131 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Dec, 



it all. raised lots of brood, and a host of drones, 

 which we have now (November 1st) in a queen- 

 less colony, with a young unfertile queen ten 

 days old. 



We will report next month if she becomes 

 fertile. 



If the experiment is worth anything to queen 

 raisers, they are welcome to it. An empty story 

 waxed with float, was kept underneath the two 

 story with combs, in case of accident. 



The only objection that we found, was the 

 slight one of robbers, for not even an Italian 

 stock seemed very prompt to repel them, when 

 their supply inside seemed so exhaustless. 



Of course combs were removed as soon as 

 filled. We are now preparing to put our bees 

 into winter quarters, and would like to ask some 

 of the writers who seem to still keep hazarding 

 conjectures of such length as to what may be 

 the probable cause of bee dysentery, whether 

 they «ever knew of dysentery when bees' were 

 wintered on sugar syrup. 



By consulting the back numbers'of this Journal, 

 a large number of cases can be found bearing 

 directly on the point. 



Once more we insist, "bees wintered on their 

 natural stores sometimes have dysentery." 



" Bees wintered on pure sugar syrup never 

 do." 



And dear readers when your bees the coming 

 winter begin to show traces of the disease, 

 remove them to a warm room, take away their 

 combs entirely, give them clean dry ones, and 

 feed sugar syrup, and they will speedily be well 

 "says" • Novice. 



p. s. — The Murphy improved extractor adver 

 tised in this Journal has a stationary can, and 

 deserves the oredit of being so far a step in the 

 right direction. 



p. s. No. l 2. — We would add that in all our 

 various experiments in feeding, we have never 

 been able to get the bees to take food with that 

 avidity that they do in the open air. 



The "teakettle" conies nearest it, and Ital- 

 ians far outstrip the natives, but after storing 

 twenty-five or fifty pounds, if a new set of combs 

 be (riven them, they are much slower in filling 

 them, and seem to prefer a turn in the open air 

 to indoors work. 



Full blood Italians in warm weather, will 

 frequently take down twenty-five or thirty 

 pounds in half a day, but hybrids and natives 

 sometimes require a day or more. 



To sum up, we now regard teakettle feeding 

 as the quickest and most economical plan of 

 any yet devised. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bees at Kleinburg. 



Mr. Editor : — The honey season for '72 is done 

 some time since, and proved a very poor one for 

 the hees that come through the winter. I lost all 

 that I left on the summer stands, and every one 

 well boxed up, but the cause of my loss bein<r 

 that they were, the most of the number, too 

 weak. I didn't examine very closely, only went 



by the weight, principally ; that, I never do again ; 

 in future, I will not winter any more outside, 

 without I know that they are very strong. Six 

 very weak ones, not one-quarter of a stock, I 

 took into the cellar ; the best out of the six, 

 upon which I counted to come through the win- 

 ter, if any would, died, and I believe now that 

 it was the cause of the honey they wintered on, 

 gathered 13 pounds the first week in September, 

 whether from honey dew, or not, I cannot say, 

 but had all well sealed over. I removed them 

 to the cellar the 10th of November, before we had 

 any hard freezing weather, and were all nice and 

 dry, when in December, I went looking over themj 

 I found them all apparently doing well, but. this 

 one, which in the short space of a month had al- 

 ready about a quart of dead bees, but not a parti- 

 cle of sign of dysentery, no bad smell about 

 them ; I had them ventilated the same as the 

 others, no dampness about whatever ; they kept 

 dwindling away in that proportion till February, 

 when only about a pint of them were alive ; 

 then they began to be noisy and showed signs of 

 dysentery, and in two days every one of the 

 bees of this stock were gone the way of all 

 beeing. Now, you, or some others will say, they 

 must have been all old bees. Not at all ; for I 

 formed it the 5th of August, beinga very strong 

 stock, having brood to the fullest extent, and 

 moved it to a new stand and gave them a young 

 fertile queen, and kept them breeding till late 

 in September. The other five were made the 

 same way, only I took four frames of brood and 

 bees adhering to it, and gave them a fertile 

 young queen and two out of the five were, 

 made by simply dividing combs and bees of a 

 not very strong stock, and the last named two 

 came out the best, and proved my best all sum- 

 mer, and when putting them in the cellar, I 

 didn't think they would live through half the 

 winter, and so spring found me -with five stocks 

 that would scarcely have made a decent one, and 

 they only began to breed the first week in April. 

 The cause of this late commencement of brood- 

 ing, I believe was in having ventilated too 

 freely ; I had the whole front entrance open one 

 inch high, twelve long, two one inch holes bored in 

 the rear, and honey board half inch raised. The 

 winter before last I had one stock formed in the 

 same way, and no stronger than the weakest of 

 any of these six, but the ventilation the tem- 

 perature in my cellar ranged all winter from 41 

 to 44) on the top being only ^ of an inch raised 

 instead of ^ inch, and they came not only 

 through with as many bees as I put away, but 

 double as strong. The first week in March, '71, 

 they had their first flight, and I found them 

 having three cards of brood ; with this one I 

 made my experiment, and found to work so well, 

 hence, I concluded to make my increase in that 

 way last year, and I have done so this year 

 again, but this year I have them all strong; yet, 

 not so strong that I would venture on their sum- 

 mer stands, hut for the place (cellar) I mean to 

 keep them, and the advantage in making stocks 

 this way, is that I can keep my stocks strong 

 through the honey season, and when the best is 

 over, divide them, but I will not advise doing in 

 that way and time dividing, unless one can pro- 



