Nov. 22, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



743 



so if the operator takes the bees that have their heads in 

 the cells, loading- with honey, upon the removal of the 

 frames from the hive, he is not liable to be far out of the 

 vray in his selection of bees to ship as companions with a 

 queen. Besides, such bees as are filling their sacs with 

 honey seem to stand the journey much better than bees 

 taken with empty sacs, as I have proven several times dur- 

 ing the past. My way of accounting for this is, that the 

 honej' taken with them helps them to moisten the sugar in 

 the candy, so the candy is more readily used than where 

 they have no honey to moisten it with; for it is a well- 

 known fact with those who have fed candy to bees for win- 

 ter purposes, that, so long as honey remained in the hive, 

 the candy would be moistened and used ; but when the sup- 

 ply of honey gave out the bees would often starve with 

 plenty of candy within easy reach. Since I learned this 

 fact — that bees partly filled with honey when put into the 

 shipping-cage were more likely to go thru in better shape 

 than were a promiscuous selection — I have lost very few 

 queens, and the past season has been one of unusual suc- 

 cess, as only one queen out of every 387 sent out has been 

 lost, so far as reports have come in. 



For shipping to foreign countries, which are not more 

 than 3,000 to 5,000 miles away, I use a four-hole cage, the 

 same being twice the depth of the larger one spoken of 

 above ; while for countries from 5,000 to 11,000 miles away, 

 like Australia and South Africa, I use a cage double the 

 latter size, and ha:ving eight holes in it — three for the food, 

 one for the bees to collect together in should they go over 

 cold mountains or thru a cold wave, and four which are 

 ventilated in every direction, for them to spread out in 

 whenever or wherever it is warm or hot. In the first large 

 cage I use 25 bees, and in the latter 40. 



With part of the cages sent to foreign countries I have 

 used a small piece of empty comb, so that the bees could 

 store the honey taken in their sacs in it to use as they 

 needed, thus tnaking the cage appear more home-like ; but 

 I am not sure that any better results have been obtained 

 with those as a whole. 



Where the journey requires more than from 20 to 25 

 days, the results are always very doubtful. Perhaps I 

 have dwelt too long on the exception part of this matter, 

 but I do not see where to stop, and yet have it plain to a 

 beginner. 



One of the other reasons for desiring to keep queens 

 outside of the hive is, where we wish to take the reigning 

 queen from the hive in order to introduce another, or take 

 one from a nucleus to make room for cells which must be 

 taken care of before they hatch. It is always well to pre- 

 serve the old queen when we are trying to introduce another 

 in her stead ; for, should it happen that the queen which we 

 are desirous should supplant the old one is lost in introdu- 

 cing, then we will not be obliged to leave the colony queen- 

 less, as we have the old one on hand to give back to the 

 bees ; or we can give one of those taken from a nucleus, if 

 preferred, to take the place of the lost one, if all of these 

 have not been sent off to customers. 



To keep such queens as last spoken of I use two methods. 

 One is, to put them in cages with accompanying bees, the 

 same as for shipment, placing the cages where a tempera- 

 ture of from 60 to 65 degrees can be maintained as nearly 

 as possible, for such temperature seems to be most condu- 

 cive to the longest life of bees when in confinement in a 

 cage outside of the hive. The second is to place the queen 

 in a provisioned cage without any worker-bees with her, 

 placing the cage over the frames of a nursing colony. The 

 nursing colonies are made of five or six frames of hatching 

 brood, and are kept well stockt with young bees, which are 

 not permitted to have a laying queen while used as a nurs- 

 ing colony. 



My advice would be not to keep any queen away from 

 the bees and combs, so but what she can lay, for more than 

 three weeks, and, better still, not more than a few days, for 

 I believe such confinement tends toward the injury of the 

 queen thus kept. 



The last reason for desiring to keep queens outside of 

 the hive is, the prevention of increase while securing a crop 

 of comb honey. A large increase of bees and a large crop 

 of comb honey do not go together, and for this reason many 

 of our best bee-keepers practice removing the queen from 

 the hive when the swarming season arrives, and in nine or 

 ten days destroying all queen-cells, return the queen, when 

 the bees are expected to go at once into the sections, and no 

 further trouble results. While this plan does not always 

 work as expected, yet I have had good success with it in 

 some years. Where queens are kept for this purpose a 

 small, round, wire-cloth cage is as good as anything, the 



same containing the queen being slipt between the bottom 

 of the comb and the bottom-bar to the frame, where the 

 bees have left some open space. There is no need of pro- 

 visioning this cage, for the bees will supply all the wants 

 of their mother, by feeding her thru the meshes to the cage. 

