262 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. - 



[May, 



f 



ered nothing. September followed, and the 

 drought and tlie inactivity of the bees was 

 worse ; every farmer was busy at work in burn- 

 ing stumps and clearing land, so that the air 

 was tilled with smoke and no bees were seen. 

 October followed with all its disasters and alarm. 

 The whole forest was one sea of fire. The cedar 

 swamps wei-e as dry as cinders. This was the 

 condition of things on the night between the 8th 

 and 9th of October, when at eleven o'clock in 

 the night a temi)estuous south wind blew fiercely; 

 the whole forest ignited and became one sea of 

 flame, whereby hundreds of farms with every- 

 thing desirable were swept away. 



I had to tight the fire on every side ; several 

 pine stumps were burning near mj dwelling 

 house, and when we had no water, we sought to 

 smother the tire with dirt. In this way with 

 great exertions, I preserved my buildings, while 

 all the rest was burned up. Thus we had to 

 work and fight until the middle of October, when 

 rain and relief came. J\ly bees were forgotten 

 and neglected because of the greatest calamity 

 that ever befell a farming community. 



The time now was favorable to look after my 

 bees ; I found them all alive, but very poor in 

 honey. I diminished the fifty-eight to forty-five. 

 The honey of the twelve was given with the ad- 

 hering bees to the forty-five, after smoking 

 them. All went well. None were killed. My 

 stocks were all strong. I fed them about eight 

 hundred pounds of the white clover honey I had 

 in reserve. The nights of October were cold ; 

 the honey was very thick, so that I had to warm 

 it. Before I was done feeding, November set 

 in. The last week of November I set my bees 

 in the bee-house, forty-five in number. I found 

 at that time that but one-half of the honey 

 was sealed up. On the last day of December I 

 made an examination of the bee-house. I found 

 the bee-house smelling of dysentery. Some hives 

 had already smeared the upper parts of the 

 frames with fa?ces. I set my hives, some with 

 the honey board on, one inch open for venti- 

 lation, some with the honey board half off, and 

 the rest oft'. 



One week later I found their condition worse. 

 Those having the honey board on, clustered on 

 the under s-ide of it, and the rest, with honey 

 board oil", were on the combs, but uneasy. In 

 this state they reached February. From week 

 to week I found their condition worse ; the 

 frames were all smeared as if by black paint ; 

 the stench was unsnpportable ; in handling the 

 frames they were sticky and disgusting. On the 

 10th of February several hives were dead ; each 

 hive containing a peck of bees; the frames were 

 filled with heaps of smeared bees. The remain- 

 ing bees were dying fast. The ] 8ih of February 

 was a very fine day, the thermometer standing 

 at 44 degrees above zero. I had never used a 

 thermometer in regulating the cleansing flight 

 of my bees. I had learned by experience in 

 letting them go too early, and many times I re- 

 gretted my hasty zeal. * 



The snow was one foot deep on the ground. 



I had read in Moore's Rural New Yorker, page 



10, of January, that the temperature should not 



■ be less than GU degrees, that at 50 degrees they 



chilled. I had forgotten where I had seen the 

 statement ; I thought I had seen it in the Bee 

 Journal, but so it is, the thermometer stood at 

 45 degrees at 1 o'clock p. .m. I found the day so 

 warm and no wind, that I could retain my pa- 

 tience no longer. I went in the bee-house and 

 brouglft some of my poorest hives out for a 

 cleansing flight. In thirty minutes they ■u;ere 

 all flying ; though weak and fal ing upon the 

 snow, they were able to rise again. Finding the 

 temperature all right, I set some more out, so 

 that by o o'clock they all stood outside. The 

 weather was very favorable, but bees want two 

 hours before the whole are done their cleanstffg 

 fliglit ; it wants thirty minutes before they are 

 aroused, so it was too late, the mercury began 

 to siilR rapidly ; thousands upon thousands came 

 out and fell upon the snow, there to find their 

 graves. In this exigency I had to set them in 

 the house again in a worse condition. 



All my best hives wei'e set out last. A large 

 number of I hem were dead on the snow and the 

 rest had not cleansed. The four weak ones had 

 lost but a very small number ; they returned 

 and flew beautifully, yet they were very poor. 

 So with tears in my eyes I had to doom them 

 again to pestilence, because of a fal.se state- 

 ment in a paper which says it wants 60 degrees 

 Instead of 45 degrees. Had I set them out at 

 eleven all would have been well and my bees 

 saved. To-day, the 9th of jMarch, they are all 

 dead but six, who will follow the rest, all 

 dwindled away by dysentery. The honey is 

 mostly all grained hard, the bees are in groups 

 all smeared as if paintecl. The upper part of the 

 frames are sticky and greasy. If any man has 

 a true love for bees, as I have, he will readily 

 imagine my state of feelings at this moment, and 

 when spring smiles uiDon us, all is desolation to 

 me. Misfortunes never come singly. I had sent 

 fifteen hundred and fifty three pounds of honey 

 to Chicago, and every one knows the dreary 

 calamity that befell that city. If I were at least 

 so happy as Novice, to have some stocks left 

 with which to build up again my apiary I might 

 rejoice one day, but my bees all gone, being lo- 

 cated on a very poor rocky farm, my honey un- 

 paid, aufl above ail, being in debt, is as much 

 as one man can bear. Such is fate. 



Now, bee brothers, what shall I do with my 

 four hundred empty frames and my hives? Pile 

 them up and hang mourning veils over them? 

 I wish to add that the honey I fed to my bees 

 was among the whitest I ever saw. It was put 

 up in new white oak barrels weighing about 

 seven hundred jiounds each ; the rest was set in 

 earthen pots and in combs. 



This calamity will teach two things, that is, 

 to have a number of double hives non-swarmers 

 for a provision of sealed honey comb frames 

 for emergencies, so as to avoid feeding liquid 

 honey. Had it not been for the forest fire I 

 should have fed in September, and thus it might 

 have been different. If all the hives had the 

 same size frames like mine and Gallup' s, it would 

 do immense good ; there would be a trade in 

 sealed frame honey, which cannot be done now. 

 Joseph Duppield. 

 Eousseau P. 0., Brown Co., Wisconsin. 



