fBE bkk-KEEP'ERS' REVIEW, 



sucked in by it or by being fed to it by the 

 nurse-bee ? Besides, Mr. C.'s position seems 

 a half way admission that foul brood has 

 been contracted immediately from chilled 

 brood which it appears to me that there is 

 not sufficient evidence that siich brood was 

 ever the vehicle of foul brood even to arrest 

 the attention. 



Again, I am inclined to think that the 

 powers of resistance of the larva do not cut 

 much of a figure when foul brood is virulent, 

 but that when the germ gets a position with- 

 in the body of the larva the game is up ; at 

 least my experience has established me in 

 the opinion which is quite the opposite to 

 that which Mr. C. holds that a,i abundant 

 honey flow does not weaken the grip of the 

 disease but rather hastens its spread — the 

 only exception being where the bees by fill- 

 ing their accustomed brood nest with honey 

 crowd themselves to use other comb for 

 brood. In my experience the most rapid 

 cases of the disease were those contracted 

 when I was feeding the colonies in question 

 all the honey they would take and next to 

 these in rapidity were those where there was 

 plenty of room for brood rearing during the 

 heaviest honey flow I ever knew. I think the 

 abundant warmth, moisture and the large 

 spread of brood accounted for it. 



As to the " rationale of the cure " I must 

 say that so far as 1 am concerned it is 

 shrouded in mystery. I consider McEvoy's 

 plan of putting the bees to preliminary comb 

 building entirely useless. I have found (see 

 my article in this number of the Review) 

 that either a natural or shaken swarm put at 

 once upon foundation is always cured if 

 left to itself — feeding would be likely to 

 cause the disease to be retained — but if the 

 bees were confined a week till apparently 

 ready to starve and then put upon comb the 

 disease in its active stages would be retained 

 iu almcst every instance. This I have de- 

 monstrated in many cases. 



The reasons which Mr. C. advances for the 

 disappearance of foul brood in my "pole 

 star" swarm do not hold because as I have 

 already intimated if the bees, including all 

 nurse bees, of a foul broody colony having 

 no desire to swarm are simply put on foun- 

 dation a^d left to themselves they are, with 

 me, found to produce brood invariably free 

 from disease. 



R. L. Taylob. 



Lapbeb, Mich. 



Jan. 30, 1894. 



When Sealed Covers are Not Objectionable. 



"BAMBLBB." 



P|NE of the 

 \J wintering 

 problems that 

 seems to etill 

 agitate our 

 Eastern breth- 

 r en is the 

 question of 

 sealed covers, 

 or no covers. 

 The prepon- 

 derence of tes- 

 timony so far seems to be against sealed 

 covers. It was my fortune to own bees in a 

 cold portion of New York and after many 

 years of wintering in the cellar, out doors 

 packed in chafif, and various other absorb- 

 ents, and always with absorbents over the 

 bees, I finally came down'' to wintering suc- 

 cessfully in the cellar and with sealed covers, 

 and should I return to any portion of the 

 frigid belt of our country I should certainly 

 again try sealed covers. 



The way I should do it is this : I should 

 take any ordinary cellar that is considered 

 passably dry, say where combs will mould 

 but very little, use a shallow hive, either a 

 one or two-story Heddon, or a Longstroth, 

 putting a three inch rim under the hive be- 

 tween the brood chamber and the bottom 

 board, with ventilating'aperatures either at 

 the sides or ends, and allow the bees to seal 

 the cover tight. There must be no rags of 

 any kind over the frames, nothing but just 



the board cover, 'CD i 



Now see that the temperature of the cellar 

 does not go much below 4,5° and I would 

 guarantee the bees to go through the winter 

 with but slight loss. 



The great trouble w ere there have been 

 failures in wintering with sealed covers is 

 that the outside temperature has not been 

 looked after close enough. The bees, through 

 respiration, draw air into the hive, and it 

 passes upward and strikes against the sealed 

 cover ; if the upper side of said cover is ex- 

 posed to the cold air, the respired air from 

 the bees striking against the cold under side 

 of the cover condenses and forms moisture, 

 and that is wherein all the trouble lies. If 

 the outside temperature is such, either in a 

 cellar or packed in chaff, that the cover is 

 kept at about the temperature that the bees 

 maintain then the respired air will strike 



