878 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



My 19 colonies weighed 136 pounds 

 less on May 2o than they did when 

 put in for the winter. I found the 

 difference in weiglit of each colony 

 to vary from 3 to 10 pounds in 164 

 days. For spring dwindling, I am 

 keeping the cold winds shut out of 

 the hives, and the bees shut in, unless 

 ^the thermometer shows that it is 

 warm in the shade. I am buying 10 

 colonies more, and I think niy time 

 will be fully occupied between them 

 and a garden of small fruits. 



Manistee, Mich., May 3, 1884. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Extermination of Foul Brood. 



A. M. GANDEK. 



In consideration of the existence 

 and spread of foul brood in Lenawee 

 county, I would request every bee- 

 keeper to examine his bees, or have 

 them examined by an experienced 

 bee-keeper, to make sure that the dis- 

 ease does not exist ; or if it does, to 

 take prompt action against its spread- 

 ing over the country. All hives which 

 contained diseased colonies should 

 not be left wliere other bees can have 

 access to tliem (by carrying away 

 what honey there is left in them, and 

 the germs of the disease with it), but 

 they should be boiled thoroughly, or 

 burning them would be better. 



Bee-keepers cannot be too careful 

 about the spreading of this disease. 

 It may exist among their bees, and 

 they not know it until tlieir apiaries 

 are nearly ruined. Every bee-keeper 

 who cares to keep his bees, should 

 give them .a thorough examination 

 and know certainly whether they are 

 diseased or not. Some bee-keeoers 

 are too careless to pay the least atten- 

 tion to their bees, arid do not know 

 that there is anything the matter with 

 them until their bees are dead. 



There are but few of this class of 

 bee-keepers who know what caused 

 the death of their bees ; and wliat is 

 worse than all, they allow the hives 

 to remain for other bees to carry 

 away the foul -broody honev, and 

 spread the disease in every direction. 

 Such men as these will have to be 

 looked after by others who are more 

 interested ; and where they will not 

 give the matter the necessary atten- 

 tion, after being properly informed, 

 they will have to be dealt with ac- 

 cording to the law of the State. But 

 how much better it would be if all 

 would look to their own interests and 

 eradicate the disease wherever it 

 exists. 



We have a foul brood commissioner 

 m this county (Mr. D. G. Ediniston of 

 Adrian), whose duty it is to examine 

 bees whenever called upon by a writ- 

 ten request according to law. It is 

 the wish of everv careful apiarist that 

 this matter be attended to at once. 

 Better have tliem attended to now 

 than to lose your bees by this disease, 

 which is sure to happen 'if left to pur- 

 sue its own course. There is plenty 

 of the disease throughout this county; 

 and the above caution will apply to 

 any county. 



Adrian, Mich. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Facts About Bees- 



J. M. HICKS. 



When a colony discovers that its 

 queen is becoming or approaching bar- 

 reness. the bees will at once commence 

 preparing queen-cells and rear another 

 queen to take her place. 



It usually requires about 30 days to 

 rear a young queen from the egg, and 

 have her brood sealed over for liatch- 

 ing ; after which it requires 13 days 

 for the young bees to emerge from 

 the cells after they are sealed over, 

 and 21 days from lihe time the egg is 

 deposited, until it comes forth a ma- 

 ture bee. 



A thousand young queens can be 

 reared in one season from the eggs 

 produced by a single queen, if prop- 

 erly managed for the purpose. It is a 

 well-known fact that any and all eggs 

 which produce worker-bees, are "fe- 

 males, and are susceptible of being 

 converted into a queen if rightly man- 

 aged at the proper time. 



All eggs laid by a virgin queen will 

 produce drones only— tliey not being 

 a perfect male ; but drones which are 

 reared from a fertile queen can be re- 

 lied upon as being perfect male bees. 



Battle Ground, Ind. 



For She American Bee Journit 



Parodies, Fixed-Frames, etc. 



