1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



635 



where it has been of great relief. I do not 

 know any thing about your doctor; but I 

 can not for one moment believe he is right. 

 If you ask the average physician he will 

 tell you that bee-stings will have nothing 

 to do with causing disease, but that they 

 may mitigate it somewhat. Your trouble 

 may be due to some other cause. Perhaps 

 when you are among the bees you catch 

 cold, with the result that the symptoms are 

 aggravated somewhat. I certainly should 

 advise you to begin wearing a veil — not 

 because it will make your rheumatism bet- 

 ter or worse, but because too many stings 

 may injure j'ou other ways. — Ed.] 



BKKS NOT INCLINICD TO WORK ON FOUNDA- 

 TION BELOW. 



Early this spring I bought two colonies 

 of black bees in L. hives, but comb was 

 byilt so crooked I could not get the queen 

 out to put in an Italian without cutting the 

 comb to pieces; so put another brood-cham- 

 ber below them with frames filled with 

 foundation, thinking they would work down 

 on to lower frames, and then I could find 

 the queen and remove her. Well, seeing 

 they were very strong I went yesterday in- 

 to the hive, thinking I could find her, and 

 found they had not touched or drawn 

 out the foundation in the lower box, though 

 very much crowded in the upper one. I 

 was planning, as soon as they had another 

 queen, to drive them from the upper box, 

 when to-day they started to swarm out, and 

 had been gone; but I happened to see them 

 in time to flood with water, and stop them. 

 Now, is not that a rather strange result? 

 I felt sure, as they needed space, they 

 would work down in the bottom box; but 

 actually they have never touched the foun- 

 dation sheets, so far as working them out 

 is concerned. The fact that they swarmed 

 shows I am not mistaken in thinking that 

 there was an abundance of bees and honey. 



Paducah, Ky., June 8. "W, M. Janes. 



[You made the mistake of putting your 

 foundation ujider the general brood-nest. 

 I should hardly expect the bees to go below 

 to draw it out, even if the brood apartment 

 above were crowded. If you had put it 

 above, the results might have been very 

 different. In order to draw out combs, the 

 compartment or super should be very warm; 

 as heat naturally rises, comb-building pro- 

 gresses best in the top of the hive. You 

 may set it down as a rule that bees will 

 not generally leave a brood-nest above to 

 go into an empty space below, even though 

 that brood-nest is crowded for room. — Ed.] 



[A copy of the foregoing was sent to Mr. 

 Janes, who writes further:] 



Yes, I see the mistake made, but was 

 trying to get the black queen off the crook- 

 ed comb to where I could get hold of her. 

 But I can give something which is not a 

 mistake, and maj* be made useful as I have 

 been doing. Old strong colonies can be 

 made to work out as much new all-worker 



comb from starters as is wanted — no un- 

 certainty as to drone comb involved — by 

 simply putting an empty box with starters 

 below., except one straight comb for the 

 queen to start on, putting her below, with 

 excluding zinc above her. This gives all 

 storage comb above that the bees need, and 

 they will make comb below only as the 

 queen presses them for it, and every cell 

 will be worker. I find this works every 

 time without any regard to age of queen, 

 size of colony, or other conditions, and they 

 at once begin to make what she needs too. 

 Extracting and comb-building can be run 

 together thus very successfully, and no 

 drone comb made. W. M. Janes. 



Paducah, Ky., June 29. 



[Yes, this plan will work when the bees 

 will go below; but usually they will swarm 

 if honey is coming in slowly. When it 

 comes in more rapidly, and swarming has 

 ceased, as it does in some localities, then 

 the bees will, of course, work downward 

 and build worker comb. — Ed.] 



BEES DYING IN IDAHO; IS IT POISON OR 

 WHAT? 



Please tell, if you can, the cause of my 

 bees dying. They were put in a cellar all 

 winter, and wintered very well. They 

 seemed to be very healthy for about three 

 weeks after they were brought out, and 

 then they began dying off. They acted 

 just as if they were freezing, although the 

 weather was warm, and thej' had been out 

 working for two weeks at least. They 

 would fly out, sit on the edge of the hive 

 for a few minutes, then fall ofi" dead, until 

 they all died. I lost 14 stands in about 

 one month and a half. They certainly did 

 not starve, for the hives were two-thirds 

 full of honey, all ten-frame hives. I, how- 

 ever, am not the only one who has lost bees. 

 One of my neighbors has lost over 100 colonies ; 

 another neighbor has lost 38 and one 60. 

 Nearly every one has lost his bees, and 

 they all seemed to act nearly the same as 

 mine did. Owing to the loss of so many 

 bees, a very poor honey crop is predicted 

 this year. Alfalfa is just going into bloom. 

 George H. Smith. 



Poplar, Idaho, June 16. 



[Your question is a hard one to answer. 

 I first thought it might be poison that the 

 bees had gathered from fruit-trees that 

 had been sprayed while in bloom; but if 

 that were the case the trouble would disap- 

 pear as soon as the spraying ceased. But 

 from what you write I judge that the mal- 

 ady, whatever it is, is apparently going 

 on with its destructive work. If so, the 

 only thing I can suggest is bee-paralysis. 

 The bees will behave somewhat as you de- 

 scribe, but I never knew this disease to be 

 very serious in the North. A paralytic 

 bee has a black, shiny, greasy appearance; 

 its abdomen is considerably swollen; the 

 bee will have a trembling motion, and will 

 crawl into the grass from the entrance, and 



