132 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 28, 



wh.erever there is liability of splitting. For the size of nail 

 mentioned use a 3 32 twist drill adjusted in the ordinary 

 brace. A drill will "drop" through a knot, leaving a smooth 

 and perfect hole. This method is especially recommended for 

 nailing dovetails. As hives are nailed up once, and last ten 

 years or more, it ought to pay to do it well. 



Water for Bees. — In many places unless we provide 

 water for the bees they will bother the neighbors' water 

 troughs. It is often difficult to get them to work upon the 

 water we arrange for them. Some sweeten the water a little. 

 A little better plan is to keep some wet crushed barley in one 

 side of the water so that the bees can alight and sip the water 

 from amongst the barley. 



Rain Means Honey. — We have already had three times 

 as much rainfall as during the whole winter of 1893-4. It 

 comes slowly, too, so that it soaks into the ground. In 

 Southern California rain means honey. With what we have 

 already received, if we get a rain any time in March, 100 

 pounds to the hive on the average is sure. Nine-tenths of it 

 will be floated off on the distant markets. 



Seemed Like Paralysis. — About ten days ago I dis- 

 covered in three colonies what appeared like the disease 

 paralysis. In one of the colonies nearly every bee was in a 

 Saint-Vitus'-dance condition. Also prostrate and bloated bees 

 were piled out before the entrances. At present the colonies 

 are rapidly recovering, while no remedies have been applied. 

 It looks exactly like the spring dwindling in Iowa or Wis- 

 consin, with their bodies distended with pollen feces. For two 

 or three weeks past the bees had been gathering pollen very 

 rapidly. Then there would come three or four days which 

 would be cloudy and the bees were confined to their hives. 

 Now I wonder if the bees did not consume large quantities of 

 pollen, then remain quietly clustered and become constipated. 

 Had these colonies befouled their hives I should have called it 

 diarrhea. 



Some writers have called paralysis constipation. I cannot 

 believe, as yet, that constipation is or is not the cause of par- 

 alysis. I do not think that constipation is diarrhea. Consti- 

 pation seems to be caused by an accumulation of pollen. 

 Diarrhea is the opposite condition, or, want of accumulation. 

 Yet the accumulation causes constipation, and the constipa- 

 tion kills the bees. I think that constipation or diarrhea 

 might wear upon the vitality of the bees as to cause them to 

 die sooner than where they remain healthy. While there 

 were different causes, the death might be ascribed as spring 

 dwindling, which dwindling in fact, was only the result. 



Some writers have said that the bee-diseases were varied 

 by localities and envirouments, and it begins to seem like it. 

 My bees have had paralysis in other years but never as early 

 as this attack this year. But I never have known them to 

 gather such quantities of pollen so early, nor rush into brood- 

 rearing so suddenly. The nameless dead-brood disease which 

 was so abundant last year has entirely disappeared. The last 

 I saw of it was iu September, and in some colonies where I 

 thought it would be likely to be carried over, the new brood is 

 very healthy. 



If what I have seen here lately was a condition of bees 

 which bordered on bee-diarrhea, then I am inclined to believe 

 that the diarrhea caused by the consumption of pollen in the 

 vicinity of Dowagiac, Mich., is considerably different from 

 the kind of bee-diarrhea which I was acquainted with in Iowa 

 or Wisconsin. Florence, Calif., Jan. 15. 



Some Dovetails and Other "Tales." 



BY E. S. MILES. 



On page 36, Mr. W. K. Morrison shows us an illustration 

 of a "true dovetail." Then again, on page 51, Mr. Emerson 

 T. Abbott shows us another "true dovetail," and also a 

 "so-called dovetail," which is not a dovetail at all. I was 

 going to say it was, too, but I see Mr. Abbott has Webster on 

 his side, so I think it's no use. But I wish to say this : the 

 so-called dove-tailed joint (mortise and tenon) is, for a 

 bee-hive, just as good as a true dovetailed joint ( mortise and 

 tenon, with tenon slightly spread and mortise to correspond.) 



