I50 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Mr. Gemmili/s article on wax-ex- 

 tractors was in t\'pe and " made up" in 

 the form when a note came from him 

 sajnng that he had made two more exper- 

 iments by rendering brood combs, only 

 three years old, that contained very little 

 pollen, and the pioportion of wax secured 

 by pressing the refuse was somewhat less 

 than in the former experiment; but not 

 sufficiently so to enable him to profitably 

 dispense with the press. By the use of 

 the press he still secured '4 as much wax 

 as by steaming. 



DESTROYING FOUI, BROOD BY BOILING. 



It has been explained to us why repeat- 

 ed boilirigs may destroy some minute 

 forms of life, like foul brood, when a sin- 

 gle boiling, even if long continued, might 

 not be sufficient. The first boiling des- 

 troys the mature organisms, but not the 

 spores, which are started "into growth. A 

 later boiling destroys the mature organ- 

 isms that were started into growth by the 

 first boiling. .\s some spores are slower 

 in starting into growth, a third boiling 

 is resorted to make assurance doubly sure. 

 Harry S. Howe says that this plan is of 

 no value in treating honey infected with 

 the germs of Bacillus alvei, for the rea- 

 son that the spores will not develop in 

 honey. We might boil the honey as 

 many times as we wished and not kill 

 the spores if each boiling were just a lit- 

 tle too short to kill them. Mr. Howe's 

 experiments .seem to .show that 15 min- 

 utes boiling is sufficient. 



GETTING BEES STARTED TO WORKING IN 

 THE SECTIONS. 

 Last month I had an editorial on this 

 subject. My advice was to have "bait" 

 combs in the sections. In Gleanings for 

 April 15 I find an article on this subject 

 written by Mrs. A. J. Barber of Colorado. 

 She says that she always had trouble with 

 her bees by their loafing and hanging out 

 on the fronts of the hives after the sec- 

 tions were put on. Some of the colonies 

 would swarm instead of going to work in 

 the sections. I think that her experience 



is a v-ery common one. Three years ago 

 she began the practice of giving part of 

 the colonies supers of half- depth extract- 

 ing-frames full of combs, one super to 

 each colony. In four or five da3's these 

 combs were full of honey, while those 

 colonies having simply sections filled 

 with foundation were loafing or swarming. 

 She then raised the supers of extracting 

 combs and put supers of sections under- 

 neath. In two weeks the sections under 

 the extracting-combs were better filled 

 than the sections put upon hives that had 

 no extracting combs given them. The 

 honey in the extracting combs was just 

 so much clear gain. This plan is prac- 

 tically that of giving sections of comb 

 left over from the previous season. 

 Mrs. Barber has only about one-third as 

 many swarms from colonies treated in 

 this way that she does from other colonies. 

 The editor of Gleanings endor.ses this 

 plan; saying that he can speak from actu- 

 al, personal experience. There is more in 

 this plan than some of us realize. To a cer- 

 tain extent, bees are creatures of habit. 

 Let them form the habit of storing honey 

 in the supers instead of getting ready to 

 swarm, and they are quite inclined to 

 stick to the habit. 



W*^*^^*^'**^ 



SOME GLIMPSES OF MR. M'KNIGHT'S 

 HOME. 



In this issue of the Review are two views 

 that show glimpses of Mr. McKnight's 

 beautiful home. When I received the 

 photos. I was quite curious to know 

 more than the photos, alone could tell. 

 In answer to my inquiries Mr. McKnight 

 sent me a delightful letter. Of course, 

 it was intended for my eye alone, but, as 

 the sight of these pictures will arouse the 

 same curiosity in others that it did in 

 me, I am sure that Mr. McKnight will' 

 pardon me if I allow my readers to look 

 over my .shoulder. Here is what he 

 wrote : 



My Dear Hutchinson: I have your 

 favor ;-(■ photos. The girl with the dog 

 in her arms is my daughter and eldest 

 child— she has been my house-keeper for 



