THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



793 



possessing withal quick intuitive per- 

 ception, tliese combined with his 

 many years of experience in handling 

 bees, make him master of the biisi- 

 uess. 



"The bee interest in Maine," says 

 Mr. Mason, " has increased quite fast 

 during the last decade. xVnd tiiis 

 right in the face of discouraging sea- 

 sons and consequent failure from 

 short honey crops. The "Western de- 

 velopment of apiculture has been 

 wonderful within the last lifteen 

 years. Tons of honey are now yearly 

 produced by single apiaries cared for 

 ty individuals wlio make tliis their 

 oiily business, and who often realize 

 a fortune from it.'" 



" Maine cauglit the fever somewhat, 

 soon after the introduction of the 

 Italian bee into this country some 

 twenty years ago. About that time 

 Mr. Langstrotli brought forth and 

 perfected his frame hive which was a 

 boon to bee-keepers, and opened up a 

 new phase in the business, revealing 

 new possibilities in the rearing and 

 breeding of bees, which two decades 

 of wonderful progress have failed to 

 fathom or exhaust." 



" All over the West and portions of 

 the South, and in California, and 

 laterally spreading into portions of 

 ^ew England, were men, and women, 

 too, who made a specialty of rearing 

 queen-bees and sending them to all 

 parts of the country by mail. In 

 warmer latitudes, with longer seasons, 

 the new method of caring for and 

 handling bees grew into a profitable 

 business, and to many became a con- 

 genial pursuit. At this time Maine's 

 bee-keepers were struggling along 

 with their bees in box-hives, depend- 

 ing upon the brimstone pit at the 

 ■close of the honey season for a supply 

 of the sweets of the hive, thus ' kill- 

 ing the goose to obtain the golden 

 egg.' " 



'" But the bee-keepers of Maine 

 soon caught inspiration from the 

 Western "buzz," and notwithstanding 

 the drawback of short summers and 

 long, hard winters, they have become 

 so well schooled in the intricate and 

 wonderful processes of bee-life, that 

 to-day the business is one of consider- 

 able magnitude, and I cannot but 

 think that the day is not far distant 

 when Maine farmers will as constantly 

 supply their tables with the pure 

 sweets of the hive, as they now do 

 from the golden product of the dairy." 



For tbe American Bee Joom^ 



Causes of Loss in Winter. 



S. J, YOUNGMAN. 



I would say to the bee-keepers in 

 the North, do not despair of yet solv- 

 ing the difficult problem of wintering 

 bees, while such men as Messrs. Hed- 

 don, Clarke, and a host of others are 

 so deeply interested, and are striving 

 with each other, both by hard study 

 and costly experiments, to see who 

 shall be the tirst to say " Eureka." I 

 would frankly say that I think Mr. 

 Clarke's theory has but few friends, 

 but all must admit that his plan has 

 advantages for ventilating the hive. 



My observations have led me to be- 

 lieve that bees do not winter as well 

 in trees as they do in hives ; as I have 

 had them die out in log-gums which 

 were 8 feet in length, and at the same 

 time do well in movable-frame hives. 

 I have also cut trees, and have known 

 others to, which contained combs with 

 honey ; but the bees had hibernated 

 to such an extent tliat they had failed 

 to awaken. 



I think that Mr. Heddon made a 

 true statement when he said : " This 

 question of wintering is not one of 

 cellars, ventilation, pieces of lath, 

 sticks, quilts and cushions over the 

 combs; what kills our bees is diar- 

 rhoea." I agree with Mr. Heddon this 

 far ; but what is the cause of this dis- 

 ease V I cannot believe that {lollen is 

 the first cause of this worst-ot-all dis- 

 eases whicli bees are heir to. I am 

 convinced that bees having all the 

 necessary conditions to winter well, 

 do not breed as when ordinarily pre- 

 pared for winter by the well informed 

 bee-keepers of the present day ; but 

 anything which may threaten the 

 welfare of the colony, whether a loss 

 of numbers, a diseased condition, or 

 anything which threatens the extinc- 

 tion of the colony, will 'cause it to 

 commence brood-rearing at once ; and 

 if pollen is at liand, they will, of 

 course, use it, and this will' certainly 

 aggravate the condition in which we 

 find them when diarrhoea first makes 

 its appearance. 



