282 



THE BEE-KEEPERS- Rl^/. 



full inch in thickness, the latter only seven- 

 eighths. A. B. J, 41<J. 



T. S. Ford, in A. B, J. 420, says that bee 

 paralysis has a second stage that always, 

 or nearly always, extinguishes the colony. 

 This stage is indicated by large splotches 

 of yellow excrement on the alighting board. 



Quite an extensive article on the adultera- 

 tion of beeswax begins A. B. J. 405, from 

 which I draw an item or two. The idea 

 that ceresin melts too easily to be a high 

 class adulterant of beeswax is declared to 

 be out of date. Abundance of ceresin can 

 be had now that melts harder than beeswax. 

 And here is a curious thing ; 



" Pure beeswax has either a straight or convex 

 upper surface, never a concave surface. A con- 

 cave surface indicates the presence of ceresin or 

 allied~bodies. " Lyman F. Kebler. 



Aikin tells us ( A. B. J. 370 ) that a solar 

 extractor will also liquefy pails of honey 

 ivithout spoiliny the labels. And he would 

 have a hot air arrangement for the months 

 when the solar is no good. 



Miss Emma Wilson says hot water alone 

 is no good for cleaning tins of propolis- 

 Hot water and lye is what is needed. A few 

 hours work rightly directed thus is equal to 

 several days scraping. Gleanings 335. 



Elwood brings out a new thought, at least 

 a thought not usually entertained, when he 

 says that a full quarter of the vitality of a 

 colony is often used up, consumed, in stor- 

 ing and ripening a winter supply of syrup. 

 I am quite sure the usual thought is that 

 the vitality of the bees is good for just as 

 many weeks of life, and just as much work, 

 as if the same amount in perfect combs of 

 honey had been given. This current idea 

 evidently needs some tearing up. Gleanings 

 330. 



It was getting pretty dry in southern Wis- 

 consin, according to Edwin France (Glean- 

 ings 341.) Nice large apple trees nearly all 

 dead of drouth — and his sister's grove of 

 young oaks around her house three-fourths 

 of them dead. Things are happily changed 

 by this time I presume — except that showers 

 do not bring dead trees to life. His exper- 

 ience about the relation of late extracting 

 to wintering ( spring of 1887 ) is very in- 

 structive. Three apiaries extracted too 

 late had a winter loss of 32 percent. Three 

 other apiaries on which the extractor was 

 run one less time had a winter loss of only 

 6 percent. 



Doolittle aims to make a swarm build 

 five frames full of worker comb ( when he 



wants comb ) and if they kick about it he 

 satisfies them while building by giving them 

 temporarily a full frame of drone comb. 

 Gleanings 352. 



F. H. Cryenius reports in Gleanings 395 a 

 case of successful wintering in a warm 

 room — that is in a temperature ranging from 

 50° to 70". They had an entrance commu- 

 nicating out doors. Quite likely soine day 

 wintering in a warm room will be the 

 standard way; and then it will be a wonder 

 why so desirable and excellent an improve- 

 ment was so long coming. I tried it one 

 winter, but my bees all turned up their toes. 

 However I went for much more than merely 

 to winter in doors — tried to winter them 

 like sheep in a pen, without any combs or 

 hive. 



"I don't like to read things that make me 

 see faults in others that didn't trouble me be- 

 fore. " Dr. Miller 



That hive carrier in Gleanings 425, I 

 should think that the wire would sag so that 

 it would be no good unless the distance 

 was very short. ( Scheme to telegraph 

 your bees into the cellar instead of lugging 

 them. ) 



T. H. Kloer says he has lost hundreds of 

 queens in getting them reinstalled after re- 

 moval during the honey harvest. Gleanings 

 426. In the new Kloer-Norton manipula- 

 tion the former when reuniting the 

 swarm and parent puts the swarm on top, 

 while the latter puts it underneath. Also 

 Mr. Kloer likes to do the trick twice in a 

 season. Maybe this promising device of 

 sweep-swarming and reuniting, to obviate 

 natural swarming and prevent increase, 

 will go the way of the Laugdon device; but 

 then maybe it won't. 



Vernon Burt of Medina ( Gleanings 433,) 

 keeps his apiary grounds trim by turning in 

 a flock of sheep at night. Say, I would 

 rather do some hoeing than have " nanny- 

 berries " to step on. And some one has 

 complained thit sheep upset hives worse 

 than cows and horses — whole flock must 

 needs rush through a space only wide 

 enough for two; and over goes the hive 

 which is the less firmly planted. 



R. Wilkin reports a rare and instructive 

 case which is mentioned in a straw in 

 Gleanings 452. Caged queens in a hive are 

 in some danger of being neglected and 

 starved, the danger being much greater in 

 winter time; but in this case a queen caged 

 in October was found all right March 19. 



