106 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sections, Cases, Dysentery, etc. 



Bees have been flying to-day for the 

 first time since last fall. I have one 

 colony of bees packed in chaff on the 

 summer stands, to see if they can 

 stand 38° below zero. So far they are 

 all right. I see some signs of dysen- 

 tery in the cellar in four hives. My 

 cellar is too warm. 43°. It should be 

 38° to keep the bees in tlie cluster. 

 My bees were put into the cellar Oct. 

 26; sixty-three colonies of bees nearly 

 all strong. They will not get a fly 

 until the last of ^larch, if I can man- 

 age to keep them in without loosing 

 too many. , 



1. "Will fresh air make bees uneasy, 

 while in the cellar V 



2. Is there two kinds of dysentery ? 



3. If 1 till your section case with 

 sections full "of foundation, and put 

 them on the hive, will the bees enter 

 them at once, or do they want some 

 comb y 



4. How many of the 2S sections in 

 your case is not capped over, on an 

 average V 



5. Will foul brood spread liy the 

 sale of queens and comb foundation V 



6. If I fill wide frames with sections 

 and put them in the upper story and 

 raise a comlj of lirood from l)elbw at 

 the beginning of the honey harvest, 

 will the bees go to work in the sec- 

 tions and cap them in good shape for 

 market V 



7. Have you «r any one else weighed 

 bees that were filled with honey to see 

 which kind of bees brought the largest 

 load of honey V Fayette Lee. 



Cokato, Minn.. Feb. 1, 1884. 



1. I have known a sudden influx of 

 fresh air to arouse bees, and perhaps 

 sometimes to their detriment. Pure 

 fresh air is an essential to human 

 health, but how much so to the health 

 of bees, is yet an unsettled question. 



2. I think not. 



3. My experience is that the bees 

 will enter them and draw the founda- 

 tion (if it is a good article), as soon as 

 there is any flow of honey to store. 



4. During the honey flow we usually 

 leave our cases on until all is finished, 

 without experiencing any loss or color- 

 ing of the honey by so doing. In some 

 instances, however, we see the need 

 of removing a case with 3 or 5 cases 

 unfinished. After removing enough of 

 such eases that the unfinished sections 

 amount to 28. we put them all in a case 

 together, and put them in a right 

 place to be finished together. In re- 

 moving all at the end of the season, of 

 course we take them off in all stages 

 of development. 



Undoubtedly foul brood has iieen 

 many times introduced with the in- 

 troduction of queens from foul-broody 

 apiaries. My opinion is, and it is well 

 grounded and quite positive, that foul 

 brood is not carried in the traltic in 

 comb foundation ; the degree of heat 

 to which the wax is heated in making 



foundation, is too high to leave a pos- 

 sibility of tlie spores surviving it. 



6. My experience with this method 

 of manipulation is. tliat brood and liee 

 bread are more apt to get into the sec- 

 tions, with such a system. The cap- 

 pings of the sections are more apt to be 

 darkened by the bees, when they are 

 filled and finished in close proximity 

 to dark brood combs. I can see no 

 need forsueh manipulation. and think 

 where such is needed, the rest of the 

 system is very faulty. 



7. No. we have no adequate scales ; 

 besides tliere would be great variance 

 with members of the same family. 

 We have many times weighed the ag- 

 gregate results of colonies of about 

 equal numbers, and made our prefer- 

 ence in races and strains in that man- 

 ner. 





Bees in Fine Condition. 



I have 100 colonies in the cellar, and 

 another lot packed in chaff; all seem 

 to l>e in fine condition. A good many 

 colonies, in this vicinity, not pro- 

 tected, have succumbed to the zero 

 weather. L. Hubbard. 



Waldron. Mich., Jan. 30, 1884. 



Bees Carrying in Pollen. 



My bees commenced to carry in 

 pollen on the 3d inst. from several 

 sources ; I think from red-bud, w'illow 

 and arbor vitae. I have now 81 colo- 

 nies all in good condition. Some small 

 nuclei have, so far. wintered well out- 

 of-doors, with very little protection. 

