December, 1911. 



American T^ee Jogrnaij 



I left my bees on the summer stand, mov- 

 ing 5 hives together. leaving the comb super 

 on. and made a cushion that would just tit 

 the super, and filled it with planer shavings: 

 then placed some short staves over the 

 frames and placed the cushion on them, so 

 as to leave a small bee-way between the 

 cushion and tops of the frames: then I 

 placed the metal cover on. and a heavy can- 

 vas over the 5 hives, leaving a part of the 

 front open, which faces the east in my or- 

 chard. I will say. however, that we have 

 had no cold weather yet. so they could not 

 have been chilled. Idaho. 



Answer. — It is hard to make even a guess 

 at what the trouble may be. It does not seem 

 like any kind of disease, unless it should be 

 paralysis, and that would hardly make such 

 active work at this time of year. There is a 

 bare possibility that in some way the bees 

 have gotten some poisonous sweets that no 

 other colony has found. The entrance may 

 in some way have been temporarily closed, 

 and because the colony is so strong some of 

 the bees may have smothered. But that is 

 very improbable. A mouse might be making 

 trouble, or some other animal. You can see 

 what wild efforts I am making at guessing, 

 and if I were right on the spot it is possible 

 I could do no better. Neither can I suggest 

 anything to help. My final guess is that by 

 the time this reaches you the trouble will 

 have disappeared of its own accord. 



Foul Brood — Nailed or Loose Hive-Bottoms 



I have "Forty Years Among the Bees." 

 which is a master piece of bee-literature. 

 It treats clearly and to the fullest extent, 

 any phase of bee-culture save that of the 

 disease called foul brood. 



1. Explain the treatment of this disease by 

 the late E. W. Alexander: he gave his man- 

 ner of treating European foul brood. 



2. If your colonies in early spring are 

 strong and vigorous, but you find one or 

 more cells of foul brood in them, how would 

 you treat them ? 



3. How do you account for the fact that 

 foul-broody honey requires boiling for more 

 than one hour to destroy the spores of foul 

 brood, while merely melting the combs of a 

 foul-broody hive kills the germs ? 



4. I hived a prime swarm last season on old 

 combs which had contained foul brood, but 

 not one cell of the disease appeared. Does 

 not this clearly show that honey is more 

 dangerous to feed to bees than old combs 

 are to give them ? 



=;. If you owned a number of Langstroth 

 hives would you remove their bottoms, so 

 that you could set one on the other ? 



Kentucky. 



Answers— You find nothing about foul 

 brood in " Korty Years Among the Bees." 

 because at the time that book was written 

 I had had no experience with that disease, 

 and I wrote only of the things coming within 

 my own experience. Later, however. I had 

 experience galore with European foul brood 

 —not American— and "Fifty Years Among 

 the Bees " gives that experience. 



1. In brief, this is the Alexander treatment 

 for European foul brood: See that the col- 

 ony is strong, or made strong (that is very 

 important; destroy the queen; 20 days later 

 give a ripe queen-cell or a virgin just hatched 

 of best Italian stock. 



2. If only a cell or two is present in a strong 

 colony. I would keep close watch of it to see 

 whether it should disappear or increase. If 

 it should increase I would remove the queen 

 and give the colony at the same time a ripe 

 cell or a virgin of best stock. Of course 

 American foul brood would have the Mc- 

 Evoy treatment. 



3. In a mass of honey the center is not 

 heated sufficiently unless kept going for a 

 longtime. Are you not mistaken in saying 

 merely melting the combs kills the germs? 

 Foundation-makers keep the wax hot a Awa'' 

 //me. 



4. Not necessarily. To decide that ques- 

 tion there should be several cases of both 

 kinds, so as to compare. 



5. I surely would want at least a part of 

 them with loose bottoms. 



Smoker-Fuel — Take the stalks and 

 leaves of sweet clover, moisten with a 

 weak solution of saltpeter, then dry 

 them, and you have an excellent fuel 

 that vi^ill produce a mild, quieting 

 smoke. — Prak. Wegiueiser. 



Bees Still Working Oct. 15th 



Last year (iqio) I had a total failure in 

 honey-production, and had to feed the bees 

 during the whole season. Out of 85 colonies 

 I had only 28 left last spring, and they were 

 so weak that I had to sacrifice the whole 

 sage bloom to build them up. So I secured 

 very little honey from sage, but I had a fair 

 crop from hoUyberry. 



Since Sept. ist. the bees have done fairly 

 well on buckwheat, and by Oct. ist. they be- 

 gan to roll the honey in from "pipe-stem." 

 and especially from another flower for 

 which I have no name. All hives were 

 crammed full of honey. 



From one colony on Oct, 3d I extracted 

 from the whole brood-chamber and super, 

 and by Oct, 15th it was all full again. lam 

 still extracting, with bees working hard on 

 the second flower mentioned in the preced- 

 ing paragraph. B. E. ScHNUCKEL. 



Lonoak. Calif., Nov. 3. 



A California Report for 1911 



From 70 colonies, spring count. I increased 

 to 100 the past season. My crop amounted 

 to 13.800 pounds of extracted honey, and 500 

 i-pound sections of comb honey. This has 

 been the best honey-year for a long time for 

 extracted honey, but not so good for comb 

 honey. 



Quite a number of my colonies went as 

 high as MO pounds each. The honey-flow 

 was continuous from May i until October. 

 During that time I extracted 10 times. 



I received 7'= cents a pound for white sage 

 honey, and 5/4 cents for amber. 



This is a fine country for bees in good 

 years, but a man can figure on a crop only 

 once in 3 years, as an average. I have seen 

 as many as 5 consecutive failures, and some 

 years they will not gather enough honey, 

 and have to be fed or starve. 



