284 



T-mm mmmmi^Mm mmm j©^mi«mi*. 



Symptoms of l>isease«l Bees. 



In the spring of 1882 I had the same 

 experience as Mr. A. D. EUingwood de- 

 scribes on page 220, and all of my bees 

 were wintered on the summer stands. I 

 do not put my bees into the cellai-. In 

 examining the combs and honey, I found 

 that the honey and bee-bread was sour, and 

 the honey consisting mostly of sugar-cane 

 juice and apple cider. Mr. EUingwood's 

 hives might have been damp, and thus 

 caused the honey to sour ; and his bees 

 may have spring dwindled, or had the 

 diarrhea. My bees looked as if they were 

 swelled, and sleek, as if they had grease 

 poured on them ; when they came out of 

 the hives, they wanted to take their flight, 

 and they could not fly, but hopped from 

 the hives like grasshoppers ; they would not 

 tolerate invalids in their homes. I would 

 like to have Mr. EUingwood tell us the 

 symptoms of his bees, as I am anxious to 

 know. Julius J. Petty. 



Independence, Ky. 



[Mr. EUingwood is invited to reply to the 

 above in the Bee JodrnaI/. — Ed.] 



Experience iu Uee-Keeping;. 



I began with 4 colonies in the spring of 

 1889, and got 8 swarms from them. The 

 season was a poor one, as all the early blos- 

 soms were killed by frost on May 28, and 

 my bees did little more than gather honey 

 enough for brood-rearing until late, but 

 they gathered enough for winter stores 

 from that much-abused plant— the golden- 

 rod. I wintered them on the summer 

 stands, in chaff hives, and they have all 

 come through strong. I shall increase by 

 dividing, the coming season, as I believe 

 that I get stronger colonies by so doing. I 

 will, in due time, report the result of my 

 experiments. N. L. Saulsbury. 



Batavia, N. Y., AprU 12, 1890. 



I remove the combs from the upper part of 

 the hive, and use a device to allow the bees 

 to pass above the frames. I put about 4 to 

 6 inches of chaff over the bees in the upper 

 part of the hive ; I then close the front of 

 the box, leaving about 6 inches at the en- 

 trance open, and keep this filled with straw 

 or hay in bad weather. One box holds 9 to 



II hives. I have taken out 30 colonies 

 (the queenless one, of course, died) in 

 excellent condition — I think that they are 

 the strongest that I ever saw at this time of 

 the year. If we have dry weather this 

 month, I will have to feed some, but if the 

 clover yields honey, my bees will be ready 

 for it. They have been carrying in native 

 pollen for a week. I did fairly well with 

 them last year, as they netted me a little 

 over -$5 per colony, above all expenses. 



I would not do without the Amekitan Bee 

 Journal even if I did not keep bees. It is 

 always fuU of good common-sense. 



Milo, Iowa, AprU 9. B. A. Manley. 



Wet and «.'oId Seasons. 



For the last two years— 1888 and 1889— 

 bee keeping was in east Pennsylvania 

 merely a failure. The last two summers it 

 was too wet and too cold, and only a small 

 honey-flow. Last summer my bees stored 

 nearly 200 pounds of comb honey, and the 

 greatest part of it was from buckwheat. I 

 have wintered 18 colonies on the summer 

 stands, and all, so far, have wintered well. 

 I lost 2 colonies — one by starvation, and 

 one by being queenless. Bees are just now- 

 busy cariying in pollen on warm days, but 

 the weather is cold and wet, and it seems 

 very likely that bee-keeping wUl be a fail- 

 ure the coming season, but I hope for the 

 best. I have been interested in bee-keep- 

 ing for nearly 30 years, but I never saw 

 such cold and wet weather during all sum- 

 mer, as it was in 1889. and nearly the 

 same in 1888 ; and now it looks as though 

 the coming summer will be the same. 



P. W. Flores. 



DillingersviUe, Pa., AprU 12, 1890. 



Spray trom Flying Bees. 



Mr. S. J. Youngman, after some very 

 kind words on page 250, asks about the 

 mist or spray that he has seen fall from 

 bees as they were returning to their hives. 

 I have often watched for such showers, but 

 have never yet seen them; but I have no 

 doubt that he has. Such drops must be the 

 excreta of the bees. They cannot come 

 from the bees' mouths. We must remem- 

 ber that the sugar of nectar is dissolved in 

 water, and can only be reduced by evap- 

 oration. This cannot take place in a closed 

 cavity like the honej'-stomach ; and won- 

 derful as the bee is, we cannot believe that 

 she has any process t)y which she can sep- 

 arate the water from the sugar, in the 

 stomach. She must put it into the cell, 

 and let the heat of the hive reduce it. 



While the bee is going to the hive, the 

 nectar is being "modified" into honey; 

 that is, the cane sugar is converted into 

 reducible sugar, so that it can be absorbed 

 easily without any digestion when eaten. I 

 think that no other change occurs. 



A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



Supers and their Improvements. 



