frames with comb; 125 of these were furnished with fdn., and they made the 375. Now, if one comb weighs 1 lb, and if it takes 15 lbs. of honey to make 1 lb. of comb, then this makes 5625 lbs. more. This added to the 7716 lbs. would make 13,341. At least two-thirds of this was made from 10 swarms that I fed last spring, for three swarms lost their queens in May, and the other six only filled up both stories. If I had tended to them, they would have made me a fourth more honey. The reason I did not tend to them better was, that I have a farm of 80 acres to work, but have boys enough to run it till harvest. Then I had to help harvest, and the honey-dew struck me the 1st of August. Such a shower of

honey I never saw before. I have taken no account of the cappings, nor of the honey stored in porticos and on the outside of hives.

there. Two swarms came out, although I did not intend to have any. I got but little honey from the two that cast swarms. DAN WHITE.

New London, O., Nov., 1882.

Why, friend Dan, can't you give us a few figures along with the rest? You got nearly (or quite) 10,000 lbs. of honey, which is all sold, I believe, and I am sure at least of some of it. Now we are curious to know how much money you got for it, and also how much you got for those two and three frame nuclei. After you tell us that, perhaps some of us would like to know where you find a place to put so much money. Where do you keep it nights, and is your dog cross? Tell Daisy" to send us another little hymn for the JUVENILE.

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VALUE OF SALT FOR BEES, ETC.

BROOD?

HAVE been reading GLEANINGS for several years-four at least, and I have noticed foul brood mentioned in nearly all or every number. I have been noticing and working with and studying

Oakley, Lucas Co., Ia., Oct. 21. 1882.

WM. MALONE.

The above is surely a most astounding report. Ten colonies and their increase have given over 500 lbs. of honey each, and comb honey at that. Furthermore. I think friend Malone's figures are not far out of the way when he estimates that the whole amount of honey gathered was probably more than a thousand pounds of honey each, spring count. Of course, this honey did not all come from the progeny of a single queen, as did friend Carroll's great crop; but for all that, it shows how quickly a large apiary may be built up in only one single season. It ought to discourage our beginners from thinking they must buy bees to begin with. Start with only a few, and build up.

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REPORT FROM DAN WHITE,

AND WHAT HE THINKS OF CHAFF HIVES.

WORKED 90 colonies this season, 80 in chaff and Simplicity hives. From these I took nothing but extracted honey, and the result was, on an average, they gave me a little over 100 lbs. to the colony, entirely white-clover and basswood honey. During spring and summer I shipped 40 four-frame

nuclei; 52 three-frame nuclei; mailed 57 queens, and

increased so I go into winter quarters with 118 colonies in as good condition as I ever saw bees at this season of the year. I have 108 nicely tucked up in chaff hives, and regardless of how cold a winter we may have. I would not give 10 cents a colony to have them insured. Never losing a colony in chaff hives gives me confidence; yet I may some time, like other bee-keepers, have this confidence taken out of me. I took ten colonies four miles away in what are called Shipley hives, and they made 800 lbs. of comb honey in 2-lb. section boxes, all black bees. One colony made 151 lbs. I consider the 800 lbs. a good yield, considering I made only six trips over

but I think I have solved the problem of foul-brood preventive, and why they ever have it. As I suppose it always begins in spring, or in brood-rearing season, I am inclined to believe it is found only in large apiaries; if so, eureka! When bees are raising brood we hunt them with what we country people call "stink bait," as the bees in this county and Newton Co., Mo., have been followed three miles from this bait, and found in trees. The stink bait is

made (not composed, for I do not know what it contains) by having a can, a gourd, or a water-tight box with some corn-cobs in it, and then filling it with urine, and in two days it will be covered with bees. Now, the scarcity of that kind of food (if you will allow the expression) for the brood at a certain stage is what causes foul brood, I think. Bees will not work on honey, if placed side by side with stink bait, when they are raising brood; a young swarm will not work at it until they begin to raise brood. If you will notice, they may be found working at water-closets and sinks all summer. H. J. HANCOCK.

