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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 16, 



tasty crates, even though the producer have only 50 pounds as 

 his production. Many rules for grading have been given, 

 but as far as I know each is at liberty to adopt what he thinks 

 best. I make three grades which I call, XXX, XX, and X. 

 In the first I place only white honey, stored in white combs 

 and thoroughly sealed. In the second, white honey in combs 

 that are somewhat travel-stained, and those having a few un- 

 sealed cells next the wood and near the bottom. In the third 

 I put all honey which I consider salable, the same being off 

 color, one-sixth sealed, or badly travel-stained, together with 

 fall honey if I have such, which is not often. 



Having all parts done to the best of my ability, I gen- 

 erally ship on commission all that I do not sell at home, which 

 is very little, as I live in a rural district, with enough small 

 bee-keepers about me to supply all the wants of their neigh- 

 bors and mine. Borodino, N. Y. 



A Swarm-Hiving Experience — Bee-Stings. 



BY EDWIN BEVIN8. 



To-day (June 24) I have the most grotesque-looking face 

 in America. Yesterday I had a swarm of bees come out and 

 alight on a branch of that same oak-tree where the swarm lit 

 last year, that gave me so much trouble. There was a big 

 wood-pile under the tree again this year, and a big box was 

 placed on top of the wood-pile and a hive placed on top of the 

 box. Then an assistant, robed in scare-crow attire, climbed 

 into the tree to saw off the branch. When he got up there, 

 he said he wanted some help. 



I went up with hat and veil on to assist him. I found that 

 another branch of a large limb a little higher than the one the 

 bees were clustered on was broken in a way to let some of the 

 twigs fall onto the top of the cluster. Some of the bees were 

 clustered on these twigs. My veil and hat had got torn from 

 my head while climbing up the tree. While my assistant held 

 the branch having most of the bees, I endeavored to cut some 

 of the twigs of the other branch with my jack-knife. Then 

 the bees made a rush for my bare face, and the bare spot on 

 the top of my head. I closed the knife and thrust it into my 

 pocket, and then scrambled down with as much speed as pos- 

 sible to one of the lower limbs of the tree. Suspending myself 

 by the arms from this, I dropped to the ground. My assistant 

 shook what bees he could in front of the hive, but they soon 

 went back to the tree. 



After ridding myself of my pets, I put on some ka-kluk 

 fixings, and resolved that I would hive that swarm. I placed 

 the hive on the ground at the foot of the wood-pile, and then 

 got a bushel basket and attached it to the end of a pole by 

 means of a piece of fence-wire. Then I climed on top of the 

 wood-pile and thrust the basket close up under the cluster. 

 My assistant hit the branch a rap with a pole, above the clus- 

 ter, and the bees were dumped in front of the hive. Half of 

 them went back to the branch, and the dumping process was 

 repeated. Then the bees staid hived, except a few that 

 seemed to think it their duty to chase everybody in sight the 

 rest of the day. 



About 40 stings was the number administered, where, it 

 is charitable to suppose, the bees thought they would do the 

 most good. I scraped out stingers most of the afternoon yes- 

 terday, and occasionally find one to-day. Strange to say, all 

 these stings have caused me no pain. The feeling produced 

 by them is rather comfortable than otherwise. I have been 

 stung before in places where I had been feeling rheumatic 

 pains, and the pains did not return. It is not unlikely that 

 formic acid may be a specific for some kinds of rheumatism. 

 Some persons may be so fastidious as to object to its applica- 

 tion in the rough-and-tumble way, and the wholesale quantity 

 that it was applied to me yesterday. 



The fact that the stings I got gave me no pain, and that 



they may prove beneficial to my health, will save the next 

 advocate of natural swarming I meet from getting licked. 



I think, however, that I will buy aManum swarm-catcher 

 before the bees begin to swarm next year. 



Leon, Iowa. 



Dealing with Foul Brood — Experience. 



BY HON. R. L. TAYLOR, 



SuperMendent of the Michigan Experiment Apiary. 



It is coming to be more and more important, apparently, 

 that a thorough knowledge of the disease called foul brood, 

 and of the steps necessary to exterminate it, should be dissem- 

 inated among those who keep bees, for it seems to have a foot- 

 hold in many wildly separated portions of the State, and it 

 must always be terribly destructive when it is not dealt with 

 intelligently ; so a record of my experience with it during the 

 past year will have its value. 



For the purpose of study and experimentation I have 

 aimed, latterly, to keep a colony or two having the disease, 

 but last summer the disease broke out afresh, making the 

 number of diseased colonies uncomfortably large ; there being 

 now eleven colonies which underwent treatment, not to speak 

 of others that first or last were united with one or another of 

 these. The cause of this marked reappearance, as I think, 

 was owing to the fact that on account of the dearth of nectar 

 during June and July, the bees encroached on their oldest 

 stores, even to their almost entire consumption, more or less 

 of which had been in Uieir hives for years, and contained, in a 

 quiescent state, the germs of the disease. 



These colonies were treated according to the plan de- 

 scribed in my report of two years ago, by driving or shaking 

 the bees into a clean hive furnished with foundation. The 

 majority of the colonies were so treated at the beginning of 

 honey gathering from fall flowers, the rest two or three weeks 

 later, when the honey-flow was nearly over. The decided ad- 

 vantage of treating diseased colonies when there is a consid- 

 erable flow of nectar was clearly seen by an inspection of 

 these two lots of bees after the treatment. Of the first lot 

 every colony went to work at once contentedly, and with a 

 will, and at the close of the season were fair colonies with 

 natural stores for winter. Of those treated later, all were 

 discontented, and all, or nearly all, attempted to swarm out, 

 some of them frequently. The consequence was that all were 

 weak even after some had been united. 



The reason that all were not treated at the earlier date 

 was that it was deemed desirable to save some of the brood 

 taken from the first lot by giving it to others, to be cared for, 

 till it should hatch. The event showed that it would have 

 been more profitable to have sacrificed all the brood, and had 

 the treatment performed at the opening of the honey-flow. 



These colonies have been kept distinct from the other 

 colonies of the apiary and carefully watched for evidence for 

 or against the effectiveness of the plan of treatment used. 

 The result, so far, is that all are entirely free of the disease 

 at this writing (May 25, 1S96) unless one be excepted, in 

 which were found two cells of dead brood which bore some 

 resemblance to that affected with the disease, and which it is 

 barely possible may yet prove to be an incipient stage of foul 

 brood, but, should this be the case, so much time has el.ipsed 

 since the treatment it is extremely improbable that it hiid its 

 source in the case of the disease with which the colony was 

 atflicted before treatment. For a full description of the dis- 

 ease and the above method of cure, I must refer to ray report 

 for the year ending May 31, 1894. 



Other methods of cure have been, or are still, recom- 

 mended. The fasting cure, so-called from its requirement 

 that the bees be shut up in a box till the honey carried with 

 them is consumed, and individual bees begin to drop from 



