504 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



tall aud slender oak trees, gave me 

 his method of capturing swarms, 

 which I have used a good deal. It is 

 as follows : Fasten a common dry- 

 goods box to the end of a long pole, 

 and as soon as a swarm issues, go to 

 the more convenient hive (an extract- 

 ing super is best), take out a frame 

 and shake the l)ees from it into the 

 box. Tliese bees at once set up a 

 loud humming, and if the box is now- 

 held up in the midst of the flying 

 swarm, they accept the call to cluster, 

 enter the box without delay, and can 

 be hived immediately ; or if another 

 swarm issues, -set them aside and 

 cover them with a sheet. 



My apiary is situated in a grove of 

 fruit and evergreen trees on a hill- 

 side, with some tall forest trees just 

 below it, and swarms generally fly 

 pretty high. If they start to cluster 

 in an inconvenient place, I drive them 

 away with the fountain pump, until 

 they choose a place that suits me also. 

 As " soon as the cluster is partly 

 formed, shake it into the box. by 

 means of a long-hooked pole, and 

 when nearly all have entered, carry 

 them to the hive prepared for them. 

 Have a piece of burlap tacked to a 

 couple of laths, a la Hasty, down in 

 front of the liive to shake them on; 

 lower the box carefully and lightly, 

 jar off a few bees close to the en- 

 trance, and when they have " sounded 

 the call," shake down the rest of 

 them in a long, broad stream. If 

 properly done, they will not fly up 

 again ; but if they do, the box will 

 catch them. Ileddon's plan of pre- 

 venting after-swarms, works like a 

 charm with me, and is very easily 

 executed. 



I am convinced that it pays me to 

 use full sheets of wired foundation, 

 and have yet to hear of a bee-keeper 

 going back to anything else, after a 

 thorough trial of the wired frames. I 

 once bought some colonies which 

 were hived on full sheets of founda- 

 tion without the wires, and the cells 

 near the top-bar were stretched so 

 much that they were used for drone 

 brood. Drones bred in them were 

 weak and dwarfed, and were dragged 

 from the hives by the hundreds as 

 soon as hatched. Another bee-keeper 

 here has noticed the same thing. 



I have also used Doolittle's plan of 

 hiving on starters, with a division- 

 board in the middle of the hive, with 

 good results : although some colonies 

 will persist in building drone-comb 

 whether they have much worker- 

 comb or not. With a large apiary it 

 requires too much manipulation to be 

 practical. 



During a good honey flow, I prefer 

 to hive swarms on i or ■'> frames of 

 foundation, and put on the boxes at 

 once. (Put on partly filled boxes for 

 a day or two to prevent the queen 

 from using them.) Add more frames 

 of foundation as fast as the queen 

 needs them. This year, when put 

 in a hive full of empty combs or 

 frames of wired foundation, the bees 

 nearly filled 3 or 4 of the combs with 

 honey before the queen had time to 

 lay in them, and thus crowded out 

 another swarm within 10 or 1-5 days. 

 Plenty of surplus was soon given 



them, and they did good work in the 

 sections at the same time. 



Some of my colonies are confined to 

 7 frames in winter and summer, and 

 I get fully as good results from them 

 as from the 8-frame colonies. Seven 

 frames solid with brood are iill that 

 an average queen can manage, and 

 will produce enough bees. 



Upon visiting an apiarist in this 

 county. I found him by the kitchen 

 stove fastening foundation-starters in 

 flat, top-bar frames, and this is the 

 way he did it : The frame was placed 

 on a lap-board, top-liar down, the 

 foundation put in place, and a piece 

 of board, notched out at the ends so 

 as to come exactly to the centre of 

 the top-bar, was laid on the founda- 

 tion. . Then taking a putty knife, he 

 held it for a moment in the steam of 

 a tea-kettle's nose, and then with a 

 quick, strong stroke, pressed the pro- 

 jecting edge of the foundation to the 

 top- bar. Quicker and better work I 

 have never seen done, and now I use 

 the steam-heated knife for my wired 

 frames also. 



1 should judge from an editorial in 

 the Kansas Bee-Keeper, that Mr. Pond 

 has already " reversed '" his opinion 

 in regard to reversible frames, as 

 given on page 439 of the Bee .Jouk- 

 NAL. Ilis next reversing will be, no 

 doubt, in regard to " Italians vs. bees 

 for business." 



