1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



179 



weeks ago and wished me to ask Mr. 

 Heddon, through the Bee Journal, 

 to tell us first what bacteria in the 

 hone; is. and how we could ascertain 

 its presence in the honey, so that we 

 could detect it. and not try to winter 

 our bees on boney infected with it. But 

 1 see by the BEE JOURNAL for May 4. 

 that he (II.) never saw this supposed 



bacteria, nor never searched for it. hence 

 knows nothing about it. It is said a 

 drowning man will catch at a straw, so 

 we. who have lost bees so heavily, are 

 ready to grasp at anything that has a 

 showing of success, but that showing 

 must lie plain enough so that we can at 

 least catch a glimpse of it. 

 Borodino, X. Y.. May 23, 1881. 



For tho American Boo Journal. 



" The Straw Hive of the Future." 



H. L. CHAPMAN. 



Although an amateur in the bee-bus- 

 iness, I have long been of the opinion 

 that a straw hive or its equal was the 

 proper hive for bees in winter or sum- 

 mer, in any climate ; but do not think I 

 should like the arrangement of plaster- 

 coating the inside of the hive, as it is of 

 so cold a nature that it would be liable 

 to condense the moisture in the hive in 

 winter, which I consider very objec- 

 tionable. 



In this vicinity there has heen a 

 rather sad experience with bees during 

 the last, winter ; they were shut up so 

 long (110 days), without a day that they 

 could tiy ; then 2 days warm enough so 

 that they flew a little ; thus 14 days 

 more of confinement before winter 

 broke up. There were 1 parties here 

 having in all 119 strong colonies of bees 

 put up for winter in different kinds of 

 hives, as follows, as nearly as 1 can rec- 

 ollect : 9 cottage hives, 20 Langstroth, 

 28 Thorp hive, which is very much like 

 the American in form ; 2 in Root's chaff 

 hive ; 30 in box hives, and 30 in the new 

 Haines hive, which is a long hive with 

 10 frames across it, partition boards 

 and chaff packing in the ends, behind 

 the partitions; the frames are 12x12 

 inches. The chaff hive which I make 

 and use, I call the Root hive, although 

 it differs in a few points. It has dou- 

 ble walls all around, and a double bot- 

 tom ; the space should be filled with 

 chaff, but as I had no.chaff I tilled one 

 with fine drv pine sawdust, and from 

 the showing last winter, I believe it is a 

 better absorbent of moisture than chaff. 

 The brood chamber is exactly like the 

 Langstroth; the upper story is square 

 inside, and is deep enough to take in 

 the Langstroth frame above the brood 

 chamber; this space I filled with a cof- 

 fee sack of pine sawdust, which is all 

 the preparation I made for winter, leav- 

 ing them on the summer stands. The 

 others were put up in different ways : 

 some were put in cellars, some housed, 

 some packed with straw, etc., and left 

 on the summer stands. However, the 

 2 colonies in the chaff hives were the 

 only ones that lived, the other 117 all 

 having died : the 10 frames of each of 

 those 2 colonies to-day are well filled 

 with brood and honey, and are very 

 strong. 



This I take as proof, that to winter 

 bees there must be some arrangement 

 whereby all moisture arising from the 

 bees can be absorbed, not condensed, 

 or carried off by upward ventilation ; 

 for in the latter case, the heat from the 

 bees is also carried away. I believe 

 that the brood chamber should also be 

 protected from the direct rays of sun, 

 both in summer and in winter, as it is a 

 well known fact that if too warm in 

 summer it retards the working of the 

 bees, and in winter the direct sun will 

 cause the bees to spread in warm days, 

 and even to fly when the atmosphere 

 is too cold ; the effect of the sun is 

 hardly noticeable in the double wall 

 hives, and the bees will not fly until 

 the atmosphere is sufficiently warm to 

 bring them out. For the above reasons 

 I believe that the only practical hive 

 for summer or winter, is one that will 

 protect the brood chamber from the di- 

 rect rays of the sun, and will also absorb 

 all moisture arising from the bees, be 

 that absorbent chaff, sawdust, straw or 

 any other substance that will do it ef- 

 fectually. I do not think I am preju- 



diced in favor Of the chaff hive, for I 

 would only be too glad if there could be 

 some other ami cheaper hive produced, 

 that would be so generally successful in 

 wintering, even though it hail none of 

 the other good points. There is no 

 question but that the Langstroth hive 

 is the htmdiesl hive ever invented. If 

 any one has heen unsuccessful in win- 

 tering bees in any hive during the past 

 winter. I should be glad to hear from 

 him in regard to the kind of hives, how 

 put up, etc. 

