BEES 639 



A small pan filled with shavings or excelsior saturated with the syrup 

 may be placed on top of the frames. 



Hives. — There are many good hives on the market, hut the one most 

 widely used is the Langstroth hive. Unless one is skilled in making hives, 

 it is best to purchase them ready-made. All hives in the apiary should 

 be of the same style and size, so that the frames are interchangeable. 



Foundation Combs. — Foundation combs should be furnished either 

 as starters or as entire sheets. The finished product will then be beauti- 

 fully uniform. If the bees are left to furnish their own wax, much time 

 is consumed and the resulting comb is irregular. Full sheets of foundation 

 produce the finest quality of comb. When one super is half full or more, 

 it should be raised and an empty one put under it. Care must be taken 

 not to furnish too many sections at once or some will be left unfinished. 



Handling and Marketing. — In handling the honey combs, care must 

 be taken to keep the frames in a perpendicular position. If placed on 

 their sides, the combs will be broken. The same caution applies in packing 

 for market or in handling foundation or brood frames. 



Honey should not be stored in a cool, damp cellar, but kept in a warm, 

 dry room. Honey taints easily and care must be taken to use as little 

 smoke as possible in the hives in handling the bees. 



The home market is the best for the small honey producer. The 

 product deteriorates rapidly in shipping, and much care is needed to pack, 

 so as to ship without loss. Unless handled in large quantities the added 

 expense of packing will offset the higher price at a distant market. 



Wax from extracted honey and that scraped from frames can be 

 melted and made into beeswax. Beeswax not only has a market value 

 as wax, but if sent to a foundation factory, new foundations can be made 

 from it at a cost much less than the purchasing of new foundations. 



Diseases of Bees. — Moth is not a disease, but is a common enemy 

 of the bee. The presence of moth denotes a weak colony, for a strong 

 colony will destroy moth webs and keep them out. Once in, not much 

 can be done save to so strengthen the colony, that it rids itself of the 

 moth. 



Foul brood is the most common bee disease. It is a germ disease, 

 much to be dreaded, as it spreads rapidly from one apiary to the other, 

 the first trace is noticeable in the grubs. They turn yellow and stretch 

 out in their cells instead of being white and curled up. Later a stench 

 arises from the hive. Drastic measures must be taken at once to keep the 

 disease from spreading. The bees should be removed to a clean hive with- 

 out comb and kept for thirty-six hours with the hive closed. At the end 

 of that time they may be put into a new hive with clean comb and a fertile 

 queen. Sugar syrup must be furnished them for a time. The infected hive 

 and all its parts must be burned. 



So serious has this disease become that many states have passed 

 laws governing its control, and provide inspectors to see that the laws 