 When the cells are cut the queen is allowed her liberty 

 again. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Black Brood in New York— Its Ravages. 



BY P. W. STAHLMAN. 



BLACK brood has practically knockt the props from un- 

 der the bee-business in this locality, and the worst of 

 it is, it is not over with yet. This disease is hard to 

 fight, and seems to be almost incurable when once estab- 

 lisht in the apiary. No apiarist can work contentedly with 

 his bees when he knows that this disease is present. I 

 have fought it hard for two years, and m3' experience, as 

 well as that of others, is that to get rid of it clean and clear 

 is to quit the business until it has done its work of destroy- 

 ing all of the bees in the woods, and those of the slipshod 

 bee-keepers of this State. My present views are that, until 

 this comes to pass, black brood will spread (regardless of 

 treatment), and will hold the fort. In all likelihood there 

 will be some bees that will survive, but they will be in the 

 hands of practical men in the business. Last season I 

 helpt care for and handle over 400 colonies, and the result 

 was that over one-half of them were destroyed, and a set of 

 " blue " bee-keepers were left (I was one of them). 



This season I had charge of over 100 colonies, and but 

 few came thru free from disease. Some colonies were 

 treated the second time in one season, and still the disease 

 comes again in spite of all the starvation they may be made 

 to endure, or all the medicated syrup that is fed. I say 

 without hesitation, that the majority of colonies treated 

 under any or all treatments given in the book of instruc- 

 tions on this disease will be found to have more or less of 

 it within one year, as long as the disease reigns in a yard 

 to any extent. Just how it spreads is yet to be learned. I 

 can not understand its origin, but I fully understand its 

 qualities in destroying bees and giving their operator " the 

 blues." To tell all about it would require more time and 

 paper than I can spare. " The half has never yet been 

 told." 



However, there is one strange thing about it, and it is 

 this: Once in a while a certain colony can be surrounded 

 by the disease and still not show any signs of it. I often 

 see enquiries in the bee-papers from those wanting to know 

 if their bees have the New York bee-disease, because they 

 see a few dead bees about their hives, or lose a few colonies 

 during the winter. To such I wish to say. Don't try to 

 make yourself believe that your bees have black brood. 

 When you find your bees going down, down, down, as if by 

 magic, and upon opening a hive you are met with a nasty 

 smell which you never smelled before, then begin to make 

 examinations, and if you find dead brood in all stages, 

 almost all colors from yellow to black (all thru the comb), 

 of a jelly-like, or rather, mattery, appearance, with a sour 

 smell ; and if upon seeing all these conditions you feel your 

 backbone and nerves begin to weaken, and your hopes 

 blasted, then you may know there is something wrong; and 

 in finding this you have my heartfelt sympathy, as you 

 no doubt have black brood among your bees. 



Beware of those unsealed, pointed larva; ; also some 

 that have been sealed and turned brown, but not mattery. 

 This is evidently a forerunner. At least I have so found it. 



This season I cared for over 100 colonies of bees, fully 

 three-fourths of which had to be treated for black brood — 

 all hives to be disinfected, etc. In connection with this I 

 raised artificially 700 ducklings, four or five hundred chicks, 

 41 goslings, and cared for 200 old fowls, all of which had to 

 have their water supplied by muscle. 



Our bees are now reduced to six colonies, which we pro- 

 pose to keep for honey for home use, and poultry must be 

 the main thing the coming season, for my employer and 

 myself. 



From 36 colonies I secured 4,150 pounds of extracted 

 honey. The season was too dry for bees. The spring 

 opened fairly well, but the continuous drouth ruined clover, 

 hence our only honey-flow was from buckwheat, which was 

 a short crop. The outlook for next season is not flattering, 

 as the clovers are practically killed by the drouth, and the 

 forest-worms are ruining the basswood. 



I expect to form " a union " of only two members early 

 in November, and expect to be on a farm the coming year. 

 I have kept two swarms of bees for seed and company, and 



