THE AMERICAJS BEE JOURNAL. 



103 



the fall and feeding granulated-sugar 

 syrup, is a sure and safe way to winter 

 bees in a Northern climate. 



The 25 colonies were increased to 70 

 and I gave my son 14 for his share, 

 leaving me 56 ; but I expect to lose as 

 many as 7 in wintering. The season 

 was poor in some localities in this 

 section. I secured 1,000 pounds of 

 honey. Next season I purpose to run 

 my apiary for honey instead of in- 

 crease. 



Hillsboro, ? Wis., Jan. 26, 1885. 



For tlie American Bee JoumaL 



Peculiarly Diseased Colonies. 



ISAAC SHARP. 



On page 555 of the Bee Journal 

 for 1884, 1 wrote about some bees act- 

 ing differently than any that I had 

 ever heard of. In the season of 1880 

 I had a colony that carried out sick 

 bees and dead ones until nearly July, 

 so much so that when I was away 

 from home and any person passing 

 through my apiary would pass that 

 colony they would at once enquire 

 what was the matter with it, on ac- 

 count of so many dead bees being 

 about it. I tried to keep the bees 

 cleared away so that it would not be 

 noticed, but all to no purpose. I 

 might clean all away and in less than 

 an hour there would be enough sick 

 and dying bees on the alighting-board 

 to attract the attention of almost any 

 one who cared to go near a hive of 

 bees. 



The queen of this colony was a 

 daughter of an imported " Dadant "' 

 queen which I obtained in the spring 

 of 1878. She was reared in tiiat year. 

 During all this time the queen kept 

 the brood about up to the usual 

 amount. The brood, from the eggs 

 to the mature bees, appeared all riglit. 

 The increase was kept about equal to 

 the decrease from dying. During this 

 time the bees consumed about all the 

 honey they gathered. 



The trouble ceased toward the latter 

 part of June and tlie bees stored 

 enough honey for winter. This colony 

 was one of 6 belonging to my daughter 

 and the only one that survived the 

 terrible winter of 1880-81. The in- 

 crease of this colony has been kept 

 strictly to the account of my daughter 

 who assists in the apiary and takes 

 care of and sells her own honey. I 

 had 5 colonies to winter out of about 

 30. Up to this time my daughter's 

 bees have produced nearly one-third 

 more honey than mine. She had 17 

 good colonies to put into winter quar- 

 ters. Since then the disease of which 

 I speak has not showed itself in any 

 of her colonies. Now. the question 

 is, what was the matter with that 

 colony in the summer of 1880 V 



As stated on page 555 of the Bee 

 Journal for 1884, the colony which 

 was diseased last summer was dis- 

 eased in the same wav, but instead of 

 the troulile ceasing toward the latter 

 part of June, the disease continued. 

 The colony stored some honey around 

 the brood- nest during the best honey- 

 How, but it did not get strong enough 

 to store any surplus. Soon after the 



first honey-flow was over they began 

 to gradually dwindle away. They 

 consumed all their stores but kept 

 brood-rearing going on all the time, 

 and even until there was not enough 

 bees to cover more than one side of a 

 frame. Sometimes it was a wonder 

 to me how they had so much capped 

 brood with so few bees. When the 

 cool days of fall set in, the bees ceased 

 to fly, not having any honey. 



Having no desire to preserve this 

 colony, I gave it no food, and the last 

 time I opened the hive there were live 

 bees in it— the queen and probably 

 about 50 young bees with a few scat- 

 tering cells of capped brood which 

 had small holes cut in the caps, and 

 some of the cells had the caps entirely 

 cut away and a part of the contents 

 removed. Of course the bees were 

 starving and were subsisting on the 

 contents of the capped cells. Soon 

 after this I found the dead queen, and 

 all was over. This hive and the 

 combs as the bees left them, with a 

 little cleaning, I consider all right to 

 put a swarm in next season, as the 

 moths did not trouble it. My apiary 

 is not troubled with moths. 



Judging the future by the past, I 

 have not much to fear ; but should a 

 large number of ray colonies become 

 diseased in the same manner, the loss 

 would be considerable. I had a good 

 opportunity to observe the working 

 of this colony as it stood close to my 

 shop-door. I have kept bees for 30 

 years, and during the last 12 years I 

 have had them in frame hives and 

 have reared queens and studied bee- 

 keeping, but have never known of 

 bees diseased as were these two colo- 

 nies of which I have written. 



