THE AMERICAJSI BBlfl JOURNAL. 



471 



points I had to leave undetermined on 

 the 25th of last July. Then I had 

 found the disease in young larvie and 

 those fully fed, in chrysalids in all 

 stages, in drones, in workers just 

 gnawing out of the cell, in young 

 nurses and old, worn-out bees, and 

 now in a queen and eggs unlaid. 

 Bacillus alvei is then a disease afEect- 

 ing all and every condition of bee- 

 hood. Can it continue to be called 

 foul brood ? To say the queen is 

 suffering from foul brood would be as 

 illogical and ridiculous as talking of 

 toothache in the liver, or rheumatism 

 in a wooden leg." Does he not i* 

 Titusville,-o Fa. 



Prairie Farmer. 



TlieDseofDiTision-Boarils, 



MBS. L. HAEKISON. 



I have never been able to procure 

 division-boards exactly to my liking; 

 I have a few made after the directions 

 {^ven by Mr. Langstroth in his trea- 

 tise on the "Hive and Honey-bee," 

 with the ends beveled parallel with 

 each other, for easy adjustment ; but 

 they did not prove so in my hands. 

 When the bees had glued them to the 

 hive with propolis, it was very diflS- 

 cult to get them out. I now prefer to 

 cut them square on the ends, and a 

 full quarter of an inch short, so as to 

 allow tacking on two or three thick- 

 nesses of woolen cloth, " lists " or felt, 

 so that when they are set in their 

 place in the hive, they will slip in or 

 out easily, and yet be nearly air-tight. 



The division-board is an important 

 factor in the apiary, especially in the 

 spring. If you have weak colonies, 

 with only bees enough to cover a 

 couple of combs, adjust the division- 

 boards so as to leave a couple of 

 frames in the centre of the hive ; take 

 out the remainder of the frames and 

 brush off the bees into the hive ; 

 spread a canvas sheet over the top of 

 the frames, and put a chaff cushion 

 or a sack of hay in the top hive or 

 cap, thus contiuing the bees to a small 

 space, retaining the aniraal heat, and 

 enabling the queen and her subjects 

 to rear brood and build up the colony. 



By the use of the division-boards 

 keep all colonies strong as far as they 

 go in the spring, and a colony that 

 can keep two combs full of brood and 

 covered with bees is a perfect colony, 

 to all intents and purposes. Such a 

 colony will store as much honey, ac- 

 cording to their numbers, as a larger 

 one, and will send double the number 

 of bees into the Qeld that they would 

 if scattered over five or six combs. 

 This economizing all the animal heat 

 is not mere " moonshine," but can be 

 proved any day, at any time in May 

 or June. 



Take one of these small colonies at 

 night, remove the division-board, and 

 leave the two frames of brood and 

 bees in the centre of the hive, and 

 the next day nearly all the bees will 

 remain at home, in order to keep up 

 the necessary temperature. Place 

 them back at night as before, adjust 

 the division-board, and the following 



day they are ready to go to work 

 again. When these two combs be- 

 come crowded with bees, put in an 

 empty comb or frame to fill between 

 them. As soon as these combs are 

 full of brood and crowded with bees, 

 remove the division-board and insert 

 another comb in the centre ; keep on 

 in like manner until the hive is full. 



Division-boards are indispensable 

 in swarming time, both for the rear- 

 ing of queens and also for the hiving 

 of swarms. After a natural swarm 

 has been hived for a couple of days, I 

 open its hive and find that comb has 

 been started in four or five frames ; 

 these I move to oue side of the hive, 

 and a division-board is placed next. 

 This throws the whole strength of the 

 colony on these frames, and they will 

 generally fill them with nice, straight 

 worker-comb. 



1 ascertained by experiment, several 

 years since, that when bees are con- 

 fined to a small space, they invariably 

 build worker-comb. If the flow of 

 honey is abundant, and the bees have 

 a large space, in the rush to occupy it 

 they will sometimes build, one-third 

 drone-comb, as they can build this 

 faster, and it holds more honey to a 

 cell. In the spring following, the 

 queen will lay in these drone-cells, 

 and an army of " tramps " will be 

 produced, which add nothing to the 

 wealth of the community, are sup- 

 ported by the workers, and all that 

 they are good for is to fill space. 



Peoria,© Ills. 



