THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Chas. Dadaiit having warned against 

 the dangers of setting bees out of the cel- 

 lar without taking the precautions of do- 

 ing the work a little at a time, and set- 

 ting each colon)' on its old stand, Dr. 

 Miller mixes in (in French), to the effect 

 that impure air in the cellar is the only 

 reason for the swarming out and con- 

 fusion and loss sometimes experienced 

 when bees are set out. He has wintered 

 his bees in a cellar 37 years, not taking 

 the precautions mentioned in returning 

 them to the yard, without any such dis- 

 asters. But on the evening before the 

 day on which the bees are set out, the 

 doors and windows of his cellar are open- 

 ed wide remaining so all night. Mr. Da- 

 dant had also said that when th? temper- 

 ature of the cellar goes beyond 46° , the 

 bees are in continual motion, quitting the 

 hives in great numbers and perishing in 

 going to the least ray of light admitted 

 by the ventilator. Dr. Miller has not 

 had that experience with higher temper- 

 atures, and accounts for the fact by the 

 purity of the air in his cellar. 



Some put a sheet of paper on the bot- 

 tom-board in the fall, in order to facilitate 

 cleaning in spring. Ulrich Gubler says 

 the number of dead bees on this paper is 

 always less in hives wintered in the open 

 air than in hives arranged pigeon-hole 

 style in a closed pavilion. 



The same writer reports that most of 

 his hives which were turned to the south 

 had brood in all stages at the beginning 

 of January, and in February he found as 

 many as 60 eggs per hive on the sheets of 

 paper he put on his bottom-boards. He 

 considers this precocity prejudicial to the 

 proper development of the colony in May 

 and June. Several other writers in this 

 paper favor a northern position for the 

 entrance. 



M. Gubler also advises all who can put 

 their hives under shelter not to paint 

 them. His experience for a number of 

 years has been that colonies in hives not 

 painted winter nmch better. 



Another cure of a bad case of foul brood 

 with powdered camphor is reported; also 

 one with formic acid. 



It has been found that the sunflower 

 {Heliaut/is annmes ) is injurious to bees, 

 says Adam Sonsiedsky, but he does not 

 say wh)'. 



Pastor Michael, who regularly practices 

 migratory bee-keeping with his 200 colo- 

 nies in the mountains of Switzerland, has 

 found that in most localities more than 

 25 or 30 colonies will not do well; al- 

 though in our locality, a buckwheat re- 

 gion, 150 to 200 colonies at once get 

 enough for their living. An average 

 yield in an average season he puts at 18 

 lbs. per colony. 



It was a pet theory of mine, based on 

 some facts, that swarms took a year or 

 two to develope to their ultimate strength. 

 For some conclusions based on this, Mr. 

 _C. Davenport, of Southern Minnesota, 

 took me rather sharpl}' to task. I was 

 gratified, therefore, to see the statement 

 made by Abbe' Boyer: "M. de Layens 

 has written that the movable-comb hive 

 does not enter upon its full strength un- 

 til the third year. " It is a little provok- 

 ing to have to add that Chas. Dadant says 

 "We have never noticed the slightest 

 difference, in the following spring, be- 

 tween swarms of the preceding year 

 and old colonies, if the queens are 

 equally prolific, " and Editor Bertrand 

 says "In spring the population of swarms 

 hived the preceding year is equal to 

 other colonies, and the yield of these 

 swarms depends only on the prolificness 

 of their queens during the first part of 

 the season. We have observed this a 

 hundred times." Possibly the reason 

 for the discrepancy of opinions lies in the 

 new coml)s which some swarms build, 

 and the old combs in whole or in part 

 given to others, since good authorities 

 notice a difference in the wintering and 

 springing qualities of new and old combs. 



Editor Bertrand says the excessive 

 swarming propensity of the Carniolans 

 disappears in a few generations if thej^ 

 are put in hives larger than the little flat 

 l)oxes in use in their native country. 



"In adopting the Dadant-Blatt hive [a 

 large hive] I hoped to be no longer com- 



