1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



345 



tree two years ag^o that was badly blight- 

 ed. Last year it made a good growth, and 

 no blight, and is looking- finely. 



Albert L. Martin. 

 Leonardsburg-, O. 



[The first part of your remedy is all 

 right ; but I have very little faith in the 

 rest of it — the rusty scrap iron, etc. I nev- 

 er supposed the oxide of iron was a germi- 

 cide. In the first place, the microbe of 

 pear-blight does not reside in the roots of 

 the trees but in the stems or blossoms. The 

 pruning cure is the one recommended by 

 Prof. Waite, spoken of in our April 1st 

 issue, and is the only rational and scien- 

 tific treatment so far known; but because it 

 involves a great amount of labor, it may 

 not be carried into efi'ect in some localities. 

 —Ed.] 



when to transfer from box hives. 



I have bought a lot of bees in box hives, 

 with the intention of transferring; but as I 

 am working- for increase I should like to 

 get a swarm from them before transferring 

 (of course, I mean to feed in the fall if need- 

 ed, for I use the Danz. hive). Would not 

 from the 8th or 10th day after the issue of 

 first swarm be about right to transfer? and 

 would it not check after-swarming at same 

 time? A. M. Charron. 



St. Therese, Can. 



[If you contemplate transferring from 

 box hives some time between now and 

 next summer, I would advise 3'ou to begin 

 the work as early as practicable in the 

 spring, when there will be little or no rob- 

 bing, say in fruit-bloom. Do not allow 

 those box hives to be filled up with honey, 

 raising, perhaps, a lot of useless drones as 

 consumers, when you can shut off this 

 waste by transferring early in the spring. 

 It will cost you a great deal less to trans- 

 fer this spring. You can have your swarms 

 just the same. — Ed.] 



PAINTING HIVES WITH BEES IN; FEEDING 



BEES CORN meal; KEEPING FOUNDATION 



IN WINTER. 



1. Can 3'Ou paint hives, after the bees 

 have been put in them in the spring, with- 

 out affecting the bees? 



2. Is corn meal good for bees? When 

 and how should it be fed, and what benefit 

 is it to them? 



3. Where is the best place to keep founda- 

 tion in very cold weather? 



Mrs. John O'Brian. 

 L'Original, Ont., Can. 



[1. Yes, we paint our hives while the 

 bees are in, every other season, or as often 

 as the hives need it. 



2. Corn meal can be fed as a pollen sub- 

 stitute early in the spring; but Nature usu- 

 ally supplies in most localities sufficient 

 pollen for the needs of the bees. The corn 

 meal is apt to overstimulate at the wrong 

 season of the year. When Nature opens up 



her blossoms there will be time enough for 

 the bees to begin brood-rearing. In some 

 northern localities the first natural pollen 

 comes from soft maple; in others it will be 

 from willow. 



3. It will do no particular harm to have 

 the foundation in a room subject to freezing 

 temperature if it is not stirred or jarred 

 while it is cold. It would be advisable, 

 however, to keep it in a room where it 

 would not freeze, at least. If a truck or 

 something heavy should bump into a box of 

 foundation stored in a zero atmosphere, the 

 sheets might be pretty badly shattered. 

 —Ed.] 



raising cells from selected stock in 

 upper stories. 



Would the following plan for producing 

 queen-cells be advisable for a honey-pro- 

 ducer who wanted to produce a few good 

 queens? 



During the main honey-flow, put eggs or 

 young brood from best queens between 

 combs of sealed brood in upper story over 

 a queen-excluder having a strong colony of 

 bees with laying queen below. 



Frank Talbot. 



Plymouth, 111., March 11. 



[The plan might work some seasons of 

 the year, and others it would not. The up- 

 per story can be used providing it is during 

 the honey- flow or when the bees are fed 

 lavishly with a little syrup every day to 

 bring about a condition of high prosperity 

 in the brood-nest. A surer plan — shorter 

 at least for the beginner — would be to put a 

 frame of selected eggs in a queenless and 

 broodless colony, or having nothing but 

 sealed brood. After the cells are once start- 

 ed, they can be completed in the upper 

 story of a colony having a queen below. — 

 Ed.] 



giving brood to hold a new swarm. 



1 noticed in Gleanings some time back 

 an article condemning the practice of giv- 

 ing a new swarm a frame of brood; as this 

 has always been a practice of mine, please 

 give me jo«r views in next issue of Glean- 

 ings. JuDSON Heard. 



Macon, Ga. 



[It has been recommended, and it is 

 our practice, to give every new swarm just 

 hived a frame of unsealed larva?. Sealed 

 brood is better than nothing, but unsealed 

 far better. There are times, however, when 

 neither brood nor any thing else will hold 

 the swarm; but as a rule larvse have a ten- 

 dency to make them contented. — Ed.] 



A correction. 



I am sorry to note an error in my article 

 in March issue, page 235. The little wood- 

 en jig, or anvil, is flat on top, not beveled 

 forward as shown. In this form the end- 

 bar would not stay in place of itself. 



S} racuse, N. Y. C. B. Thvving. 



