T'Hl? MMERICJtK mmm JOUiRKSt. 



823 





opened them up, and found but few 

 living, and all in a miserable condi- 

 tion. They all had been breeding, 

 some having five or six frames of 

 brood. It took but a glance to see 

 that diarrhea had done its work ef- 

 fectually. Of this lot of 34, 6 are now 

 living, and from the 1(5 from which the 

 snow was removed, 10 are living." 



In the above case it will be seen that 

 Mr. Scudder's bees were 4 inches ofl' 

 the ground, yet his experience was 

 almost exactly the same as mine has 

 been for the past 15 years, whenever I 

 let any of my bees get drifted under. 



I would advise all those who have 

 not had'experience in the matter, not 

 to let many of their colonies get 

 drifted under snow until thej" are sure 

 that they will winter well that way. 



The Best Kind of Hives. 



From the many lettei's which I get, 

 asking how much more honej' the 

 writers would be likely to get if they 

 were to change the hives they were 

 now using for such and such hives, it 

 would seem that there was an impres- 

 sion in the minds of some that tlie hive 

 produced the honey, to a certain ex- 

 tent at least, rather than the bees. 

 Now this is not true. Bees will store 

 as much honey in one hive as in 

 another, or in a nail-keg, for that mat- 

 ter, provided they have at all times as 

 much room as they need. All that any 

 hive can claim over the nail-keg is, 

 the ease that it gives in manipulation, 

 and the facilities it possesses for giving 

 us the product of the bees in the most 

 marketable shape. It is the bees, not 

 hives, which produce honey. 



With a hive which is easy of manipu- 

 lation, we can get the bees in time to 

 collect the harvest of honey which, 

 God in his providence causes the 

 flowers to secrete at certain periods of 

 the year ; while if the nail-keg is used, 

 or some unwieldy hive, we have little 

 if any control of the matter of getting 

 the bees at just the right time for the 

 harvest. 



With the nail-keg, we could cut the 

 honey out of the top of it, to a certain 

 extent, and so supply ourselves with 

 the product of the bees, which, per- 

 haps, would be better than no honey 

 at all ; but no one who retails honey 

 at the present time would give half as 

 much for it, as the}' would for honey 

 in the nice sections of the present day. 



If any one has to the nnmlier of 25 

 colonies of bees in any of tlie good, 

 movable-frame hives of to-day, I do 

 not believe that there is enough ad- 

 vantage to be gained by changing 

 them to a hive of another pattern to 

 pay for the cost of changing ; nor do I 

 believe that the labor of manipulation 

 will be lessened with the new hive to 

 any extent proportionate to the cost 



which will be required. Any of the 

 new theories of tlie day can be accom- 

 plished witli any of the half-dozen 

 good hives we have in the different 

 apiaries of our land, and any of the 

 different surplus arrangements can be 

 fitted to any of these hives. 



This idea of frequent changes in the 

 apiary, as regards hives, fixtures, etc., 

 is damaging to our piifsuTt. The old 

 adage, that "A rolling stone gathers 

 no moss," is as true here as anywhere. 

 He who thinks that it is necessary to 

 pay out half of the income from the 

 jipiary every year in the changing of 

 fixtures, so that he may be up with the 

 times, is certainly laboring under a 

 mental abnoi-mity. If any one has the 

 necessary resources, so that he can go 

 into all of the new-fangled arrange- 

 ments as they come up, without in- 

 jury to his famil}- or those about him, 

 he has a perfect right to do so ; but 

 the impres.sion that seems to obtain, that 

 all must do this, is not right, and the 

 sooner it is frowned upon, the better 

 for the world, and the better for our 

 pursuit. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



CHLOROFORM 



As a Prevention of Increase- 

 Introdueins Queens, etc. 



Written for t?ic Canadian Honey Producer 



BY W. H. KIKBY. 



During the past season many articles 

 have appeared in the various bee- 

 papers, written by some of the most 

 extensive and most experienced bee- 

 keepers of the day, on the important 

 subject, " The prevention of increase 

 in working for comb honey." The 

 sum and substance of all that has been 

 written is to give plenty of room to a 

 colony to prevent them getting the 

 the swarming fever, and the vigorous 

 use of the extractor to depi'ive them of 

 the swarming fever after they once 

 get it. 



In my opinion, prevention is better 

 than the cure, by a long odds. This 

 extracting of nice sealed honey out of 

 the brood-nest (which makes the best 

 of winter stoi'es) is something I could 

 not tolerate, to saj' nothing about the 

 extra work for nothing, when a much 

 easier and simpler method will do. 



The swarming fever appears to bo, 

 and is, the great trouble to get over 

 when the bees once get it. The best, 

 the easiest, the quickest, and the 

 cheapest way to ciu-e that fever is by 

 the use of chloroform, given to them 

 by the smoker, just at dark when the 

 bees are nearly all in the hive — to be 

 given to them until they lie like dead 

 bees upon the combs, or until not a 



bee will tly when the honey-board is 

 taken off and the hive kicked. 



Two years ago last June I treated a 

 colony just as I have described. They 

 had their first queen-cell capped, and 

 would have swarmed the next day. 

 The morning after drugging they went 

 to the fields as usual, apparently none 

 the worse for the dose. Upon examin- 

 ing them in the evening, 24 hours 

 after the drugging, the queen-cell was 

 still intact. Forty-eight hours after 

 drugging, I examined them again, 

 and found the cell still intact, and no 

 further progress had been made on 

 an}' of the other queen-cells. 



They had one case of sections on. I 

 then took away all finished sections, 

 and filled up again with sections con- 

 taining full sheets of foundation. 

 Seventy-two hours after drugging, I 

 examined them again, and found the 

 cell torn to pieces. About a week after 

 this I gave them another ease of sec- 

 tions ; there was a steady, moderate 

 yield from the raspberry during this 

 time. This colonj' gave me about 50 

 pounds of nice finished sectigns that 

 season. 



The above experiment convinces me 

 that chloroform is the specific. 



When a swarm issues, put it back, 

 take away all finished sections, and 

 fill up again, and give room enough 

 for all the bees to work ; then give 

 them a good drugging in the evening. 

 Before morning they will get rid of the 

 effects of the drug, and will have for- 

 gotten, or given up all notion of 

 swarming, and go to the fields to 

 gather nectar and pollen as usual the 

 next day. I find chloroform very use- 

 ful in the apiary. 



In introducing queens not a queen 

 need be lost. Also in the uniting of 

 colonies, not a bee will be lost from 

 fighting excepting one of the queens. 

 Also in moving bees about the apiary, 

 set them anywhere, and in the evening 

 give them a dose. In the morning 

 they will be seen marking their loca- 

 tion as they fly out, and will return to 

 it, thej' having forgotten all about the 

 old one. I suppose ether would do as 

 well as chloroform, although I have 

 never used it. 



In all c:\ses the drugging should be 

 to a stupor, except in introducing 

 queens in a honey flow, when very 

 little or none is needed. Objections 

 may be taken to the use of anaes- 

 thetics in the apiarj', on the ground of 

 their being injurious to the bees. My 

 oliservation has been very close, and 

 so far I have not been able to detect 

 any difference. Twelve hours after a 

 colony has been drugged, they will be 

 as brisk as ever. As a proof of this, 

 take a queeuless colony in the fall that 

 is being robbed by wholesale, no de- 

 fense being made at all ; drug in a 



