October 11, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICTJLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



303 



ceeded to drive the bees out. I do not know whether it is 

 the experience of others, but I found, as I have before done, 

 that "driving" bees from boxes is very " slow," and after 

 drumming for about ten minutes with very small results, 

 proceeded to brush the bees from the combs with a feather 

 into an empty hive, and, putting them on their stand, they 

 all went in at night, when I fastened them up. 



I found eggs and brood in all stages in both the stocks. 

 The next day I united the bees, making use of syrup flavoured 

 with peppermint, and put them into a probationary box 

 having two sides of glass, sufficient ventilation being secured 

 by the bottom being made of one piece of perforated zinc, 

 and by large openings in the top board covered with slides 

 of the same material. 



The total nett weight of bees was a little more than 2-J lbs. 

 I should be glad if you or any of your correspondents would 

 say what is about the weight of bees in a strong stock at 

 this season. My own idea is, that with the killing of the 

 drones, and the great numbers that die and are destroyed 

 in various ways without being to any great extent replaced 

 by brood, that few sto cks would have more than half the 

 weight of bees that they had three months ago. 



Placing the best queen with about fifty workers under a 

 bell-glass at the top, I kept the bees confined for six days, 

 giving them the queen on the fifth day without much diffi- 

 culty. During the whole time the bulk of the bees hung in 

 a cluster beneath the queen, lengthening to the bottom in 

 the daytime and contracting into a small space at night. 

 On once changing the position of the queen at the top, the 

 cluster below very shortly followed. Although I could not 

 well have given more ventilation, the excitement in the day- 

 time once or twice sent the thermometer up to 90°. I fed 

 them with a little syrup each day, and they made one small 

 comb, about 12 square inches. Nearly a hundred bees died 

 each day : in all I counted rather more than five hundred 

 dead ones. 



Thinking that there would be less danger of failure if 

 I gave them a winter's stoeS of sealed honey, and a friend 

 having proposed to drive the bees from one of his straw 

 hives, I was glad to avail myself of this for the purpose. 



On driving the bees from this stock we were surprised to 

 find not more than i lb. of them, no queen, and several 

 drones; the hive contained 16 or 17 lbs. of honey. It is 

 rather remarkable that this handful of queenless bees should 

 have managed to guard their stores, being close to several 

 strong stocks which have proved themselves adepts at rob- 

 bing. There was no brood, and the combs appeared perfectly 

 healthy. Into this hive I drove my poor imprisoned bees, 

 and took them to a friend's garden two miles off, and where 

 no bees are kept. Here they will remain till spring, when 

 I propose to cut out the combs, and if I find them free 

 from disease to transfer them to a frame-hive. If, unhap- 

 pily, otherwise, they will, I think, be consigned to destruc- 

 tion. In this case I shall feel at least somewhat repaid by 

 having proved to my own satisfaction that it is well nigh 

 useless to attempt the cure of foul brood at this season of 

 the year. In either case I intend to inform yon of the 

 result.— C. D., Sheffield. 



FOUL BROOD, AND WHAT HAS BEEN 

 WRITTEN ABOUT IT. 



We are all exceedingly obliged to "B: S." for experi- 

 menting on foul brood, as well as for his kindness in making 

 public the result of his experiments. It is, of course, pleas- 

 ing to me to find those statements confirmed, which it is 

 now needless to say were not only free from exaggeration, 

 but were penned in sad and sober earnest, and without even 

 the slightest intention of astonishing apiarians generally. 



I may remark that "B. S." is the "valued correspon- 

 dent in the north," to whom I alluded in" page 403 of the 

 fifth volume of The Journal op Horticulture, and that 

 I am informed by him that all his observations and experi- 

 ments have gone to establish all that I have stated regard- 

 ing the infectious character of the disease. 



