Feb. 15, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



99 



damage to the combs, the bees filling them with comb of 

 the drone size of cell the next season, the practice of mak- 

 ing such passag-eways has been generally discontinued, I 

 believe. Where anything of the kind is used, several 

 sticks of suitable length, and ,'2 inch square, laid across the 

 top of the frames, two inches or so apart above the center 

 of the cluster, to hold up the covering over the bees that 

 much, is now considered preferable to the holes, and is 

 something which is used by many of our practical apiarists 

 who winter their bees outdoor. 



But from many careful watchings and experiments I 

 found that bees would die within J2 inch of any of these 

 passageways, and that such death of bees rarely occurs ex- 

 cept during the first heavy freeze each fall, and also that 

 these bees die from lack of vitality, or what is commonly 

 called "old age," rather than from the cause assigned. 

 Usually we have cool, cloudy weather from two to four 

 weeks before the first severe cold, so that the old bees do 

 not leave the hive to any extent to die, as they do all thru 

 the summer months, so that the number of dead bees dying 

 from this cause would be considerable, providing some were 

 chilled. But at this time of the year, instead of dying at 

 once, these old bees seem to linger along for a chance to go 

 out of the hive to die, and so gather in little clusters of 

 three, six, ten, twenty, or more, in a place where they re- 

 main in a sluggish state till caught by extreme cold, or a 

 chance is offered for a flight. 



I find recorded in an old diary how one year, when a 

 fine warm day occurred immediatelj' preceding the first 

 very cold weather, the bees all flew nicely, and at evening 

 I was surprised to find sluggish bees clinging to the hives, 

 fences, board walks, etc., all about the apiary, while a close 

 examination showed them all about on the grass and ground. 

 And this is something I have noticed several times since, 

 and in some instances to a far greater extent than was no- 

 ticed that year, varying as the bees ceast breeding earlier 

 or later in the season. And when seeing these dead and 

 dormant bees scattered about and clinging to things in 

 this way just after a late flight in the fall or early winter, I 

 have always thought that I had discovered the real cause 

 why bees are found dead in little clusters on the combs after 

 the first cold spell of the season, where no flight has oc- 

 curred for some time previous. 



And to prove the correctness of this I will say that, 

 upon a cold spell coming immediately after such flights, 

 very few if any clusters of dead bees are found, and very 

 straggling ones, with the whole colony clustered compactly 

 for winter, whether there were any passageways or not. 

 Then, again, I have often noticed that these little knots of 

 bees were left to die only with the first contraction of the 

 cluster, as later on no gain of dead bees clustered about in 

 little knots seemed to be made among the combs with each 

 expansion and contraction, even tho our correspondent 

 would lead us to believe that it was a thing kept up after 

 each warm spell. 



There is only one way that I know of for each to arrive 

 at the truth in these matters, and that is to set apart a few 

 colonies for an experiment, trying them in each way, or in 

 any way that the mind is led to think may prove a good 

 thing. That which succeeds may then be tried on a larger 

 scale, and if on this larger trial it still proves a success, 

 then the whole apiary can be workt that way. 



In the case now in question, set apart three or four colo- 

 nies, making winter passageways thru the combs : then try 

 an equal number with the sticks across the top of the 

 frames, as alluded to above, while another like number is 

 left without any preparation at all. In this way, after a 

 series of winters, the truth of the matter can be found out 

 by a careful comparison of the whole. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Experiences and Foul Brood in Cuba. 



BY G. KOCKENB.iCK. 



I AM upon the open veranda writing, wearing a light 

 undershirt, crost or mosquito-bar pattern, with the ther- 

 mometer registering 85 degrees in the shade. Tropical 

 ferns wave around me, with the smell of pomegranates and 

 bellflower blossoms in the air. 



When I left the office of the American Bee Journal last 

 fall, supplied with a good stock of bee-smokers and veils, I 

 took a header direct for Havana, and then by rail to Cai- 

 barien, some 236 miles east of Havana. I changed cars 

 three times, and bought three extra passes, because three 

 different railroad companies operate between the two 

 places, and they don't issue any thru tickets. Their charges 



are only 10 cents a Tnile, baggage extra, which is a very 

 stiflf price for a ride in a stock-car, with hardwood benches, 

 and lighted with candles. 