Mr. Abbott says the dovetailed (so-called) hive is much 

 harder to nail up square than the halved joint. Now I wish 

 to suggest that perhaps Mr. Abbott's halved corners were cut 

 perfectly square and true, while a good deal of the (so-callod) 

 dovetailing is not done as nicely as it might be. I have nailed 

 up quite a few dovetailed hives (so-called), and the first ones 

 were the first hives I ever saw. I was anxious to see how 

 they looked, so I nailed some up as quickly as I could, without 

 thinking of a square at all — just driving them tight as they 



were cut, and nailing. Afterwards, I became more particular, 

 and, used a square, and had them square before driving the 

 last nails. Now I have used them three years, and I have 

 never yet found a hive or super of the last setting up that 

 wouldn't fit those first set up, just as well as any. 



Of course, if the dovetailing is so poorly done that the 

 tenons will not go into the mortises without splitting the 

 board, why, we don't want 'em at all. But how much better 

 would halved joints go together if they were only half made? 

 I am writing for beginners, and I almost wish it were per- 

 missible in a bee-paper to name some people who do good 

 work, and send only pure queens, and also some that don't. 

 But of course that wouldn't do — " many men of many minds," 

 you know; what I would consider good work, another might 

 not, and vice veran. 



It beats me, though, that Mr. Abbott doesn't like Hoffman 

 frames, and yet sticks to the beveled-edged hive ! " If I were 

 going to stick to as big a nuisance as Hoffman frames are 

 for this locality, I believe I'd want another nuisance to match 

 it." I'll have to say vice versa to this, too. 



honey crop for 1895. 



If the dry fall theory is correct, western Iowa won't have 

 any honey this year, either, for the fall of 1894 was as dry as 

 it could well be. The ground was dry and dusty up to iTan. 

 25 ; since then we have had a light snow. There is a saying, 

 " It is the unexpected that happens." I'm in hopes we will 

 get in on that ticket. 



Denison, Iowa, Jan. 26. 



Golden Italians — Bees Moving Eggs. 



BY A. W. SWAN. 



There has been a good deal said about the golden Italians, 

 or the 5-banded Italians. As I have a few colonies of the 

 golden Italian bees, I will say right here that they outstrip 

 anything in this part of the country. 



Having 38 colonies of bees in good condition in the spring 

 of 1S94, I concluded to try an experiment, getting them all in 

 about the same condition and strength. The spring being 

 very backward, I had to feed some sugar syrup every day for 

 three weeks. The golden Italians that I speak of I bought in 

 ■July, 1891, of a bee-keeper at Red Oak, Iowa. The winter 

 of 1891 and 1892 I lost all but one queen and a few bees, 

 and they were in very poor condition. But with care I got 

 them built up ready for the honey-flow, and the queen proved 

 to be an excellent breeder. I bought her for an untested 

 queen, and she turned out to be as good as any tested queen I 

 ever saw. Her bees are good honey-gatherers, and easy to 

 handle. I have reared a number of queens from her, which 

 proved to be as good. I have the old queen in a 10-frame 

 hive — nine frames of worker-comb and one frame of drone- 

 comb. She filled the combs completely of brood, last season, 

 and kept it full until September, and did not swarm nor show 

 any signs of swarming. When I saw they would not swarm 

 (it being very late in June) I put on the upper story of 10 

 Hoffman frames filled with full sheets of foundation, and the 

 bees went to work drawing out the combs in less than an hour 

 after I had given them more room. They filled the 10 frames 

 chock-full of honey, and had plenty in the lower story to 

 winter on. 



The dark Italians scarcely made a living in the same yard, 

 and iu the same condition. They hung out in great bunches 

 on the outside of the hives every day, while the golden Italians 

 were busy rolling in the honey. So with the experience that 

 I have with dark and yellow bees, I prefer the golden Italians, 

 or the 5-banded bees, as some call them. 



BEES MOVE EGGS WHEN TIIEY WISH. 



I have a little experience in regard to this matter of bees 

 moving eggs. During the summer of 1S92 I came nearly 

 losing a colony of bees, the queen turning out to be a drone- 

 layer, but I found it out before it was too late, there being 

 about a quart of bees left, and the worthless queen, which 

 was a very little largor than a worker-bee. I killed her at 

 once, and put in about three quarts of bees from another col- 

 ony that had them to spare, and let them alone two days, 

 when I examined them and found they were bnilding queen- 

 colls over drone-brood, so I removed all the drone-brood and 

 gave them empty combs that did not have any eggs in. I cut 

 out a hole in one of the combs about three inches square, and 

 fitted into it a piece of comb with eggs in every cell, and closed 

 the hive. 



In three days I opened it, and found queen-cells built just 

 above the piece of comb fitted in on the large comb, and each 



