A, A—Ventilation and bee escape.
B—Space to work in and shaded.
This protection keeps them quiet, and storms beat on the shelter and on the millet hay. Of course, this is not a water-proof shelter or cover, and I do not think one is needed. It is advantageous to have an opening in the apex of the roof; this plan of having one roof higher than the other secures it with the least expense. It is curious to notice how the bees fly out of these spaces marked A, A (as both ends are open) while the operators manipulating the hives. Sixteen boards 14 feet long and 1 foot wide cover it, and with the 9 posts and 4 2 × 4 studding to set the hives on, and short pieces to set on top of the posts to nail the roof to, complete the lumber bill.
Hunnewell, Mo.
For the American Bee Journal.
[ Foul Brood, and Its Causes.]
H. L. JEFFREY.
You ask for my observations on foul brood regarding the cases noted in the Bee Journal. There are many who, I know, will disagree with me, but nevertheless, it seemed to come from no other source. The largest case of it was 25 colonies in one apiary. Ever since the year 1873 they had been wintered in the cellar, in a sort of room fitted up especially for them. They were usually put in about Nov. 25, and taken out about April 1st to the 20th, according to the season. This receptacle was directly under the living room, which was kept very warm. The bee-room was generally quite dry, and towards spring would stand from 45° to 50°, which would let the bees have from 60° to 80° in the hive, or perhaps 90°, causing the cluster to spread, and there was always a good supply of brood in the combs when taken from the cellar, and generally a considerable number of young hatched bees. So far everything was as good as could be asked for, and every good bee-keeper will say this could not have anything to do with foul brood; perhaps not.
These same hives, with more space and more surface of comb than a 10 frame Langstroth hive gives, were put into the cellar with all their combs in place, with a box 6 inches deep below the hive, and another above filled with straw, or with a top story filled with rags, old clothes and pieces of carpet or straw. The full complement of combs was left in the hives, regardless of the strength of the colonies, and they were then set on their summer stands without using division boards, or any contraction of combs. After setting out they were generally fed liberally every night to induce breeding, which is a good plan if properly handled, but in this case it helped to breed the disease, and it did do it to the fullest extent. Why? First, a small colony should not be given any more combs than it can cover, either in summer or winter. If the hive is too large, insert a division on one or both sides; if on both sides, let one of them be at least half an inch shallower than the hive, then if the numbers increase, they can crowd outside of it.
Second, if they are wintered indoors, in a hive full of combs, take away all you can before they are set out in the spring, even if you have to feed to prevent starvation.
Third, if you do winter indoors on a full set of combs, do not commence feeding regularly, to induce breeding, as soon as set out, though it be the 25th of April or even the 1st of May.
In the case mentioned the consequences were: In the weak colonies some of the bees died in the combs and contracted some moisture, consequently would mold. Some strong colonies would do the same, but many of the dead bees would be thrown down. The cellar had a drain 100 feet long, with a fall of 5 feet, to keep the cellar dry, and a ventilator 3 feet above the house-sill outside, at the south. The ventilator opened on warm days, consequently a draft of warm air, fire in the room above, temperature in the bee-cellar raised, cluster of bees spread, queen goes to laying, honey consumed, brood reared and old bees wearing out; all of these conditions are the requisites of good, strong, healthy colonies, and they are just as surely the forerunners of first-class cases of foul brood every time.
I know that 99 out of every 100 bee-keepers will differ with me, but go through the colonies with me 10 or 15 days after setting out on the summer stands; suppose in that time we have had 2 or 3 good flying days; the feeding induced the queen to lay more rapidly and forced the cluster to spread; the eggs hatched into larvæ; on the pleasant days the old bees flew out but forgot to fly in again, thus diminishing the cluster; then there came 2 or 3 stormy days in succession, cold and chilling; the cluster contracted as well as diminished in numbers; the minute larvæ starved and dead, and some, perhaps, that are advanced to capping; another flying day, and their numbers are more reduced. The dead bees in the combs putrefy, and you have for your pains a first-class case of foul brood in the near future. Many will shake their heads, but I saw the colonies, and in 3 years I saw the 25 and their increase decreased to 17, the 17 and their increase decreased to 9, the 9 down to 2, and the 2 went, in the spring of 1880, “where the woodbine twineth.”
Woodbury, Conn., Feb. 26, 1881.
For the American Bee Journal.
[ Early Importations of Italian Bees.]
REV. L. L. LANGSTROTH.
I can probably give, better than any one living, the history of the first efforts made to introduce Italian bees into this country; as I knew well the late Messrs. Samuel Wagner and Richard Colvin, and Messrs. S. B. Parsons and P. G. Mahan, who, with myself, were the first to import them. Messrs. Wagner and Edward Jessop, both residents of York, Penn., received from Dzierzon, in 1856, a colony of Italian bees which had starved on shipboard. Mr. Wagner's letter to me, August, 1856, and given the next spring, in my 2nd edition on bees, is the earliest notice, published in this country, of the Italian race of bees. Messrs. Wagner and Colvin, subsequently, bought a few queens of Dzierzon, which were consigned to the care of the surgeon of a Bremen steamship, who had been carefully taught what precautions to use for their safety. Fearing that the bees might sting his passengers, the captain would not allow them to be put on his vessel.
