326 



Tmm SMMRicffiif mmm j©i3^rkmi,. 



rect, then our bees could rear brood 

 in April and May, here at the North, to 

 good advantage, as thej' now do in 

 July and August. 



Again, I see that where the tempera- 

 ture inside of the hive reaches from 

 73° to 84°, the bees ventilate the hive, 

 by setting apart a certain number of 

 bees to fan at the entrance, in order 

 that a higher temperature than 84^ 

 shall never be reached, as that is the 

 highest temperature bearable by the 

 brood. If this were true, then what 

 would the bees do when the mercury 

 stood about the •'nineties" for da3-s 

 in succession, as we frequently have it, 

 even in this locality ? Would it be 

 possible for them, by fanning the air, 

 to give a less degree of heat than that 

 very air contained ? 



Once more : I notice that some of 

 our most practical bee-keepers say 

 that we should not have the tempera- 

 ture of the lamp-nursery much above 

 85° ; for if we do, the queens which we 

 are trying to hatch in the same, will 

 be killed ; for that is about the tem- 

 perature at which the bees keep their 

 brood and queen-cells, when they have 

 their own way. A very few allow that 

 a temperature of 90° may be main- 

 tained, and yet have the queens hatch 

 all right. Having a desire to know of 

 this matter m^-self, I began to experi- 

 ment as follows : 



I procured a self-registering ther- 

 mometer, and after placing it near the 

 lire till it showed 125° of heat, the reg- 

 ister was set, when it was carefully 

 wrapped in a warmed woolen-cloth, 

 and iramertiately placed in a medium 

 colony, as nearly the middle of the 

 bx-ood-nest as I could guess at the cen- 

 ter. This was on a very cool day, the 

 latter part of May, on the night of 

 which water was frozen so as to form 

 ice nearly as thick as window-glass, I 

 selecting such a time purposely. 



The next day, at two o'clock, it had 

 warmed up enough so that the bees 

 were flying, when I took out the ther- 

 mometer, and found that the coldest 

 point reached in the brood-nest during 

 that cold night was 92°. After this I 

 tried the same experiment several 

 times on both strong and very weak 

 colonies, although at no time did it 

 freeze as hard as at that time ; in fact, 

 I do not know that the freezing-point 

 was reached outside the hive during 

 any of the other experiments, 3-et in no 

 colony that was rearing brood did the 

 mercury register less than 92° ; while 

 some of the strongest colonies gave 95° 

 as the lowest temperature inside of 

 their brood-nest. 



Being satisfied that 92° was the 

 lowest point consistent with rapid 

 brood-rearing, I next went about find- 

 ing what was the liighest point the 

 bees allowed in their hive, when the I 



mercurj' was playing about the " nine- 

 ties." Accordingly, I placed the ther- 

 mometer in a verj' strong colon}-, early 

 one morning, when the day gave 

 promise of being a very warm one, the 

 temperature at this time being 78° in 

 the shade. At two o'clock that day, 

 the mercury- in the open air was at 91°, 

 while later on there was scarcely a 

 hive in the _yard but what the front 

 was covered with bees " hanging out." 

 At about sun-down, the thermometer 

 was lifted from the hive, when I found 

 that the higliest point reached was 98° 

 during that extremely hot day. With 

 several other experiments tried along 

 this line, I was notable to secure quite 

 as high a temperature as that again, 

 although one other time it was within 

 less than one-half of a degree of 98°. 



In this way I round that to rear 

 brood successfull}', the temperature of 

 the hive must reach a point somewhere 

 between 92° and 98° ; and if this was 

 the case, why should I not keep my 

 lamp-nursery between those tempera- 

 tures, if I desired to hatch queen-cells 

 perfectly. 



I am well aware that sealed brood, 

 or nearly mature queen-cells, will bear 

 a lower temperature than will larvre, 

 but that does not decide but what such 

 would be better off could they have the 

 same temperature which they enjoy in 

 the hive. From the foregoing, I think 

 that it will be apparent to all, that 

 there is great advantage in helping the 

 bees all we can in early spring, to 

 maintain as warm a temperature as 

 possible inside of the hive. This can 

 be done to tlie best advantage by keep- 

 ing the hive as tight as possible at the 

 top, and contracting the same to suit 

 the size of the colony occupying it. 



Boi-odino, N. Y. 



FOUL BROOD. 



An Experience with this Disease 

 — Fastening Foundation. 



WrllUn Snr the American Bee Journal 

 Br JOHN H. MANCHESTER. 



I commenced bee-keeping about nine 

 years ago, with one colony of black 

 bees in a box-hive, which I transferred 

 to a movable-frame hive, and Italian- 

 ized them. They increased until I had 

 12 colonies, when I bought 2 colonies 

 for $14.00. They had the foul brood, 

 but not knowing it, I went on and ex- 

 changed frames, and gave the disease 

 to the whole apiarj-. 



I then began to cure them, and suc- 

 ceeded. I put them into a box and 

 left them 24 hours, and then hived 

 them on one frame of hatching brood 

 and honey ; this was taken from 

 healthy colonies, and the rest of the 

 hive filled with foundation. I extracted 



the honey and melted up the wax, 

 burnt the frames, and steamed the 

 hives. There have been no signs of 

 foul brood since in my apiai-y. 



I also treated some bees for one of 

 my neighbors in the same way. He 

 boiled the honey, and fed it back to 

 his bees, and they had the foul brood 

 the next year. 



I have at present 43 colonies of bees, 

 all in good condition. I prepared them 

 for winter by packing them on the 

 summer stands. My bees are in double- 

 walled hives. Bees in this town have 

 wintered nicely. 



Fastenins: Foundation. 



A good deal has been written about 

 fastening foundation in sections, and 

 so I will give my waj- of doing it : 



Take a board 3 feet long, and 6 

 inches wide ; to one side of this fasten 

 4 pieces, just half as thick as the boxes, 

 and cut these blocks so that they will 

 just tit inside of sections. Fasten these 

 on the first piece of board about 8 

 inches apart ; now place the board a 

 little slanting, put the sections over 

 these blocks, on the foundation, and 

 place them in the section ; have some 

 melted wax in a basin, which is to be 

 kept warm by placing it over a lamp. 

 Have a small brush, and with one 

 hand hold the foundation down to the 

 top of the section, and with the other 

 hand draw the brushful of melted wax 

 along the lower edge of the section, 

 and fasten all four of the edges before 

 removing any of them, so that the wax 

 can cool. When taking the section ofl", 

 place them right side up. I think that 

 if bee-keepers will try this, they will 

 be satisfied with the plan. 



Preble, N. Y. 



QUEEN-CELLS. 



When to Destroy Queen-Cells to 

 Prevent Swarming. 



Written for the American Bee Jmirnal 



BY EUGENE SECOR. 



Good evening. Deacon Smith, what 

 makes you look so smiling ? Has 

 Aunt Miranda taken the sweepstakes' 

 prize for the best ten pounds of dairy 

 butter at the International Dair}- Fair ? 

 Or has her Pljmouth Rock chickens 

 hatched out thirteen to the dozen, 

 without an incubator ? 



"Narry one. I'll tell you, neighbor, 

 what makes me feel so good-natured 

 to-night. When a fellow meets another 

 who ought to know a good deal the 

 most, and fellow number one finds out 

 that fellow number two has to come to 

 fellow number one to get the alphabet 

 of what he ought to be graduated in, 

 it makes fellow number one feel as 



