1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



287 



^rr)or)^ tl^e Bee-Papers 



Conducted l>y " GLEAXBR." 



SIZE OF BROOD-NEST. 



Of late there has been much discussion in Gleanings as to 

 the size of brood-nest, the general drift being toward larger 

 than many had been using. Now come .Schumack Bros., in 

 Australian Bee Bulletin, saying : "We use frames 16 inches 

 long and 9 inches deep for the brood-nest, and six of them, 

 witii a good queen, will be found all that's required to keep a 

 hive well stocked with bees." What will be said to that by 

 those who want 10 or 12 frames an eighth larger in size? 



GETTING COMBS BUILT DOWN TO THE BOTTOM-BAR. 



Geo. Colbourne lets the bees build their combs down to 

 within a few inches of the bottom-bar, then puts thera in 

 an upper story to be completed, and in ninety-nine cases 

 in a hundred they will finish them down to the bottom-bar ; 

 whereas, if left below till rounded off with a space between the 

 comb and bottom-bar, no change would be made in that space 

 when put above. — Australian Bee-Bulletin. 



NEW BEE-DISEASE IN AUSTRALIA. 



W. S. Pender describes in the Australian Bee-Bulletin a 

 new bee-disease, which, like foul brood, makes the larviB turn 

 brown, with cappings dark, slightly sunken, and often per- 

 forated ; but the larvEe retain their shape until dried up to a 

 black scale, showing no signs of ropiness. The disease attacks 

 unemerged fully developed bees in the cells, which dry up 

 retaining perfect shape. No stench, not even the stench of 

 decaying bees. Let us hope the disease may not take in this 

 continent in its travels. 



MICHIGAN'S EXPERIMENTAL APIARV. 



Experimenter Taylor reports in Review that during the 

 past year he tried Conser's non-swarming hive and Langdon's 

 non-swarmer, but with no definite conclusions, partly owing to 

 the bad season. Tried two colonies of the " so-called " five- 

 banded bees, and finds no fault with their working qualities, 

 so far as he could judge in so bad a season, but doesn't boast 

 of their gentleness, and one colony were desperate robbers. 



PROFITS FROM ALSIKE CLOVER. 



Thirty acres of Alsike are thus reported in Gleanings by 

 Frank (^overdale : 90 bushels seed, !3540; -tO tons good hay, 

 $240 : S250 worth of honey that he wouldn't have had but 

 for Alsike; making more than !?L,000 for the 30 acres, to 

 say nothing of the aftergrowth and the fine condition in which 

 the land is left for future crops. 



DRONES FROM VIRGIN QUEENS. 



Mr. Wells, quoted on page 189, decides they are bad, 

 because his queens were not fecundated " until natural drones 

 commenced to fly," although drones from virgin queens were 

 flying before. Such drones may be worthless, but the proof in 

 this case would be more satisfactory if he had shown that his 

 queens would have been fertilized at an earlier date if normal 

 drones had been flying. In other words, would any other 

 drones have been better at that time? 



Conducfed 7j_v " BEE-M:A.STBR." 



That Ontario Foul Brood Report. 



On page 174 is a long article from Mr. Clarke on my 

 " Foul Brood Report." I see that Mr. Clarke has kept about 

 as far from the real facts of what led to the burning of the 

 three foul-broody colonies in his apiary, as it was ever possible 

 for any man to do. I also see that he has made several state- 

 ments that are not truthful. In the last few years I have 

 examined hundreds of apiaries in the province of Ontario, and 

 got the foul-broody colonies cured by an army of men, and I 

 am very much pleased to say that all of ray dealings with 

 everyone has ended in the most pleasant way, with the excep- 

 tion of Mr. W. F. Clarke and two other men that did not, and 

 would not, do their duty ; and then I had to force the law with 

 them for the public good. 



In 1892 I burned 3 foul-broody colonies of bees for a man 



that I could not get to do liis duty. The next time I went 

 back to see if the disease was breaking out in any of his other 

 colonies, he would not let me into his bee-yard. I went at 

 once to the police magistrate in Stratford, and after he 

 read the Foul Brood Act, he wanted me to have the man 

 brought before him and fined for not letting me into his bee- 

 yard to examine his colonies of bees, but I did not want to be 

 hard on the man, and refused to do so. The magistrate said 

 that I was the sole judge, and that the Act gave me the power 

 to burn the diseased hives of bees. He then sent a constable 

 with me and told him, "If that man interferes with the 

 inspector while he is burning the diseased colonies of bees, 

 take him at once." The man had cleared out before I re- 

 turned with the constable, and I then examined his colonies 

 and found them all right. 



