312 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



I admit ; but the question of priority 

 of location giving a person any ex- 

 clusive right of occupancy I deny, 

 botli as a lawyer and a man ; and fail 

 as yet to see a'ny good reason why my 

 denial is entitled to less weight be- 

 cause I aiu a lawyer. 

 Foxboro, Mass. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Diarrhoea— Marketing Honey. 



J. E. CADY. 



Of the many causes producing dis- 

 ease in bees, I think worry is the 

 main one. I have seen bees spot the 

 hive in a few minutes after I had re- 

 moved their queen, on a beautiful 

 summer day. In winter frequent dis- 

 turbance, even if they have the best 

 of honey, will cause them to spot the 

 hive. Scarcity of honey, either from 

 granulation in the cells or by becom- 

 ing sour, or in any way unsuitable for 

 the sustenance of bee-life, and long 

 eonflnement.will bring on the disease. 



I do not think cold has any direct 

 cause, but indirectly by causing honey 

 to granulate, gather dampness, and 

 sour. Pollen has nothing to do with 

 it, except when it gathers dampness, 

 ferments and mixes with the honey, 

 then it has the same effect as sour 

 honey, having lost its proper element 

 as bee-food. We might as well ex- 

 clude the honey from the liive for 

 fear of its souring, as to exclude pol- 

 len. If bees are forced to eat pollen 

 from a lack of honey, they will starve, 

 and all will become sick if starved. 

 Old bees cannot live a great while in 

 the winter, even upon the nicest 

 qualitv of pollen. 



To supply proper food in sufficient 

 quantities, is a long step in ttie right 

 direction; but time will change the 

 quality of hcniey in any cellar. My 

 cellar is so dry that when I sweep up 

 the bees, it raises a dust ; and yet it 

 is no place to keep honey in first-class 

 condition, even in the summer. There 

 are two outside hatchw^ays to it, and 

 it can be ventilated in a few moments, 

 making it as nice as an upper 

 room. 



When brood-rearing begins in tlie 

 spring, bees want water, especially if 

 they are in a dry cellar ; this causes a 

 worry that makes them spot the hive. 

 All hives should have a hole within 

 easy reach of the bees, above the en- 

 trance that cannot be clogged with 

 bees. In colonies which worry, the 

 bees will come to this hole. !N'ow, 

 with an awl make a small hole about 



1 inch above and a little to the right 

 of the first one i press a tack into it, 

 then hang a small wet cloth on the 

 tack, so it will hang down by the 

 opening in the hive ; keep this cloth 

 wet, and your bees will not suffer 

 much from'worry. If the honey has 

 granulated, the water will assist tliem 

 to eat it. If they still worry, it is 

 evident that sour honey or a scarcity 

 of stores is the cause. I have stopped 



2 colonies witti water alone, this 

 spring. Towards spring keep the 

 temperature down as low as possible ; 

 take every block from the entrance, 

 give each colony plenty of ventila- 



tion, but on bright, warm days, close 

 the ventilation of the cellar, and open 

 it at night 



There will be a general worry to- 

 wards spring that you can do nothing 

 for e.xcept to sprinkle the fronts of 

 the hives with water, ov keep a wet 

 clotli on tlie tack. The first pleasant 

 day, when the temperature is 40° or 

 4.5° in the shade, set them out. If 

 you use loose bottom-boards, clean off 

 the dead bees as you set them out ; 

 then keep the entrances closed to 

 within 1^ an inch, to keep them from 

 swarming out. Watch them closely 

 to prevent accidental loss of swarms. 

 Be sure to commence watering them 

 the next day with warm water.at some 

 convenient place near the yard. This 

 will save many thousands of bees. 

 Continue it all the spring, for it is one 

 of the greatest helps in the busi- 

 ness. 



I have had 10 years experience in 

 selling honey. When I began. I tound 

 comb honey, from the body of the 

 hive in Langstroth frames, on tlie 

 market at 30 cents per pound, and ex- 

 tracted honey was unknown. I run 

 my apiarv for both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey ; about % extracted. I 

 began bv convincing the druggists 

 that my extracted honey was pure, 

 and succeeded in sehing them .500 

 pounds of white clover honey, at 25 

 cents per pound. It saved them 5 

 cents per pound, and the trouble of 

 getting it from the comb themselves. 

