1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



215 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



An Exp anation 



Of R. B. Merrit's article on " Tkouble Among 

 Bees," Vol. VI., page 43. 



A few years ago I made the same experience 

 with a number of stocks of bees, that j\Ir. 

 Merritt made. Nearly all the sealed brood was 

 opened by the worker bees ; some of them were 

 still nearly all white ; others hud brownish heads, 

 and a large number were seemingly ready to 

 hatch, bnt conld not get out of their cells. They 

 were nearly all still in the same state three or 

 fonr days later, and the younger bees also got 

 ready to hatch. Then the older woikers com- 

 menced biting the brood thus situated out of 

 the combs, making large holes in the latter. 

 On close examination I found large numbers of 

 those young bees spun together at the tips of 

 their abdomens, and unable to extricate them- 

 selves. Sometimes the old worker bees would 

 drag out half a dozen of these unfortunate crea- 

 tures, strung together in one lot. On closer 

 examination. I found in some spots on the sur- 

 face of such brood comb, moth-worms hidden in 

 their galleries or passages of web. There were 

 large ones and also small ; and it appeared to me 

 that those worms had liatched at the bottom of 

 the cells, and gradually worked their way up to 

 the surface. I then cut out a piece of such 

 brood, and extractiug a number of entangled 

 bees, I found at the bottom of some cells as 

 many as four small moth-worms, apparently 

 about one-third grown. I found this state of 

 things only in colonies that were very weak in the 

 spring, and whicii when warm weather set in, had 

 rapidly extended this brood-nest, and had thus 

 probably covered up cells in which the miller 

 had deposited large numbers of eggs. The old 

 workers gradually cleaned out such combs, and 

 rebuilt the damaged portions. The second set 

 of brood then came out all right. Mr. Merritt 

 would probably not have found that disease 

 again in his swarm, if he had not put any combs 

 in from other hives, that had very likely been 

 visited by the miller. Since Italianizing my 

 apiary, I found the same disease (if disease 

 we may call it) only once more, and that in an 

 artificial colony which had two frames of comb 

 given to it, from a hive deserted by its swarm 

 and which had remained without bees during 

 the month of .June. If the trouble referred to 

 must be called a disease, I would designate it as 

 the "worm disease." A. Gkimm. 



Jefferson, Wis., Feb. 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eighteen Hundred and Seventy. 



The season here promised to be a very good 

 one, the spring opening fair and warm, after an 

 uncommonly mild, dry winter. The bees were 

 in fine condition to take advantage of the fruit 

 blossoms ; the trees blooming in clear weather, 

 for the first since I have kept bees ; and before 

 the white clover — our principal honey crop — 



bloomed, they had begun to work in the surjjlus 

 boxes. But about the first of June a long spell 

 of rain set in and continued until the end of the 

 month, with but very few clear days, so that my 

 bees got very little more than a week's work on 

 white clover. Yet in that time they secured an 

 average of about fifteen i>ounds of suri)lu3 

 honey to the hive— filling the boxes with comb 

 enough to have stored sixty pounds. By the 

 first of .July inten.sely hot and dry weather set 

 in and soon parched up everything. There v>^as 

 no honey gathered after that time, until the 

 aster bloomed in Sejitember, which gave an abun- 

 dance for winter, but no surplus, as it is very 

 hard to get the bees to woi-k in the boxes so late 

 in the .season. 



I increased my stocks about one half, and got 

 an average of twenty p(ninds of surplus honey 

 per hive, leaving ])lenty for winter. Tiiis is 

 about what I do every year. My neighbors 

 always complain of "bad seasons, too wet or 

 too dry, too hot or too cold," but I believe our 

 climate is, on the whole, as good for bee-keeping 

 as any in the country. Not that I am satisfied 

 with the above results ; but I am convinced 

 that with all the "'modern improvements" a 

 much larger yield could be realized. If I had 

 had a honey-extractor this year, as T fully in- 

 tend to have next, I could have obtained at 

 least one hundred pounds to the hive. During 

 the week they worked on the white clover, the 

 bees could evidently have gathered much more 

 than they did, if they had had combs to hold it. 

 They wasted much time during the greatest 

 yield, in building comb, which the flow of honey 

 did not last long enough to enable them to fill. — 

 I have as yet seen no report of the use of the 

 extractor in the South ; but it is certainly^ just 

 what we want, to enable us to take full advan- 

 tage of the short seasons of abundant yield 

 which occur several times in each summer. I 

 am only afiaid that I will not have time enough 

 to extract all the honey my bees will give me, as I 

 am in business in Baltimore, and leave home at 

 eight in the morning and do not get back until 

 five in the afternoon. Will Novice be kind 

 enough to say how long it takes to empty the 

 frames of a two-story Langstroth hive ; and 

 whether the honey will flow freely early in the 

 morning and late in the evening, and oblige. 



DaMEL M. WOKTniKGTON. 



St. Dennis, Md., Feb. 7, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Amount of Honey to Winter a Colony of Bees. 



]Mr. Editor : — I have read a great deal of the 

 experience of different beekeepers, in regard to 

 the amount of honey required to winter a colony 

 of bees and bring them out in good condition 

 for the next seast)n. Experience has taught me 

 to prefer forty pounds, instead of twenty-five 

 pounds for that purpose. The spring of 1870, 

 proved this to be correct in this section of the 

 country. The late frosts having destroyed the 

 fruit blossoms to such an extent tliat tlie pro- 

 duction of honey was very insignificant. The 