 I usually have drones flying about 

 March 20. I will stimulate a few col- 

 onies by feeding, so as to have drones 

 a littleearlier this season. I will com- 

 mence to rear queens early in March. 

 I am much encouraged in liee-keep- 

 ing here, and think it can lie made 

 profitable to a moderate degree in al- 

 most any locality, I have known in the 

 South. " " O. F. Bledsoe. 



Grenada, Miss., Feb. 6, 1884. 



and a small quantity of dark honey 

 mixed with the syrup. These 2 colo- 

 nies showed an anxiety for a cleansing 

 flight, and as the temperature beran 

 to get nearly right, and a little before 

 the other colonies made any stir, they 

 were flying from their hives in a way 

 that indicated that they could not 

 much longer have continued healthy. 

 For open winters, or for climates ad- 

 mitting of frequent flights during the 

 winter, the cheaper foods will answer, 

 but where long confinements may be 

 looked for, the safety of the bees de- 

 mand well-ripened honey or granu- 

 lated sugar syrup. 



J. A. Buchanan. 

 Holliday's Cove, W. Va.,Feb. 4,1884. 



Bees Fed on Sugar Syrnp. 



The mercury got down to 24° below 

 zero here, which is, perhaps, about 1-5^ 

 colder than it has ever been in this 

 part of ^V'est A'irginia. We begin to 

 get anxious about our bees, which 

 were left on the summer stands, one- 

 half of them in single-walled hives, 

 but the last few days have been 

 warm enough for them to take out- 

 door exercise, and they are in fine 

 condition. The queens have been 

 laying, and in some colonies sealed 

 brood is found. All the honey was 

 taken from 2 colonies last fall, and 

 then they were fed on syrnp made of 

 a rather "cheap grade of brown sugar. 



Irascible Cyprian Bees. 



^Vre they vicious in the apiary if not 

 molested, or is it just when the hive 

 is opened ? Do they go far from the 

 hive, when disturbed, to sting any 

 one y How long does it take them to 

 settle down after being disturbed ? 



Columbus, O. P. E. Blesch. 



[It is reported by those who have 

 kept and abandoned them that they 

 will follow any one even in the house 

 when on the rampage ; also, that they 

 are not soon quieted, and they do not 

 wait for bemg disturbed before mak- 

 ing the attack. We had an imported 

 Cyprian queen, and found her bees so 

 irascible that after a few months we 

 superseded " her ugliness " by an 

 amiable Italian queen. Xo more Cyp- 

 rians for us. — Ed.1 



From the Cottonwood Apiary. 



.My liO colonies are all alive and in 

 good condition. They have been fly- 

 ing for the last two days. They did 

 well last summer. I had half an acre 

 of melilot clover which bloomed for 

 six weeks ; the bees worked on it all 

 the time. I sow my melilot clover on 

 tlie first of May. I" am going to sow 

 several varieties of seeds, this season, 

 for my bees. I would not do without 

 the Bee Journal for twice the price 

 of it. N. Davis. 



Emporia. Kan., Jan. 30, 1884. 



Preparing Bees for "Winter. 



I put 211 coU)iiies in the cellar Nov. 

 2<i ; left one colony on the summer 

 stand, in a Simplicity ten -frame hive ; 

 I took out two frames, the ones con- 

 taining the most pollen, leaving the 

 bees on 8 frames. I use no packing, 

 only an enameled sheet over them. 

 They had a fly Jan. 13. and another 

 to-day. I examined them to-day; 

 they are doing well ; there are very 

 few dead bees outside, and no signs 

 of dysentery. For the liees in the 

 cellar, I use no packing except an 

 enameled sheet ; over some wooden 

 mats, and some without any cover on 

 the frames. I took 8 colonies out to- 

 day for a flight; examined them and 

 found tliem all in good condition, not 

 a sign of dysentery : all of them \\'ere 

 damp ; the water running out of some 

 of them ; in two of them the combs 