Furnessville, Ind., July 19. 1884. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Diarrhoea. 



C. W. DAYTON. 



If we cause a colony to cluster the 

 right distance (which is governed by 

 the outside temperature) below the 

 covering of the brood-chamber, mois- 

 ture will accumulate over the cluster, 

 m drops which will do no harm until 

 they attain sufficient size to drop or 

 run into or near the cluster. 



This done, the first bee with which 

 the drops of moisture come in con- 

 tact, will take up a load with the in- 

 tention of carrying it out of the hive 

 at the first opportunity. The more 

 moisture, the more loaded bees to 

 become cliilly and go back into the 

 cluster to await a higher tempera- 

 ture ; and as day after day wears 

 away, with no chance to get out, all 

 the bees become loaded with cold 

 water which can cause indigestion, 

 thus resulting in an overloading of 

 the intestines with undigested food 

 and water, and inflamation of the 

 bowels may ensue. 



I have seen healthy bees in mid- 

 winter walk out to the edges of the 

 combs, sip water, and go back dis- 

 tended, and in 15 days only the dis- 

 tended ones began to die of diarrhoea. 



By re-adjusting the packing over 

 the colonies when first affected, to 

 avoid moisture. I find that the noisy 

 ones will mostly go to the cellar-bot- 

 tom in 2r> days^ and the remainder of 

 the colony will come out healthy after 

 100 days niore of confinement. I have 

 regulated the temperature and covered 

 the brood-chambers of normal colo- 

 nies with a material which produced 



diarrhoea in 10 days, the removal of 

 which was. prevention, and its re- 

 adjustment brought additional dis- 

 ease. 



When the moisture accumulated at 

 the side, or in the corners of the hive, 

 I have seen no signs of disease until 

 a disturbance, shift of the cluster, or 

 a rise in temperature set the bees to 

 taking up the moisture. So long as 

 the inside of the hive remained dry. I 

 have been unable to produce diar- 

 rhoea by shifting the cluster, chang- 

 ing temperature, reasonable but fre- 

 quent disturbances, or brood-rearing. 



In wintering 60 colonies, a large 

 share of whose hives were dripping 

 wet inside, in February, there was 

 but one whose combs showed mold in 

 the spring, and that was the only one 

 where the bottom-board wa^ left on 

 the hive, and the entrance contracted. 

 I have frequently noticed signs of 

 diarrhoea at such times as is described 

 on page 639 of the Bee Journal for 

 1883 ; yet never unless the tempera- 

 ture had been such as to cause the 

 condensation of moisture inside the 

 hive, and followed by a day some- 

 what warmer, but not enough to 

 allow the bees a flight. 



Bradford, Iowa. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Breeding and Selling Queens. 



E. p. CHURCHILL. 



Since the new races of bees (aside 

 from Italians) have spread over the 

 country, and since queens are bought 

 and sold by thousands of bee-keepers, 

 how are we to know when we get 

 what we pay for ? I bought 2 early, 

 untested queens through a reliable 

 breeder, here in Maine, who had a 

 number from the South at the same 

 time, and from parties who advertise 

 largely, and are considered honest, 

 and who claim to have all pure stock. 



One of these queens proved to be a 

 hybrid, and about as soon as she com- 

 rrienced laying she died ; perhaps from 

 old age, for all the others (about a 

 dozen) proved to be the same. Is it 

 not strange that such a number should 

 all prove impure y Now for the re- 

 sult of the other queen which was 

 bought from another party. I have 

 tried reversible frames, and like them; 

 but reversible bees I do not like. 

 When I smoke them, do they not re- 

 verse ? Take up a frame as carefully 

 as you can, and you may deliberately 



fet stung on the hand or face. These 

 ees are well marked, 3 banded, and 

 look, at first, like pure Italians. Sup- 

 pose that I should breed queens from 

 this queen, and scatter them over the 

 country, would it not tend to spoil 

 the kind disposition of the pure Ital- 

 ians ? Xo person can sit close to this 

 colony without noticing that they are 

 reversible ( and yet they use the same 

 end every time). 



Again, I have a select-tested queen 

 from a breeder here, whose bees have 

 not yet stung any one ; and I have 

 brushed bees from combs, and ex- 

 tracted the honey, and that too with- 

 out a particle of smoke. These bees 

 and queen are what I consider perfect. 