For the American Uee JournaL 



Wavy and Crooteil Comlis. 



W. Z. HXTTCHINSON. 



Before replying to the arguments of 

 Mr. Stiles, on page 409, 1 wish to 

 thank him for the courtesy and fair- 

 ness exhibited in his criticisms. Such 

 reviews are more than welcome. 



I have not a particle of doubt that 

 Mr. Stiles has wavy and crooked 

 combs when he attempts to dispense 

 with full sheets of foundation in the 

 brood-nest when hiving swarms ; and 

 in return I trust that he will believe 

 me when I say that I have no trouble 

 whatever from this source. Why he 

 does, and I do not, I am unable to say; 

 but there certainly must be a reason. 

 Mr. Heddon, on page 407, says that 

 starters 2 inches wide will sometimes 

 cause a warp or curve at the lower 

 edge of the comb. I have never used 

 them more than ^ of an inch in 

 width, usually about }4 inch. 



I have also found that " thin " 

 foundation will not answer for 

 starters. I used quite a lot of very 

 thin foundation for this purpose the 

 present season,and in many instances, 

 usually when the swarm was large, 

 the bees either pulled or gnawed off 

 the foundation, and then crooked 

 combs were the result ; but with 

 Given foundation of ordinary weight, 

 I have had no trouble from crooked 

 or wavy combs, they being so straight 

 and true that it would require a criti- 

 cal examination to decide whether or 

 not they were natural combs or those 



built from foundation. They cer- 

 tainly pleased me,andwere I purchas- 

 ing bees, I would not make a penny's 

 difference in the price between a 

 colony with such combs or those 

 having combs made from foundation. 

 If I could not secure perfect combs by 

 the methods I follow, I should most 

 assuredly practice some other sys- 

 tem. 



As Mr. Stiles is the only one who 

 has reported difficulty in the securing 

 of perfect combs, it seems as though 

 there must be something exceptional 

 in either his fixtures, methods, local- 

 ity, or something. To illustrate : I 

 have never had any trouble from pol- 

 len being stored in the sections, and 

 had any oue who had in contempla- 

 tion the adoption of nay methods, 

 asked if there were no danger of 

 trouble from this source, I should 

 have confidently asserted there was 

 not. A few weeks ago I received a 

 letter from Mr. Dwight Furness, say- 

 ing that he had had no trouble from 

 this source until he began hiving 

 swarms with starters only in the 

 frames, and placing over them sec- 

 tions filled with partly drawn founda- 

 tion, but containing no honey. I im- 

 mediately hived several swarms in 

 exactly this manner. I did not doubt 

 the truthfulness of my correspondent, 

 but we all like to see these things 

 with our own eyes. Well, I did see 

 the pollen with my own eyes ; there 

 was quite a bit of it, and it was in the 

 sections too. It required only a few 

 experiments to satisfy me. My bees 

 had never swarmed until they were at 

 work in the sections, thus the sections 

 that were transferred to the new 

 swarm always contained honey. 



It will be readily seen how circum- 

 stances alter cases. I had reasoned 

 that no pollen was put into the sec- 

 tions because but little pollen was 

 being gathered at this particular 

 time, and I still think I was correct 

 to a certain extent, but it is now 

 apparent that having honey in the 

 sections when they are transferred to 

 the new hive, is an important feature; 

 and one that circumstances had never 

 allowed me to discover. Were I 

 obliged to use sections of empty 

 drawn comb when hiving swarms, I 

 think I should use one comb, or a part 

 of a comb in the brood-nest ; but, 

 fortunately, swarming usually comes 

 when there is honey in the sections, 

 and we are not compelled to use sec- 

 tions containing empty combs when 

 hiving swarms — we can use sections 

 filled with foundation if necessary. 



Is it not possible that there is some 

 point necessary to be observed in 

 securing straight combs, that myself 

 and others unconsciously practice, 

 and that Mr. Stiles is neglecting in an 

 equally unconscious manner V I fear 

 there is, and I would gladly help him 

 if I could. 



Since my little book was published, 

 I have answered hundreds of eager, 

 questioning letters; and I have done 

 the work cheerfully— yes, gladly— as I 

 often receive more information than 

 I give ; and 1 hope no one will hesitate 

 to write to me for fear that it will 

 cause me trouble. 



Rogersville.d Mich. 



