can be so used, yet not so 

 handily. 



Now, if you still do not thoroughly 

 understand how my hive and sections 

 are arranged, send 5 cents to the of- 

 fice of the Bee .Journal for a de- 

 scription of my hive ; which is so plain 

 that any of you cannot fail to under- 

 stand it, and make a hive just like 

 mine, if you so desire. However, if 

 you have many hives to your liking, I 

 would advise you to adopt the plans 

 of using sections which I have given, 

 to one or two of your own hives, and 

 then if you are pleased, work your 

 whole apiary that way. If not 

 pleased, the experiment will have cost 

 you bnt little. 



Having answered several questions, 

 I now wish the privilege of asking 

 one. I wish to ask Mr. Isham (see 



Eage 135) if his bees ever gnaw or eat 

 is wood separators '? and if so, how 

 he prevents their doing it V After 

 using wood separators on several 

 hives the past season, I am prepared 

 to endorse them, if I can keep the 

 bees from eating them. They do not 

 warp or twist to bother me, but 

 nearly one-half of those used last sea- 

 son are spoiled for further use by hav- 

 ing from }i to J^ of an inch eaten off 

 of them. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keeping for 'Woinen. 



MAHALA B. CHADDOCK. 



Bee-keeping is too hard work for 

 women. I say this as conscientiously 

 as I would say that corsets are detri- 

 mental to health, or that tight shoes 

 are injurious to the feet, and I say it 

 with as little hope that it will do any 

 good ; for just as long as men admire 

 small feet and slim waists, just so 

 long will women go on lacing and 

 cramping themselves ; and as long as 

 women in moderate circumstances are 

 looking about for some way to earn a 

 few doUars, there will be thousands of 

 women bee-keepers. 



If you must and will keep bees, I 

 will help you all I can; and if any of 

 you know of a better or easier way to 

 do anything in the bee-yard, write it 

 to me or to the Bee .Journal, and I 

 will try it. I am daily in receipt of 

 letters from beginneis in bee-keeping, 

 asking me how"to kill moths, etc. 



I quote from a letter I received to- 

 day ; " I have 3 colonies of bees, and 



they are in boxes, we call them 

 ' gums ;' the bees are troubled with 

 moths — a little worm. I suppose you 

 know more about it than I can tell 

 you. I am taking bee-papers, but 

 they are all ' Greek ' to me. I know 

 what ' frames " are, and what they are 

 for ; but how are they ' wired ' or 

 ' tinned ":" What does ' foundation ' 

 mean V Where is the honey -board, 

 and what is it for V Are Italians bet- 

 ter than the common bees ? What is 

 ' foundation ' made of V etc." 



Xow here is a woman who stands 

 just where I stood 14 years ago ; and 

 for just such ignorant people these 

 letters of mine are written. People 

 with hobbies, people of experience, 

 and people who think they know how 

 to care for bees are requested not to 

 read them. 



Vermont, 111. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Prevention of Bee-Diarrhoea. 



A. A. fradenburg. 



I have read with much interest the 

 articles on bee-diarrhcea. I believe 

 all heretofore written is theory only. 

 We have had theory hot, and" theory 

 cold ; theory dry and theory wet. We 

 have had ventilation upward, and ven- 

 tilation downward ; ventilation cross- 

 wise, and ventilation from corner to 

 corner. Indigestion, dyspepsia, in- 

 flammation of the bowels, etc., have 

 been advanced as the prime causes of 

 diarrhwa ; but all have been theories 

 and no proofs. Now I will give the 

 proofs first and theory afterwards. 

 2ily proofs are sustained by 59 living 

 witnesses. 



Last fall I prepared 2.3 colonies for 

 wintering in chaff hives, and 20 in 

 two-story single-walled hives with 

 bees in the lower stories and chaff 

 cushions in the upper stories, and all 

 on the summer stands. These 45 col- 

 onies graded all the way from very 

 light to very good, both as to stores 

 and quantity of bees. A few colonies I 

 had marked "too light for winter;" 

 but having too many irons in the fire, 

 I did not get arouncl to help them un- 

 til winter had set in. All of these 45 

 had such stores as they had gathered— 

 honey and pollen. 