San Benito, Calif.. Nov. ig. L. G. Smith. 



Bees Lost from Starvation 



We have had a poor season here this year. 

 We had 167 days without rain— from F"eb. 17 

 to Aug. 3. There were showers a few miles 

 around us during the summer. We lost 40 

 percent of our bees during the summer from 

 starvation. Thomas Poupfirt. 



Basehor. Kan.. Nov. 18. 



Killing Yellow Jackets with Kerosene 



A way to kill yellow- jackets, which I find is 

 very good as well as cheap, is by the use of 

 kerosene. All that is necessary for each 

 nest is a long-necked bottle with a pint or so 

 of kerosene in it. depending upon the size 

 of the nest, the direction it takes, and other 

 peculiarities. 



This applies especially to those in such 

 places that the nest is downward, and for 

 those in a bank or a similar place one might 

 need to use some other method. Carbon 

 disulphide might be satisfactory for such 

 places, which could be used by saturating 

 small ragballs with it and by filling the hole 

 with soil after putting them in. They might 

 need to have a diameter of about Yi of an 

 inch, and therefore one might need to use 

 about 4 of them. Master Thomas Leach. 



Sunol Glenn. Calif. 



The Season of 1911 



I began the season of iqii with 20 colonies, 

 increased to 30, and the average income of 

 honey-money per colony was S5.00. for which 

 I felt thankful, after reading of so many 

 total failures. I use the lo-frame metal- 

 spaced Langstroth hive-body with sealed 

 covers, and winter-case deep enough to take 

 in a bag of forest leaves. Within 30 feet of 

 the hives is a large pomace pile from a cider- 

 mill, and I never saw a bee working on it in 

 the fall of the year, although they usually do 

 a little before pollen comes in the spring. 



During my 4 years' experience I have lost 

 but one colony in wintering, and they were 

 alive in the spring, but queenless. Although 



we have no bee-disease in our locality. I was 

 feeling a desire for Farmers' Bulletin 442. 

 when lo. it came without asking, I desire to 

 thank both Dr. Phillipsand our Government 

 for their great effort to help bee-keepers. 



After all I have read concerning ropy 

 American and yellow European foul brood, 

 it seems that one can never expect to be 

 immune for a term of 5 years after it has a 

 good foothold in his locality. If any one 

 thinks my hair stands up toostraight. please 

 mention extensive territories where the dis- 

 ease has been exterminated. 



Varysburg. N. Y., Oct, 28. W. A. Spink. 



Severe Drouth — Still Hoping 



The drouth was so severe in this section 

 at the time the bees usually are working in 

 the supers, that they stored only a very 

 small amount of honey. I have 40 colonies, 

 and do not think that they will average 5 

 pounds, taking the whole lot. as many did 

 not store any surplus at all. I am hoping for 

 a good season ne.xt year, but it is hard to 

 say now whether it will be such or not. 



I am always glad to get the American Bee 

 Journal, for there are always so many good 

 things in it. and it is such a help to one in- 

 terested in bees. Charles H. Chandler. 



Darien, Conn.. Nov, 7. 



Experience with Foul Brood 



I have just read the article on pages 335 

 and 33(1. in which Mr. Gibson recommends 

 the McEvoy treatment for foul brood. I 

 wish to give my experience. 



One year ago last spring I discovered 

 American foul brood in my yard; as I had 

 been equalizing stores and brood. I had it 

 well distributed through this yard of 150 

 colonies. I tried th^ McEvoy treatment on 

 some 18 or 20 colonies, but out of this number 

 only 2 or 3 stayed in their hives. Although I 

 had clipped the queens, they would swarm 

 out and cluster, sometimes 3 or 4 of them to- 

 gether, in some high tree, remain an hour or 

 so. and leave for parts unknown. I saw very 

 plainly that if I continued this treatment I 

 would have scarcely any bees left. 



Then I tried the Baldridge treatment, 

 which, if rightly used, is a perfect success. 

 Now for results: I cured all but to colonies 

 that season, and those 1 cured the past 

 spring, and have not a cell of foul brood in 

 the yard now. 



One of my neighbors tried the McEvoy 

 treatment on some of his colonies with ex- 

 actly the same results. 



1 should like to know why I failed. I sup- 

 pose my bees got the disease from a queen 1 

 purchased. I know of no other wav. 



A. A. E. WiLBER. 



Broderick, Calif,, Nov, 23. 



Bee -Keeping Some 'Years Ago 



My mother was a subscriber for the 

 American Bee Journal for many years, and 

 I think wrote for it occasionally. She was 

 Mrs. S. E, Sherman, and lived at Salado. 

 Tex. We imported. I think, the first Italian 

 queen that was brought to Texas. We had 

 60 colonies in the early '8o's. from which we 

 took over 10.000 pounds of extracted honey 

 one year. \Ve got 360 pounds from one col- 

 ony, which, I think, was the record at that 

 time. I took 85 pounds last year from my 

 one colony. I was away in the spring, and 

 lost a swarm. This has been a very dry and 

 bad year. I got only 35 pounds of honev. 



The American Bee Journal recalls many 

 fond recollections of my youthful associa- 

 tions, and of my dear mother, whom I had 

 the great misfortune to lose over 10 years 

 ago. (Dr.) C. H. Sherman. 



Dallas, rex.. Nov. 6. 



(We remember very well meeting Dr. 

 Sherman's mother many years ago at one of 

 the conventions of the National Bee Keep- 

 ers' Association, At that time she was per- 

 haps the leading bee-keeping woman in all 

 the South. Her contributions to the col- 

 umns of the American Bee Journal always 

 indicated a practical experience with bees 

 and the sale of honey, as she was a success- 



