418 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



July 6, 1899. 



whole trip, except what they obtained at Aspinwall. Dur- 

 ing each clay's confinement the bees labored incessantly to 

 gain their liberty, but as soon as it was dark they ahva_vs 

 became quiet, and remained so during the night. 



At San Francisco the bees were transferred from the 

 " Sonora " to the steamer •' New World," and landed in 

 Sacramento on the morning of Dec. 2, 1857, thus terminat- 

 ing a journey of 5,900 miles, which was at that time the 

 longest distance that bees had been known to be trans- 

 ported on one continuous voj-age. 



On opening the hives I found that considerable num- 

 bers of bees had died in each, and that in five all were dead. 

 Some hives were found to contain so few bees that they 

 were united with other weak colonies, till the number was 

 reduced to SO. The stock was still farther reduced by sale, 

 so that 34 colonies of bees remained on the first of April. 

 These were increast to 120, most of which were sold in the 

 summer and fall of that year. 



Again on the steamer, Sept. 20, 1858, I returned East 

 for the purpose of transporting another stock, which had 

 been prepared for that purpose during the previous sum- 

 mer. On Dec. 6, in company with my brother, W. C. Har- 

 bison, I sailed from New York with 114 colonies, and ar- 

 rived at Sacramento Jan. 1, 1859, with 103 living. Of this 

 importation 68 were from Centralia, 111.; the remaining 46 

 were from Lawrence Co., Pa. 



Owing to the lateness of the season of shipping, and 

 unfavorable weather during the first three weeks after our 

 arrival, we were only able to save 62 out of the whole num- 

 ber : these, together, with six good colonies remaining from 

 the previous year, we increast to 420 colonies, including the 

 68 old ones ; 300 of them filled standard hives, and the re- 

 mainder averaged half full. The increase was all made on 

 the artificial principle (as laid down in this work). 



Of the modes of importing bees to California, the most 

 novel was that of Mr. J. Gridley, who brought four colonies 

 across the plains from Michigan, placed in the rear end of 

 a spring wagon. He arrived with them in Sacramento on 

 Aug. 3, 1859, in good condition. His plan was to feed them, 

 and in addition stop occasionally in the afternoon and 

 allow the bees to fly out and work till dark, when they were 

 closed up, to resume their journey early on the following 

 morning. This was repeated from time to time, as they re- 

 quired their liberty. J. S. Harbison. 



Mr. Harbison gives authentic records of other importa- 

 tions that soon followed, several instances are recorded of 

 failures, and the introduction oi/oul brood, which made bad 

 work for the early-day apiarists. 



San Diego Co., Calif. 



Foul Brood, Careless Bee-Keeping-, and Other 

 Matters. 



BY MRS. EMMA WOODMANSEE. 



WE read in nearly every bee-paper we pick up articles 

 on foul brood, size of hive, wintering, amount of 

 stores required, transferring, and a number of other 

 things that sometimes seem monotonous; but I have just 

 had a little experience that has taken the conceit all out of 

 me, and in the future I am perfectly willing to read everv- 

 thing that can be written on any of these subjects. 



A neighbor of ours bought about 100 colonies of bees 

 late last fall without investigating them ! he lost quite 

 heavily during the winter, and was suspicious of the cause. 

 So he called in the services of the county bee-inspector, and 

 as we are very much interested in bees, and being desirous 

 to learn all we could, we donned our veils and went over to 

 watch the operations of the inspector on about 100 colonies. 



We first discovered that our own bees were getting sup- 

 plies from some source, but as the spring- is very late here 

 we were at a loss to know where it came from. The^- were 

 also working on bran or meal, as they came in loaded and 

 white as millers. 



When we got there we found about 20 hives sitting 

 about or piled up, from which the bees had died, and mil- 

 lions of bees were trying to clean up those frames, while in 

 the barnyard was a covered bin where chop or bran had 

 been kept, and there was probably two or three bushels of 

 meal still there. The inspector lifted the loose cover to 

 show us, and such a sight I never saw — such a mass of 

 squirming activity, rolling and tumbling till they were 

 white all over, and I said, " No wonder our bees are bringing 

 in supplies." 



