SI 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct., 



-h 



are well filled ; and in some cases the bees are 

 filling boxes ; so that I can safely say I shall get 

 three hundred pounds of lioney in all — which is 

 better than I have done before. But if the sea- 

 son had been as good as the previous one, I 

 could, with the facilities I now have, just as 

 easily have got one thousand pounds. 



The last was a very bad winter here for 'bees. 

 Some beekeepers lost as high as sixty colonies. 

 I lost only two, one of which was queenless, and 

 the other failed from carelessness. In the fall 

 my hives were crammed full of honey, witlx 

 hardly any empty comb. As I had no extractor 

 then, I had to take out three or four combs from 

 each hive, and mass the bees on a few combs, 

 and that is what saved them. Beekeepers who 

 did not use this precaution have told me that 

 their bees died, leaving their liivcs full of honey — 

 an occurrence which they could not understand 

 or explain. 



I am sorry to say that I have liad one case of 

 foul-brood iu my apiary ; though I think it is 

 cured now. I extracted all the honey and re- 

 moved the queen, letting all the brood hatch that 

 would. I then filled the cells with a solution of 

 liyposulphite of soda ; let it stand in over night ; 

 then emptied it, and took the combs over to the 

 Thread Factory and immersed them a few hours 

 in a solution of chloride of lime ; then rinsed 

 them, threw out the water, and gave them back 

 to the bees in a clean hive. They have raised a 

 number of sets of brood since, and I think are 

 all right now. For one, I am willing to give Dr. 

 Abbe all praise for the remedy, and tliank him 

 besides ; for it is a great discovery if it holds 

 foul-brood in check. I think, as a class, bee- 

 keepers are not always willing to give each other 

 due credit for advances or improvements made 

 in bee-culture ; but are ratlier too apt to go on 

 the principle of "it's big I and little «." 



Some correspondents appear to think that 

 Gallup is rather rough, because he wants a dollar 

 for the description of his hive. I do not. If he 

 has made a valuable improvement on his hive, he 

 should have his pay as well as any one else. A 

 man may work a lifetime for the public and get 

 no thanks for it. If the grumblers will look over 

 the Journal for the last five years, and read 

 Gallup' s articles, they will find things worth 

 much moi-e than a dollar if practised, made 

 known by him with no reward except the pleasure 

 enjoyed from helping ouAvard the inex]jerienced 

 who were groping their way in the dark. When 

 the hash on which he is now at work is cooked, 

 it is likely we shall want some of it on our plate. 

 I have read the September number of the 

 Journal, and am much pleased with it. We 

 learn something new from the Journal every 

 month, and expect to do so while we live to read 

 it. Cannot something be done, Mr. Editor, to 

 have it come semi-monthly ? Can't you manage 

 to take a vote and see if tlie beekeepers won't go 

 in for it and pay four dollars a year instead of 

 two? It is well worth the monej', being the best 

 paper in the country on bees. This all will 

 admit, and the beekeepers ought to see to it that 

 it can be published more frequently, for the ad- 

 vantage and benefit would be on their side. 

 I am glad to learn that there are beekeepers in 



other sections of the country, who are doing 

 better in the business this year, than we are 

 here in the New England States, Seasons and 

 the weather vary, and our turn too will probably 

 come round iu due course. Novice had better 

 look well after his laurels, or JMiss Katie will 

 take them. G. H. Bassktt. 



JS~orth Bennington, Vt., Sept. 8, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Why the Bees Lid Not Swarm ! 



Mr. Editor : — I see from tlie corre.spondence 

 of the Journal, that in nearly all the States there 

 was very little swarming among the bees this 

 season. 



I think I can give the reason or probable cause 

 of this. The natural instinct of the queens in- 

 duces them to commence laying about the time 

 New Year comes, or most generally from the 

 first to the tenth or fifteenth of January. They 

 will usually lay a small circle of eggs in two or 

 three of the middle combs ; in February they en- 

 large the circles, and still further enlarge them 

 in March, adding some more combs to those al- 

 ready containing brood. They proceed thus pro- 

 gressively, till in April and May they have their 

 combs mostly filled up, and when the last or fifth 

 large circle is ready to hatch, the colony is ready 

 for swarming, in a natural season. 



This season the weather having been warm in 

 February and IMarch, the bees had their three 

 larger batches ready for swarming about the last 

 of April and first of May. Most of the Italians 

 swarmed about that time, or during the latter part 

 of May and beginning of June. The queens then 

 rested from their labors, and honey being plenty, 

 the workers filled up nearly all the brood 

 combs with honey, and very few afterswarms 

 camo oft'. But the season advanced too fast for the 

 black bees, whose natural swarming time is from 

 the latter part of May to the middle of June, the 

 brood cells were rapidly filled with honey, leav- 

 ing no empty ones for the accommodation of the 

 queen, and hence very few swarms came from 

 the black colonies. 



I opened strong hives to get bees to make nu- 

 clei, on the 19th of April. They had their queen 

 cells run out, with larv« in them, and we had 

 swarms in April this season. I made artificial 

 swarms on the 10th of April to start queen cells, 

 and they did well. One of the old colonies that 

 I removed to a new stand, after having taken 

 out one-third of its combs and bees, and all the old 

 workers returning to the old stand, still made 

 me sixty pounds of surjilus honey ; and I sold 

 the hive after the honey season was over for fif- 

 teen dollars. 



I do not let many swarms come off" naturally. ■, 

 I make artificial swarms by controlling ray colo- | 

 nies and directing their laliors to honey gather- "* 

 ing, instead of encouraging their swarming pro- 

 pensities. AVhen I see any of my colonics that 

 are likely to swarm. I open their hive and take 

 out two frames containing hatching brood, with 

 all the adhering bees, leaving the queen in the 

 old hive. I set these combs in a new hive, and 