 Marcellus, Mich., May 30, 1881. 



For tho American Bee Jmirnal. 



Comb Foundation Making. 



.TAJIKS HEDDON. 



Mb. Editor : I send you some sam- 

 ples which are average pieces, made in 

 full sheets, on the Vandervoort mill. 

 I have here on trial 2 of these mills, one 

 for thick and one for thin foundation. 

 I prefer to make the thin on the mill 

 made for the thick, because I can get a 

 base nearly or quite as thin, and a much 

 better line in size and shape, besides 

 the line will be soft and easily worked 

 by the bees, because the cuts are so 

 deep between the dies that the wall in 

 the hive is not hard pressed. Could I 

 have had such comb foundation 12 years 

 ago I might live on the interest of my 

 accumulated wealth to-day, merely 

 from the honey-crops I could have 

 raised with the aid of such an adjunct. 



The statement of Prof. Cook, in his 

 " Manual," that " two men could roll 

 400 lbs. per day" (see page 206), has in- 

 duced me to write this. My 2 men are 

 at work "rolling," and about 100 lbs. of 

 heavy, and 60 to 75 of light, is the ex- 

 tent of 10 hours work tor them ; this 

 included all the getting-ready and 

 cleaning-up work, besides. I know 

 that we could and did put as high as 40 

 lbs. per hour (when we were all ready) 

 through the Root mill that we had, but 

 it ran easy and smooth and was the best 

 mill to manipulate I ever worked. The 

 only trouble was in the foundation, a 

 lot of which we tire re-rolling, after re- 

 melting and re-dipping. It is with foun- 

 dation, as with other things, the best 

 is reached with the most difficulty. 



Mrs. Dunham once made up 83 lbs. of 

 wax for me, and the print was excel- 

 lent (the best Dunham I have ever seen 

 in a lot), but she wrote me that she 

 earned the foundation making it. 



When the season is at a close and I 

 have given all these varieties of comb 

 foundation thorough trials, I will report 

 my success with them, giving the rea- 

 sons as they. appear to me, etc. 



Dowagiac, Mich., May 28, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Covered with Snow, Bacteria, Etc. 



J. F. KROPP. 



I have 7 colonies left, out of 38 win- 

 tered on the summer stands. Of these 

 an Italian colony, with a tested queen 

 (the only Italian colony I had) is in 

 good condition ; the other 6 are weak. 

 These 7 are the only ones that did not 

 have the dysentery. My bees were too 

 warm during the winter ; they were 

 covered by snow from the first week in 

 December until Feb. 10, this being a 

 mild day, I shoveled them out and 

 found the bees very uneasy ; 31 of the 

 hives were badly soiled. Feb. 27 I ex- 

 amined them again and found 2 colonies 

 dead and the most of the others were 

 strong in bees ; some of them had from 

 4 to 6 frames of capped brood (7 Gallup 

 frames). I had 20 colonies on loose chip 

 ground, 19 of these were among the 

 first that died, early in March ; the 

 other 18 on solid ground fared better ; 

 !,, of them are alive yet ; those on the 

 chip ground had the dysentery badly , 

 the hives were damp and the combs 

 moldy, with plenty of sour honey in 

 them. 



