^4 
JOnk}TAL  OP  HOkflGtiLPttM  AND  COTfAGN  OAUDeNPR. 
Jtlty  2S,  1896. 
feet.  Thi«  may  appear  strange  to  those  who  have  not  studied  the 
subject,  but  is  nevertheless  a  fact,  which  any  bee-keeper  may  easily 
prove  for  himself  by  allowing  the  bees  to  have  access  to  the  super 
for  a  few  days  after  it  is  filled  and  sealed  over. 
Commence  operations  by  passing  a  piece  of  thin  wire  directly 
under  the  super.  This  will  sever  the  combs  on  a  level  with  the 
bottom  of  bell-glass,  and  insert  Some  thin  wedges  of  wood  to 
enable  the  bees  to  clean  up  the  honey  from  the  leaking  combs, 
caused  by  cutting  through  them  with  the  wire. 
About  an  hour  afterwards  the  super  will  be  ready  for  removal. 
Lift  it  bodily  from  the  hive,  and  carry  it  at  least  50  yards  away. 
The  bees  will  run  over  the  side  in  great  numbers,  and  should 
.  be  brushed  off -with  a  feather.  Wrap  a  cloth  round  the  super,  and 
stand  it  mouth  upwards  in  a  quiet  corner  in  the  open  air,  when 
the  bees  will  at  once  crawl  to  the  light  and  fly  back  to  their 
hive.  The  young  ones  may  be  brushed  off,  and  in  a  short 
time  the  glass  will  be  found  to  be  quite  clear  of  bees.  It  may 
then  be  placed  on  a  stand  in  the  same  position  it  occupied  on 
the  hive,  and  if  stood  in  a  warm  dry  room  the  honey  will 
remain  in  good  condition  until  required  for  use. 
Exhibiting  Glass  Supers. 
A  few  of  the  local  flower  show  committeei  offer  prizes  for 
honey  exhibited  in  various  forms,  with  a  view  to  encouraging 
cottagers  to  keep  bees,  the  wording  of  the  schedule  varying  but 
little  from  what  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  Prizes  are  usually 
offered  for  the  best  glass  of  honey.  These  are  of  various  sizes, 
containing,  when  well  filled,  from  3  to  10  lbs.  of  honey.  I  once 
saw  a  large  shallow  glass  super  of  honey  exhibited  which  weighed 
upwards  of  60  lbs.  Had  it  been  well  filled  and  sealed  it  would 
have  weighed  considerably  more,  but  such  huge  supers  as  these  are 
practically  useless,  and  from  a  financial  point  of  view  the  smaller 
sizes  are  of  little  value,  as  at  the  present  day  they  are  practically 
unsaleable.  Shopkeepers  will  sometimes  place  one  in  their  windows 
as  an  advertisement,  but  very  few  sufltice  for  that  purpose. 
The  production  of  them  should  not  be  encouraged,  as  it  often 
has  the  opposite  effect  to  what  was  intended,  by  disheartening  the 
working  man,  and  causing  him  to  give  up  what  might  otherwise  be 
a  profitable  undertaking.  Modern  ideas  in  bee-keeping  travel 
slowly,  but  surely,  and  in  many  isolated  country  villages,  far 
removed  from  the  busy  town  and  railway,  I  have  lately  seen  signs 
of  a  great  improvement  in  the  methods  of  bee  management,  the 
moveable  frame  hive  and  the  crate  of  sections  taking  the  plaee  of 
the  straw  skep  and  the  bell-glass.  The  sulphur  pit  for  destroying 
the  bees  after  their  season’s  libour  was  over  is  now  almost  a  thing 
of  the  past,  and  a  more  humane  system  practised.  I  know  of  only 
two  of  the  old  school  of  bee-keepers  who  still  condemn  their  bees 
to  the  sulphur  pit,  and  think  the  old  plan  the  best. 
