1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



509 



/Vnpot^g \)r)c Bee-Papers 



Gleaned by Dr. filler. 



FOUL BROOD FROM BUYING COMBS. 



Gleanings mentions a case in which a man got foul brood 

 in his apiary by buying brood-combs from an infected apiary. 

 Can't be too careful. 



KEEPING DOWN GRASS IN FRONT OF HIVES. 



Is there a more disagreeable job connected with apiculture 

 than keeping clear the front door yards of our little workers? 

 I once covered a yard to the depth of three or four inches with 

 sawdust, and congratulated myself as being master of the situ- 

 ation until after being called at about three o'clock one morn- 

 ing and combating with the fire fiend for hours. Well, I 

 changed my mind — in short, concluded it wasn't just the thing. 

 — Somnambulist, in Progressive. 



I remember A. I. Root had the same trouble years ago. 

 Salt keeps down growth in front of hives, but I think I like 

 best an old board, such as the side of a superannuated hive. 



HIVES FOB WINTERING. 



It is a generally conceded fact that bees will stand almost 

 any degree of cold if well provisioned and kept dry. Reason- 

 ing thus, I put half my colonies In the dovetailed hives in 

 1893, and the only preparations I made was to see that they 

 had plenty of honey, and put two empty supers or one empty 

 hive-body on top and an extra heavy cushion of chaff on the 

 top of the frames, leaving the outer walls of single thickness 



entirely unprotected After trying this experiment in the 



winter of 181t3, I was perfectly satisfied with it, and last win- 

 ter I worked it on all my hives and must say that my winter- 

 ing by this plan has been perfect ; and when I say " perfect," 

 § mean that 100 per cent, of my colonies came through the 

 winter bright, healthy and strong, and ready for business.— 

 Ed. Jolley, in American Bee-Keeper. 



The above is in accord with the practice of C. P. Muth, 

 who gives no protection to the sides of his hives, but gives a 

 good covering on top. 



KEEPING honeys SEPARATE. 



When the comb is capped in part and the remainder of the 

 cells glisten as you look at the surface of the honey, you can 

 consider it ready to extract. The inferior honey should be 

 kept from a better quality, and even at the risk of having the 

 inferior a little unripe we should keep them separate. By 

 holding capped combs up to the light, patches of light may be 

 distinguished from the dark, and by uncapping first one and 

 then the other, the two can be kept separate even after it is 

 stored together in the comb. — Canadian Bee Journal. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN CONVENTION. 



Says President Holtermann in Canadian Bee Journal: 

 "Everywhere the prospects are exceedingly bright for the 

 North American Bee-Keepers' Convention, which is to meet at 

 Toronto during the time of the Toronto Exhibition, Sept. i, 5 

 and 6. Between the efforts of the able and hard-working 

 Secretary of the Toronto Industrial Exhibition, Mr. H. J. Hill, 

 and the efforts of the many bee-keepers and those having a 

 sturdy influence in particular, the reduced railroad rates will 

 cover a greater amount of territory than expected. A half- 

 fare railroad rate will prevail from any part of Michigan to 

 Toronto, and later we shall doubtless be able to announce 

 many more reductions. We only require a fairly good honey 

 season to have the largest attendance of members the North 

 American has ever had. If you have any question you should 

 like discussed at the Toronto convention, send it to the Secre- 

 tary, W. Z. Hutchinson, Flint, Mich., or to the president, R. 

 P. Holtermann, Brantford, Ont. 



SPEAKING UNKIND WORDS. 



Somnambulist comments thus in the Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper: 



"In June 20th American Bee Journal we find this editorial 

 assertion: 'I am quite sure that it is always best to shut down 

 on any and every discussion when it clearly appears that there 

 is to follow more disrespectful personal characterizations than 

 legitimate argument.' " 



"Correct! Nothing is ever gained by letting out our disa- 

 greeable thoughts and feelings. 'Given an inch, they will de- 

 mand an ell,' every time, and before we know it, we are saying 

 all manner of disagreeable things which really we do not mean, 

 and we have stirred up in the one on whom we have vented 



our spleen, either wholesome contempt for our lack of self- 

 control, or a spirit of anger and resentment which only recoils 

 on us like a boomerang. To acquire steady control, it requires 

 persistent patience, but in the mere trying there is gained 

 strength. In the indulgence of an unruly temper there is 

 everything to be lost, and everything to be gained through the 

 control of the same." 



