808 



TMm rn'mmmiGmm mmw j^^mkhiu. 



The gist of my criticism ou Mi'. 

 Shuck was, in pointing to his incon- 

 sistent statements. He wrote — first 

 line: "In May. 1889, I purchased 

 a select, tested Carniolan queen." 

 This was his first "experience with 

 this race of bees." He did not men- 

 tion the name of the bees, or the 

 colony he put the queen into. The 

 queen was put into the colony in May. 

 Probably it was before the queen got 

 to laying ; and on the 2d day of July, 

 following. ( a period of one month- 

 plus a few da3's). he was in the posses.s- 

 ion of a queen, of a certain race. Then 

 he announces that Clarnolian bees had 

 been tested by him, and he found 

 them to be worthless, compared with 

 Italians, and with blacks ; and in 

 consequence of his introducing a 

 Caruiolan queen into one of his colo- 

 nies, less than two months before, h^^ 

 estimated that his "crop of honey 

 would be 1.000 pounds short that 

 year." ! ! ! This is just what his 

 record shows, on pages 488-89. 



Because Mr. Shuck has such as he 

 names Italian bees, ( with different 

 crosses), he fain would, and fancies 

 that his pen has, sent the fame of the 

 justly-extolled Carniolan bees to the 

 shades, " where the woodbine twi- 

 neth." 



In returning Mr. Shuck's personal 

 compliment, I ask this: -Judging 

 him by such rules as are laid down " 

 by sensible mortals — can it be said of 

 him that "he is overbalanced in the 

 direction" of intelligence ? 



Richford, N. Y. 



[This controversy having assumed 

 a personal one. is concluded with the 

 above. To be pleasant and profitable, 

 discussions should be on the merits of 

 the questions involved — minus all 

 personalities, We have omitted con- 

 siderable that was written by both 

 controversia lists, simply because of its 

 personalities."^Suj?hJ_are~always un- 

 pleasant, and of no interest to the 

 ordinary reader Ed.] 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



A Year's Work in tlie] Apiary, 

 and it!* Results. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 



BY H. P. JONES. 



The flood of 1889 can-ied away my 

 promising little apiai-y of 16 colonies, 

 which had survived the winter. They 

 were all in first-class condition, but 

 shared the same fate as 20 new hives, 

 together with smokers and other nec- 

 essary uten.sils. Everything was swept 



away, and the ground on which they 

 stood. 



This was discouraging, but did not 

 discourage entirely. I had sold a 

 neighbor a colony of Italians, with an 

 old queen (reared by Prof. A. J. Cook). 

 This colony proved very prolific. It 

 was a swarm from July, 1888 ; was 

 wintered well, and swarmed three 

 times in May, once in June, once in 

 July, and cast its last swarm on Aug.5. 

 I bought a half interest in this small 

 beginning, and gave my personal 

 attention to their care. The first 

 colony gave two fine swarms, and a 

 crop of 70 pounds of comb-honey. Our 

 crop of honey that year (1889). was 

 fair ; this year it is not as good. The 

 Spring opened early, and found all 

 colonies strong in both bees and honey, 

 but the opening of the fruit-blossoms 

 brought cold rains, and it continued 

 cold and wet until all the blossoms had 

 disappeared. During this time all was 

 consumption and no production ; so 

 by the time white clover began to 

 bloom, the winter stores were about 

 exhausted, and few bees were left in 

 the colonies. Many of the old bees 

 had passed away, the rearing of young 

 bees had ceased, and all the colonies 

 had destroyed their drones. 



Prospects looked anything but favor- 

 able. While the white clover looked 

 like a little snow-shower on the grass, 

 it contained scareeh' any nectar, and 

 the bees seemed to pay no attention to 

 its white, inviting bloom. Next came 

 the basswood ; the bees worked on it 

 for two days, and then abandoned it. 

 Thus, but little was stored from bass- 

 wood. But during the short interval 

 which they worked on it. they started 

 brood-rearing, and by the middle of 

 July a number of colonies were well 

 supplied with bees, but no honey. 



Next came what is fcommonly called 

 milk-weed. All hands were at work, 

 and the sections were re-sorted, most 

 of them filling tlieir supers, but still 

 neglecting their brood-chambers. I 

 say this, because my personal examina- 

 tion revealed the fact. Some of them 

 had their single supers, holding 24 

 one-pound sections, well filled, and 

 not more than 2 or 3 pounds of honey 

 below. The honey stored was the 

 most nauseous stutt' ever gathered by 

 bees. It seemed novv as if we must 

 feed our bees or suffer the loss of 

 them. 



August 26, the work began on the 

 Fall flowers. Brood-rearing, filling 

 brood-chambers, and work in the sec- 

 tions, all went on at the same time ; 

 and had they been in as good condition 

 as the previous year, some would have 

 stored 100 pounds of surplus. But all 

 filled their brood-chambers, and also 

 filled some surplus boxes. This is au 

 excellent, amber-colored, heavy honey. 



All of my swarms were late, none 

 issuing until June 10, another July 4, 

 and a few in August. One. of Aug. 

 V.i, has 10 frames well tilled, but I 

 gave them no opportunity to store any 

 above. 



I captured a large swarm of blacks 

 that came from the woods, and gave 

 them an Italian queen ; they have their 

 frames well tilled. I have, in all, 16 

 colonies packed for winter. In this 

 section I prefer out-door wintering. 

 My mode of wintering is. after remov- 

 ing the supers, not too early, say the 

 last of October, put a box 6 or 7 inches 

 high on top of the cloth, fill with 

 forest leaves, cover, and say good-bye 

 for the winter. B?eS thus stored, hav- 

 ing a good supplj- of honey, and of 

 young bees, will not fail to give good 

 results the following season. 



I bought 3 colonies of Carniolans 

 from the Pratt bee-farm, last Spring, 

 and placed one in my own yard, so as 

 to watch closely, and learn their ad- 

 vantages over Italians. I cannot give 

 a report yet, as the one I have was 

 nearly destroyed on the transit, not 

 more than one pint of bees being left ; 

 the queen, nevertheless, was in good 

 condition. 



They have built up rapidly, and 

 now are a strong colony with 8 frames 

 well filled. One thing I can say, and 

 the entire family can vouch for the 

 truthfulness of the statement (having 

 had quite convincing evidence), and 

 that is, they are not stingless. 



In conclusion, I will say that the 

 Bee Journal is a great source of 

 comfort, as well as of information. No 

 bee-keeper can aSbrd to be without it. 



Renovo. Pa.. Nov. 19, 1890. 



FOUL BROOD. 



Some Details of my Experiments 

 in Its Cure. 



Written for the American Bm Journal 

 BY A. KOEPPEN. 



On page 763, ( Nov. 15), Mr. Allen 

 Pringle. of Selby, Ont., gives his 

 experience in curing foul brood. My 

 expei'ience has been just the reverse, 

 and so I report the result. 



I have been troubled by foul brood 

 for over four yeai's. and have tried all 

 the cures I have heard of. This Spring, 

 in May, I had .37 lolonies, and they 

 were all well and in good condition. 

 During the white-clover season, in 

 June, I looked them over and found 7 

 diseased. I gave tliem the cure that 

 Mr. Pringle named, but all except one 

 of the sick ones left their hives, and 

 were gone before I knew it. 



During the basswood season, in 

 July, I again found 12 or 14 diseased. 



