564 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apk. 16 



repeating it. Perhaps some of you may say, 

 "Then you tell us how." Enclose one-cent 

 postage-stamp and we will send a leaflet that 

 will explain. Or read carefully the sugges- 

 tions made by Mr. Case, who is no novice in 

 this business. — Ed.] 



LOCATION. 



How Long Must Bees be Confined to Cause 



Them to Mark Their Locations Anew? 



Storing Comb Honey. 



BY WM. M. WHITNEY. 



Mr. Editor: — High authority on apiculture, 

 giving instruction in making artificial colo- 

 nies by division, says that a nucleus colony, 

 if put into the cellar or other dark place for 

 three days from the time it is made, may be 

 placed in any part of the yard thereafter 

 without danger of bees returning to the old 

 stand, which is correct. They might be shut 

 in their hive, and be moved to the stand they 

 were to occupy, if the weather were cool 

 enough, and be opened at night of the sec-* 

 ond day with the same result. 



But in the face of these facts, and of the 

 experience of every practical bee-keeper on 

 giving instructions for cellaring bees for the 

 winter, he tells the apiarist to note location 

 of each hive and place them in the cellar in 

 such order that they may be removed in the 

 spring and be put on the summer stands in 

 the same order as in the fall before cellaring, 

 thus avoiding confusion among the bees in 

 marking their location when the first flight 

 is taken. Some one says to me, who must 

 entertain the same notion, "Don't you know 

 that bees will continue to go back, more or 

 less, to the old stand during the summer, es- 

 pecially if the bottom-board is left in its 

 place?" Well, do we not all know that bees 

 from all parts of the yard will visit that bot- 

 tom-board if the weather is warm, especially 

 if the sun shines upon it, to evolve the scent 

 of the wax adhering to it? The same thing 

 occurred in my yard last summer at an open 

 hive left on the summer stand, in which the 

 colony had died the winter before. Had 

 that bottom-board or the hive been rods 

 away from the yard, the result would have 

 been just the same. 



I venture the assertion, without fear of suc- 

 cessful contradiction, that there is not a nor- 

 mal colony of bees in existence, which, if 

 kept in its hive by bad weather or from any 

 other cause for the space of two or three days, 

 that will not mark its location anew on the 

 first opportunity for a flight. If one wishes 

 to change the location of any colony in the 

 yard, and takes the opportunity to do so 

 during a time of weather unpleasant enough 

 to keep the bees from flying, he can do so 

 just the same as with a nucleus, and the bees 

 will mark their new location without any 

 unpleasant results. If this view of the mat- 

 ter of the habits of bees in this particular is 

 correct, what becomes of the theory that, on 

 removal from the cellar, each colony should 



be put upon the stand it occupied the fall be- 

 fore? Does it not seem to the practical ob- 

 serving apiarist as most doubtful— in fact, 

 extremely mythical? 



Again, another expert in apiculture on be- 

 ing asked, "What shall I do in storing frames 

 of comb honey which I wish to use in the 

 spring — leave them in the honey-house or 

 put them in the cellar?" the answer was, " In 

 the cellar, if you have no better place." That 

 "if you have no better place" was well said; 

 but the experience of people in general is 

 that a worse place can not be found than 

 nine out of ten cellars of the country. We all 

 know that tons of the very best honey have 

 been spoiled by being put into the basements 

 of commission houses and stores, and in cel- 

 lars of homes. It would have been just like 

 me to have said, "If your honey-house is dry, 

 and you have no better place to which to 

 transfer it than the cellar, leave it in the honey- 

 house." I have kept the finest comb honey 

 in the honey- house at Lake Geneva during 

 the winter, through zero weather, taking it 

 out in the spi'ing in as fine condition as wnen 

 pvit into jtorage. The house was dry, and 

 the honey well ripened. Of course, warm 

 storage is considered safer. 



Were Dr. Miller asked where would be the 

 best place to store comb honey, his answer 

 would be, "Put it in some warm dry place, 

 secure from injury by mice, etc.," and it 

 would have been correct; but the answer 

 given above was by a man who is pestered 

 to death with all sorts of questions, asked 

 over and over again until I should think he 

 would go wild —dream about bees, or have 

 the nightmare — when most of the problems 

 could be solved at home were the questioner 

 provided with one or more of the standard 

 works on bee-keeping, and a subscriber to 

 one or more journals upon the sUbje t. He 

 who has not interest enough in the business 

 to do this should go out of it. 



Evanston, 111. 



[Most bee-keepers at the present day con- 

 sider that, after bees have been taken out of 

 a cellar in the spring, they can be put any- 

 where — in the new or old location — and it will 

 make no difference, and we believe they are 

 right. — Ed.] 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD. 



Tlie Alexander Treatment a Success; the 



Italians Found More Able to Resist 



the Disease than the Hybrids. 



BY WILL A. HORST. 



It may be of interest to many of the read- 

 ers of Gleanings to hear something more 

 concerning the effectiveness of the Alexander 

 treatment as a cure for l)lack brood, or, as it 

 is now called, European foul brood. During 

 the past summer I had ample opportunity 

 for applying the treatment to my apiary of 

 eighteen colonies. Having been absent from 

 home during the winter and spring, I was 

 unable to examine the bees befoi*e the first of 