Siloam Springs, Ark., Oct. 30, 1882. Friend H., we thank you for your kind letter calling to mind the fact the importance of giving the bees, in common with other farm stock, access to salt; but as it has been pretty well proven that foul brood is a vegetable growth, it can no more start of itself than can corn grow where none has been that a free use of salt might kill these spores, planted. There is a possibility, however, or seeds; and in this way, free access to salt might ward off the dread malady. The grooved-board feeder, with a little salt dissolved in the water in the jar, will give them all they want, and allow the bees of a hundred colonies to supply themselves, if their owner keep an eye on the jar, and does not let it get empty. Recipes for making the kind of bait you describe have been sold for several dollars, in olden times, when it was the fashion to sell recipes for making things. We often see bees around wa

FRIEND ANDERSON'S LETTER. Yours was received, for which please accept my thanks. I have been reading and talking to others since, and I am in doubt as to whether this is the genuine foul brood, and whether I need to be so much alarmed. I find the bees will clean a comb of the foulest brood, and fill it with honey, if 1 feed them, and the bad smell has all disappeared. Combs that have been cleaned with water, and the second batch of brood put in, I find have about the same proportion of rotten cells as the first. I also subjected some hives and frames to brimstone fumes, and they seem to be about the best of any. However, I should like to ask your indulgence a little further, and then I will know what it is and what to do. I have had your recipe filled, and am going through my affected colonies, but should be pleased to hear from you again. If there are any charges in connection with your advice, I am perfectly willing, and shall be pleased to meet them, for I don't want your time nor advice for nothing. H. W. ANDERSON.

Gibson's, Ind., Oct. 24, 1882. Copy of friend Muth's letter to friend Anderson.

I examined yesterday your comb sent me for inspection, and I should call it "foul brood" most assuredly. Your bees had a good honey-flow, and filled their cells, containing remnants of diseased larvæ retaining thereby (and incasing) all bad odors. By next spring, however, the honey will be consumed, and every one of those stands will show signs of the disease. If left alone, every one of these stands will die, one after another, and be robbed by the neighboring bees transplanting the disease to their own hives in every instance. I should, in spring, follow the advice I gave you in my former letter; i. e., keep a close watch over every colony, and commence the treatment described with those discovered first, and keep it up to the last. In order to shorten matters I should unite 3 or 4 colonies in every instance when meeting with indifferent queens. A principal factor of success is, that you be sure to keep out of the reach of bees - all combs taken from diseased colonies, and that you disinfect at once every hive before you leave it. Our best authority on foul brood is Dr. Schoenfeld, who has proved, by miscroscopic discoveries, that it is spread by spores which bees,

alighting on any thing having been connected with the disease, may take home with them. So, be careful. Hoping you will be successful in eradicating the troublesome disease, I am yours, C. F. MUTH. Cincinnati. O., Nov. 2, 1882.

A few days ago somebody sent us a piece of comb, to know if it contained foul brood. the clerk who opens the mail untied it to see where it should go, and placed it over my typewriter as usual, to await my orders. The type-writer stands before a window that is often open in pleasent weather. Well, suppose this had come on a pleasent day, and some of our bees had been peering around, as they often are when we have so

many queen-cages about. Do you not see how easily foul brood might get into our hundreds of colonies? It almost makes me shudder when I think of it. Now I will see that no comb is ever placed in that way again; and I would also ask of the friends, that they never more send me any specimens of foul brood. I have had no experience with it, and know nothing about it. It will save you trouble by sending your specimens direct to friend Muth, for I always forward them to him. Would it not be better to send no foul brood to any one, unless the party first consent to having it done? Here is what friend Muth wrote about that piece of brood I have been telling you of:-

Friend Root:- The piece of comb you sent me contains foul brood. The brood in that piece of comb was affected, and died just about the time when the eggs had developed into larvæ. A few larvæ were, perhaps, 3 or 4 days old when they were affected and died. You could see the soft larvae matter settled down, mummy like, and of a dark-brown color, into the lower corner of the cells. Where the larvæ were a few days old, the head part was discernible yet. Under those capped cells the larvae were affected, and died on the same day they were about to develop into nymphs, and when they were capped over, before the bees were aware of their affliction. The brownish mass in those cells had not yet dried up to the same extent as those younger larvae. They were yet of that ropish substance spoken of before this. The hive this piece of comb is taken from is affected with the real malignant foul brood, to which I had reference in my articles, which Mr. Bingham never saw in his life, I fear, and which brother Jones would never cure by the starving process, in my opinion. I was careful that neither a piece of the comb, nor paper the comb was wrapped up in, nor the box in which it came, dropped on my floor, in order to prevent a distribution of the spores to visiting bees. The warm weather, and the scent of honey from my store, has always an attraction for bees, and an infusion of the disease would be more than likely without these precautions. To examine a hive of bees with your hands unwashed after you have examined a piece of foul-brood comb, would be fatal in almost every instance. CHAS. F. MUTH. Cincinnati, O., Nov. 9, 1882.

