THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



269 



For the Amorican Bee Journal. 

 Tfinteriiig: and Springing Bees. 



BY AV. B. KUSn. 



To the President, Secretary and Members of 

 the NortJieastern Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion: 



Gentlemen: — Your letter, dated May 

 1st, was forwarded to ni(\ Please accept 

 my compliments for being placed on 

 your list of honorary members, among 

 men so worthy of the name of apiarists. 



In accordance with your resolution re- 

 questing me to give a statement of my expe- 

 rience and results in wintering and spring- 

 ing bees, I will submit this paper to the 

 Society. If it will assist in preventing 

 the loss of bees during the winter, then 

 my object will be attained. I had intend- 

 ed' giving the Society an essay on bee- 

 keeping for the whole year, but, on a sec- 

 ond consideration, I decided to publish a 

 pamphlet, compiled from past experien- 

 ces, and the experiments of the best api- 

 arists of the present lime. 



Wintering, to most Northern bee-keep- 

 ers, is a serious subject, and has been for 

 the past four winters; and the probabili- 

 ties at present are that next winter will be 

 the most trying one yet known. 



But those south of the Mason & Dixon 

 line have not yet felt the pangs of losing 

 their bees; still, I shall not be surprised 

 to learn of some new disease even there. 

 There are few disputes on wintering, yet 

 there are as manj' plans practiced as there 

 are patent hives. 



The summer of 1871 was an excellent 

 one for honey, and I succeeded so well 

 that I bought "several colonies and decid- 

 ed to keep bees instead of dosing pills, 

 but in the winter of 1871 and 1872 some 

 disasters occurred, and I set about to 

 meet them and make amends in the 

 spring. I began different plans for 

 springing, and commenced a series of ex- 

 periments to learn for myself how to suc- 

 ceed. In the meantime I met with some 

 sad losses. 



In December, 1872, I found that a good 

 many bees died, and many had the dys- 

 entery. Many were not aware that their 

 bees were so badly diseased and starving 

 until I called attention to it; to their sur- 

 prise they found that not one-half of them 

 would winter through. I bought a large 

 number of weak hives, and several hun- 

 dred pounds of empty comb. When I 

 got my bees home I found several dis- 

 eased and many starving. Now, what to 

 do; was the question. 



Deceiiber 26th was a line day ; I then 

 attempted to feed them, but that night it 

 became colder; they were full and still 

 eating. To raise the temperature, in the 

 morning I put some of them in the cel- 

 lar and wrapped a portion of them with 



carpets; I put ten in my room and the 

 rest on their summer stands. All those 

 in the room and part of those in the 

 cellar had disease. In the room, I kept 

 the temperature at fiO degrees. I saw 

 they must have a flight and discharge the 

 feces, but the temperature outside was 20 

 degrees above zero, and in the cellar it 

 was 84 degrees. 1 let some out in my 

 room, and they went against the glass and 

 perished. 



Jan. 1st, 1878, I made a glass box, 4 

 feet square on the end and ten feet long, 

 l)ut it in a warm room and set a hive on 

 it; they flew out finely, discharged, went 

 back and remained quiet. All that show- 

 ed any signs of disease, I treated in thi 

 same way, and lost but one hive. Durmf 

 the next spring, I made a glass house ^T 

 fly my bees in, which lias since be! 

 called the "Bidwejl cold frame," whi( 

 he discovered in the beginning of 1874. 

 Up to April, 187:5, I had lost (;nly one 

 hive, but the next day I lost nine, by be- 

 ing robbed while from home. 



I bought more in Feb., 1874 — five with 

 dysentery and three with foul brood. The 

 first I put in clean hives with clean comb; 

 I soaked the combs in tepid water for 24 

 hours, then rinsed them by pouring ■wat( 

 on the combs from an elevation of six 

 feet; I let them dry in a room and they 

 were as good as ever. Those with foul 

 brood I put in a solution — of rainwater, 

 one gallon, carbolic acid, one half ounce 

 — mixed and put in a wooden vessel. I 

 uncapped the brood, put the combs in the 

 solution and placed closely, so as to cov- 

 er them; I left them in for 24 hours, and 

 then took them out and put them in the 

 extractor, and threw out the brood. I 

 then returned the combs to a new solu- 

 tion and left them in 12 hours, and then 

 extracted again. I then rinsed them as I 

 did the others having dysentery, and dried 

 in a room ; when dry, I fumigated them 

 with burning tar smoke. 



Foul brood, in all the cases that I ob- 

 served, was caused by excessive cold, and 

 the fetid air from those already dead 

 caused a continuation of the disease in 

 the same hive How long it would con- 

 tinue to spread, I am unable to say. 

 Combs from hives with dysentery can 

 easily be cleaned and used again withou 

 danger, but I would not advise any one to 

 clean those having foul brood, although 

 I used combs from hives that had foul 

 brood, and did not see any evil results; 

 still, it is not safe. 



Cold produces dysentery in most cases, 

 but not in all. I gave dysentery to two 

 hives by feeding sorghum molasses, and 

 afterwards saw five hives dead that had 

 been fed sorghum. I heard that it would 

 do so, and it proved to be true. I pro- 

 duced it in another fine hive by feeding 

 "candied honey;'" the honey became thin, 

 fermented slightly, and (as it always does) 



