THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



217 



not just know, so left it as it was till 

 inorniu)^. The nioniinjj^ was very warm 

 and the doors and windows were left open. 

 Mrs. I), was again called away, and on 

 her return so many bees had found the 

 honey that she did not know what to do, 

 so she called me from the field. When I 

 reached the house, I told her that we 

 were out of a kitchen for one day but I 

 t^uessed we could afford to have it that 

 way, inasmuch as this would solve the 

 matter of cleaning the floor and carjjets. 

 .\s it was at a time of scarcity of honey, 

 that room was a sight to behold a half 

 hour later, for, it seemed tome there were 

 as many bees as would be in ten swarms 

 in that room, and going to to the apiary 

 it showed that nearly even,- colony was 

 partaking of the "feast." Well, the re- 

 sult was not a simple colony contracted 

 tlie disease from this honey. Such be- 

 ing the case, and thou.sands of colonies 

 being cured by having "scalded" foul 

 broody honey fed back to them without 

 their ever having the disease again dur- 

 ing the years between 1S50 and 1890, how 

 does it come about that hone}- needs boil- 

 ing in the year of our Lord 1899, three 

 hours, in order that it may be safe to 

 feed ? I should like to hear from the 

 "three hours' boiler" advocates by way 

 of explanation. 



I think that the whole matter turns 

 upon the point that honey must be heat- 

 ed to luore than 212 degrees before it will 

 boil; while all of the scientific experi- 

 ments have been along the line of 212 de- 

 grees. 



FASTENING BEES IN THE HIVE. 



llitw to do it Easily, OiiicUIy and Surely 

 Wiihiint Marring the Hive. 



One of the drawbacks to the establishing 

 of out-apiaries upon any system whereby 

 the bees must be moved backwards and 

 forwards from one yard to another, or 

 from the home-yard to the out-yard, and 

 then home again in the fall, is that of ea- 

 sily, fjuickly and .surely fastening the bees 

 in the hive in such a manner as to give 

 them the propet ventilation. Of all the 

 metho<ls that I have seen described none 

 appears so gootl as that used by Mr. C. 

 Davenport of Minnesota, and described 



by him in the American Bee Journal. I 

 take pleasure in copying nearly the whole 

 article. 



For the benefit of those who haul bees 

 to and from out-yards, I will describe 

 the screens I use and the manner 

 of fastening them to the hives. No 

 nails are used, yet they are more firm- 

 ly and quickly fastened over the top of a 

 hive than can be done by the use of nails. 

 While there are hive-hooks made and de- 

 signed to be used for such purposes, they 

 have not proved ( with me ) very satisfac- 

 tory, and when nails are used the hives in 

 time become damaged, for in order to be 

 sure the nails will hold, it is necessary 

 to drive them in a new place each time, 

 and I much dislike to mar or damage 

 hives in any way, for they are an impor- 

 tant part of the means by which I earn 

 a living, and also enable me to lay up 

 a little each year for old age, or a rainy 

 day, as the saying is. 

 Although my method of fasteningscreens 

 to hives without the use of nails or mar- 

 ring the hive in any way is so simple and 

 easily employed that probably many oth- 

 ers have made use of it, I do not remem- 

 ber ever seeing any thing said about it. 

 There are, without doubt, many who have 

 not thought about it, and some time ago 

 one of the great honey producers of Cali- 

 fornia, who hauls as many as 150 colonies 

 at one load, descri1)ed the kind of screen 

 he used; and although he had tried hooks 

 he preferred nails instead, but seemed far 

 from being satisfied with nails as a means 

 of attaching screens over the top of hives. 



The screen I use is large enough to cov- 

 er the entire top of the hive, and I will 

 say here that I consider it a very impor- 

 tant matter when hauling bees to give 

 them plenty of air, as the jarring and dis- 

 turbance cause them to fill themselves 

 with honey, and arouse thein.selves to 

 such activity that they generate much 

 more heat than when in a normal condi- 

 tion. Wliile in some cases colonies can 

 be moved without much provision being 

 made for the ventilation of the hives, and 

 not actually smother, I do not think they 

 do .so well for some time afterwards. 



The frames for the screens should be 

 made so that the wire cloth will be up at 

 least an inch above the tO]) of the brood- 

 frames. Some of mine are made of inch- 

 thick pieces about two inches wide, and 

 halved together at the corners. The wire 

 screen is tacked over the entire top, and 

 then pieces of latli are nailed on top of it 

 around the edges, so the edges of the 

 wire will not be turning up and catching 

 things, or cutting one's hands. 



