lsiiy 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



465 



plan of increasing and queen-rearing,- previous- 

 ly described, eight years ago, in Cuba, while 

 handling 400 and 500 colonies in one apiary 

 where foul brood was plentiful, and I got fine 

 queens, and have used the plan ever since ; 

 and for fine queens I think I get the best that 

 can be had, for the labor given, if not the best 

 ones that can be had with more elaborate man- 

 ipulation. Any way they give entire satisfac- 

 tion, and have for years. They seem to me to 

 be as good as queens reared by the Doolittle 

 plan, except at times just after a honey-flow. 

 Then I have to do considerable culling in or- 

 der to get large ones that will mate quickly; 

 and quick mating I believe to be the best evi- 

 dence in regard to the quality of a queen. If 

 she begins laying very young I know I've got 

 a good queen, without even seeing her. 



By the way, while on the queen subject, I 

 will mention a plan adopted while handling 

 hundreds of foul-brood colonies ; that is, to 

 make a cut across the base of each queen-cell 

 with the little blade of a sharp cell-knife, cut- 

 ting across the cell; and while the knife is in 

 the cut I tip the blade enough to open the in- 

 cision sufficiently to take a good peep at the 

 royal inmate, to ascertain whether or not she 

 is all right as to size and shape, and stage of 

 development as well, before inserting her in 

 the hive that she is to be the future mother of. 

 By thus doing you will often save the expense 

 of having to hunt up a worthless queen that 

 has failed to begin laying at the proper age. 



As to closing up the cut, or peep-hole, you 

 have made in the cell, that is easily done 

 Mash the cut nicely together, then seal with a 

 hot smoker. The bottom seam of the fire-box 

 is best. With it, one delicate touch or two 

 will do the job up so nicely that the bees nev- 

 er bother the scar on the cell. 



The plan above is essential in handling cells 

 reared in foul-brood apiaries, for at least h?.lf 

 of them are only empty coffins with decayed 

 bodies in them, instead of live queens. Dr. 

 Miller, the race of bees has possibly more to 

 do with " nine- tenths of them returning to 

 the old hive" than location does, possibly. I 

 have received comments on my expansion ar- 

 ticle, from Waco, Texas, to Oregon, and from 

 Oregon to Pennsylvania, and a good many of 

 the writers seem "to be delighted with the ex- 

 pansion letter on page 160, above referred to, 

 and say it is the best that they have ever seen 

 on forming nuclei. One bee-keeper is oblig- 

 ing enough to send me his plan of forming 

 nuclei, with drawings to illustrate ; but boiled 

 down it is simply this (and it may prove valu- 

 able to many): Arrange your empty hives 

 around the colony to be formed into nuclei, in 

 a circle (horseshoe-like entrances to the in- 

 side); then divide the parent colony into the 

 seven or eight hives standing in the horseshoe 

 circle. Divide equally if possible, then move 

 the old hive clear away, and the bees, says the 

 writer, will keep about equally divided; and 

 if too many should get into one hive, trade 

 places with the weakest one, and continue 

 swapping enough to keep them about even in 

 bees for a week or so. 



As to queens for his plan, he says you can 

 use any method j ou prefer for your cells. I 



would give the writer's name, but I gave his 

 letter to one of my bee-boys, and it is now out 

 of pocket, to my regret. 



I am glad to see that Rambler, No. 165, has 

 stumbled on to another remedy for foul brood, 

 and hope it will prove very valuable ; and as 

 you ask for some one in position to try the 

 plan, I can name the young man, and he is 

 one of ability too; and, besides, he is no other 

 than our friend Mr. Fred Craycraft ; and for 

 his sweetheart's sake I am sure he will do his 

 best to make the plan a success, as her papa's 

 bees are in a terrible condition, all being rot- 

 ten with foul brood. Now, Fred, I know you 

 will excuse me for the joke; but as the old 

 gentleman has only 30 hives, and they in al- 

 most a garden of Eden, when it comes to 

 beauty, shade, and a variety of vegetation, 

 just think of 31 rows of sugar-cane contain- 

 ing 31 distinct varieties. Such a lovely place 

 to try an experiment ! and such delightful sur- 

 roundings that I am sure Mr. Craycraft could 

 cure all thirty of those infected colonies, and 

 thus demonstrate the real value of the Ram- 

 bler's foul-brood remedy. 



I see from Mr. Stachelhausen's note, page 

 315, that it is very probable that Mr. Pedro 

 Casanova was mistaken in saying foul brood 

 came through Mr. Jones, from Canada. He 

 says Dr. Dzierzon, in 1848, infected his apiary 

 with the disease by feeding Cuban honey. It 

 is very probable he is correct, as foul brood 

 now is thoroughly scattered over Havana 

 Province. I have known over a thousand col- 

 onies to die of it in that Province in the last 

 ten years, and on my last trip I saw more than 

 one apiary so badly affected as to be worthless 

 when it came to storing honey. 



As to curing the disease in Cuba, I will tell 

 soon what I know about it. 



Navasota, Tex., Apr. 24. 



EXPERIENCE IN WINTERING. 



BY HARRY LATHROP. 



1 he past winter has been one to test our 

 methods of wintering bees quite severely. My 

 loss is about 12)4 per cent, including some 

 that were wintered outside with no protection 

 except dry packing on top. These were in 

 two story Dovetailed hives with plenty of seal- 

 ed stores in the upper story, front end of hive 

 raised up from bottom-board one inch by in- 

 serting little blocks so as to leave a deep en- 

 trance in front, a long V-shaped opening on 

 each side, and bottom sloping so as to carry^ 

 off water. 



There was so much said last year by Dr. 

 Gallup and others about wintering in cold cli- 

 mates, with no protection, by having large 

 free entrances, that I was induced to try six 

 colonies that way. Three of them lived 

 through and are in good condition; the other 

 three are stone dead, with no lack of honey. 



I find it is necessary to remove the covers 

 from Dovetailed hives while in the cellar, and 

 substitute quilts, even with a deep space under 

 the frames, and a large entrance ; otherwise 

 moisture will accumulate in the hive. While 



