the weather. I raise my queens in nuclei 

 •of 3 frames, same size of hive; have three 

 sucli of five apartments; shall make 2 more, 

 so as to winter about 25 extra queens. 

 Napa, Cal., May 6, 1878. J. D. Enos. 



From the Michigan Farmer. 



Spring Feeding of Bees. 



In this locality the white clover harvest 

 'has fairly commenced, but it is rather late 

 this year on account of the cold, stoi-my 

 weather, which has prevented bees from 

 profiting by the early spring flowers— fruit 

 bloom, &c. It is very seldom that a season 

 occurs when spring feeding proves as nec- 

 essary as it has been this year. Real 

 winter weather disappeared quite early and 

 there was every appearance of an early 

 opening of the working season ; under such 

 ■circumstances, strong colonies of bees, 

 especially those containing considerable 

 honey, always start large quantities of 

 brood. It only needs a few bright, warm, 

 spring days to enable the bees to take one 

 or two cleansing flights and get fresh water 

 and new pollen, as well as put their hives 

 in order, and they will go forward rapidly 

 with the brood-rearing, which is generally 

 ■commenced before winter is over. 



It takes large quantities of honey to pre- 

 pare the food for the young larva\ as well 

 as to sustain the rapidly increasing popula- 

 tion of the hive ; hence if cold, stormy 

 weather ensues, the bees may be obliged, as 

 a precaution against starvation, to discon- 

 tinue brood rearing, or even to remove the 

 undeveloped larvfe from the cells, and, if 

 very short of provision, they will, in des- 

 peration, tear the pup<Te from the cells ; 

 then comes desertion of the hive, or starva- 

 tion, unless the bee-keeper is on hand to 

 avoid such a catastrophe by liberal feeding. 



There 'is great danger of this result if 

 feeding has been commenced and then dis- 

 continued, for the additional brood tiie 

 bees are induced to start must have food.— 

 Such a case should not occur, however, and 

 the bee-keeper will always find it to his 

 advantage to secure early and constant 

 brood-rearing, by feeding up to the time the 

 harvest commences, or until the bees are 

 able to find honey enough in the fields to 

 enable them to keep up a large supply of 

 brood. 



Some have claimed that spring feeding, 

 by deceiving the bees into the belief that 

 honey could be found in the fields, induced 

 them to fly out when the weather was 

 unsuitable and thus to perish, materially 

 weakening the colony instead of increasing 

 its population. Such may often be the 

 result if they have access during the day- 

 time to honey or any liquid sweets placed 

 in feeders, but if combs containing sealed 

 honey are placed in the hive and a small 

 portion is uncapped just at nightfall, or if 

 the feeders are supplied only at dusk, and 

 no more food given than the bees can 

 remove during the night, no such result 

 need be feared. This plan avoids danger of 

 robbing. ^ 



The writer recommended these methods 

 last spring, and a recent examination of a 



large number of colonies of bees in various 

 apiaries adds more testimony in favor of 

 them. These stocks that have been fed 

 regularly during the recent unfavorable 

 weather are now strong in numbers and are 

 profiting by the present harvest, while oth- 

 ers that have received no attention and that 

 barely had honey enough to carry them 

 through are not as strong or no better off 

 than two months ago. Others that had con- 

 siderable honey but that were not stimu- 

 lated are not in good condition now. 



The sole care of the apiarist up to the time 

 of the real harvest should be to rear as much 

 brood as possible in every hive. To this 

 end the combs should be so arranged as to 

 give regular worker cells near the center of 

 the hive, the hive should be tightly closed 

 above and the entrance made small so as to 

 retain the heat, and the bees should be stim- 

 ulated by a frequent supply of food. This 

 idea that only strong colonies of bees are 

 profitable cannot be too thoroughly im- 

 pressed upon the minds of novices. 



Frank Bentox. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Foul Brood. 



Bees came out in the spring mostly weak; 

 they commenced gathering about March 

 10, and continued until April 22. We had 

 some heavy rains and honey failed; thej' 

 again commenced gathering May 1. I have 

 increased about 50 per cent. I have some 

 strong colonies that have gathered from 

 March 10 to April 22, about 50 lbs. of honey 

 each. 



I have had 85 colonies with foul brood in 

 the last 12 months. I have lost but 6. I have 

 cured 60, and I am now working with the 

 balance. The way I do is to take out the 

 queen, spray the combs and bees with sali- 

 cylic acid and borax without uncapping. 

 (This is Mr. C. F. Muth's remedy of Cincin- 

 nati, O.) Then in about 5 days after I give 

 them a queen cell or let them raise a queen. 

 I try to have a laying queen in the hive be- 

 fore 21 days. In 21 days from the time I 

 took out the queen, I go back to the hive 

 and uncap all of the foul brood cells, and 

 spray the combs and bees with the remedy. 

 It is best to extract the honey, then spray 

 the combs and bees, for I had three cases to 

 return, but those were very bad cases. By 

 spraying the combs and bees when I take 

 out the queen, I have but very few cells of 

 foul brood that has not been cleaned out at 

 the end of 21 days. 



The way I prepare the remedy is to take 

 128 grains of salicylic acid and 128 grains of 

 borax, and put it in a bottle and add 2 

 ounces of rain water and X ounce of alcohol ; 

 then shake it up well, let it stand about 

 one-quarter of an hour, then add 14 ounces 

 more of rain water, and shake well again. 



Waterloo, La. L. Lindsly, Jr. 



[ The best way to apply this remedy is by 

 using an atomizer, which sends a very fine 

 spray over the comb and bees. Such is 

 illustrated on page 212, and can be obtained 

 at this office.— Ed.] 