A. WEBSTEK. 



The Weekly Bee Journal for the 

 year 1884 is so satisfactory that I wish 

 to offer my congratulations for its ex- 

 cellent and interesting contents. I 

 was especially interested in ttie article 

 on page 9, entitled " Essentials of the 

 Coming Steam Engine," and con- 

 gratulate its author on the happy 

 manner in which it was written. I 

 also wish to thank him heartilv for 

 the higii compliment he has paid to 

 the literary excellence of my feeble 

 effort to set forth the " Essentials of 

 the Coming Bee-Hive," by making it 

 a model for liis discourse on his pet 

 hobby. Such appreciation from such 

 a source is exhiliaratingly grateful to 

 an humble beekeeper who is more 

 accustomed to constructingliee-hives 

 than rhetorical sentences tor publica- 

 tion, and goes far to efface from his 

 mind the memory of the haunting 

 thought of the waste basket, while 

 the article awaited publication. " He 

 builded better than he knew," is sel- 

 dom said of any man's work in his 

 life time ; and the prompt and un- 

 equivocal approval of my literary 

 work, that your esteemed correspond- 

 ent has shown by parodying it, is 

 dearer to my heart than hopes of pos- 

 thumous fariie. 



I cannot forego the opportunity to 

 add a few notes of experience with 

 the new hives. I have had an un- 

 looked-for demonstration of the ad- 

 vantages of lixed comb-frames. The 

 high winds ttiat prevailed so much 

 last fall, lifted six standard Langs- 

 strotli liives from tlieir stands, in one 

 of our apiaries, and laid them not very 



carefully on their sides ; some of the 

 caps being blown to the distance of 

 several rods. The poor bees were 

 found in a sad pliglit ; the combs being 

 piled closely together ; many bees were 

 killed, and more wounded ; and some 

 of the queens lost. At the same time, 

 in our home apiary, a large branch 

 was torn from an apple tree, falling on 

 two of the new hives. In removing 

 it, one of the hives was accidentally 

 over-turned and rolled over, coming 

 to rest bottom upwards.. The result 

 was that not a frame was displaced or 

 comb cracked, and the bees were but 

 slightly disturbed. 



The safety of these fixed, standing, 

 movable-comb frames in case of acc-1- 

 dent, and in transporting hives, is 

 only an incidental advantage— the 

 purpose for wliieh they were invented 

 is far different and incomparably 

 more important. 



South Northlield, Vt. 



For the American Bee Journal* 



let us deal with Facts. 



A. W. OSBURN. 



On page 328 is an article from the 

 pen of 1). K. Boutelle, on " The Pro- 

 duction of Drones," which contains 

 much food for thouglit. Mr. Bou- 

 telle's experience is precisely like my 

 own. 



Without wishing to contradict the 

 statements of many of our old teach- 

 ers; i.e., that the queen controls the 

 sex of the bee wliile laying the eggs ; 

 yet it is a fact that tlie nurse- bees can 

 and do produce workers, drones and 

 queens from the same eggs. That is, 

 take a sheet of eggs from a prosper- 

 ous colony and give it to a queenless 

 colony to rear cells, and at the end of -M 

 10 or 12 days what do you tind V In 1 

 many cases you find queen-cells, 

 worker brood capped over in the reg- 

 ular order, drone cells lengthened out, 

 and perfect drones in them ; only 

 they are smaller because having been 

 reared in worker cells. 



The bees do not often do this, but 

 they cut off the cells to the septum 

 and build full sized drone-cells ; place 

 eggs or larv® in them, and mature as 

 finely-developed drones as were ever 

 reared under other conditions. Now 

 these are facts ; and in the face of 

 such facts, what are we to do with the 

 old theories. 



I leave the subject for abler pens 

 than mine— for the earnest considera- 

 tion of those who have a fancy for 

 delving into the unforeseen and deep 

 mysteries of this wonderful insect — 

 the bee. 



San Miguel, Cuba, W. I. 



^" We now club the British Bee 

 Journal and our Monthly for $2.50, or 

 it and the Weekly for $3.50. 



I®" Letters for publication must be 

 written on a separate piece of paper 

 from items of business. 



I®" We can supply photographs of 

 Rev. L. L. Langstroth, the Baron of 

 Berlepsch, orDzierzon, at 25 cts. each. 