After arriving in Caibarien I stopt one week with my 

 friend, H. Gunz, postmaster of the place, having about 6,000 

 inhabitants. From there I went 36 miles east by sailboat, 

 to Sta. Cataline, where the apiary of M. J. Carbo is sit- 

 uated, which consists of 7.=; colonies, all in the dovetailed 

 hives with Hoffman self-spacing frames ; al.so a 10-inch 

 foundation mill, a 4-frame reversible Cowan extractor, 

 Dadant uncapping-can, three uncapping knives, four bee- 

 smokers, 100 S-gallon cans, and a number of hogsheads ; 

 also " A B C of Bee-Culture," and other traps too numerous 

 to mention. Mr. Carbo is the o%vner of a large sugar plan- 

 tation, with a sugar-mill 20 rods from the apiary. He is 

 also a practical apiarist, but not much acquainted with foul 

 brood, with which his apiary is rotten, every colony being 

 in bad condition. In some of them the bees swarmed out 

 just before I came here; by raising the hive-cover the 

 stench would almost knock a person down. 



The first thing I was going to do was to cure that api- 

 iary of its disease by the McEvoy process, as the bees were 

 in two yards, one of them containing 16, the other 60 

 colonies. 



So, to begin, I made 100 pounds of foundation, lots of 

 wax being on hand : also 125 hives and frames were boiled, 

 as I had a large sugar-kettle, and all the steam I wanted, 

 also two colored fellows to assist me. I tackled -the small 

 yard first, to see how the McEvoy plan would work. I hived 

 the bees on full frames of foundation, and after four days I 

 transferred them to a new set of hives and foundation, just 

 as per the McEvoy treatment. Of course, little did I dream 

 of not curing that yard. Two weeks later I examined them, 

 and to my surprise all of the capt brood was black and rot- 

 ten ; in some of the combs not one bee would hatch. The 

 foul brood was worse than ever. I had just read the " A B 

 C of Bee-Culture," where it says no starving is required to 

 cure it. 



Not being satisfied with the McEvoy plan, I hived 20 

 colonies on foundation, and starved them four days in a 

 dark cellar, and then I transferred them into new hives on 

 new foundation. The result was just as before — one-half 

 of the brood was dead and rotten two weeks after being 

 hived the last time. 



I have also tried three other ways with drugs, but with 

 no success. 



In the American Bee Journal for 1893 there are no less 

 than 33 articles on foul brood, and not one of them will cure 

 here. I believe M. M. Baldridge, in 1894, said he was going 

 to give a foul brood cure which could be relied upon. As I 

 have only a few copies of the different bee-papers to refer 

 to, probably some new cure has been discovered within the 

 last two j-ears. I have not read aiu' bee-papers since 1897. 



A sample copy handed me when I was in the Bee Jour- 

 nal office last fall, contains a very interesting article by 

 Fred Craycraft, read at the Philadelphia convention, which 

 is very inviting for the American bee-keepers to go to 

 Cuba, but it contradicts itself. 



I have made 300 miles on horseback, in an unbrokei 

 country similar to the Rockies, with veil in pocket and 

 smoker in hand ready for execution on any apiary that I 

 came across. Half of the time I stood in the saddle. I have 

 been as far south as Santus Spiritus; have also followed up 

 the mountains which line the north coast from east to west 

 some 30 miles; have examined about 50 difi'erent apiaries, 

 some as large as 75 colonies, all in log gums, which were 

 started last February with a few logs taken from the woods, 

 and I have yet to find an apiary that is not rotten. 



South of Yoguajay IS miles is a native that was in New 

 York State during the war, and he put in one season with a 

 large bee-keeper in New York. He speaks English quite 

 well, and has an apiary of 70 log hives rotten with foul 

 brood. I have no doubt but the whole Island is rotten from 

 end to end. 



Would it be safe to import a number of colonies to be- 

 gin with ? I would like to hear from some of our foul-brood 

 authorities on this subject. 



I don't believe there is a single individual in the United 

 States to-day who can cure foul brood here by drugs or 

 starvation. 



In the Progressive Bee-Keeper for February and De- 

 cember, 1895, "Rosehill Observer" says he came'very near 

 going with bag and baggage to Cuba. But don't envy 

 Osborn and Craycraft. In short, let me say to " Observer,"' 

 take $500, as I did, go to Cuba, and inside of six months if 

 you aren't back, much sadder and wiser, to all appearance, 

 I am a — whatyoumaycallhim. Cuba, Jan. 21. 