Out of 200 colonies in my neighbor- 

 hood there were, on May 1, 30 alive; 

 27 of these are in box hives, none less 

 than 11 inches deep; 16 colonies of these 

 belong to one man. which is J .< of all he 

 had last fall; all were in box hives; 

 they were on a bench 3 feet above the 



? round, with no protection whatever, 

 asked him what was the cause of his 



losing only I.,, while others around him 

 lost ally "I gave them 'vent' at the 

 top, in the fall ; I did not open t hen l all, 

 hut of those that arc (lead the most of 

 them had no 'vent." I bought 7 of these 

 colonies; they arc all strong in bees. I 

 found that they did have vent enough 

 — 600cubic inches of empty space in the 



cap above the bees, with 16 three-quar- 

 ter inch holes in the honey-board; some 

 of the hives had cracks in the covers. 

 How is this for upward ventilation ? 



These "bees must have consumed a 

 large quantity of "bacteria," having 

 used over 30 lbs of honey per colony. I 

 do not place much faith in Mr. Heddon 's 

 theory of vegetable matter or bacteria 

 in flu 1 food being the real cause of dys- 

 entery. I would ask : why did those 16 

 colonies came through without getting 

 the dysentery, while the others in the 

 same yard, and all the others in the 

 neighborhood, except 2 colonies, died of 

 dysentery ? If there were only a few 

 bees in a hive we might suppose that 

 some colonies might get the honey that 

 was not infected with bacteria. I think 

 that it is unreasonable to suppose that 

 all the bees of some colonies would 

 gather thin honey from trees or necta- 

 ries infected, while others would not, 

 even were the source infected that this 

 honey comes from but for a short time; 

 I doubt if all the bees of some colonies 

 would pass it by. 



Here is another case : 1 exchanged J| 

 of the combs of my Italian colony (they 

 had too much honey for winter) for % 

 the combs of another colony; this other 

 got the dysentery badly; why did not 

 the Italian colony get it, as they used 

 the same kind of honey ? 



I hope that we will find out the real 

 cause, and the prevention in a winter 

 like the past. The Weekly Bee Jour- 

 nal I highly appreciate. 



Varysburg, N. Y.,May IS, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Too Much Bee-Science. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



All intelligent-looking old gentleman 

 called on me the other day, stating that 

 he wanted my advise, as he understood 

 that I " knew considerable about bees.'' 

 I modestly admitted that I knew a lit- 

 tle about them, and he immediately 

 proceeded to set forth his case. He 

 had bought a colony of bees, a year ago, 

 in a box hive. They had swarmed, 

 and he had put the swarm in another 

 box hive. During the past winter the 

 young colony had died, but the old one 

 was alive and well. The box they were 

 in was very dilapidated, so much so, 

 that it would hardly hold together. He 

 wanted to get them into a better habi- 

 tation. How should he do it '{ If he 

 put a good, new box over the affair, 

 would the bees have the sense to see 

 that it was a more desirable home for 

 them, and remove into it V I told him 

 they would not. What then should he 

 do ? The old box would soon tumble 

 to pieces ; hence he was in a great di- 

 lemma. I explained to him the pro- 

 cess of transferring. It was all Greek 

 to him. He "never heard of the like 

 before." After much talk and reflec- 

 tion, he concluded that there was too 

 much science about the job " for him to 

 undertake it. I gave him a brief sum- 

 mary of the principles of modern bee- 

 keeping, showed him a movable frame 

 hive, set forth its many advantages, 

 told him all about extracting, queen- 

 rearing, artificial swarming, etc. He 

 became the picture of despair. There 

 was "too much science" about the 

 thing from beginning to end. I tried to 

 persuade him to get a good manual of 

 bee-keeping, to subscribe for a bee-pe- 

 riodical, and become thoroughly posted 

 in apiculture. But he became despond- 

 ent, thought he would sell his one col- 

 ony, and have no more to do with such 

 a complicated business. I frankly told 

 him that he had better either master 

 the science of bee-keeping, or give it up, 

 and he left me to consider what he 

 would do. I offered to give any advice 

 and assistance in my power ; invited 

 him to call again, and did what I could 

 to encourage him, with what success I 

 have yet to learn. This man is an av- 

 erage 'sample of the great majority of 

 those who try bee-keeping in Canada. 



They will not take the necessary pains 



to Irani the principles of apiculture. 

 They expect the bees to manage them- 

 selves. It is no wonder such men fail. 

