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THE BEE KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Bee-Keepers' Review. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



W. Z. HOTCHINSOr*, Ed. & PKOp. 



Terms : — Sl.OO a year in advance. Two copieH 

 $1.90; tliree for S2.T(I; five for $4.()0; t^n or more. 

 70 cents each. If it is desired to liave the Review 

 stopped at the expiration of the time paid for, 

 please say so when subscribing, otlierwise it 

 will be continued. 



did, and continued the experiments from the 

 tirst swarms to the end of the season, and 

 while I did not take the pains to weigh every 

 thing and be so accurate as he has done, I 

 know that, so far as the amount of honey 

 gathered is concerned, the use of starters 

 only is the most profitable. I should be glad 

 to have Mr. Taylor tell, in some future re- 

 port, about the amount of drone comb built, 

 how straight and even the combs were, etc. 



FLINT, MICHIGAN. OCT. 10. 1893. 



LouisANA Hotel, — that is where the con- 

 vention is to be held, and let's all stop there. 

 It is BO much more pleasant to have all the 

 family at home. 



My Camera will go with me to the Chicago 

 convention. I shall probably try photo- 

 graphing the bee and honey exhibits— possi- 

 bly a group of the bee-keepers present, 



. (^ 



The Enterprise has been denied second 

 class mail privileges. It will change its 

 name and try again in October at its home 

 post office — Highwood. I presume the 

 authorities have to keep close watch over 

 those who try to palm off as periodicals what 

 are but little more than advertising circu- 

 lars, but they make grevious mistakes, as 

 they have done in this instance, and that of 

 Prinler^s Ink, which, by the way, has been 

 re-admitted. 



starters may be most profitable. 



I am proud of the report from the Michi- 

 gan Experimental Apiary that appears in 

 this issue. At the risk of appearing pre- 

 judiced in tryi'ig to defend my advocacy of 

 starters only in the brood nest when hiving 

 swarms that are to be employed in comb 

 honey production, I wish to call attention to 

 one or two points brought out by the experi- 

 ments. Light swarms did give the liest re- 

 sults when hived on starters, while the heavy 

 swarms on starters gained on the others from 

 the start. Had the test been continued 

 through a long honey flow instead of for 

 three weeks only, it is fair to assume that 

 starters only would have proved the most 

 profitable. I have for several years experi- 

 mented upon a larger scale than Mr. Taylor 



the cause of bee - diarrhoea. 



After reading the articles upon this sub- 

 ject, that appear in this issue of the Review, 

 I see no reason for changing the views that 

 I expressed in the last number. 



No one thing alone causes the trouble. 

 (There is no practical benefit in splitting 

 hairs as to whether it is a disease ; it certain- 

 ly is a condition that brings death to the af- 

 fected colonies. ) Cold alone does not cause 

 it. Bees have been very successfully win- 

 iered in cold winters, and on their summer 

 stands at that. Confinement alone does not 

 cause it, as bees have been confined three or 

 four mouths with no trace of the disease. 

 Poor food does not always result in disaster, 

 as bees with what would be called very im- 

 proper food have wintered most excellently. 

 The same may be said of moisture, as bees 

 have been wintered in a very damp atmos- 

 phere. 



Of course, there must be confinement, no 

 one disputes that, otherwise there would be 

 no over loading of the intestines. If there 

 were no cold there would be no confinement. 

 The cold causes the confinement, and the 

 confinement causes the over loading of the 

 intestines. There is no dispute over this. 

 When there is a chain of causes and effects 

 we wish to know which is the link that can 

 be most easily broken. Now then, we can- 

 not get rid of the confinement ; but we can 

 get rid of the cold by putting the bees in a 

 cellar, but the confinement remains. Hav- 

 ing gotten rid of the cold, what are the con- 

 ditions that will best allow the bees to bear 

 confinement ? If the bees must be confined 

 three or four months (and, in our Northern 

 States, this seems safer than to take the risk 

 of not securing one or two flights by leaving 

 the bees out of doors) the question of what 

 their food shall be is one of the greatest im- 

 portance. Mr. Heddon in liis article brings 

 out this point very strongly. If the natural 