In 1893 I burned 15 hives with bees for another man 

 that would not even try to cure his foul-broody colonies. I 

 had written to him and warned him that I would have to burn 

 his diseased colonies if he did not cure them, but it was all no 

 use ; he took legal advice, and was determined to prevent me 

 from burning his foul-broody colonies. I heard of it and went 

 to the police magistrate in Strathroy for help to force the law 

 for the public good. As soon as the police magistrate read the 

 Act, he said that I had the power to Ijurn every diseased hive 

 of bees. The magistrate then sent a policeman with me to 

 the diseased apiary, and he kept two men back, while I piled 

 up 15 colonies that were in a horrid state with foul brood and 

 burned them. 



I always explain very fully to every man that has foul- 

 broody colonies of bees, how to cure them, and then give him 

 every possible chance to do so, but when he will not cure, and 

 is socareless and indifferent about it that he doesn't care whose 

 apiary would get ruined by his diseased colonies, then there is 

 nothing left for me but to strictly force the law for the public 

 good, by burning every one of his foul-broody colonies. Mr. 

 Clarke knows just as well as I do that I am the sole judge, and 

 have the power to burn, but if he had any doubts on this point 

 he will now see that I am in the right when he reads the 

 rulings on it, of the two police magistrates. 



Before 1891, Mr. Clarke sold the balance of his old stock 

 of bees and part of his old combs, and of course was prac- 

 tically out of bee-keeping after that until he bought a new 

 stock of bees. One man at Flora, who bought lO colonies of 

 Mr. Clarke's old stock, found them very bad with foul brood 

 when he examined them. He then burned up the whole lO 

 foul-broody colonies, and told other men about the diseased 

 stock Mr. Clarke sold to him. Mr. Clarke had still some of 

 his old stock of combs left, so he went to Mr, Tovall, in 

 Guelph, who had a large apiary, and was an old man, and 

 very poor. He urged Mr. Tovall to buy his old cnmbs whicli 

 had a lot of dead brood in them. Mr. Tovall refused to buy 

 them at first, saying that he did not like the looks of them. 

 Mr. Clarke then said that he would sell them cheap, and said 

 if he would put swarms on them, that the bees would soon 

 clean them out. Mr. Tovall bought them, and he told me that 

 the Rev. Clarke was the cause of all his trouble, as he had 

 sold him the combs that started the foul brood in his apiary. 



In 1891 Mr. Clarke bought anew stock of bees, and 

 started bee-keeping again. Then I had to go to his apiary, 

 and examined every one of his colonies to see if they were 

 free from foul brood. I made a thorough examination of 

 every colony, and found them free from disease. In the same 

 locality I found a very badly diseased colony, owned by a 

 lawyer; I burned it at once, so as to prevent Mr. Clarke's 

 colonies from getting foul brood from it. Mr. Clarke's bees 

 were gathering honey then, but he said that when the season 

 closed robbing would set in, as there was an apiary a mile 

 from there. Mr. Clark told me then that he was sure that 

 Tovall's bees had foul brood, and wanted me to go and exam- 

 ine his apiary at once. As I intended to go through Guelph 

 soon after that, I did not go just then to Tovall's apiary, but 

 took the train for another diseased locality. I received a 

 letter in a few days after that from Mr. Clarke, demanding me 

 to come on to Guelph at once, and look after Tovall's apiary. 

 I went, and found his apiary of 80 colonies very badly dis- 

 eased with foul brood. I asked Mr. Tovall to kill off a few of 

 the very worst of his foul-broody colonies, and make wax of 

 the combs, and then to put the rest of his time in curing his 

 other diseased colonies. Mr. Tovall went to work like a man, 

 and did every thing I told him, so as to get his diseased apiary 

 cured, which he was depending upon very much. While poor, 

 old Mr. Tovall was working very hard curing his apiary, I got 

 another letter from Mr. Clarke, to come again and look after 

 Tovall. I went again to Mr. Tovall's apiary, and saw that for 

 a man of his years he had done wonders. Mr. Tovall then 

 told me all about how he had gotten foul brood from combs 

 that the Rev. Clarke sold to him. Mr. Tovall made a grand 