“In the winter of 1858-59,” (I quote from Mr. Colvin's able article on beekings, in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1863, page 530,) “another attempt was made by Mr. Wagner, Rev. L. L. Langstroth, and myself. The order was placed in the hands of the surgeon of the steamer, to whose charge the bees were to have been committed, but in consequence of his determining to leave the ship, the effort failed.[A] Subsequently arrangements were made, in the latter part of that year, and we received 7 living queens. Only two or three young queens were reared by us during that fall and winter, and in the following spring we found that all our imported stock had perished. In conjunction with Mr. Wagner, I determined to make another trial; the queens, however, did not arrive until June, 1860.”
Footnote
[A] Mr. Colvin, having formed the acquaintance of the German Captain, not only convinced him that the bees could not escape to injure anyone, but inspired him with a strong desire to be the first to bring over in his own vessel, this valuable race of bees. It would require quite a volume to tell, at length, what sacrifices of time were made by Messrs. Wagner and Colvin, to secure these bees.
Our queens, which came in 1859, were in charge of a German resident of Brooklyn, N. Y., who was returning home from a visit to his friends, and to whom Mr. Wagner had given very careful directions how to care for them. This person, learning that Mr. Mahan had expressed the intention of having the honor of landing, in America, the first living Italian bees, and desiring, as he told me, to secure this honor for us, communicated Mr. Mahan's intention to the captain, who, as soon as the gang-way was in place, was the first person to step ashore, proclaiming with a very loud voice: “These are the first Italian bees ever landed on the shores of America!”
In the spring of 1856, Mr. S. B. Parsons, of Flushing, L. I., invited me to visit him, and advise with him as to the best way of managing his Italian bees. On my way, I called upon Mr. Mahan, who was joint owner with me of a large interest in my patent hive. He gave me a very graphic account of his visit to the apiary of the Baron Von Berlepsch, from whom he obtained a queen, and supplied me with a few Italian workers for Prof. Joseph Lidy, that he might determine how the length of proboscis, in that variety, compared with that of the black bee. On arriving at Flushing, Mr. Parsons showed me five hollow logs, or “gums,” placed in an old bee-shed. It was a warm, sun-shiny day, and I saw only an occasional bee flying out from one of the hives. These colonies had been purchased in Italy, carried safely on the backs of mules over the Alpine passes, to Genoa, from which port they were safely shipped to New York; but by a succession of mishaps, four of them died at Flushing. The fifth contained a mere handful of bees, with their queen, which I introduced to a colony of black bees. It is hardly necessary to say that none of these hives were ever in the same vessel with Mr. Mahan.
On the 18th of April, the steamer Argo arrived in New York, after a tedious and stormy voyage. Mr. Herman, a German bee-keeper, and author of a work on the Italian bee, who had been furnished with a large sum of money by Mr. Parsons to buy Italian bees in the best districts of Italy, and who had agreed to bring them over in the original hives, and breed queens for Mr. Parsons, was not on board, but in his place, a young Austrian, by the name of Bodmer. On the 19th, as soon as the bees were allowed to be landed, they were carried to Flushing. The small boxes in which they were put up were in three different packages, one of which was consigned to the U. S. Government, one to Mr. Mahan, and one to Mr. Parsons. As the Austrian said that he knew, by examination on shipboard, that the bees were in a very bad condition, and many of them already dead, and, as the day was very pleasant, they were all examined under my personal supervision, and I can assure Mr. Robinson that every colony consigned to the Government and Mr. Mahan, was dead. A few, only, of those marked for Mr. Parsons, had living queens, some of which soon died, and in a short time he found himself the possessor of only two queens, one of which was the queen found alive upon my arrival at Flushing.
By my advice, Mr. Wm. W. Cary, of Coleraine, Mass., a very skillful bee-keeper, and a thoroughly trustworthy man, was sent for by Mr. Parsons. One of the queens was entrusted to his care, on the premises of Mr. Parsons, and the other to Mr. Bodmer, some distance off, who did not raise queens enough even to pay for the black bees and honey which were purchased for his use; while Mr. Cary Italianized a large apiary for Mr. Parsons, besides filling all his orders for queens.
One hundred and eleven queens were carried to California, by Mr. A. J. Biglow, 108 of which reached there in good condition. This small per cent. of loss was, in part, owing to the skillful supervision of Mr. Biglow, and to the purifying flight which, by my advice, he gave them on the Isthmus of Panama; but all his precautions would have been of no avail but for the judicious way in which they were prepared by Mr. Cary and himself, for so long a voyage. The bees sent to Mr. Parsons were in cigar boxes, into which the combs were merely crowded or wedged: the loosening of the combs on so rough a voyage killed some of the queens, while others were drowned, with their bees, in honey; and others, still, starved from the boxes being over-crowded with bees. It is hardly necessary to contrast Mr. Biglow's success with the heavy losses sustained for years by those who imported bees from Europe. The result of Mr. Parsons' dealings with Herman were, that for $1,200 advanced to him, he had only 2 queens to show. The next season Mr. Bodmer, having learned how to pack bees for a sea voyage, brought over a number of queens in good condition, for Mr. E. W. Rose, but was very unfortunate in the management of them. Herman came, some years after, to this country, and was employed by a friend of mine in Philadelphia, to purchase for him, in Italy, a large number of queens. The return voyage was long and stormy, and every queen died on board the steamer.