I have seen bees affected with this 

 disease at all times of the year, in 

 fall, winter, spring, and in mid-sum- 

 mer; in the fall when flights were 

 quite frequent and no brood-rearing 

 going on at the time. On .lune 18, 

 1884, 1 received, at this place, a car- 

 load of bees from Louisiana, which 

 had been confined to their hives for 

 over eight days, and upon having a 

 chance for a fly, many of them showed 

 unmistakable signs of bee-diarrhoea. 

 This, of course, was not caused by 

 brood-rearing. 



Now, I find some locations which 

 are nearly, if not quite, exempt from 

 this disease, as it ordinarily makes its 

 appearance in colonies of bees. I find 

 that in dry, sandy locations where 

 fall bloom is scanty and the honey 

 sources are from raspberry, clover, 

 basswood and purple fire-weed, there 

 is no trouble of this nature ; on the 

 other hand, where there is an abund- 

 ance of fall bloom, such as buck- 

 wheat, motherwort, corn and differ- 

 ent varieties of wild asters, the 

 trouble commences early, and many 

 in such localities lose all the bees that 

 they may have ; whether they are on 

 the summer stands, packed in chaff 

 in double -walled hives, in cellars, or 

 in clamps, the result is the same. 



As far as Michigan is concerned, 

 apiaries in the southern and middle 

 parts seem to be more affected with 

 this disease, or condition of things, 

 than the northern part. Bees are kept 

 successfully at Petoskey, which is as 

 far north as I have known them to 

 have been kept in this State. I know, 

 personally, that there are wild bees 

 as far north as Boscommon county, and 

 that two of the most successful bee- 

 keepers of Michigan live far north of 



Bay City, in the interior of the State, 

 on an elevated location, the soil being 

 of a sandy nature, and willow-herb, 

 called by some purple fire-weed, and 

 goldenrod being their chief sources of 

 fall honey ; and from whom one of 

 our most prominent bee-keepers liv- 

 ing in the southern part of tlie State, 

 has twice purchased bees, after losing 

 her own by diarrhoea. I refer to 

 " Cyula Liiiswik," who smiles quite 

 audibly at Mr. Clarke's long, winter 

 nap, and Mr. Ileddoa's pollen idea; 

 and well she may, as she has never 

 met with any serious losses. Thanks 

 to the plants which gives her a pure, 

 healthy article of honey— " it cannot 

 be excelled " — and her admirable 

 method of packing and ventilating 

 th© hives. 



I would say in conclusion that it 

 will be utterly impossible to winter 

 bees successfully in low, moist locali- 

 ties, unless the early honey is left in 

 the hive, the extractors "used with 

 caution, and combs of white clover or 

 basswood honey laid aside to be given 

 back to the bees in early fall in place 

 of the " vile stuff " whicli they some- 

 times gather ; but perhaps the surest 

 way of all is to extract all the honey 

 in early fall and feed up with a good 

 article of sugar syrup, and thus not 

 run any chances of not having the 

 necessary requirements for them to 

 winter safely. 



Cato,0 Mich., Dec. 1, 1884. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Returning First-Swarms, etc. 



FAYETTE LEE. 



For me this is the hardest part of 

 bee-keeping. I do it in three ways, 

 viz : 1. Return the swarm after re- 

 moving all queen-cells, then turn the 

 hive half way around. 2. Hive the 

 swarm in a new hive placed beside the 

 old one, and in three days put the 

 combs from the old hive into the new 

 one. 3. Kill the old queen, and in 

 eight days cut out all of the queen- 

 cells except one. With second-swarms, 

 this season, I waited till I heard the 

 queens peep, when I would open the 

 hive and cut out the queen-cells and 

 let out one of the queens, so as to be 

 sure that there were two queens in the 

 hive at one time. In this way I had 

 only two second -swarms out of 48 

 swarms. Sometimes the young queen 

 will lead off a swarm, if the cells are 

 all cut out ; but if two young queens 

 are free, there will be a fight, when 

 one will be killed, and no swarm will 

 be led off. This has been my experi- 

 ence. I want to make 80 section-cases 

 to be placed on Langstroth hives, and 

 I want to make the best kind. What 

 is that kind 'i* 



Cokato,© Minn., Nov. 30, 1884. 



[Your question is very indefinite. 

 Are the " cases " to be filled with one- 

 pound sections or larger? Do you 

 wish to use separators, or not '? Do 

 you want cases to use over the frames, 

 or in the brood-chamber V You should 

 particularize or the question cannot 

 be answered satisfactorily.— Ed.] 