Mr. Baldridge's article and quotations on 

 page 232, incited me to one more effort by 

 way of an improvement on what I thought 

 was good enough. Last season I used 200 

 of the supers that Mr. Baldridge's corres- 

 pondent refers to. True, there was some 

 propolis at the upper corners of the sec- 

 tions, but the super, as a whole, was so 

 much superior to anything that I had ever 

 used before, that I did not consider it 

 objectionable, but I found that I made 

 more allowance for the T tins than was 

 necessary, and I now have them so close 

 fitting that there is little space left in 

 which the bees can put propolis. The 

 result of my effort as an improvement, I 

 send to the Bee Journal Museum to-day. 

 It has two wooden thumb-screws on one 

 side, and another on one end, which screw 

 against thin boards placed between the 

 body of the sections and the parts of the 

 super through which the screws work. By 

 this arrangement, the sections are held 

 securely in place, and by loosening the 

 screws, a single section can easily be 

 removed; or, by reversing the whole super 

 before unscrewing, the entire body of sec- . 

 tions can be quickly taken out all together. 

 The supports that I use in connection with 

 the screws, will not sag ; the sections are 

 held absolutely close together ; the super 

 can be used with, or without, separators; 

 any single section or row of sections can be 

 readily removed or interchanged, or the 

 entire super can be emptied en masse: and 

 the sections are kept absolutely square, and 

 the ends and edges fi-ee from propolis. 



Geo. E. Hilton. 



[The super is received and placed in our 

 Museum, as requested. It is substantially 

 as described by Mr. HUton, and will no 

 doubt prove to be useful and convenient. 

 We can discover but little, if any, differ- 

 ence between this super and the one which 

 Mr. Bull describes on page 278.— Ed.] 



Siiccesst'ul llVinterins; of Ilees. 



I have been verj' successful in wintering 

 bees. I put 31 colonies (all in good condi- 

 tion except one that was queenless) into 

 winter quarters last fall, packed in corn 

 chaff from the elevator. I made a box 16 

 feet long, 26 inches deep, and 26 inches 

 high at the back, and 30 inches in front, 

 leaving the front open until the bees are in. 

 The bottom I make of 2x6 inch pieces. 

 nailing the floor on the underside, and fill 

 to the top of the 2x6 pieces with chaff, and 

 place the hives on this, side by side, pack- 

 ing every space between, behind and above 

 with chaff. Before putting the bees away. 



Keeping Bees in Washington. 



I am not sure that this is a good bee-coun- 

 tray, but I am told by persons who have 

 lived here for years, that bees do wonder- 

 fully well here, and the honey produced is 

 of the finest quality. I have found but few- 

 bees as yet, and I do not think that there is 

 a single practical apiarist in this part of 

 the land. This far-off country is a "won- 

 derland," and is not without gi-eat advan- 

 tages, and the most wonderful scenery. 

 Blaine is situated in the northwest corner 

 of the new State of Washington, just south 

 of the British line, and on the east shore of 

 Georgia Bay, of the great Puget Sound. It 

 is a town two years old, and has a popula- 

 tion of nearly 1,000; it is now on a wild 

 boom, and it would be hard to find a person 

 here that would not rather have a town lot 

 in Blaine,than the finest apiary in America. 

 As for myself, I would not object to having 

 a few good lots, but I would like, also, to 

 have a good apiary here, as honey is 

 scarce, and brings a good price— from 20 

 to 25 cents per pound for comb honey. 

 There is no extracted honey in the market. 

 I think that is a good place for clover; I 

 find both white and Alsike growing on 

 every foot of gi-ound where it has a chance, 

 and it never winterkills or dries out here, 

 but there may be too much dampness and 

 cool weatherfor the production of honey. 

 I shall test the matter the coming summer, 

 and send a report next fall. 



John I. Martin. 

 Blaine, Wash., AprU 7, 1890. 



Wintered Well— Mites on Birds. 



I began the season of 1889 with 37 colo- 

 nies, and took 2,500 pounds of comb 

 honey, but lost about two weeks of the best 

 of the honey-flow on account of shortage in 

 sections. I increased to 70 colonies, 3 of 

 which were queenless, they killing every 

 queen that I attempted to introduce. The 

 balance I put out on AprU 8, in good con- 

 dition. Everything here has the appear- 

 ance of a good season for 1890. I would 

 like to know how to get rid of mites, or 

 little insects, on canary birds. We bee- 

 folks are bothered with them, and would 

 like to know a remedy that is sure, and will 

 not damage the birds. We get so much 

 information from the Bee Journal on bee- 

 matters, that I venture to ask in regard to 

 this. Mrs. L. J. Keyes. 



Nora Springs, Iowa, AprU 14, 1890. 



[Perhaps some of our bird-fanciers will 

 answer this question. We know only of 

 simple remedies like sulphur, red-pepper, 

 etc.— Ed.] 



lUnch Lioss in Wintering:- 



Bees in this section of the country have 

 not wintered well, great losses having been 

 sustained by many— some lost every bee 

 they had. I have, so far, only 1 7 colonies 

 left out of 142, and they are weak, at that. 

 It is claimed that the fall honey gathered 

 from wild buckwheat, etc., contained pois- 

 onous substances, causing the bees to die 

 with the diarrhea. Stephen Roese. 



Maiden Rock, Wis., AprU 16, 1890. 



