W74. 



xsLEATsrcrGs in bete c\7ltt:be. 



77 



OIB OWIV AP1AUY. 



^fl'l^'E have only *«w losses to record since 



tfg| our ^ lst > a,u ^ ta ' s bright morning, June 

 8tn, everything seems to indicate we are near- 

 ly through oar valley ofhumilation Of the 

 two losses mentioned, one was the loss of the 

 Queen received from Lousiana, she was stung 

 by the bees after having been accepted at least 

 24 hours, the other was the swarming out as 

 we suppose, of the Queen reared this spring in 

 the Quinby hive; for bees and all were all gone, 

 leaving only a small patch of brood not ready 

 to hatch. We believe both cases point out a 

 moral : The former, the uncertainty of any of 

 the methods of introduction of Queens to old 

 bees, and the latter of the folly of having a hive 

 hi the Apiary with combs of an odd size, for 

 had not such been the case we should have 

 strengthened them up with hatching brood as 

 we did the rest. In regard to introducing 

 Queens, of those sold hist season, it seems that 

 nearly half of them were reported lost in get- 

 ting them into colonies. Now the plan we 

 adopted with our imported Queen viz., giving 

 her four combs selected from different colonies, 

 •each one containing bees just gnawing out of 

 the cells, it seems to us is not very difficult nor 

 troublesome, and it makes a sure thing of it, 

 and, a good colony in very few days. In 

 lifting the combs from the hives we brushed 

 •off every single bee, but in half an hour enough 

 had hatched to make quite a little cluster 

 about the Queen, and to-day (17 daj r s later) 

 they are working about as briskly as any col- 

 ony we have. Of course some unsealed brood 

 will be lost, but if the weather is warm, or the 

 hive be taken in doors for the first week during 

 cool nights, but little loss will ensue. 



We have now 16 colonies and some of them 

 are hardly yet able to repel robbers, although 

 we have drawn on our stronger colonies for 

 brood until tkey have become seriously weak- 

 ened. 



HOW THE MOTHS NEARLY GOT THE 

 BETTER OF US. 



June 17th — On the first day of June, which 

 was a bright Monday morning, P. G., with 

 commendable ambition, repaired to our bee 

 house al)out 4 o'clock in the morning and pro- 

 ceeded to give it a thorough "setting to rights" 

 Mhich it then was sadly in need of, and so 

 quietly did she proceed, that her task was well 

 nigh 'accomplished before Novice made an ap- 

 pearance. In order to reduce the compass of 

 the accumulation of combs and hives from 

 which the bees had died, she put twelve combs 

 5 u the hives that had contained ten, and thus 

 reduced the number of hives that lumbered up 

 the room. Novice when informed of these 

 proceedings was inclined to remonstrate, but 

 being rushed with other duties, and thinking 

 all the combs had teen frozen since the bees 

 died, and that our house was tight enough to 

 keep out the millers etc., we actually let the 

 matter rest without looking at those 12 comb 

 hives until last evening. It is true we careful- 

 ly looked over a part of the hives that were j 

 left closed on their summer stands, removing 

 the combs that became infested, and after pick- 

 ing out the webs and worms as well as we 

 could, placing the comb in the centre of a col- 

 ony of bees. 'Twas really amusing to see the 



Italians dig out any worms we had overlooked 

 and the promptitude with which two of them 

 if need be, would take a big worm and carry 

 him to "furrin parts." After spreading the 

 combs until each hive contained only seven or 

 eii^ht, without quilts, we had but little trouble. 

 Well, after we had gone over those out doors 

 on the evening of the 16th, as it was nearly 

 dark, we proposed making an inspection of the 

 twelve comb hives. The first comb would hard- 

 ly come out, 'twas webbed fast to its neighbor ; 

 the next hive was about the same. After a 

 hurried consultation the job was, at his re- 

 quest, turned over to Novice and although 

 'twas nearly 8 o'clock and raining, he proceed- 

 ed as follows : As no brimstone had been used 

 in our Apiary for some years, he first repaired 

 with umbrella to the drug store, next the hives 

 were lifted down and the shelves were turned 

 up edgewise so that they would hold a row of 

 combs the length of the building. The combs 

 were placed about one inch apart, no attention 

 being paid to webs or worms ; as the shelves 

 would not quite hold all, thus, a few were 

 spread in the hives and left on the fioor. Mrs. 

 N's largest kettle was borrowed, and half filled 

 with glowing coals, it was placed over another 

 to prevent its burning the bee house floor; 

 both were placed so near the door, that when 

 all was ready a whole pound of brimstone was 

 dropped in the kettle of coals and the door 

 closed hastily — the upper ventilator had been 

 stopped b\' a roll of quilts, and all was tight. 

 The work of death proceeded, and although 

 'twas half past ten, Novice stood with his nose 

 flattened against the window in the door, until 

 plump eleven o,clock, then he repaired to his 

 rest, but instead of sleeping the sleep of the 

 just, he dreamed alternately that the Apiary 

 was burning up, and of great worms a 

 foot long or less that defied both fire and brim- 

 stone, and not only refused to die but "chawed" 

 voraciously at nice strait worker comb, and 

 when that was all gone actually commenced 

 chewing up the metal corners too. 



Five o'clock in the morning — Anxiously Nov- 

 ice wends his steps bee-house-ward ; raises a 

 comb from a hive on the floor ; as sure as yon 

 ore alive there the worms are, alive and well. 

 He closes the door in despair, takes a turn in 

 the rain but finally goes back and looks at the 

 string of suspended combs. Ah ! They are 

 dead, dead as door nails — all dead except 

 those in the hives on the floor. Of course the 

 rest were hung up high in a string, and whilst 

 the room is undergoing a second fumigation, 

 Novice was promptly on hand at business as 

 usual, and is now "deep" in Gleanings. 



June 25th — We have now got the moth 

 worms under complete subjection, but very 

 few having been found after the second fumi- 

 gation of the beehouse, and these were where 

 they were completely covered up, in a mass of 

 webs; strange to us, this mass of webs seems 

 to enable them to withstand, in some cases, 

 the sulphur fumes for several hours. 



Our first attempt at rearing queens from our 

 imported mother, gave us eight queen cells, 

 and we have, strangely enough, succeeded in 

 getting eight fine queens from them, by the 

 plan given on another page. Although the 

 queens are not yet fertile, we are giving their 

 nuclei a comb of eggs, as fast as they can use 

 them ; "we" are now 24 pretty fair little colonies. 



