644 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Fenl Brood. 



By request of Wm. B. McCormick, 

 Unioiitown, Pa., I give the results 

 through the Bee Journal of an ex- 

 amination of a piece of comb honey 

 sent by him. He says that, last 

 spring," he noticed something which 

 he called chilled brood, in one or more 

 of his hives, but as the trouble 

 seemed to continue during the sum- 

 mer, lie concluded the ditiiculty was 

 due to foul brood. He says : " 1 lost, 

 last summer, about 20 colonies by it, 

 several just leaving their hives, comb, 

 honey and all, and going off, or trying 

 to get into some other hive. Nearly 

 all the bees in the county seem to be 

 more or less affected in the same way 



from here, told me he lost every one 

 of his 70 colonies. An affected" col- 

 ony will not work, but lay around 

 idle, and will sometimes kill their 

 queen." Mr. McCormiek thinks only 

 the black bees are thus affected ; the 

 Italians not suffering. Xow, after 

 the closest investigation, I And noth- 

 ing of the micro-organism to which 

 we suppose foul brood is due. There 

 are, in the comb cells, both living and 

 dead larvae; but the dead ones look 

 altogether different from those killed 

 vsith the disease called foul brood ; 

 their original shape is more nearly 

 retained, the tluids of the body are 

 much more watery — not ropy when 

 pulled out— and the odor, though 

 somewhat disagreeable, is character- 

 istically dilferent. What the trouble is 

 I cannot say ; but foul brood is not 

 present in the sample received. 

 Champaign. 111. T. J. Burkill. 



low shed facing the south, covered on 

 top, back and ends with dirt and sod. 

 I pack my hives close together with 

 some straw and chaff' over and behind 

 them. A\"hen cold weather sets in, I 

 put up a door in front of them, which 

 I can let down in front on days suit- 

 able for them to fly out. The" brown 

 Germau bees gave larger yields of 

 honey than the Italians. I use what 

 some" of our advanced apiarists call 

 rattle-traps; that is an outside cover 

 over my section racks, which I find a 

 great advantage in keeping the hot 

 sun from them ; they are also an ad- 

 vantage in cool nights. Oh, yes, I use 

 an incli strip of glass in each side of 



my section-rack, which saves a great 

 A. M. iIewit,7omeT2m'i"les deal of time, peeking in at the top. 



when I have them tiered up 2 and 3 

 sections deep. I have no trouble in 

 getting my honey sealed over next to 

 the glass. R. A. Calvin. 



Hartford, Mich., Dec. 3, 1883. 



with 11 colonies; I used 4 of them for 

 experiments and queen rearing. The 

 remaining seven were run for comb 

 honey, of which I obtained 560 lbs. ; 

 4.50 from white clover, a few pounds 

 from linden, and the rest fall honey 

 from various sources. I have sold $75 

 worth of bees and queens, and have 29 

 colonies remaining, as the result of 

 the years' increase. I had to feed 

 a few of my queen-rearing colonies ; 

 the rest had plenty of stores. 



L. C. Johnson. 

 Fountain City, Ind., Dec. 3, 1883. 



A Cold, Wet Season. 



I commenced tlie honey season with 

 .50 colonies, but a good" many being 

 weak, as we had such a cold and wet 

 spring, they dwindled badly. I had a 

 good flow of honey from white clover, 

 but that was all. I think this was the 

 coldest and wetest summer I ever 

 knew. I now have 83 colonies in 

 winter quarters, in good condition. I 

 have taken 4,023 lbs. of extracted 

 honey, and 9.50 lbs. of comb honey, 

 and the bees have plenty to winter on. 

 II. J. Smith. 



Burlington, Wis., Nov. 30, 1883. 



Italians and Hybrids. 



I commenced last spring's work 

 with 10 colonies of bees ; they in- 

 creased to 23, and I bought 8 extra 

 colonies this fall, which make a good 

 stock to start with next spring. Last 

 winter I wintered 2 colonies in a very 

 damp vapory cellar with the ther- 

 mometer averaging from 40^ to 4.5° 

 Fahr. I gave them lower ventilation 

 about 2 square inches in each hive ; 

 one colony was an Italian, and the 

 other a hybrid. The hybrids kept up 

 a continual hum all winter, but the 

 Italians remained as still as death. 

