174 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



lied upon. Fire is our favorite remedy. 

 — American Bee Journal. 



Tliat is right, friends, tliis is anotlier 

 instance where the manager of the Api- 

 CULTURIST was in advance of most other 

 beekeepers. Some twenty years ago our 

 apiary was all destroyed by foul brood. I 

 saw at once that a disease so contngious 

 must be stamped out promptly, and in- 

 stead of spending my time in experiment- 

 ing for its cure, a bonfire was made of the 

 hives and all wood used about them, and 

 thus I rid my apiary of every trace of the 

 disease. The disease did not originate in 

 Tciy apiary, but came from the famous bee- 

 yard of the Cottons, of West Gorhani, Me. 



It is refreshing to note the fact that 

 some of those who opposed our recom- 

 mendations to cure by Are, now think it is 

 the best remedy to apply. If anyone has 

 foul brood in his apiary, proceed at once 

 to destroy eveiytliing about the infected 

 colonies. Don't spend your time or money 

 for the nostrums some people advertise, as 

 not one case in one thousand can be cured 

 or is curable. 



A large colony of bees. 

 If any one lias any doubt about eight L. 

 frames being enough for one colony of 

 bees, let me say to him that only a few 

 days ago I brushed all the bees from the 

 combs of a hive having but seven frames; 

 there seemed so many of tiiem that I 

 thought it best to weigh them. They were 

 placed on the scales and tipped the bal- 

 ance quick at eleven pounds. Considering 

 that tlie queen was reared l)y an "artificial" 

 method, and by a method that brother 

 Hutchinson can not make a success (though 

 he has never tested it), I must say that 

 the queen or liive in question is worthy of 

 notice. Had these bees filled their sacks 

 as full as they do when a swarm issues, 

 I have no doubt about the weight of them 

 being upwards of fifteen pounds. 



Experiments in queen-rearing. 

 By leaving out one word I was made to 

 say in tlie August issue that I had dis- 

 covered nothing new in the queen-rearing 

 line for several years. Tlie blunder was 

 clearly my own, and right here allow me 

 to say that something new is being dis- 

 covered nearly every day in the Bay State 

 apiary. When I am so dull that I can 

 learn nothing new about l)ees, then the 

 bee business and I will part company. 

 Well, friends, let me say that witiiin a 

 month I have, through experiment, found 

 that a colony of bees can be made to build 

 cells even when there is a fertile queen 



in the hive. I must say that I was never 

 more surprised than to find experiments 

 in this line working perfectly and .satisfac- 

 torily. Even the first attempt to have the 

 bees build cells without removing or cag- 

 ing the queen was a decided success. If 

 this metliod works as it now promises to 

 do, the old methods of queen-rearing will 

 be numbered with the things of the past, 

 and such a thing as the word ardjicial as 

 applied to queen-rearing will not be used 

 by beekeepers, as by this new process of 

 cell building, the queens are all reared, 

 strictly speaking, under the swarming im- 

 pulse. The conditions, under whicli the 

 queens are reared are exactly the same as 

 when a swarm is about to issue. 



This will not revolutionize queen-rear- 

 ing, it will not lessen the price of queens, 

 but it will be the means of producing first- 

 class queens with much less trouble, labor 

 and time. 



Introducing queens. 



In August issue of the Apiculturist I 

 gave a method for introducing queens di- 

 rect to the bees. Since that time, I have 

 inti'oduced several other queens by the 

 same process and find that it works very 

 well as not one queen has been destro}'ed. 

 The plan is this : When the queen is re- 

 ceived by mail, or otherwise, and if in one 

 of the cages such as queens are sent in 

 from the Bay State Apiary, just turn the 

 wireclotli back that covers the food so as 

 to leave an opening large enough for a 

 queen to pass through Then remove the 

 queen from the colony and insert the ship- 

 ping-cage in the corner at the bottom of 

 one of the brood frames. In the course of 

 twenty-four hours the bees will have re- 

 moved the food and released the queen. 

 All this will be done so quietly that the 

 bees will not even suspect that the new 

 queen is a stranger among them. 



In future all the cages sent out from our 

 apiary will be prepared so that the pui"- 

 chaser will not be troubled to do it. By 

 this method the queen can be placed in the 

 hive as soon as received, or the one in 

 the colony can be found and removed. If 

 the queen to lie removed is not found when 

 first looked for. the cage can be placed in 

 the hive and will lie all right, if the food 

 is protectetl so that the bees in the colony 

 cannot molest it. 



I am so confident that this method will 

 Avork successfully that I will send other 

 queens to those wlio test and make a fail- 

 ure of it. Bear in mind that some smoke 

 must be blown in among the bees at the 

 entrance, and as the smoke from rotten- 

 Avood will do no damage a liljcral quanity 

 may be used. 