 But in so doing, they bring up an evil 

 report against bee-keeping, say they 

 have tried it, and found it a humbug. 

 If people were to go into any other busi- 

 ness totally ignorant of the way to 

 manage it , who would be surprised at 

 their failure ? 



How is it that intelligent persons, 

 who would not expect any other busi- 

 ness to run itself, get into this delusion 

 about bee-keeping V In whatever way 

 this hallucination has come about , there 

 is ample evidence of its existence, and 

 there is little danger that bee-keeping 

 will be overdone, while there are so 

 many under its influence. It will fall 

 more and more into the hands of those 

 who are ever investigating, always 

 learning, and who deeply feel, that in 

 order to a wise, practical management 

 of their bees, it is impossible for them 

 to have " too much science." 



Listowell, Ont., May 12, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bees Do Not Injure Grapes. 



JOHN W. STURWOLD. 



Iii the latter part of September, 1879, 

 while working among my grapes, con- 

 sisting of about 200 Concord and Ives 

 seedling vines (it will not be amiss to 

 state here that I have my bees on the 

 north side of the Ives seedling vines 

 which give the best shade I have found), 

 my attention was drawn to a Concord 

 grape that was literally covered with 

 bees, as busy as they could be, extract- 

 ing the juice from some of the berries 

 in an incredible short time. Having 

 been told the year previous, by my 

 neighbor,that bees destroyed grapes by 

 piercing small holes in them and 

 then sucking them dry, I now had 

 an excellent opportunity to find out 

 whether his statement and charge 

 against the bee was true or not. 



On examining I found that ^ of the 

 berries on each cluster had a small 

 opening from the size of the point of a 

 pin to that of its head, and these were 

 the ones the bees visited. They would 

 also alight on the sound ones, circle 

 around them a few times, searching for 

 an opening, I suppose, but failing to 

 find such, leave for one that was punc- 

 tured. As I could not examine them 

 closely with the naked eye, I cut a few 

 of the ripest clusters I could find, and 

 took them to my room and examined 

 them with my microscope, and sepa- 

 rated the good from the punctured, and 

 placed both on a board in front of one 

 of my strongest colonies. It took them 

 but a short time to empty the pierced 

 ones, and although the sound ones were 

 on the same board, and literally covered 

 with bees, not one of the grapes was 

 injured. 



The next day I repeated the same ex- 

 periment with 4 colonies, puncturing 

 some of the berries myself, with the 

 same result. Now, what the enemy is 

 that first punctures the grapes, I do not 

 know, but will perhaps find out this 

 season, if my health is spared ; butthis 

 much I do know, from my own obser- 

 vation and experiments, that bees are 

 innocent of the charge — puncturing 

 grapes, at least in my yards. If I had 

 found them guilty I would not be slow 

 to say so, and dispose of my bees, for I 

 received a larger percentage from my 

 vineyard the last few years than I did 

 from my bees, but I candidly believe 

 the good luck I had with my grapes is 

 due to my bees. 



Haymond. Ind., March 24, 1881. 



CLUBBING LIST. 



We supply the Weekly American Bee .Journal 



and any of the following periodicals, for 1881, at the 

 prices quoted in the last column of figures. The 

 first column Rives the regular price of both : 



Publishers' Price. Club. 



The Weekly Bee Journal (T.G.Newman) ..$2 00 



and Gleanings in Bee-Culture (A. I. Root) 8 00.. 2 75 



Bee-Keepers' Magazine (A.J.King).. 3 00.. 2 60 



Bee-Keepers' Exchange (J. H.Nellis). 2 75.. 2 50 



The 4 above-named papers 4 75. . 3 75 



Bee-Keepers' Instructor i W.Thomas) 2 50. . 2 35 



Bee-Keepers' Guide (A. G.Hill) 2 50.. 2 35 



The 6 above-named papers 5 75.. 5 00 



Prof. Cook's Manual (bound in cloth) 3 25.. 3 00 



Bee-Culture (T.G.Newman) 2 40.. 2 25 



For Semi-monthly Bee Journal. $1.00 less. 

 For Monthly Bee Journal, $1.50 less. 