 When I thumped the hive they re- 

 sponded with a sharp hum ; then all 

 would be quiet in half a minute. But 

 the hybrids consumed about double 

 the honey that the Italians did, and 

 the colonies were about equal in num- 

 bers. The hybrids were in a Quiuby 

 hive, while the others wereiii a Lang- 

 stroth hive, and they both came out 

 healthy in the sprin'g. The only rea- 

 son I can give for the extra amount 

 of honey consumed by the hybrids is, 

 that they were not in as warm a hive 

 as the Italians, which was made of 

 inch lumber, while the Quinby hive 

 was made of half- inch lumber. 



ChAULES iSTORRIS. 



Traverse City, Mich., Nov. 28, 1883. 



Ten Dollars a Colony net Profit. 



I commenced the season with20col- 

 onies of black bees, increased to 57, 

 and obtained SI SO worth of comb and 

 extracted honey, besides selling 12col- 

 onies at $5 each. The receipts were : 



Honey $180 00 



Bees 60 00 



Total 240 00 



Expense for extractor $11 -50 



Foundation 8 40 



Lumber 20 00 



Total 39 9& 



Leaving a net profit of $200. 



^\. ti. IlAYEN. 



Pleasant Mound, 111., Dec. 3, 1883. 



My Report for the Year. 



On Nov. 20, 1882, 1 put into winter 

 quarters 16 colonies, in 10-frameLang- 

 stroth hives, except a weak one in a 6- 

 frame hive, which starved before 

 spring. Last April I bought 4 colo- 

 nies, 111 box hives, making 19 to start 

 this season with. I transferred the 

 four 21 days after the first swarm is- 

 sued. Honey from the apple bloom 

 was light, owing to the cold, wet 

 weather last spring. I got about half 

 a crop of honey "from white clover. 

 The basswood crop was heavy ; then 

 came a drouth, followed by an early 

 frost, which made our fall crop light. 

 I took a little over 2,000 pounds of 

 honey, this season (.525 being extracted 

 and 1,500 pounds in tlie comb), nearly 

 all in one-pound sections. My bees 

 increased to 50 colonies. I doubled 

 up some that were weak, and now 

 have 47 packed as last winter, in a 



My Fayorite Feeder, etc. 



The feeder I use is, essentially, a 

 broad frame with boards at the sides 

 extending to within an inch of the top, 

 with bottom and sides made water- 

 tight. The end pieces are of inch 

 boards ; the sides, bottom and top are 

 of one-half-inch plank undressed, and 

 just as left by the saw. I make the 

 joints water-tight by a layer of white 

 lead, spread in before nailing together. 

 The feeder is just the size and shape 

 of an ordinary broad frame, and holds 

 about one gallon of syrup. It hangs 

 in the hive just as an ordinary frame. 

 In it I place a float made one-half inch 

 smaller than the inside of the feeder ; 

 it is simply a section box strip, 

 trimmed, till it floats loosely in the 

 feeder. I till this, hang it in the hive, 

 and the feeding is done, with no 

 drowned bees, and not the slightest 

 danger of robbing. I began the season 



held at 

 well at- 

 interest 



Bee Meeting at Fayette, Iowa. 



Our bee-keepers' meeting 

 Fayette, Iowa, was quite 

 tended, and considerable 

 manifested, and an organization ef- 

 fected. A. II. Loomis, of Clermont, 

 President; V. Whiting, of Wau- 

 coma, Vice-President; B. F. Little, 

 of Brush Creek, Secretary ; and H. 

 Randall, of Randalia. Treasurer. We 

 adopted a constitution and by-laws. 

 There were hives, honey, both comb 

 and extracted, extractors, foundation 

 machines, smokers, uncapping knives, 

 etc., etc., on exhibition ; all of which 

 attracted much attention, and elicited 

 considerable discussion. All in all, 

 we felt as though it was a most in- 

 teresting and profitable meeting, and 

 I think we have established it upon a 

 pretty sure foundation. Of course it 

 was but a beginning, and somewhat 

 crude, but we hope to improve with 

 age, and be enable sometime to call 

 in outsiders, practical apiarists, to 

 discuss the pros and ^ons with us, and 

 address the meeting on " The Blessed 

 Bees." Most of our bees hereabouts 

 go into winter quarters in a weak 

 condition. The long cold fall, with- 

 out any bee pasturage, leaves them in 

 a bad condition to hope for strong 

 colonies next spring. 



A. H. Loomis. 



Clermont, Iowa, Nov. 24, 1883. 



More Honey than I Expected. 



The weather has been beautiful for 

 the past few weeks, very much like 

 spring ; bees flying quite often, and 

 their humming sounds like the busy 

 time of the year. My honey crop was 

 over 1,000 lbs. instead of 600 lbs., for 

 which I am groportionately happy. 

 B. II. Holt. 



Adel, Iowa, Dec. 6, 1883. 



