Pointe Coupee, La., May 15, 1879. 

 On examining my liives a few days ago, I 

 discovered foul brood in one of them. I had 

 some time before transferred them into a 

 new hive, leaving the old hive near by, and 

 I now see the bees have removed most of the 

 propolis from it. If bees from hives not 

 having the disease have taken the propolis 

 from the old hive, is it likely to produce foul 

 brood among them ? Does foul brood ever 

 leave a hive of its own accord ? 1 discov- 

 ered three cells of it in a hive early in March. 

 Their queen being worthless, I killed her, 

 and before they succeeded in getting an- 

 other all the brood in the hive had hatched. 

 I picked out the few cells that were foul, 

 and it was nearly two weeks after this before 

 they had a laying queen. I have since ex- 

 amined them closely, and cannot find the 

 least sign of foul brood. A neighbor reports 

 hives that had it last year being perfectly 

 free from it this; he did nothing towards 

 curing them. I intend to cure mine as soon 

 as the bees are gathering honey plentifully. 

 If 1 don't succeed I will burn them. 



Wm. G. Heaves. 



[In a case of virulent type of foul brood, 

 it would be imprudent to allow the bees of a 

 healthy colony to come in contact with any 

 material in or about the hive that contained 

 the diseased colony. It is recorded of our old 

 " bee-masters" that they even changed their 

 clothing before handling a healthy colony, 

 after manipulating one affected with this 

 dreadful disease. Yours was perhaps a case 

 of what is denominated "dry foul brood." 

 Such is sometimes reported to have been 

 cured, or having died out of itself.— Ed.] 



Addison, N. Y., May 17, 1879. 

 In the spring of 1878 I commenced with 

 9 colonies. I got but little box honey, but 

 they increased to 28, which was very satis- 

 factory. I put 23 into winter quarters ; 3 or 

 4 I put in-doors, the rest I left on their sum- 

 mer stands, packed with straw on the wind- 

 ward side. They came through the cold 

 weather all right until about April 1st, and 

 I then put them in their places. I fear it 

 was too soon, for they have kept dropping 

 off, till now I have only 3 left out of 23. 

 What the cause is 1 hardly know. Two or 

 three of them had no honey ; the rest had 

 from 5 to 20 lbs., and one of them had 40 lbs. 

 of very nice honey. Most of them had but 

 little pollen ; whether this had anything to 

 do with their dying I do not know. Some 

 say it is the hive, but this cannot be, for I 

 had the American, Cottage, and old-fashion 

 box hive, also a hive of my own make, and 

 they died in all alike. Can vou tell what 

 was the trouble ? S. B. Borden. 



[It is a factthat rapid increase is too often 

 followed by a more rapid decrease ! Colo- 

 nies that are troubled with "spring dwind- 

 ling" can hardly be said to have " wintered 

 all right." Your colonies were probably too 

 weak to withstand the cold after they were 

 placed on their summer stands.— Ed.] 



Dowagiac, Mich., June 10, 1879. 

 Bees are doing well here now. I see no 

 reason why we should not have a good har- 

 vest. James Heddon. 



Lawrence, III., June 6, 1879. 

 About % of the bees in this locality have 

 been lost during the past winter and spring. 

 The principal cause is wintering on sum- 

 mer stands. I put 133 colonies in a cellar 

 last November, and on April 1st I took out 

 130 ; have lost 4 since— queenless. I have 

 also sold several. I have not a moldy comb 

 in the lot ; my cellar is 16 ft. square outside 

 the walls, and in it I can comfortably winter 

 150 colonies. I have a ventilator which is 

 neither more nor less than a 2-in. water con- 

 ductor, extending from within 6 in. of the 

 bottom of the cellar up through the floor 

 into my stovepipe. The cellar does not 

 freeze : the air is good, and bees are quiet 

 all winter. It has been cold and backward 

 this spring ; my bees killed off the drones 

 two weeks ago, but they have a plenty flying 

 now. Some of them are storing honey in 

 surplus boxes. White clover is very abun- 

 dant. I prefer a good cellar in which to 

 winter bees, to all the bee houses, chaff 

 cushions, or any other device I ever heard 

 of. J. L. Anderson. 



Winchester, II!., May 9, 1879. 

 In June number you made me say, when 

 speaking of a neighbor's bees that smoth- 

 ered or froze in a double-walled hive, that 

 they had "a sack and 2 empty section boxes 

 over them," whereas I wrote, or intended to 

 write, a rack and 21 empty section boxes 

 over them. The inference. I desired to be 

 drawn was that we should shut off all up- 

 ward ventilation, and make our hive thick 

 enough to keep out the frost to any extent, 

 and we can, here at least, winter best upon 

 the summer stand. Weather too dry, and 

 bees slow about building queen cells. I am 

 getting considerable honey from white clo- 

 ver now, but out of 23 colonies at my home, 

 only one has swarmed naturally. From that 

 one I obtained 6 good queen cells, which I 

 gave to 6 strong colonies, after making 6 

 new colonies with the queens and most of 

 the bees, as I find this one of the best ways 

 to increase artificially if one has no empty 

 combs and no queens ready for use in the 

 old hive. Each of the old colonies adopted 

 and fastened the cell given, and each built 

 quite a number more, so many, that from 

 trie 6 old colonies I could have obtained cells 

 enough to have divided the rest of my colo- 

 nies ; but they were such puny-looking cells 

 that I would not use them. I am troubled 

 with the bees building combs upwards in 

 frames for extracting in the upper story, 

 and crooked combs generally. Last year, as 

 also this, they clustered badiy outside in hot 

 weather, no matter how much room 1 gave 

 above brood-chamber or shade to the hive. 

 I tried raising the hives so that the bees 

 could fly out all around, as recommended by 

 A. G. Hill ; but in every hive so raised, I 

 found that the moth did far the most harm. 

 I have two of Armstrong's Centennial hives, 

 and though shaded no more than the others, 

 and containing very strong transferred colo- 

 nies that have not swarmed yet, still they 



