732 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



hive— sometimes all three or less. It did beat all 

 how they would cluster in front of another hive, 

 and then, like the dog in the manger, neither do 

 any thing themselves nor let anybody else do. 

 " Well, that is fiinnj'," was my e.xasperated e.xcla- 

 mation, a dozen or so times during the progress of 

 these proceedings. Now I found out that many of 

 uiy absconders were hived on empty frames. In- 

 deed, I had ceased to put any old comb into the 

 hives, before the swarming and absconding fever 

 had reached its height. My bubble theory had 

 burst. Several of my baby-swarms 1 put back, and 

 half of them stayed. Of course, two or more swarms 

 often went together. I would hive them together— 

 it was the best I could do. Several times such a 

 colony became queenless. I think this was because 

 one queen was a layer and the other a virgin, and 

 the bees of each swarm balled the queen pf the oth- 

 er. 



One of the hottest days— hot in more ways than 

 one— a swarm settled high up and far out on a hick- 

 ory limb out in the pasture. Soon another clustered 

 on a young apple-tree. I was preparing to hive the 

 one I could get at easiest, when another started to 

 settle with it. I wrapped my sheet around it and 

 held it there awhile, sweating at the same time. 

 But I suppose the queen got ahead of me, for those 

 bees would not stop any whei-e else. I had no time 

 to waste, so I gave it up. After they had settled, I 

 shook them down on to the sheet. In the meantime 

 my high-minded swarm had adjourned to the end of 

 a lofty limb of another hickory in the other pasture 

 on the opposite side of the apiary (some time after- 

 ward I saw another swarm make a similar change 

 of lodgings). I was lugging my step-ladder, hive, 

 sheet, and long - handled pruning - knife to their 

 settlement, when 1 beheld them all at once move 

 down to the front of another hive, the occupants of 

 which did not know what to do with them.eelves. I 

 thought that was as funny doings as bees could do. 

 But the two swarms down by the apple-sprout did 

 funnier still. When I came back to them they had 

 blackened that big ten-frame two story hive. I did 

 not move them— it was not worth while, even if I 

 could. 



The next morning 1 walked down the path just in 

 time to see a swarm rise and start off. But in a min- 

 ute another swarm issued from the hive, and anoth- 

 er swarm sailed oft' about twenty paces behind the 

 flr.:jt, and the two moved like a funeraT procession 

 down the fence-row. As I stoo^ and watched this 

 proceeding I thought, "Surely not many an old 

 apiarist has seen such a show as that." It was the 

 funniest caper I had beheld them cut. I had to run 

 in and tell mother. 



Do folks ask, "Why did you not hunt out the 

 queen, divide the swarm, clip her wings, cut out 

 cells? or do this or that or the other, or something 

 else?" Now, I do not want to take six sheets, in 

 addition to what I have written, to tell why. But 

 imagine, if you will, a little, nervous, dyspeptic fel- 

 low, with back and limbs perpetually getting the 

 aches, muscles as soft as those of a sweet-sixteen so- 

 ciety girl, joints so stiff and sore that, after sitting 

 .at the dinner-table twenty minutes when he meant 

 to take only ten, he would get up and start off like a 

 buck-kneed string-halt colt; supers getting full, 

 weeds and sour docks growing that he did want so 

 much to get shut oft'; letters lying unanswered, etc., 

 and it may be not as much senxe as Heddon or Root. 

 I tell .you, it was easier to .sfl.y than do. Vou see, a 



weakling can nc-t do as well, even at bee-keeping, 

 as a stout healthy man. Geo. F. Bobbins, .57—93. 

 Mechanicsburg, III., Aug. 20, 188C. 



Why, friend R., yoii did have " business " 

 in real earnest, did you not? What queer 

 opinions we often ^tt from reading tlie let- 

 ters of our correspondents! Somehow I had 

 got tlie idea that you were a great big man. 

 like Doolittle and some of the others. One 

 of my besetting sins is to make great prep- 

 arations, in the way of business, for booms 

 that never come to pass ; but once in a while 

 I happen to hit it, and then you do not 

 know how I enjoy having plenty of every 

 thing ready to take care of the business when 

 it does come. I, too, am small, and not very 

 strong, and quite often nervous and dyspep- 

 tic ; but the stout, healthy men do not al- 

 ways move things very much further or very 

 much faster than I do ; so take heart, friend 

 R.; the victory is not always to the strong. — 

 By the way, you did not tell us how much 

 money you made, after all your trials and 

 tribulations had been passed through. I 

 think you have learned something by expe- 

 rience, and next time you will probably find 

 youiself a little cooler, and a little more 

 master of the situation. 



FOUL BROOD. 



does it ever ofitoinate j^'rom overheating 

 thh; brood? 



ilfCTHEN a bee-keeper finds foul brood among 

 ''' his bees, about the first thing he thinks of 

 is. How did it come there? About the 

 first of June, 1874, I bought of N. N. Bet- 

 singer, then at Marcellus Falls, four 

 swarms of bees. The frames of brood and bees 

 were put into boxes, which were prepared for that 

 purpose by making a snuiU hole in each end, with 

 wire screen over them. The day we went after 

 them we had to wear our overcoats, it was so cold 

 riding. We stayed over night. Next morning we 

 put the bees in the boxes early in the morning, 

 and started for home, about 30 miles. The sun 

 came up bright and clear, and proved as much too 

 warm for comfort as the day before had been too 

 cool. With our calls and journey, the bees were 

 shut in the boxes all day, and let out after sun 

 down; with the warm weather outside, and the 

 closeness of the boxes, a few of the combs (which 

 were old ones, with very little honey in them) 

 broke from the frames. In about 30 days I found 

 foul brood in all of the four swarms. Later on 1 

 saw Mr. Betsinger. He said the bees were all 

 right when we left his place; I also saw the bees 

 and brood when Mr. Betsinger put them in the 

 boxes, and saw nothing wrong about them then. 

 Evidently the foul brood was caused by the great 

 heat in the boxes, together with the neglect of the 

 bees, through the day, to care for the xuisealed 

 bi-ood. 



Two of- the young queens that were in other 

 swarms, an<l mated that summer in my apiary, had 

 this peculiarity about them. Some of the larva?, 

 when about ready for the bees to seal over, died 

 in the cells: also some that ivere sealed over, and 

 were formed bees with legs on them, died; but, 

 unlike foul brood, this dead brood was only where 

 the two queens were, and was not contagious. 