Waveliind,*o Ind. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Apicultural Humbug and Fraud. 



TV. F. CLARKE. 



When in Chicago, last October, I 

 spent an hour or two in the palatial 

 establishment of Jansen, McCIurg & 

 Co. A book entitled " Money Making 

 for Ladies," published in 1882, caught 

 my eye. I am always interested in 

 schemes of money -making for the fair 

 sex. They are well up in the art of 

 spending money, and if they can only 

 be put in the way of making the arti- 

 cle, they may enjoy the luxury of 

 " shopping " without feeling that a 

 monster of a man will be mercilessly 

 criticising their expenditures. But 

 oh, preserve us from such dishonest 

 gains as the following : 



" Making honey from sugar has 

 been successfully tried," we are told 

 in the work which I have named, and 

 the modus operandi is described at 

 length. The author states that 15 

 pounds of sugar were fed to a colony 

 of bees, in the form of syrup. At the 

 end of 20 days, lo ! the syrup had dis- 

 appeared, biit in place thereof, there 

 were 20 pounds of first-quality honey 

 which sold (when, and where '?) for 30 

 cents per pound ! The sugar cost 

 Sl.SO. and the honey brought S6.00, 

 the difference being the result of three 

 weeks" industrious labor on the part 



of "the little, busy bee." It is 

 added that " the flavor of the honey 

 was excellent," and we are assured 

 "it cannot be told from wild-flower 

 honey." 



The author strongly advises ladies 

 to try this method of money-making, 

 to render the deception as perfect as 

 possible, and suggests that the syrup 

 be concocted with " a little tea made 

 from white clover heads of which 

 bees are very fond !" There is worse 

 to come. It is recommended to add 

 a little brandy to this tea, of which, 

 also, we are told that " bees are very 

 fond." A facetious poet lately charged 

 bees with being misers, now let some- 

 one strike the lyre (liar), and pro- 

 claim, in lofty strains of verse, that 

 they are tipplers. The author further 

 advises lady bee-keepers to " secure a 

 beautiful white pink tinge" to honey, 

 by "feeding a little cochineal." 



I would not have been so tardy in 

 exposing this imposition on the cred- 

 ulity of the public, but the notes and 

 quotations I made at the time, were 

 jotted down on the back of a letter 

 which was mislaid, and I did not like 

 to write from recollection in regard 

 to a matter of this kind. 



Speedside, Ont. 



For tne Araerrcan Bee Journal. 



Can One Man Take Care of Bees ? 



S. DANIELS. 



The above subject is one which I 

 should like to hear discussed, for in 

 my experience I find it almost im- 

 possible for one person alone to at- 

 tend to an apiary. For instance : I 

 fill my smoker with rags or rotten 

 wood, light it, give the bees a smok- 

 ing, lay it down and begin lifting out 

 the frames to see their condition or to 

 find a queen. Then, perhaps, the bees 

 will rise before one hive is half ex- 

 amined. I turn to my smoker and 

 find the fire gone out, and before I can 

 again light it, the bees are all flying, 

 aiid tliey get the mastery. 



When I began I bought a lot of 

 bees in box-hives, witli the intention 

 of trying my hand at transferring 

 and Italianizing them. I obtained 

 Prof. Cook's Manual, and everything 

 looked possible and easy. I prepared 

 about 20 Langstroth hives in which to 

 put all swarms, but the drouth cut 

 everything short, and I gor only 6 

 swarms from 15 colonies during the 

 first season, and then I found on ex- 

 amining them about Sept. 15. that 

 they were nearly out of honey and 

 brood. I commenced feeding" them 

 moderately to start brood rearing, 

 then fed the 6 new colonies up to the 

 middleof November, about 140 pounds 

 of coffee A sugar made into good 

 syrup for winter stores, and then 

 packed them in leaves on the summer 

 stands. They appear to be doing 

 well. 



But, as I said at the start, I never 

 got to see a queen during the whole 

 summer. I care about as mnch for a 

 bee-sting as a rhinoceros does, and 

 they have about as little visible ef- 

 fect on me ; so, smoker or no smoker, 

 I went through six hives, frame after 



