AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



469 



colonies that were dying very slowly, 

 and it is much earlier than any year yet 

 for them to commence. I have noticed 

 that when the bees are bothered with 

 the disease in February, March or April, 

 it is much more disastrous than during 

 the hot weather. I lay it to the fact 

 that bees are more apt to rob in those 

 months than later in the season, and I 

 think that it might often be called 

 " spring dwindling," as the queens are 

 much more apt to die than in July, 

 August and September, though those 

 are the months that the disease shows 

 itself here in my own locality. 



The hairless, black and shiny bees are 

 most plentiful in the spring. In the 

 summer, to look first at the pile of dead 

 on the ground, at first sight they look as 

 though they had starved, but on looking 

 into the hive it will be found full of 

 honey. 



The first that I saw of this disease 

 was in the summer of 1883. I pur- 

 chased several Italian queens, and be- 

 gan to Italianize, and at various times 

 since I have purchased colonies varying 

 in number from 10 or 15 to 75 or 100, 

 and invariably this disease would show 

 itself more furiously than in other years 

 when I did not make a purchase, but at 

 the same time I can't say that excited it. 



During all these years my neighbors 

 have been bothered with what I supposed 

 to be the same disease in this county, 

 and in Kern county, and at San Jose 

 (this State). Often times they thought 

 their bees were being poisoned, so I kept 

 still, thinking that way was the best to 

 catch the guilty parties. Last year it 

 showed more than ever, as many as 50 

 colonies in a single apiary. 



In extracting, to take the combs out 

 of a sick colony, extract the honey and 

 place the combs into a strong colony, it 

 will not create the disease, as I have 

 several colonies that I have placed the 

 combs in, and they have not had the 

 disease. 



My colonies are in rows, 33^ feet from 

 center to center, and the rows are 8 

 apart. The disease will be in hive, and 

 both sides of that one will stand hives 

 that will be all right, and have never 

 been bothered. It doesn't appear to 

 make any difference whether the hive is 

 an old, rickety one, or a nice, well-made 

 hive ; but the disease will take hold of a 

 great many colonies in a single day, and 

 in some localities it is much worse than 

 in others. In writing this it is with the 

 hope that my superiors will gain some- 

 thing, if not any more than to see how 

 the disease appears in different localities. 



Traver, Calif. 



Some Experiences or a Bei;inner 

 in Bee*Keeping;. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY T. HOLLINGSWOBTH. 



I began to keep bees last spring with 

 one colony, and got 50 pounds of honey. 

 They did not swarm, as I know of, and 

 the hive was so full of bees and honey 

 that I divided them on Aug. 25th, and 

 made another colony, taking about one- 

 half of the bees and combs and the 

 queen for the new colony, which I put 

 on another stand. In 14 days the first 

 colony had a new queen, and a few days 

 after that I looked again, but could see 

 no eggs, and the brood-frames were so 

 full of honey that I took a sealed comb 

 out and put an empty frame in the cen- 

 ter of the brood-nest. After a few days 

 I found they had the comb partly built 

 in the empty frame, and there were eggs 

 in it, so I saw they had a laying queen, 

 and did not bother them any more until 

 I fixed them for winter. 



The colony I put on the new stand, 

 with the old queen, did not seem to be 

 very strong ; I think the queen must 

 have been quite old, and a great many 

 of the bees went back to the old stand, 

 and I had such a time with robbers ! 

 Most of the time I had to contract the 

 entrance to 2 inches, and then I was 

 afraid I would smother them. 



About the end of September I was 

 watching them, when I saw a queen 

 come out of the entrance ; she flew about 

 the entrance for a moment, and then 

 flew away. I did not know what to 

 think of it, for that was the hive the old 

 queen was in, but I watched, and in a 

 few minutes she came back and went 

 into the hive again. I made up my 

 mind I would see about it, and so opened 

 the hive and found two queens in it, and 

 one of them had something white at- 

 tached to it. I supposed it was the ap- 

 pendages of a drone, and that it was a 

 young queen they had reared to help her 

 old mother, and that she had been on 

 her wedding flight. 



I looked into the hive in several weeks 

 afterward, and the two queens were still 

 there, but the swarm was weak, and I 

 still had lots of trouble with robber bees 

 at that hive. On Nov. 1st I put an out- 

 side case over the hives with a space of 

 about 2 inches on all sides filled with 

 excelsior packing, having a space be- 

 tween the packing and the hive of about 

 3 inches. On Nov. 4th it was getting 

 colder, so I put a 5-inch super on the 

 hives. (The box was high enough to 



