272 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[JUXE, 



caution of cutting out all comb containing 

 diseased brood and pollen. I was very particular 

 about the polk'U, for I believe tliat to be more 

 likely to communicate the disease than the honey ; 

 and t uow think that my experience nlmosi proves 

 it. These stocks were well supplied with brood 

 and young bees — though, liaving been weakened 

 by tiie disease last year, they were not as strong 

 as the healthy hives. I can only find a trace of 

 the disease— perhaps half a dozen dead larvae to 

 a card. Of course they have used their honey 

 for all their requirements ; and they carried in 

 meal for pollen, till the swamp willows supplied 

 them. Now, if the honey communicates the 

 disease, how is it that so little has appeai'ed, for 

 being capped, it is impossible that the hyjio-sul- 

 phate should have purified it '? 



I feel much indebted to Dr. Abbe, for he cer- 

 tainly enabled me to check the disease. 1 gave 

 some of my stocks, last spring, cards of comb 

 without honey, but containing a good deal of old 

 pollen. I cannot now identify the particiilar 

 stocks, but as I never found foulbrood till last 

 fall, I am very much inclined to consider that 

 pollen as the "destroyer" of my apiarian com- 

 fort and repose. As there is now so much brood, 

 I do not see that I can use the soda again to any 

 advantage at present : but I feel so desirous to 

 be rid of the disease, that I think I shall, after the 

 stocks become strong, put them in an empty hive 

 for thirty-six hours and treat them as a n(> w swarm 

 in an empty hive. I will then thoroughly uncap 

 and purify the combs, after which I shall venture 

 to use them again, unless they become badly 

 diseased before then, which I do not think proba- 

 ble, from present appearances. 



As my stocks would have been worthless and 

 dangerous, had they been "let alone," I feel 

 the result of their treatment Avith soda most en- 

 couraging. It, is, however, yet an open question 

 whether the removal of the diseased comb and 

 pollen would not have checked the disease to the 

 same extent, had no soda been used, ^ut most 

 certainly there is no necessity to destroy every 

 stock containing foulbrood, as has been recom- 

 mended by some writers in the American Bee 

 Journal. 



We shall have but few apple blossoms this 

 season, as the trees seem to have exhausted 

 themselves with their abundant fruitage of last 

 year : but I look forward hopefully to the time 

 of clover, as I have many acres of Alsike around 

 the apiary. 



Charles Dj^wbarn. 



Sianwieh, Co?i%., May 3, 1871. 



[For the American Bee .Tournal.] 



Eequisites of a Hive. 



Mr. Editor :— The 13th and 14th of January 

 were very warm days here. The bees flew just 

 as lively as at any time in summer. The hybrids 

 (the little snoops, as my better-half calls them) 

 pitched in several swarms of black bees to i ob, 

 and I had to shut them (the little snoops) up. 

 In one hive that they were fighting, I found the 

 queen at the entrance or fly-hole, in a bunch of 



black bees of her own colony. The little cluster 

 was of the size of a walnut. It was a good 

 strong colony, with plenty of honey, and ten 

 frames one foot square well covered with bees. 

 Did the hybrids, in their eagerness to rob drag 

 the queen out, and her own bees gather round 

 to protect her? I caged her and put her in the 

 hive ; and examining them four days after, found 

 they had liberated her. 



SomeiMng more on hives. For my text on this 

 subject I will use the following words — "The 

 shape and form of hive which the apiarian iises, 

 has a great influence on the loss or profit of 

 bee-keeping." The majority of bee-keepers 

 only keep a few swarms, and do not want to be 

 at the expense of making a beehouse to winter 

 their bees in ; and then the trouble of carrying 

 them in and out every warm spell, or keeping 

 the temperature jnst right, so that the bees will 

 not fly, is no small or desirable job. 1 think I 

 am safe in saying that not f)ne bee-keeper in ten, 

 will go to the trouble of wintering his bees in a 

 special repository. Hence the necessity of a 

 hive so constrvieted that bees will winter safely in 

 it on their summer stands, without being roused 

 by the sun shining on it and causing them to 

 fly out and perish in the snow. All bee-keepers 

 know tliat such occurrences are vei-y detrimental 

 to the strength of a colony ; and from this cause 

 alone tliousands of colonies annually, if not 

 killed outright, are so reduced that it takes them 

 all summer to recruit. A hive is needed in whicli 

 the bees can keep warm in, through long pro- 

 tracted cold spells, or all winter if necessary, 

 without the aid of the sun's rays, and yet not 

 have the combs covered with frost, while the 

 bees are starving to death, though suri'ounded 

 with plenty of lioney. A hive simple in con- 

 struction, which, when finished, any bee-keeper 

 of common sense can use, without requiring an 

 agent who has learned his lesson by heart to ex- 

 plain all its intricate parts — a hive, too, in which 

 the combs will not melt down in summer. Such 

 is the hive the common bee-keeper needs. 



Now, Mr. Editor, and brother bee-keepers, 

 you may think that I have invented a hive em- 

 bracing all the good qualities above enumerated. 

 I make no such pretension. There are already 

 hives enough invented to puzzle the bee-keepers 

 to decide which to use, especially if they listen 

 to every inventor's claims. I am not going to 

 say which is the best hive, for I think tliere are 

 very few that will meet tlie above qualities, out 

 of the many that have been patented ; and Dr. 

 Pucket would no doubt pitch into me, as lie did 

 into Mr. Rogers, and say that it was only his 

 ip,ie dixit, or that it would need more than his 

 bare assertion to prove it. I do not tliink it was 

 a gentlemanly remark, and after giving it a 

 second thought, do you Mr. Pucket? I always 

 thought we were to take the word of a stranger, 

 unless he voluntarily offered to swear to it, or 

 told such a big yarn that no one could believe it ; 

 and I certainly do not see anything of that kind 

 in Mr. Roger's statement. It was a plain, can- 

 did res]3onse to your own request, and every way 

 merited a dispassionate and courteous ac- 

 knowledgment. But I have got ofl' from my text, 

 and will return if I can, and try to stick to it. 