In looking thru this apiary, he found four colonies that 



were slightly affected with foul brood, but with a good 

 chance to scatter it over the whole neighborhood, as a good 

 many people in this part of the city keep a few colonies in 

 their back yards. 



I am g-lad to say that the inspector was very careful in 

 all his work with those infected colonies, not to leave any- 

 thing that could possibly be carried oif by other bees. He 

 was also careful to impress upon us all the great impor- 

 tance in cleansing the hands of the operator, and all knives 

 and other tools used about the infected colony before open- 

 ing the next hive. 



But I must also add right here, that I have visited the 

 place again since then, and I find that the owner is decid- 

 edly careless, and does not even now seem to realize the 

 fatality of the disease, as there are old combs, wax, honej-, 

 hives and frames scattered everywhere, as he said, " for the 

 bees to clean up." Truly, we feel alarmed as we are very 

 much attacht to our bees, and dread the disease. 



In reg-ard to hives : There was a good opportunity to 

 draw comparisons, as he has at least a dozen different sizes 

 and makes. We noticed especially that all his colonies in 

 8-frame Langstroth hives were very weak, both in supplies 

 and bees ; those in 10 frames, and some in 11, were much 

 better ; and those in the very deep frames with closed ends 

 were very strong for the 11th of April, both in bees and 

 honey, some having solid frames of honey and an abun- 

 dance along the top-bars. Some of these strong colonies 

 had drones hatcht and crawling over the frames ; these 

 large hives contained 10 and 12 frames, at least 13 or 14 

 inches deep. Two colonies in sectional hives with small 

 frames in each section were very weak. 



We especially noticed that the colonies on 10 and 12 deep 

 frames were the strongest, and had wintered best. All 

 these colonies were in single-walled hives, and wintered on 

 the summer stands without any protection, and even the 

 piece of muslin, or burlap, that had been laid over the 

 frames didn't cover more than two-thirds of the frames, and 

 this in some of the strongest colonies. We found only two 

 or three frames with mold on them, possibly because they 

 had plenty of upward ventilation. 



Now, after all that we have read in the American Bee 

 Journal and other papers about the size of hive, amount of 

 supplies, ventilation, depth of brood- frames, etc., we find 

 that the best way to decide is to see what success people 

 have with a number of different ones side by side. Our own 

 bees are all in 8-frame dovetailed hives, but we have decided 

 that a frame that will hold plenty of honey above the brood- 

 nest is the best, and at least 10 of them. 



As to ventilation, well, we have always taken great 

 pains to give our bees plenty of packing on top, and in a 

 sheltered place, and ours are much weaker than those of our 

 neighbors which had no protection. Sometimes I think we 

 can coddle our bees too much, the same as some people do 

 their children. The children of some of our poor people 

 are on the street half the time, bareheaded and barefooted, 

 and half clad, yet they scarcely know what sickness is ; 

 while the children of many fond parents, with every want 

 supplied, are invariably delicate. Surely, we will have to 

 try to reach the happy medium, especially with our bees. 



I spent a good deal of time last winter in reading bee- 

 literature. I brought out all my old journals, then read a 

 year's numbers that a friend gave me of 1891 and 1892 ; also 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture for 1895, Doolittle on queen-rear- 

 ing, and " A B C of Bee-Culture," and I assure you it was 

 time well spent. There are so many things we read care- 

 lessly the first time that are new when we read them again. 

 Arapahoe Co., Colo., April 15. 



Making' of Nuclei— Open Letter to Mr. Doolittle. 



BY DK. C. C. MII.I.EK. 



MR. DOOLITTLE, I have read with interest your article 

 beginning on page 370, and I trust I shall always have 

 the grace to receive kindly any criticism made upon 

 any writing of mine, so long as the criticism is given in a 

 spirit of kindness. 



I think you misinterpret the question referred to on 

 page 198. You interpret it to mean that "Iowa" meant to 

 start nuclei, then, after queens were laying in the nuclei, to 

 hive natural swarms in them. A careful weighing of all 

 he says will hardly warrant such view. You hinge your 

 interpretation upon "Iowa's" saying, "hive the new 

 swarms." If that expression stood alone, it would be all 

 right to view it as you do. But you must take all that is 

 said, for writers are not always entirely felicitous in their 