Daring  the  past  week  I  have  oflSciated  as  judge  at  a  small  local 
show,  at  which  prizes  were  offered  for  comb  honey  in  lections, 
and  run  honey  in  glass  jars,  and  for  the  first  time  no  prizes  were 
offered  for  bell-glasses.  Several  good  glasses  were,  however,  shown 
not  for  competition.  These  were  well  filled  with  honey  of  good 
quality.  From  one  of  the  exhibitors  I  learned  he  had  still  his  first 
prize  glass  super  on  hand  from  last  year,  having  failed  to  obtain  a 
purchaser. 
Kuch  practical  lessons  as  these  will  doubtless  do  more  for  the 
humane  and  profitable  system  of  modern  bee-keeping  in  that 
district  than  any  amount  of  talking  or  writing.  The  honey 
exhibited  on  the  whole  was  not  of  a  high  standard  of  excellence 
owing  to  the  dull,  sunless  weather  that  prevailed  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  honey  flow. 
Dysentery. 
A  correspondent  has  asked  several  questions  on  “  chloric 
dropsical  fever.”  It  is  as  well  to  call  a  spade  a  spade  in  bee¬ 
keeping  a*  well  as  in  gardening.  “Chloric  dropsical  fever”  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  dysentery,  a  disease  now  well  known  to 
the  majority  of  bee-keepers.  The  beet  when  suffering  from  this 
disease  are  often  very  much  swollen,  but  they  are  not  all  affected 
in  the  same  manner.  They  also  void  a  yellow,  disagreeable  smelling 
excrement  over  the  combs  and  floorboard,  and  when  the  bees  take 
a  flight  on  fine  days  they  soil  everything  with  tbii  objectionable 
matter  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  apiary.  The  smell  noticed 
at  the  entrance  of  the  hive  no  doubt  arose  from  thit  cause,  to 
which  may  be  added  the  decaying  straw  round  the  bottom  of  the 
straw  skep. 
Cause  of  Dysentery. 
Fortunately  this  is  a  disease  that  the  careful  bee-keeper  may 
guard  against,  the  chief  causes  being  bad  food,  such  as  the  common 
kinds  of  brown  sugar  and  sugars  manufactured  from  Beet,  and  feed¬ 
ing  late  in  the  autumn,  so  that  the  bees  cannot  seal  over  their  stores 
before  winter  sets  in.  If  they  have  not  been  artificially  fed  the 
same  thing  may  happen  if  they  obtain  the  juices  from  decayed 
Apples,  Plums,  Gooseberries,  and  other  late  fruits,  which  they  are 
inclined  to  do  when  honey  is  scarce  in  the  autumn.  Dampness  in 
the  hive  should  always  be  guarded  against,  as  dysentery  will  be 
almost  certain  to  follow  in  its  wake.  This  has  been  the  chief  cause 
of  dysentery  in  several  stocks  examined  daring  the  past  spring.  • 
Cure  for  Dysentery. 
Bees  are,  as  a  rule,  only  affected  with  dysentery  during  the 
winter  and  spring  months.  Should  the  disease  show  itself  early  in 
the  winter,  and  no  steps  are  taken  to  cure  it,  the  bees  will  probably 
die  before  spring.  If  the  bees  in  a  frame  hive  are  affected  remove 
them  and  the  combs  into  a  clean  hive,  and  cover  them  up  warm.  If 
the  weather  is  favourable  feed  them  with  warm  syrup,  otherwise 
with  soft  candy  under  the  quilt.  Warm  weather  will  work  wonders, 
as  after  the  bees  have  had  a  few  cleansing  flights  the  disease 
will  disappear,  and  with  favourable  weather  the  bees  will  probably 
store  a  surplus.  Affected  stocks  in  straw  skeps  are  placed  at 
a  disadvantage,  but  if  given  a  clean  floorboard,  supplied  with 
necessary  food  as  above,  and  kept  perfectly  dry,  no  fear  need  be 
felt  as  to  the  result,  ai  the  hot  weather  will  be  beneficial  to  them. 