Since concluding in page 446 of the last volume of The 

 Journal op Horticulture the series of papers under the 

 title which heads this article, my attention has been drawn 

 to the fact that in Bonner's "Bee-Master's Companion," 



published at Berwick in 1789, foul brood is accurately de- 

 scribed, a whole chapter being devoted to it under the title 

 of "An uncommon disaster, which sometimes, though rarely, 

 happens bees," and in which he says — " I shall here narrate 

 a very strange disaster which happened to four of my hives 

 last spring; which, for the singularity of it, I hope the 

 reader will excuse me for relating here. In the latter end 

 of March I had four hives that had but few bees in them, 

 and also but very little honey, and consequently, could 

 neither have defended themselves from robbers nor famine. 

 To put them in a way of defence from both, I supplied every 

 hive with a sufficiency of honey to bring her to June, and 

 also after two days reinforced her with bees to defend her 

 from robbers ; after, in the first week of April, I took the 

 four hives a mile from my own apiary, and placed them in a 

 sunny, quiet place among whins which were beginning to 

 bloom, and near some sallow trees, whose palms were out, 

 so that when the weather was fine they had food at their 



door without the trouble of much travel As soon 



as they were well set down among the whins the weather 

 turned very good, and my four mended hives fell briskly to 

 work and wrought throng for twelve days of fine weather." 

 Bad and cold weather then set in, but in due time " good 

 and pleasant weather comes round again, and my strong 

 hives fell briskly to work ; whilst scarcely a bee was to be 

 seen at the entry of any of my mended hives. I was sur- 

 prised at it, as knowing it was neither for want of bees nor 

 honey. I then turned them up, and by looking down be- 

 tween the combs, I saw- plainly that the young were all 

 going backward in the cells. I waited other eight days, and 

 none of the bees ever carried any at all, while my strong 

 ones carried throng. I then turned them up again, and cut 

 out a large piece of comb with maggots in it, and found 

 every one of them dead, and going backward in the cells ; 

 as it was such a case as I was perfectly a stranger to, I 

 could not know the cause how it happened, neither did I 

 presently know what method to take with them next. I 

 conjectured that every hive having got so many bees, and 

 so much honey added to them ; at the same time placed in 

 the midst of good pasture, to which the sun added his com- 

 fortable presence, all which completed their happiness, and 

 set them a-thinking summer was at hand, and now they 

 should set to prepare for it, by hatching forward a numerous 

 brood, which they accordingly had done, and had a vast 

 number in their cells, considering the season of the year, 

 and the short time they had ; and also their number was 

 not very great, although they had a moderate quantity. I 

 also conjectared that as the queen had been made prolific 

 by the heat in the hive, to lay great quantities of eggs, the 

 bees had also to go off in large quantities a-foraging 

 among the flowers for fresh farina to seal the maggots up in 

 their cells with, and when so many were abroad, the few 

 that remained at home could not keep a sufficient heat in 

 the hive to nourish up so large a brood." Blaming " ex- 

 cessive cold " as the cause of his disaster, Bonner " waited 

 till the beginning of June, and the bees turned very few, 

 the old ones dying of age, and few or none to supply them ; 

 they decreased very fast from the time of the disaster to the 

 beginning of June, they carried loads, and bred some, but 

 very little. When I turned them up in May and June, and 

 looked down between the combs, I was unable to do it for 

 the stench that the rotten maggots produced. I then saw 

 plainly that they never were to turn to any account the 

 way they were presently in ; for though they were beginning 

 to tear out some of the consumed maggots, and lay eggs in 

 their place, and increase a little, the season was going 

 away fast, and, consequently, they would be of little value 

 at the end of summer I then immediately pro- 

 ceeded and took all the bees out of one of the hives, and 

 put in an empty one. I next took all the bees (which were 

 very numerous) out of one of the strong hives which . . . 

 was standing beside the mended ones, and put in another 

 empty hive also. I then set down both the hives containing 

 the bees in the very spot where they stood when in posses- 

 sion of their own hives, in order that they might keep their 

 old stance, and then I took the hive containing the stinking 

 maggots, and with an instrument made on purpose, cut out 

 all the pieces of combs containing the stinking maggots, 

 among which were two hundred young bees coming forward 

 in some of the cells which the bees had cleaned out ; but I 