 I then sold my basswood honey from 

 house to house, at 20 cents per pound, 

 and I soon found that it was neces- 

 sary to have a wholesale price, which 

 I fixed at W^-i cents a pound, and suc- 

 ceeded in selling my whole honey 

 crop {over 3,000 lbs.) in my liome mar- 

 ket. I sold 800 pounds of comb honey 

 in two-pound sections at 25 cents per 

 pound; this I have kept up with 

 slight variation, and a steady decline 

 in prices, tih comb honey retails 

 slowlv at 20 cents ; wholesale, good at 

 15 ceiits. For extracted honey, whole- 

 sale, jO cents, and retail \2^4 cents, 

 with demand good. Almost a fabu- 

 lous amount of pure honey was sold 

 in this market, last year. ]SIy sales 

 are, up to date, 6,000 pounds during 

 the past year. I have used the pam- 

 phlet. "Honey as Food and Medicine,'' 

 also a card of my own get up. I find 

 these gives me a vantage ground ; 

 save much time, tell the people at a 

 glance with whom they are dealing, 

 save mistakes, bring me many or- 

 ders and sales that I should not other- 

 wise get, and hasten acquaintance. 

 It takes years to establish a business 

 integrity, which these help to gain 

 more quickly. That is the foundation 

 of success; it is our capital, and 

 should be valued highly. I use these 

 cards in the cities near me, deliver 

 the honey in uerson when I get orders 

 enough to pay me to go, but always 

 take along more honey than is or- 

 dered. I receive but few orders for 

 less than 25 pounds, and often .50 and 

 100 pounds. I sell a little cheaper by 

 the hundred, but make no difference 

 on 25 or .50 pounds. 



To get the full advantage of circu- 

 lars, a first-class quality of honey has 

 to be delivered in every case ; if not. 



the advertisement proves a damage ; 

 but now honey has to be a thoroughly 

 good article, and well ripened in the 

 hive. 

 Medford, Mimi. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



My Report on Wintering. 



JOHN YODEK. 



I put 53 colonies into the cellar Nov. 

 13, 1883, and took them out April 18, 

 1884. My cellar is 25x16 feet, made of 

 stone and brick ; and under the 

 kitchen a 8-incli ventilating pipe 

 reaches down from the chimney, then 

 along the cellar rtoor to a little room 

 16x8, partitioned otf one end of the 

 cellar. Into this room I put the -53 

 colonies in 2 rows 4 deep ; the bottom 

 row standing on empty bee-hives. 

 Each hive was setting on its own 

 bottom-board, and each had an oat- 

 hull cushion on the top, and also con- 

 tained 30 pounds of good white honey. 

 During all the forepart of the winter, 

 the thermometer ranged from 42° to 

 46", and the latter part 40°. 



About Feb. 1 . the bottom rows com- 

 menced to show signs of diarrhoea, 

 and a little later the second row 

 showed the same, and soiling the en- 

 trances of the hives badly. So the 

 disease spread upward slowly. 1 could 

 not well put them out without dis- 

 turbing the top rows, which were as 

 clean as when I put them in. When 

 I put them out, I found the bottom 

 rows had used nearly all their honey, 

 the top rows using the least ; but all 

 quite clean inside. One had starved 

 to death after using at least .30 pounds 

 of good honey. One out of 53 is not 

 bad I think. I took up 2 bushels of 

 dead bees. 



The last 2 winters my bees were m 

 the same cellar, prepared the same 

 way, and were in about the same 

 length of time, and only consumed on 

 an average 9 pounds of honey. I 

 think my cellar was too wariii. and 

 there must have been some difference 

 in temperature between the bottom 

 and the top of the cellar, to cause the 

 difference in the keeping of the bees ; 

 at all events I think the bottom rows 

 commenced to breed, then commenced 

 to eat pollen, thus causing diarrhcea. 

 They must have bred a lot some- 

 where, and the old ones " jumped off 

 the stage," or where would all the 

 dead bees come from V 



I hear of a great many bees dying 

 in Elgin county and elsewhere. 1 use 

 the Quinbv hanging-frame hive with 

 no division-boards, nor holes in the 

 comb. I cannot see but what empty 

 comb or combs, in a hive with a small 

 colony in the centre, is not as well 

 protected as though they had a divis- 

 ion-board in them. The season is 

 late, and there is not much pollen yet. 

 It is very dry here. A little rain would 

 make it "jubilant for the bees. 



Springfield, Out., April 28, 1884. 



i^" The KentuckyBee-Keepers'Con- 

 vention meets in Louisville, Ky., dur- 

 ing the opening of the Exposition (day 

 not fixed). X. P. Allen, Sec. 