The  bees  that  have  “  a  shiny  appearance  as  if  varnished  ”  are 
old  bees,  the  hairiness  being  worn  off  their  bodies  owing  to  hard 
work  and  the  constant  passing  to  and  fro  from  their  hives. — 
An  English  Bee-keeper. 
TRADE  CATALOGUES  RECEIVED. 
Cooper,  Taber  &  Co.  (Ltd.),  Southwark  Street. —  Wholesale  Bulb 
Catalogue. 
B  Hartland,  Cork. — Irish  Orown  Tulips. 
Herb  &  Wulle,  Naples. — Bulbs  and  Plants. 
L.  Spath,  Baumschulenweg,  Berlin. — Bulbs. 
A.  Woodroffe,  4,  Grafton  Road,  Auckland,  Fruit  Trees. 
All  correspondence  relating  to  editorial  matters  should  be 
directed  to  “  The  Editor.'’  Letters  addressed  personally  to 
Dr.  Hogg  or  members  of  the  staff  often  remain  unopened 
unavoidably.  We  request  that  no  one  will  write  privately 
to  any  of  our  correspondents,  as  doing  so  subjects  them  to 
unjustifiable  trouble  and  expense,  and  departmental  writers 
are  not  expected  to  answer  any  letters  they  may  receive  on 
Gardening  and  Bee  subjects,  through  the  post. 
Correspondents  should  not  mix  up  on  the  same  sheet  questions 
relating  to  Gardening  and  those  on  Bee  subjects,  and  should 
never  send  more  than  two  or  three  questions  at  once.  All 
articles  intended  for  insertion  should  be  written  on  one  side  of 
the  paper  only.  We  cannot,  as  a  rule,  reply  to  questions 
through  the  post,  and  we  do  not  undertake  to  return  rejected 
communications. 
Seed  of  Harebells  (/.  — If  by  “  Harebell  ”is  meant  the  “  Blue¬ 
bell  of  Scotland,”  Campanula  rotuniifolia,  now  in  flower  on  many 
moorlands,  and  the  “  White  Harebell,  or  “Nun  of  the  Fields,”  C.  r.  alba, 
you  may  secure  plants  throngb  any  nurseryman  growing  herbaceous 
plants.  Possibly  they  may  be  able  to  supply  you  with  seed  of  both, 
but,  though  very  beautiful  plants,  they  are  little  grown  for  sale.  C.  pnlla, 
being  considered  superior  to  the  blue  Harebell,  is  kept  in  stock  by  large 
growers  of  herbaceous  and  alpine  plants. 
Economy  of  Clottaea  Moths  (^Inguirer')  —The  habits  of  this 
group  of  small  moths  are  quite  distinct  from  those  of  other  tribes.  Other 
moths  of  similar  size  that  might  enter  houses  through  doors  or  windows 
would  not  deposit  eggs  upon  the  substances  which  are  the  nutriment  of 
the  larvm  or  caterpillars  of  clothes  moths.  There  are  many  moths 
resembling  them  the  caterpillars  of  which  feed  on  buds,  leaves,  flowers, 
and  seed  pods,  but  they  keep  to  their  particular  food.  Of  course,  clothes 
moths  of  various  species  fake  excursions  on  the  wing,  going  sometimes 
from  house  to  house,  though  they  seldom  travel  far.  We  have  a  number 
of  them,  some  being  more  destructive  and  numerous  than  others.  It  too 
frequently  happens  that  irreparable  mischief  is  done  by  these  caterpillars 
before  their  proceedings  have  been  observed.  The  great  thing  is  to 
pre'^ent  the  deposition  of  eggs,  but  it  would  hardly  be  justifiable  to  kill 
every  small  moth  seen  indoors  on  the  chance  that  it  might  be  one  of  the 
tribe.  Tinea  tapetzella  is  emphatically  the  woollen  moth,  the  larva 
cutting  out  its  curious  protective  case,  often  parti-coloured,  from  all 
sorts  of  cloth  garments,  carpets,  and  rugs  which  supply  its  food.  Then 
T.  pellionella,  as  its  name  implies,  has  a  preference  for  skins,  devouring 
