February, ’20] 
BRITTON: CONNECTICUT BEEKEEPING 
93 
which such bees are kept, for the registration of such bees, and such town clerk shall 
issue to such applicant a certificate of registration upon the payment of a recording 
fee of twenty-five cents, which certificate shall be in the form prescribed and upon 
blanks furnished by the commissioner of domestic animals and shall be recorded in 
the office of such town clerk. 
Sec. 2. A record of such registration with the name and place of residence of the 
registrant and the definite location in the town where bees are kept by him shall be 
recorded in a separate book in the office of the town clerk, which records shall 
be accessible to the public. 
Sec. 3. Any owner of bees who shall fail to register as required by the provisions 
of this act shall be fined not more than five dollars. 
The winter of 1917-18 was very severe in Connecticut and many 
bees died. Some beekeepers lost all their colonies, others only a part. 
Not only were honey bees killed, but the native bees of Andrena, 
Halictus and allied genera are believed to have winter-killed as they 
were extremely scarce the first part of the summer of 1918. In addi¬ 
tion to the scarcity of bees in orchard blooming time, the temperature 
was so low that the few bees surviving the winter could not work the 
flowers. Consequently, except in a few localities, there was a poor set 
of fruit, especially apples. The peach buds were nearly all killed 
anyway. 
As the effect of the winter was so severe on bees, all beekeepers were 
urged to protect the hives during the following winter, 1918-19, which 
as you know, was very mild and bees would have wintered nicely 
without protection. Nevertheless, after the protective covers have 
once been made it costs very little to put them on and they should be 
applied every season as an insurance. It is always advisable to safe¬ 
guard the welfare of each colony. 
The inspection service was first established in 1910, and has been in 
effect just ten years. At first the inspections could be made only on 
complaint or request. Most interested beekeepers were willing to 
sign the papers to have their own apiary inspected; this defect in the 
law was remedied by the legislature of 1913, and since then the inspect¬ 
ors have had authority to inspect bees anywhere within the state 
without requests or complaints. The chief hindrance to the inspection 
work has been the small appropriation, but the last legislature has 
increased this to $2,000 annually. 
It is interesting to note that when the first inspections were made in 
1910, European foul brood was abundant everywhere, more than 75 
per cent of the apiaries, and nearly 50 per cent of the colonies being 
infested. Though only a portion of the apiaries have been inspected 
each year, there has been a gradual decrease in European foul brood 
until 1919, when only 6.6 per cent of the apiaries and 1.2 per cent of 
the colonies were infested. Though it is possible that the disease has 
