oe (Dee-)\eepeps peViecL- 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 

 Devoted to tl^e Iqterests of Hoqey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 

 ¥. Z. HDTCHINSON, Editor and ProprlBtor. 



VOL VIII 



FLINT, 



IICHIGAN, S^PT. 10. 1895. 



NO, 9. 



W"ork at IVCidiigan's 



Experimeiital 



-A^piarv. 



B. L. TAYLOB, APIABIST. 

 THE SEASON OF 1895. 



/g\N account of 

 vi/the character 

 of the season of 

 1895 all experi- 

 ments into which 

 swarms were to 

 have in anyway 

 entered I have 

 been compelled of 

 necessity to omit 

 as the swarms 

 were not to be had 

 the swarming 

 season having passed with but two normal 

 swarms to its credit in the entire apiary. 

 The condition of the colonies of the apiary 

 was with few exceptions in excellent condition 

 at the time when the early honey flow is 

 usually expected but on account of the 

 drought of the present and former seasons 

 white clover had almost entirely dissappear- 

 ed and basswood on account of injury from 

 spring frosts and for other reasons furnish- 

 ed but little. The consequence was that 

 there was not only no swarming and no 

 surplus but the amount of stores and brcod 

 in the hives dimini'«hed almost to the vanish- 

 ing point by the iii- t of August. 



There was one other curious result as I 

 think from this almost total consumption of 

 stores some of which had been in the hives 

 for years and that was the developement of 

 several new cases of foul brood which was 

 evidently of a very malignant type. The 

 germs of the desease were probably stored 

 away and retained their vitality in the honey 

 which had been in the hive so long and when 

 that was consumed the germs began again 

 their deadly work. Great care was taken to 

 discover all these cases of the disease and 

 when the slight honey flow began early in 

 August prompt steps were taken to effect a 

 cure by putting the bees of each colony into 

 a clean hive furnished with foundation in 

 the manner described in a former bulletin. 



In addition to devices for prevention of 

 swarming heretofore tested to some extent- 

 and reported upon I have had bees in two of 

 the new hives invented by Mr. Aspinwall of 

 Jackson to which he adapted a non-swarm- 

 ing device which he claims is effectual in 

 not only preventing swarming but also in de- 

 cidedly increasing the surplus, but no satis- 

 factory test could from the nature of the 

 case be made of it during a season such as 

 the past has been. 



QUEENS AND FOUL BBOOD. 



Many fears have been at different times 

 expressed with regard to the danger of 

 spreading the disease of foul brood by the 

 use of queens shipped from districts where 

 that disease prevails. To try to find an 

 .inswer to this question by experimentation 

 1 .at would warrant the use of such queens is 



