Tmm MMMRICMK MMW J@1UMK2EIL. 



347 



■ -V—' PUBLISHED HY^ -r- 



THOS. G.NEWMAN fcSOI*, 



I'HICACO, tt^L,. 



THOMAS G. MEWiMAI*, 



EDITOB. 



Vol, mi, May 24, 1890, No. 21, 



Kxpres«s Cliarsres are often exhorbi- 

 tantly high, and complaints are many 

 concerning them, by those who get goods 

 sent in that way. We notice that a bill 

 has been introduced into the United States 

 Senate, the object of which is to so amend 

 the Inter-State Commerce Law so that all 

 Express Companies shall be placed under 

 the provisions of that law. The Express 

 Companies should certainly be placed 

 under restraint— just as reasonably as the 

 Railroad Companies. We should like to 

 see a law passed allowing the PostOffice to 

 transmit parcels of all kinds at reasonable 

 rates. That would bring down the express 

 charges in a hurry. 



Judee W. II. AikIi-ows, of Mc- 



Kiuney, Texas, is reported to be very ill. 

 This we regret to learn, and offer our 

 sympathy to the Judge, and hope for a 

 speedy recovery. The Texas State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, of which he was one 

 of the projectors, at its late meeting on the 

 7 th inst, unanimously passed the following 

 resolutions of sympathy : 



The Texas Bee-Keepers' Association, now 

 in session, have heard, with deep regi-et, of 

 the severe illness of Judge W. H. Andrews, 

 one of the oldest and most influential mem- 

 bers of this Association, and who has con- 

 tributed more than any other to its success, 

 and therefore be it 



Resolved, That, as an Association, we 

 deeply sympathize with him and his family 

 m their deep affliction, and hope that his 

 useful life will be spared ; and 



Besolvcd, That a copy of these Resolu- 

 tions be sent to him, as a memento of our 

 remembrance of him and our sympathy in 

 this hour of affliction, hoping for his re- 

 covery. Adopted. 



W. R. Graham, Pres. 

 J. N. Hunter, Se&y. 



Greenville, Texas, May 7, 1890. 



Xhe Prospect now is excellent for a 

 good crop of honey, if no further set back 

 is in store for us. It has been cold for May, 

 but by the time this Journal is in the 

 hands of its readers, it will probably be 

 warm and pleasant, and summer will have 

 set in for good. Mr. C. H. Dibbern, in the 

 Western PUnrtnan, reports thus for 

 northern Illinois : 



In this section the clover crop is now 

 entirely safe, aud the stand is exceptionally 

 good. Everything else also promises well, 

 and with good weather and prudent man- 

 agement, we ought to produce a large crop 

 of very line honey. 



There is a time of scarcity in many places 

 after the fruit blossoms have disappeared. 

 It is a very good plan to do a little feeding 

 at that time, although the bees have-honey 

 enough to last until the clover begins to 

 blossom. When breeding is going on rap- 

 idly, the stores are being consumed at an 

 astonishing rate, and if honey is not coming 

 in, the queen soon takes the alarm, and 

 laying eggs is greatly diminished. It must 

 be remembered that now is the very time 

 that we want all the brood, in all the hives, 

 that we can possibly get there. 



Protectin;; Itees in tlie SpriniSf. 



— Prof. A. J. Cook remarks as follows on 

 this subject in the New York Tribune of 

 last week : 



There is no longer any doubt that bees 

 do better, if, when removed from the cellar, 

 in our northern latitudes, they are pro- 

 tected by a double-walled hive ; or else, 

 when set out in the spring, a box (some- 

 what larger than the hive) is set around 

 the hive, and the space between— 3 or 4 

 inches — packed with chaff, shavings, ex- 

 celsior, straw, hay, or other like sub- 

 stances. 



I do not want a hive that one person can- 

 not easily handle or carry, even when the 

 bees are in it. Thus I am an opponent to 

 chaff hives, which are expensive withal. 

 Yet we must be able to accomplish all that 

 the chaff hive will secure, as we set our 

 bees on the summer stands in the spring. 



From our experience here at the Michi- 

 gan Experiment Station, last year and this, 

 I feel sure that every bee-keeper with 

 single-walled hives can well afford to make 

 special cases, or boxes, to set around the 

 hives. 



