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combs and roomy hives to increase the 

 crop. 



Such ideas are not exclusive to 

 French bee-keepers. The brood-cham- 

 bers of tlie standard German hive 

 (Normahnaas) is divided in two stories. 

 Mr. Regnier, of Saarlouis, after ex- 

 perimenting comparatively his Ger- 

 man hive with the Quinby enlarged, 

 known in Europe as the Quinby-Da- 

 dant hive, wrote in the Revue Interna- 

 tionals UAjnculHre, that his crop in 

 German hives averaged 22 pounds, 

 while his Dadant-Quinby's averaged 51 

 pounds (page 259). 



In the same number, 318, 1887, page 

 255, the editor, Mr. Bertrand says : 

 " Some of my neighbors, finding these 

 large Dadant hives even too small, 

 have enlarged them to 13 frames in- 

 stead of 11, and I have seen some of 

 them filled with bees and honey, to- 

 gether with two half-stories, th^ whole 

 holding about 120 quarts, inside the 

 frames, all from the same queen." 



In the February, 1888, number of 

 the Italian bee-paper, L''Apicoltore, 

 page 61, a Mr. Giuseppe Bianchi, says 

 that his Italian (German) hives aver- 

 aged 67 pounds of honey, and his large 

 Americana gave him 264 jjounds. 



If you desire it, I may give you the 

 opinion as given in the bee-papers of 

 Europe, of one hundred bee-keepers of 

 France, Switzerland, Italy, Germanj' 

 and Spain, who, after comparative ex- 

 periments, have adopted the large and 

 indivisible frames. 



Had Mr. Heddon experimented seri- 

 ously, before pronouncing his jadg- 

 ment, he would have added one more 

 vote to the disinterested verdict, in 

 favor of the enlarged Quinby hive, 

 with suspended frames, a la Langstroth. 

 Chas. Dadant. 



[See comments on page 197. — Ed.] 



FOU L BR OOD. 



A metliod fop Eradicatini 

 from the Apiary. 



it 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY SAMUEL BARNHAKT. 



I had 12 colonies last spring, 10 of 

 them being badly aflected with foul 

 brood, and the othgf 2 were not af- 

 fected at all. My Ijest colonies instead 

 of getting stronger in May, as they 

 should have done, were getting weaker 

 every day. I concluded Unit they 

 might be affected with foul brood ; so 

 I went to see a bee-keeper who has 

 over 50 colonies, and who knows what 

 foul brood is, for his bees had it a year 

 or two before ; he pronounced it foul 

 brood of the worst type. 



Mj' best colonies had not over two 

 quarts of bees, so I made rough boxes 

 and put the bees into them. Some 



were put in the cooling room, and 

 some were left on the stands for three 

 days. I boiled the boxes for five or 

 ten minutes, and scalded the bee-house 

 and cleaned it effectually. 



On the third day I put them in the 

 same boxes with new frames and full 

 sheets of foundation, using 6 frames 

 instead of 8, and putting in two side- 

 pieces instead of frames. I saved the 

 combs that had any brood worth men- 

 tioning, filled a few boxes, and put a 

 few bees with them to hatch out the 

 brood ; then I carried them to a neigh- 

 bor. After they were all hatched out, 

 I treated them the same way. 



This was after the middle of May. I 

 treated 3 colonies for a neighbor in 

 the same way, but I did not save any 

 of the brood, there being none to save. 



I destroyed the combs, boxes and 

 all. They were in common boxes. 

 Two days after, I put them into new 

 hives, partly filled with foundation. 

 They have done very well, and have 

 had no foul brood since. 



I sometimes fear that my bees may 

 have it next summer, as I know of one 

 lot of bees that I am almost certain is 

 affected ; but the owner will do nothing 

 with them. 



I hived a swarm on nice, clean foun- 

 dation combs (some only partly drawn 

 out), which I saved. They were too 

 nice to melt up. There had been no 

 brood reared in them. I fumigated 

 them three or four times eft'ectually 

 (almost melted them) with sulphur. I 

 afterwards divided that colony, and 

 they are both strong to-day. 



There were 2 colonies not so bad as 

 the rest.I left, thinking that they miglit 

 get along, but they got worse. I then 

 put the combs that contained any 

 brood worth while, in a clean box, 

 with a few bees, and left them, and 

 they are there yet, and as good as any 

 I have to-day. They were without a 

 queen for fully five weeks ; conse- 

 quently they reared no brood. They 

 lost their first queen ; afterwards I gave 

 them two frames with brood, and they 

 now have one of the nicest and best 

 Italian queens, and is one of the 

 strongest colonies I have. Last fall 

 there was no foul brood about them, 

 and they had just as nice, solid sheets 

 of sound brood as I ever saw. 



I was born and reared among bees, 

 and could always do just what I saw 

 any other person do. My father 

 used to have about 100 colonies, and 

 any quantity of honej'. In 1854 he had 

 60 colonies in the fall, but had only 10 

 colonies left in the spring. In 1857 

 he had 37 colonies. He died that win- 

 ter, and the bees were nearly all sold 

 at auction. I had then too much *to 

 do on the farm, and neglected the 

 bees, but I have never been altogether 

 without bees or honey. I 



A few years ago I made frame hives 

 and transferred my bees to them, but 

 I became too greedy for increase, and 

 lost them through the winter. I have 

 never used gloves or a bee-hat in either 

 transferring, or in working wth bees 

 in any other way. I have a bee-house 

 18 feet long and 5 feet wide, placed 

 on locust posts close to the gi'ound. 

 The front I have divided into five 

 spaces, and in each space I keep 2 col- 

 onies. Those on the upper tier appear 

 to do equally as well as the lower ones. 

 There is a passage-way in the rear 2J 

 feet wide. It is lined, and has 4 inches 

 of sawdust filled in. 



In the winter I pack with straw be- 

 tween and on top of the hives, and also 

 the passage. I have shutters to tit the 

 spaces in front, making it completely 

 dark. They have wintered well in it 

 so far. I can easily keep them from 

 flying, if the weather is unfavorable. 

 I increased my apiary till I had 22 col- 

 onies, 14 of which are in the bee-house, 

 and 8 in the cellar. I can see no dif- 

 ference in there wintering. My cellar 

 temperature remains at about 40°. I 

 had them all out on Feb. 11, and they 

 had a good flight. 



Greensburgh, Pa. 



BEE-HOUSE BURNED. 



A Great l,os§ by Fire — Experi- 

 ence in Bee.Keeping. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY C. H. BKEEDEB. 



A terrible accident occurred here on 

 March 8, 1888. At 4 o'clock in the 

 morning we were alarmed by. our 

 neighbor's screams and rappings, and 

 telling us that our bee-house was in 

 flames. We at once tried to check the 

 fire, but it had advanced to such an 

 extent that it rendered all efibrts in 

 vain. The fire started in the smoke- 

 room, in one corner of the building, 

 constructed for the purpose of smok- 

 ing meats. We estimate our loss at 

 $1,200, with no insurance. This cer- 

 tainl}', placed among the ranks of mis- 

 fortunes, is the greatest loss on record 

 in the bee-line. If all people heed our 

 warning, they will have their smoke- 

 houses away from other buildings. 



^ly Experience n'itli Bees. 



About eleven years ago I made my 

 preliminary step in bee-keeping, by 

 liunting and finding bees in the woods, 

 and had 5 colonies the first season in 

 box and log hives. I held no other 

 hive in preference until about two 

 jears after, when I realized the vast 

 importance of using frame hives. I 

 saw an account of such a hive, and in 

 making my selection, I preferred the 

 10-frame Langstroth hive, and at once 



