JANUARY 1, 1914 



advanced to show that they can be saved 

 when alTected with American foul broo'l. 

 While a vigorous strain of Italians is more 

 immune to this disease, yet unless one 

 exercises due precaution American foul 

 brood can cause fearful havoc among them, 

 On the olher hand, it may be said that 

 the shaking treatment, if care is exercised, 

 is generally efficacious in treating Ameri- 

 can foul brood. 



BROOD-REARING IN ONE OP OUR BEE-CELLARS. 



Elsewhere in this issue (page 27) we 

 I'efer to certain experiments in giving bees 

 liard candy as a winter food. Our Mr. 

 Pritchard, who is looking after our bees in 

 the cellar, reports (Dec. 27) that in the 

 upper cellar (under the machine-shop) the 

 bees are breeding very heavily. The tem- 

 perature stands at about 52. There will 

 doubtless be considerable increase in the 

 strength of the colonies in this cellar. There 

 are very few dead bees on the cellar bottom. 

 Tlie bees are quiet, but brood-rearing is go- 

 ing on at a lively pace. This is probably 

 due to the fact that the moderate weather 

 before the bees were put into the cellar, and 

 the candy feeding, as explained elsewhere, 

 had started brood-rearing outdoors. The 

 disturbance incident to putting the bees in 

 the cellar, and supplying them with hard 

 dry candy, has stirred them up still more, 

 with the result that brood-rearing is going 

 on as heavily as ever, even in the cellar. 

 Queens are laying, even in the colonies hav- 

 ing nothing but natural stores. 



It will be remembered that we had one 

 yard of bees that we put in the cellar a year 

 ago last December that was in poor condi- 

 tion. The colonies were weak, and we put 

 them inside, as we felt sure they would die 

 if left outdoors. We supplied some of them 

 with hard candy; but those with candy and 

 those without began to breed. The bumping 

 on the sled in moving had stirred them up. 

 so that the bees were clustered all over the 

 front of the hives when they Avere placed in 

 the cellar. Naturally one would think this 

 would spell disaster — that the bees would 

 never quiet down again, and that the result 

 would be dysentery and death. But these bees 

 began to rear brood, and kept it up all win- 

 ter; and when we took them out in the 

 spring they were strong colonies instead of 

 being two and three frame nuclei as when 

 they went in. 



Well, now the same process is going on 

 this winter in the upper cellar, for we just 

 overhauled the bees and found brood in all 

 stages in all the colonies, and here it is just 

 the close of December. Brood-rearing may 

 be going on in the other cellar, but we have 

 not yet investigated to find out. More anon. 



bees and poultry; the combination of 



THE two vs. either ONE ALONE. 



In this issue will be found considerable 

 matter from beekeepers who are also poul- 

 try-keepers, discussing the combination of 

 bees and cloickens, and the poultry business 

 as a sole means of livelihood. Some interest- 

 ing evidence is produced, showing that the 

 combination of bees and poulti-y goes well 

 together. When the work is most active 

 among chickens in the winter and early 

 spring, the bees are dormant, requiring little 

 or no attention; and when the work is most 

 pressing among the bees, in the late spring, 

 summer, and fall, the conditions are such 

 that the chickens can to a large extent find 

 their own feed — especially so if they can 

 have the range of a yard or a farm. 



One fact has been brought out; and that 

 is, that the average farmer can raise eggs 

 and chickens for market cheaper than the 

 man who makes the business a specialty. 

 When chickens are confined in yards they 

 must be fed regularly balanced rations, and 

 this feed costs money. On the other hand, 

 when the hens have the run of the barn- 

 yard, or the whole farm, in fact, they can 

 find their own feed. The bugs and insects, 

 many of them injurious, are numerous 

 enough in the ground to make up an impor- 

 tant part of their diet. Under such condi- 

 tions the poultry business will yield com- 

 paratively large returns. It is during the 

 warm part of the year that bees require 

 most attention. 



We know of numbers of people who run 

 a small farm in connection with bees. On 

 tliis farm they have a large number of 

 chickens and 200 colonies of bees, say. The 

 whole combination, especially if not remote 

 from a good market, will yield good returns. 



Apparently, from the testimony given in 

 this issue, keeping more chickens is not as 

 profitable as keeping more bees. There are 

 hundreds and hundreds of beekeepers who 

 have anywhere from 300 to 500 colonies, 

 and not a few who have as many as a thou- 

 sand or more. The fact that these men have 

 been in the business, are staying in it, shows 

 they are making a living; and if we may 

 judge by the comfortable homes, by the au- 

 tomobiles and other home conveniences that 

 some of these large honey-producers have, 

 the business of honey production on a large 

 scale is more profitable than the exclusive 

 business of producing eggs for market in 

 a large way. 



Mr. J. E. Hand, on the other hand, a type 

 of the other kind, is not only a successful 

 beekeeper but a successful ponlti-yman. He 

 is running a combination of the two, year 

 in and year out. While he deals with only 