We made 30 such cases this spring at a 

 cost, cover and all, of less than $1.00 each. 

 Prom appearances to-day, these protected 

 colonies are breeding so rapidly that their 

 added strength will secure more than a 

 dollar's worth of honey above that which 

 we will secure from the unprotected bees. 

 Why, then, make chaff hives' 



This box is neat, costs less, does as well, 

 and when the season opens can be put aside 

 in some dry place until late autumn, or 

 even until spring, if we winter our bees in 

 a cellar. 



Then during the usual honey season we 

 have the light hives, which are just as 

 valuable for service, and are very easily 

 handled or carried. We make these cases 

 neatly, and nail them slightly, so that at 

 the close of the chilly weeks of spring, we 

 can pack them away in the " knock down." 

 Thus they take but little room in summer. 



Xo Beginners, Mr. G. M. Doolittle 

 gives the following sensible hints in Rural 

 Homes : 



Never undertake to keep many bees until 

 you have become familiar with their 



nature and habits. Where a person who 

 has no previous knowledge invests largely 

 in bees, the sequel almost always shows 

 that an entire loss of this investment is the 

 result. Indeed this is likely to be the result 

 in almost any pursuit in life, yet in no 

 other calling is a little knowledge as 

 necessary as in bee-keeping. Many do not 

 seem to realize how fast bees increase, even 

 if they are no more than doubled each 

 year. If a colonies are bought to start 

 with, 512 would be the number possessed 

 at the end of the seventh season, or 1,024 

 at the send of the eighth. Thus it is that 

 the bees increase as fast as does the knowl- 

 edge of the owner. 



Xlie Xrembline Bee -Disease.— 



We have received the following questions, 

 with the request that they be answered in 

 the Bee Journal: 



We are having a very bad spring for the 

 bees in Vermont. Cold and windy days 

 have dwindled the colonies so that they are 

 weak in numbers. A good many colonies 

 have died in this vicinity, with plenty of 

 of honey in the hives. I have lost 25 of my 

 best colonies with the " nameless bee-dis- 

 ease,'' after doing my best to save them. I 

 have 200 frames of worker-combs, clean 

 and nice, that I shall use for new swarms. 

 Please answer the following questions : 



1. Will it be safe to use combs for new 

 swarms, that are taken out of hives that 

 the bees died with the nameless disease ? 

 2. How would it work to dip the combs in 

 strong brine, as salt as it can be made < 3. 

 Will the bees carry the disease from one 

 hive to another < 4. Will poor honey have 

 the tendency to bring on the nameless or 

 trembling disease ; C. A. Marsh. 



Sharon, Vt., May 9, 1890. 



1. Yes; the bees will clean them up. 

 There is nothing contagious about that 

 disease. 



2. It would do no harm to the combs, but 

 it is not at all necessary. Salt is used for 

 the cure of the disease in the bees. 



3. The bees, being diseased, communicate 

 the disease to other bees under certain 

 circumstances. A queen from a diseased 

 colony, when placed in a colony perfectly 

 healthy, communicated the disease to the 

 bees in a very short time. 



4. Yes; that has been the experience of 

 many. 



The following letter refers to the same 

 disease : 



I want to ask a few questions about the 

 " nameless " or " trembling " disease. Is it 

 contagious ': Is it best to remove affected 

 colonies ! Mr. Christie, of Smithland, told 

 me that he at one time had a whole apiary 

 badly affected with the disease, and that he 

 got but little honey from them. He killed 

 them all in the fall ; he does not know 

 whether it is contagious or not. I had sev- 

 eral colonies affected last year, and during 

 the basswood honey-flow they became all 

 right, to all appearances. The affected 

 ones were all near together. Now this 

 spring the disease appears again, in about 

 the same number of colonies, but in differ- 

 ent parts of the apiary — I rather think that 

 they are the same colonies that were 

 affected lest year. Is there any danger of 

 the other colonies getting the disease ? I 

 have a notion to move every affected col- 

 ony to a separate yard. C. J. B.ieber. 



Rodney, Iowa, May 10, 1890. 



See answer to Mr. Marsh's letter, and 

 an article from Prof. Cook on page 353. 



