308 



THE BEE KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



much surplus in five to six days, when given 

 two sets of comb, as will take it eight days 

 on one set. 



Hold on ! I have got to fix up the fence a 

 little (not Dr. Miller's), or Bro. Hatch will 

 sharpen this point I have made, and ruth- 

 lessly stick me with it by saying, ' There, 

 Gill, you are admitting your hive is too 

 small.' I plead guilty. It is too small when 

 I want a large hive ; but I can tier it up till 

 I need guy ropes, if necessary ; but your hive 

 is too big when I want a small hive, and too 

 small when I want a big hive ; for you will 

 certainly admit that it would be no fun lift- 

 ing off any thing more than one super hold- 

 ing ten frames. 



Viola, Wis," 



A Short Method of Making Increase With- 

 out Even Finding the Queens. 

 Recently, in the Review, I criticised the 

 plan of artificial increase that places the old 

 queen on the new stand. The reason given 

 was that the queen and the workers ought to 

 be kept together. In the last issue of his 

 Quarterly, Bro. Heddon describes a method 

 of increase that he saj s he has practiced ex- 

 tensively and satisfactorily, in which the 

 queen is left just wherever she happens to 

 be. Here is the method. 



" In our leader, of last issue, we told you 

 we had but one swarm from both our apiaries, 

 and that one came from one of those six col- 

 onies worked for comb honey in the ordina- 

 ry way. We have had a pretty good fall har- 

 vest, the bees bringing in honey and storing 

 it in supers of combs, up to the present writ- 

 ing, September 19th, and yet not a swarm 

 has ofifered to issue ; although ever since the 

 beginning of basswood bloom, we have had 

 our colonies reduced to five or six Lang- 

 stroth frames, or one case of the Heddon 

 hive, as we used in our apiaries. It must be 

 remembered, however, that previous to that 

 time our bees had all the combs the queens 

 could occupy, in which they performed 

 double service, up to about July 1. At that 

 time we had nearly double the amount of 

 brood found in colonies managed in the or- 

 dinary way, and as there was no white clo- 

 ver, but a pretty good whitewood, or poplar 

 yield, the several sets of combs were quite 

 well filled with that honey. We mean, that 

 out around the brood this honey was stored. 

 Now, as promised in last issue, we will out- 

 line the speedy, slip-shod method we used 

 for getting increase, and tell you in what 

 good condition our colonies are at the pres- 

 ent time. 



We simply split the hives in two parts, 

 each part containing about as many combs, 

 as much brood, bees and honey, as the other. 

 The half that we moved to a new stand was 

 thoroughly smoked, and the hive thoroughly 

 jarred, and a new, full set of combs placed 

 above each half, and this time the queen ex- 

 cluding honey board placed between. Now, 

 some of you are saying ' I will bet a lot of 



the bees returned to the old stand.' No, 

 they didn't ; dividing just at the swarming 

 season of the year, will, with the precaution 

 of smoking and jarring, cause the bees to 

 stay just where we put them. Now, some- 

 one is asking ' what kind of queens we got 

 by this kind of a procedure ? ' Our answer 

 is, just as good and prolific as you ever saw, 

 and only two colonies, out of over 100, 

 turned out queenless. We took no notice of 

 the old queen, whatever. We just divided 

 the combs, brood, bees, and honey, as nearly 

 equal as we could, in whole sets of combs, 

 and didn't stop to tarry over old queens, or 

 the handling of single combs, because we had 

 to make these artificial colonies at the rate 

 of 12 to 20 per hour, and we did it, and they 

 made honey, and are in splendid condition 

 to-day. It makes no difference what some 

 theorist says or thinks about it, the above 

 are the facts, a knowledge and practice of 

 which is one of the big levers to selling hon- 

 ey cheaply, at a profit. We are glad to see 

 foremost bee-keepers coming right along in 

 this line, and supporting our practices, 

 which were fought as ' too radical,' only a 

 few years ago. On this line of work, of 

 which this method of increase is no small 

 factor, rests the salvation of bee-keepers who 

 propose to compete with future prices, and 

 still make a good profit on their products." 



Bee Paralysis a Worse Scourge in Some Lo- 

 calities than Foul Brood; All Cures Tried, 

 and All a Failure ; The Only Bem- 

 edy Where it is Epidemic is Com- 

 plete Destruction of the 

 Whole Colony. 

 In the last Review was a long and valuable 

 communication from Mr. T. S. Ford, of 

 Miss., on the subject of bee paralysis. It is 

 evident that Mr. Ford is a man of more than 

 ordinary ability and education, as well as 

 possessed of excellent observing powers, and 

 has had abundant experience with the new 

 scourge that promises to do more damage 

 than foul brood, hence his views are worthy 

 of consideration, and I am glad to be able to 

 copy some additional remarks of his as pub- 

 lished in a late issue of Gleanings ; but it 

 should not be forgotten, however, that other 

 men, in other localities, have, apparently, 

 cured the disease. 



" The idea that we both had, of killing ofif 

 the black shiny bees in the hives aflfected by 

 bee paralysis, has been thoroughly tried by 

 me this summer, and it has gone the way of 

 the sulphur and the salt, and the requeening 

 and the salicylic acid — the limbo of exploded 

 remedies for this disease. I can not really 

 believe that there is any cure of the disease, 

 except spontaneous ones somehow worked 

 out by nature's own processes, if it can be 

 truthfully asserted that there are cures at all. 