I took a long hive that holds a 

 Langstroth frame crosswise, and in it 

 I put 7 nuclei colonies by giving each 



3 Langstroth frames, and dividing 

 them with a half-inch division-board. 

 The centre comb was empty, and the 

 two outside ones well filled with clear 

 honey. Special care was taken that 

 no comb should containany '" pollen." 

 This hive had a lid 5 inches deep, 

 which space was filled with chaff 

 cushions. The cushions were made 

 of '" white cotton cloth ;"' then I put a 

 rough box without a bottom, but with 

 a hinged lid, over this hive with about 



4 inch space all around the part filled 

 with chaff on the sides only. I gave 

 the nuclei a passage out through" the 

 chaff space. Then I prepared 7 more 

 nuclei precisely like the first 7, only 

 their combs were about 11 inches 

 square, and they were almost totally 



dry. They had no "pollen," and 

 scarcely any honey, not to exceed 2 

 pounds in the whole 7. 1 think. One 

 or two had 4 frames, the rest 3 each. 

 I wish I could tell the weight and 

 strength of each nucleus, but I cannot. 

 They were all quite light, and I do not 

 think the heaviest one would weigh 2 

 pounds. Some, I do not believe, would 

 wei^h 1 pound. I know that several 

 of them would all hold to a Langs- 

 troth-frame comb and not be any 

 double thickness. 



I put the strongest ones at the end 

 divisions of the hives. When I had 

 these thus fixed it was already only a 

 few days before real winter set in, 

 and it was a cold winter too. I was 

 often asked how my bees were stand- 

 ing it ; and my reply was that I ex- 

 pected to find a large number dead. 

 One day, when it did not seem quite 

 so cold, I raised the lid off tlie rough 

 box. then of the hive, and then one 

 corner of the cushion — buzz z-z— down 

 went the cushion, and down went the 

 lids. 



Towards the last of January we be- 

 gan to have some milder weather, but 

 not warm enough to let the bees out. 

 By .Jan. 2-5 the "situation began to be 

 critical with the bees in all the regu- 

 lar hives : diarrhcea began to show 

 badly in some, so that tlie bees were 

 leaving the clusters and dying rapidly. 

 I was becoming anxious for a warm 

 spell, as I had in previous years lost 

 over a hundred colonies by the 

 dreaded disease ; so 1 ought to know 

 what it is. 



But the long-wished-for day came 

 just in time. Jan. 31 was bright, clear 

 and warm, and the bees flew en masse. 

 About 2 p. m. all of the 45 colonies 

 had flown freely, and had nearly 

 stopped, but the 14 nuclei, in the long 

 lioxes, scarcely showed any signs of 

 life. Only one or two were flying any, 

 so I raised tlie lids, took off the "white 

 cushions " and turned up a corner of 

 each cloth cover and left them so. In 

 half an hour I looked out, and the first 

 impression I got was that they were 

 robbing; but upon getting nearer, I 

 saw it was only a joyful play spell. 

 An hour later and all was quiet. 



I then went the rounds of the 4-5 

 colonies, every one had the spots of 

 diarrhcea— diarrhoea pure and simple ; 

 it had the genuine color ; aye, and the 

 genuine smell. Some had it quite 

 light, others very badly. Then I went 

 to the 14 nuclei, got down close to 

 them and looked carefully. I found 

 two spots on one lot, and one only on 

 the other. Then I could have waved 

 my hat and shouted. "Eureka! Eu- 

 reka ! I have found it." 



The true cause of diarrhoea : 45 col- 

 onies had pollen and the 45 had diar-- 

 rho?a ; 14 had no pollen and 14 had no 

 diarrhcea. 1 fully believe that the 3 

 spots found on the nuclei were drop- 

 ped by bees from other colonies, as 

 they were flying over. The 14 were 

 dry, bright and healthy ; they are all 

 alive to-day, and are bnildmg up as 

 fast as could be expected. 



But you ask : " how did those live 

 which had no stores ?" Why, I simply 

 put lumps of pure candied extracted- 

 honey right on the frames, over the 

 cluster, about once in two weeks, that 



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