January, 1909. 



American l^ae Journal 



1 cured all of my colonies in 1875 were 

 all of my own working out. I never 

 got any instructions from any one. My 

 methods of curing diseased apiaries, 

 which I have so often written up, are 

 too well known to need repeating. Big 

 crops of honey have followed my curing 

 in all parts of the Province. I will here 

 mention two of these. 



In 1888, I myself cured 40 colonies 

 for Mr. James Marshall, of Binbrook, 

 that had foul brood, and in 1889 he took 

 8,000 pounds of extracted honey and in- 

 creased to 62 colonics. 



In 1898, I cured an apiary for Mr. J. 

 B. Hall, of Woodstock, and in that same 

 summer he took an average of 140 sec- 

 tions of comb honey per colony, and 

 left his bees abundance of honey to 

 winter on. 



Before, and for several years after, 

 I was appointed inspector, foul brood 

 colonies were shipped in the most whole- 

 sale way into 37 counties in our Prov- 

 ince, and from these the disease spread 

 to nearly all the apiaries in the localities 

 it was shipped into. The people had to 

 be taught how to cure, and I was in 

 duty bound to give the bee-keepers every 

 possible cliance to do so — and did. To 

 Mr. Gemmill belongs the credit for sav- 

 ing the whole bee-industry of Ontario, 

 because, if he had not taken hold and 

 got his Foul Brood Act passed when he 

 did, the disease would have destroyed 

 nearly every apiary in the 37 counties 

 which I found it in. 



The springs and foreparts of the sum- 

 mers of 1889, 1895, 1907 and 1908 have 

 been followed by a lot of dead brood 

 being found in many localities in On- 

 tario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and also 

 in very many parts of the United States. 

 This class of dead brood is the result 

 of the seasons, kind of bees, and neglect 

 of man. 



I was pleased to hear Mr. House, of 

 New York, come out so strong in our 

 convention in favor of the "yellow 

 bees." I judge that Mr. Wright, who is 

 one of the inspectors for New York, is 

 also an advocate of Italians for keeping 

 brood-chambers clean and free from 

 dead brood. I never found any race of 

 bees that was as good as pure Italians 

 to feed their brood. The following let- 

 ter which I received shows the good 

 work that Mr. Wright is doing in the 

 black brood district in New York State. 

 I intended to go fully into the classes of 

 dead brood found in so many places, but 

 it would lake too nuich space here. I 

 must leave it till another time. 



Woodburn, N. Y. 



.'Ni.TAMONT. N. v., Oct. 31, 1908 

 VVm. McEvoy, Woodburn. Ont. — 



Mv Dear Mr. McEvoy: — Yours of Oct. 26 

 was (Inly received. 



In reply I will say that the case of "Euro- 

 pean Foul Brood" (formerly "black- brood") 

 which I mentioned to you as having been suc- 

 cessfully treated was this: The parly had an 

 apiary of 44 colonies badly affected. The bees 

 were hybrids (a mixture of Italian and black 

 races). They were sliaken twice, the latter 

 part of Tune or first of July. The last time 

 on full sheets of foundation, and all Italianized 

 soon afterward. (I forgot to mention lliat 

 they were dotibled down to 22 colonies at the 

 time of shaking.) The season proved very 

 poor in that locality, so that the shaken colo- 

 nies stored but little surplus, but filled up 

 nicely for winter. This was in T907. I.ast 

 spring the aforementioned colonies (22) came 

 out in good condition, have been increased to 

 44 colonies, and gave 2,500 pounds of comb 



honey, which is the largest yield I have heard 

 of this year in York State. No disease has 

 been discovered in tliis apiary this season. 



I also had another case this season treated 

 iTi the same way. about June 1st. Apiary con- 

 tained 70 colonies: about half were diseased, 

 but owner concluded to make a clean sweep, 

 and treated them all, reducing nmnber of colo- 

 nies to 50. These have given fairly good re- 

 sults in surplus, and no recurrence of the dis- 

 ease. The honey-yield in that section was 

 light this season. 



I am sorry that there is any friction be- 

 tween the Canadian brethern, but I find that 

 an inspector will sometimes incur the dislike — 

 if not the hatred — of a certain bee-keeper, es- 

 pecially where it becomes necessary to resort 

 to extreme measures. Nevertheless, duty, with 

 us, must stand before friendship. 



I am very glad to have met you and so many 

 other Canadians at Detroit, and hope to meet 

 you all again. 



Very truly yours, 



W. D. WulcilT. 



loutfierii 



,i^l 



Conducted by LOUIS H. SCHOLL, New Braunfels. Tex. 



Some Big Southern Bee-Keepers. 



