THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



gin" of yours to one side. It's too 

 much like "baby bee-keeping-" for me, 

 for it won't liold half of these bees. 

 Hand me that eight-frame hive with a 

 full set of starters only, and remember 

 there are two supers full of bees at 

 work in the sections to go on top of 

 this; yet you see iny swarm is ready 

 for the super now instead of waiting 

 three or four days. When I come here 

 again in six days it will need the 

 third super. 



Say, Mr. Morrison, isn't that swarm 

 a whopper? Do j'ou know I think 

 there are 75,000 bees? Yes, thej' will 

 be all settled down to business like a 

 niitural swarm. You see they got well 

 mixed and daubed when I shook them. 

 No, there is no danger of their going 

 off. They won't go without a queen, 

 and she can't go unless she goes on 

 foot, as she is clipped. 



You see, I have set one of those old 

 hives of brood on top of the other, 

 right behind where the pair sat, and 

 facing the other way. When I come 

 again in six days I will shake a lot 

 more bees into this one from those old 

 combs, and face it around here where 

 it belongs. Next time I come around 

 1 will work all the brood into one 

 hive, and put on a super; then I have 

 the other hive to use somewhere else. 

 No danger of this one swarming, and 

 this colon}' will be just as good as 

 Jumbo there the last half of July and 

 all of August, at which time of the 

 year our best surplus-honey season 

 comes. 



No, I don't do this with all my bees, 

 but I do it with a great man}' when I 

 don't want a>/v increase. 



BEE PARALYSIS. 



Some Expeiience Pointing to the Value 

 of Sulphur as a Cure. 



Bee Paralj'sis has never done very 

 much damage in the Northern States, 

 but in the South it sometimes causes 

 as much havoc as does foul brood. 

 Exactly what causes the disease, and 

 how it is communicated from colony to 

 colony, if it is so communicated, has 

 not been determined. Salt and sul- 

 phur have both been recominended as 

 a remedy, with the odds, perhaps, in 



favor of the latter. I think the strong- 

 est evidence I have ever seen of the 

 efficacy of sulphur, was that given by 

 Mr. O. O. Poppleton in an article that 

 he furnished the American Eee-Keeper 

 last August. In this article Mr. Pop- 

 pleton says: 



I promised some time ago that as 

 soon as I knew the result of certain 

 experiments not then finished, I would 

 write out some of my experiences with 

 bee paral3^sis in my apiary. 



The disease is more widespread and 

 serious than most bee-keepers realize. 

 Twice within the last twenty 3'ears it 

 has lessened the season's receipts froin 

 my apiary over twenty-five per cent., 

 entailing a loss of about fifteen thou- 

 sand pounds of honey and quite a 

 number of colonies of bees. There is 

 more or less of it every year. 



The disease itself is exceedingly er- 

 ratic — comes and goes without an}' ap- 

 parent cause, and without strictly fol- 

 lowing an/ rule. Colonies in perfect 

 health will sometimes be attacked 

 suddenly, and in a very short time be 

 reduced to nuclei. At other times 

 a diseased colony will suddenly re- 

 cover without any known cause. For 

 this no rule can be made by experi- 

 ments with any one or even a few colo- 

 nies. And now, after a personal ex- 

 perience with over two hundred 

 diseased colonies, I more than ever 

 realize how little we really know of 

 the nature, cause, prevention or cure 

 of the disease. While I am satisfied 

 that it is to a limited extent contagious, 

 I do not know exactly how the con- 

 tagion is communicated. While in 

 Washington, just after the Philadel- 

 phia convention, Mr. Benton intro- 

 duced me to Dr. Howard, United 

 States Entomologist, and I had a short 

 talk with him about his division mak- 

 ing a scientific investigation of the 

 disease. He asked me to call on him 

 in his office and talk the matter over; 

 but when I did so he was out. I was 

 disappointed, as I hoped through him 

 to get some real, definite knowledge of 

 the disease and how to fight it. I still 

 hope that some practical scientist will 

 do this work for us. 



I have not yet learned how the con- 

 tagion, if any. is communicated, but 

 I think through dead or diseased bees 

 only. Last se^ison I made some ex- 

 periments to learn whether combs, 

 honey or brood carried it, by taking 

 away all the brood from what diseased 