Oxford, Ohio, March 5, 1881.
[A] Mr. Colvin, having formed the acquaintance of the German Captain, not only convinced him that the bees could not escape to injure anyone, but inspired him with a strong desire to be the first to bring over in his own vessel, this valuable race of bees. It would require quite a volume to tell, at length, what sacrifices of time were made by Messrs. Wagner and Colvin, to secure these bees.
For the American Bee Journal.
A Good Way to Promote Bee-Keeping.
WM. F. CLARKE.
As a sample of what may be done in many parts of the country to diffuse knowledge regarding apiculture, and awaken an interest in bee-keeping as a business, let me give a brief account of a meeting recently held in Shaftesbury Hall, Toronto, under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. Mr. D. A. Jones, having made the acquaintance of some of the leading spirits in the organization just named, offered to give a free lecture on bee-keeping. The offer was accepted, and a meeting announced to which the members of the Y. M. C. A. were admitted gratis, while the general public were charged a small fee. Mr. Jones invited the writer to be present as a reserve force, in case he should break down, (!) and what enthusiastic bee-keeper would not rally to the rescue when thus appealed to? Unfortunately Mr. J. was not in good trim, having been sick enough to keep his bed most of the day preceding the lecture evening. However, he gathered himself up for the task he had undertaken, and was cheered by the appearance of his ally just as the lecture was about to begin. For a sick man, he did bravely, and spoke for nearly an hour. His remarks were, of course, general, and very different from what they would have been if his audience had been composed of experienced apiarists. He discoursed on bee-keeping as a business, explained the outlines of it, showed that it was profitable, and especially dwelt upon the gain which would accrue to the country if it were more generally engaged in. An interesting sketch of his journey to Cyprus and the Holy Land formed the latter part of his address. The writer supplemented his remarks by a talk of about half an hour, the chief theme of which was advice to intending bee-keepers. There was a far larger audience than might have been expected, considering the prevalent apathy in regard to apicultural pursuits, and considering also that the weather was unpleasantly stormy. Much interest was evidently awakened; a number of questions were asked at the close of the addresses, and many lingered when “meetin' was out” to talk about bee-matters. An immense amount of good might be done if practical bee-keepers would engage in this kind of missionary work. The public is a dull scholar, and needs to be “enthused” by men who have the true apicultural spirit. Among other questions, these were asked:—“What is the best bee journal?” and “What is the best book on bee-keeping?” The American Bee Journal, and Cook's “Manual,” were the replies given. In his counsels to beginners, the writer insisted very strongly, that the first step in practical bee-keeping was to get a good hand-book, and journal of apiculture. So, if you receive orders from Toronto for the American Bee Journal, and “Manual,” you may give Jones' meeting the credit for having inspired them. There are not only Y. M. C. As., but other organizations all over the land that would be glad to have a meeting in the interests of bee-keeping. If 2 or 3 practical bee-keepers would divide the work and responsibility of maintaining such a meeting, it would not be so formidable, as though only one man undertook it. A plain, common-sense talk on a subject of such practical and commercial importance as bee-keeping, would be a welcome change from the elaborate lectures usually delivered before Y. M. C. As., Lyceums, and bodies of that ilk. I hope Jones' enthusiastic zeal will stir others up to emulation and imitation. Reader, if conscious of possessing “the gift of the gab” in any degree, “go thou and do likewise.”
Listowell, Ont., March 7, 1881.
For the American Bee Journal.
F. P. BOUTEILLER.
A prominent wine-grower in this country, told me, about a year ago, that he did not want bees in his neighborhood as he found they injured his grape crop. As I have a small grapery, of about a hundred plants, between the rows of which I find shelter for about 20 colonies of bees, I determined to observe if his theory was correct, for I was loth to give up either. If any fruit crop could be injured by the visit of bees, mine is surely the one. The result of one season's close observation has convinced me: 1st. That bees promote rather than injure the foundations of fruit buds, because the bunches on my vines were full, with better developed berries, than those produced on vines less exposed to their visits, and my peach and cherry trees were as fairly loaded with fruit as they well could be. 2nd. That in the fall bees only visit our ripe berries, that have been sweetened by early frosts, and are very rarely seen on good sound fruit, when the skin is unbroken, and that the loss from this cause is of very little consequence, as the fruit attacked would fall off itself, without the visit of the bees, before gathering. I am wintering 21 colonies, mostly Italians; procured one of Jones' Cyprian queens, but too late in the fall to speak intelligently of the result. They are on summer stands, well sheltered and surrounded with straw, having means of exit, and I think are wintering well, but they have not had a good fly since early in November.
Belle River, Ont., March 5, 1881.