Mr. Louis H. Scholl: — That 40.000-pound 

 crop beats me some. I might have had as 

 great a honey-harvest had I devote^ my en- 

 tire time to it, but I placed nearly one car 

 of bee-supplies, reared and sold nearly 400 

 queens, packed and shipped about 60 colonies 

 of bees, and made about 300 colonies increase. 

 I have taken off about 20,000 pounds of 

 chunk and extracted honey, and have about 

 3,000 pounds more to take off. I have done 

 all the work except extracting. My bees are 

 in 16 apiaries about 3 miles apart, and from 

 50 to 100 colonies in aai apiary. 



Some few bee-keepers in the South may 

 have realized a large amount of profit from 

 their bees, but I materially doubt whether any 

 one has done more work than I have. 



All my apiaries are arranged within 15 

 miles of my home, except 2, which are on 

 the railroad, 25 and 30 miles away. Four 

 apiaries are 15 miles away, and it takes 4 

 trips to get around, and during the rush I 

 was to the extreme apiary by sun-up, ready 

 for work. From this apiary I made my round 

 back iiome, and it was about 9 o'clock when 

 I arrived. I find that I can handle a few 

 more colonies each year by learning shorter 

 cuts, and that the greater number of colonies 

 operated, the greater the profit. 



I have visited all the leading bee-keepers 

 for 200 miles around, this season, who have 

 not visited me, and we have had a good time 

 giving the little honey-bee much consideration. 

 Our bee-keepers are not enterprising enough; 

 too willing to sit down with a few bees. 

 Then they have not been considerate enough 

 in locating. Only a few bee-keepers are 

 branching out or establishing an extensive 

 bee-business- Only a few are following it as 

 a sole occupation- But as a side-issue it is 

 making progress in almost all sections. I 

 think Texas is adding to her list of "big" 

 bee-keepers continually. I wish we had a 

 few over here to wake us up, for we are 

 surely sleeping over our rights. 



Crisp Co., Ga. J. J. Wildi-r. 



All the big bee-keepers are not in 

 Texas, for you've done well, too, "for a 

 Georgian." Since making the 40,000- 

 pound report, we had a good late sum- 

 mer and fall flow, which increased our 

 own crop to over 50,000 pounds. Be- 

 sides, over 10,000 pounds of extracted 

 honey was bought to pack with a great 

 part of the above honey, which was 

 mostly comb honey, and then sold again 

 as bulk comb honey. I might say, how- 

 ever, that about 6000 pounds of the 

 above crop could not be taken off, as I 

 was engaged two months with exhibit 

 work, as superintendent of the apiarian 

 department of our large fairs, and it 

 was too late and cool to extract. As 

 we must arrange for an output of at 

 least 75,000 pounds of honey to supply 

 our demand this year, the honey now on 



the hives will be turned into several 

 hundred colonies of increase. 



Our aim is not how much we can do, 

 but how much profit we can make while 

 doing it. We had the help of several 

 inexperienced young men several times 

 during the season, amounting all in all 

 to about 3 or 4 months. But we also 

 find, as you do, that a person can handle 

 a few more colonies each year by learn- 

 ing short cuts. Therefore, Mr. Hutch- 

 inson well says that "more bees" will 

 mix better with bees than anything else. 

 This is a valuable point. That visiting 

 of those bee-keepers is another valuable 

 point. Such letters as these, giving one's 

 experience generally, have a stimulating 

 effect, hence are valuable. 



Holy Land and Cyprian Bees — 

 Three-Band Italians Best. 



Are the Holy Land and Cyprian bees 

 the best all-purpose bees for the average 

 bee-keeper? 



This could be answered with one 

 little word, "No." The Holy Land and 

 Cyprian races of bees, from their ir- 

 ritability, in my opinion, can never be- 

 come favorites with the bee-keeping 

 world. Never can they be classed as 

 all-purpose bees. After 2 years' ex- 

 perience handling a yard of Cyprians 

 and their crosses, they were discarded. 

 Their stinging punishment was simply 

 unbearable. However, these were fine 

 honey-gatherers, strong breeders, and 

 extra prolific. 



Five years later, on the recommenda- 

 tion of a friend, I procured from a 

 breeder in the United States, a half- 

 dozen queens of the Holy Land race, 

 fearing lest those, too, like their cousins, 

 the Cyprians, might be too obstreperous 

 for comfortable manipulation. The bees 

 were tested very carefully for the first 

 season, and, finding that they lacked 

 much of the vicious temper of the Cyp- 

 rians, and seeing much of merit in 

 these bees, by careful handling were 

 very satisfactory, both in temper and 

 results. 



In later years a fresh iinportation 

 came from Jerusalem. From this im- 

 ported mother, without thorough testing, 

 a l?-rge number of young queens were 