RENEWING QUEENS IN THE FALL. 



Jacob Alpaugh says in Canadian Bee Journal: 

 "I go around just after the honey harvest is over, and 

 hunt up all the colonies containing old queens, or colonies that 

 did not winter well or do but little for me through the season. 

 All such queens I kill as soon as I can after the flow, before 

 the drones are all destroyed; I just let those hives start and 

 rear cells: about eight days after I go through and destroy all 

 cells where I do not wish any queens reared. Then I go to 

 some hive where I killed an old queen that had previously done 

 well, and take out cells and distribute them in the other hiyes 

 where I had destroyed all cells. They will all accept them 

 and in a few days will all have young queens and from good 

 stock. Such queens are almost sure to do well for one season, 

 providing they are properly wintered. If I wish to change the 

 blood in a few of my colonies, I would send to some reliable 

 dealer and get queens, and have them ready to put right in 

 when the other ones were killed. My experience in supersed- 

 ing in this way, and at the above time, is this: It prevents the 

 colonies from using up a lot of stores, in rearing young bees 

 only to die off and help to clog up the entrance in the winter. 

 Where there is a fall flow it would probably be better to have 

 young laying queens to replace the old ones. 



SOME "STRAY STRAWS" FROM GLEANINGS. 



For numbering hives, is there anything better than mova- 

 ble tin tags? If not, what can I buy the numbers for? [Tag- 

 board manilla, 50 cents per 100. — Ed.] 



White clover sometimes blooms late, making a second spur 

 as a kind of afterthought. But I never knew this late bloom 

 to be used by the bees; whereas, they seem to work busily on 

 the latest bloom of sweet clover. 



Alfalfa looks almost exactly like sweet clover, unless I've' 

 been fooled as to what alfalfa Is. Why has no one ever told 

 us this? But when alfalfa blooms, the blossom is purple, and 

 the seed-pod looks a little like a snail. 



I don't care for color or bands on the outside of bees, only 

 so they have the good working qualities inside. But the out- 

 side marks help me to judge something of the Inside qualities. 

 [But do you think lots of yellow is an indication of longevity 

 and energy?^Ed.] 



Cement-coated nails are among the new things, and I didn't 

 think I'd like them better than rusted nails; but I've been 

 using them, and like them very much. The advantage of 

 being able to use lighter nails with the same holding power Is 

 not a small one. 



W. W. Woodley complains in British Bee Journal of foun- 

 dation in center sections left untouched when others are 

 sealed. He thinks it may be that wax sheets were too thick, 

 and pressed when too cold, making the foundation too hard 

 for bees to work — a hint to foundation-makers. 



More supersedures are observed with clipped queens than 

 with whole wings, perhaps two to one; for the man who has 

 his queens clipped observes every case of supersedure, and the 

 others are not noticed one time in five. But the queens with 

 whole wings are superseded all tiie same. [We never clip, but 

 our queens get "superseded all the same." — Ed.] 



How thick is worker-comb? On p. 525 Heddon calls it 

 13-16; Cowan says "about %;" Dadant's Langstroth "about 1 

 inch," and Prof. Cook wisely says it varies. 1 think new 

 comb will be found K thick, (is it ever less?) increasing in 

 thickness with years of brood-rearing till it reaches one inch 

 or more. The increased thickness is all in the septum, the 

 depths of the cells being always the same. [Seven-eighths of 

 an inch is a fair average for breeding combs not over five years. 

 I have measured scores of brood-combs from different hives, 

 and have found them to register almost exactly %.— Ed.] 



Honey as Food an«1 Medicine.— A new and revised 

 edition of this 32-page pamphlet is now issued. It has 5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand for 

 honey. It contains a number o£ recipes on the use of honey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and valuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are : Single copy, .5 cts. ; 10 copies 

 35 cts. ; 50 for $1..50 ; 100 for *3.50. Better give them a trial. Send 

 all orders to the Bee Journal office. 