Now won't you all be careful, friends?

JUD

TWO QUEENS IN A HIVE.

IS IT SO VERY UNCOMMON?

UDGING from my experience in superseding queens this fall, two queens may be found in a hive much oftener than I had supposed. In order to get a supply of queen-cells I removed a queen from each of 19 hives; and in looking over the combs to "graft" the cells, five days later, I ing five, two had young queens, but no eggs, and found cells started in only 14 hives. Of the remainthe other three had plenty of eggs. I do not know whether these two young queens had hatched during the five days or not, as I looked for queens and not cells at first. The other three, however, must have had two queens each before I killed any. In one of these I found (at first) an old queen that was but little larger than a worker, and I mistrusted another I found and killed a young queen, and after then that she was not the "reigning monarch." In got a supply of cells I looked the swarm over again and found the old queen-hard at work. Here, then, we have three and possibly five swarms, out of a total of 19, with two queens each. These old queens were all two and three years of age.

I

Scipioville, N. Y., Oct. 7, 1882. F. B. CHAPMAN.

FIVE SUMMERS AMONG THE HIVES.

AN IOWA MINISTER'S EXPERIENCE.

NE of my earliest recollections is of stand ing with my mother by a bench ou which were half a dozen box and straw hives, and watching a swarm come out of one of them. My father was a bee-keeper on a small scale, for he kept them merely to supply his own table with honey. His bees were cared for, and his honey taken after the old plan. Every fall there was a brimstone night.

After my settlement over a congregation, a parishioner presented me a colony of bees in a box hive. I placed them in my yard and attended them as I had seen my father do. The swarms were hived in boxes; but, refusing to dig a brimstone pit, I depended for surplus on boring holes in the top, and placing boxes on them. In a few years a severe winter came, and during it all my bees died. Some years afterward I made the acquaintance of a physician who had a number of colonies for sale. They were in L. hives, and hybrids. He informed me that for some years he had received a hundred dollars a year from his bees, and that he had bestowed but little labor upon them. As my salary was small, and expenses fully equal to it, I, feeling that $100 a year would greatly help me, bought the bees. In the spring of 1878 I hauled them home -nineteen colonies. Determining to attend to these bees better than I had to the others, I added to my library several volumes on bee culture, and subscribed for two bee periodicals, one of which was GLEANINGS.

At that time I was ignorant of the business, and had it to learn, both in theory and practice. I was pastor of this congregation, which is a country charge, living in a parsonage adjoining the church grounds, and having control of an acre and a half of ground. My regular work as a pastor did not give much time to study or practice bee culture. In this community 1 find it very difficult to procure help in my apiary. All the laborers I found willing to hire were so afraid of bees that they preferred farm work at less wages. I therefore do not claim that my bees have ever received the care and attention they ought to have had. The location is a prairie, four miles from timber; white clover abounds, but very little buckwheat is ever sown here.

Many persons are saying, "I should like to keep bees, but I have not time to give them all the attention and care the books direct," and ask, “Would it pay to keep them, giving them what attention and care I can?"

ly; but I lost 16 by dysentery. I now think it was too cold, as our prairie winds penetrated the hay.

I began the summer of 1879 with 23 colonies, which, owing to dysentery, were in a weak, sickly condition. I increased to 33, and took 420 lbs. of comb honey and 200 lbs. of extracted. In the fall I buried 12 colonies in the ground, making what some call a clamp. Six I left on their stands, well packed around with hay, and 15 I put in my cellar. I lost one of those left on the summer stands.

I began the summer 1880 with 32 colonies in good condition; increased to 73, and took 400 lbs. of comb honey and 800 lbs. of extracted. In preparing for winter I buried 40 colonies in a clamp, and lost 23 of them. The others, 33, I put into my cellar and lost two of them.

In the spring of 1881 I had 48 colonies. Increased to 63, and took 550 lbs, of comb honey and 500 lbs. of extracted. In this vicinity there was an entire failure of fall honey, owing to the weather, and, as a consequence, all my colonies were short of stores when put away in my cellar for winter. When I took them out in the spring I found 2 or 3 dead from starvation; and although I watched, exchanged combs, fed, etc., what time I had, the spring was so cold, and yielded so little honey, that I lost in all, by starvation, robbing, and swarming out, 18 colonies; therefore I began the summer of 1882 with 45 colonies. Increased to 69, and took 2150 lbs. of comb honey and 500 lbs. of extracted. My bees are now in good condition, and I sha 1 winter in my cellar, which, in my experience, has proved the best for this latitude.

I now have 69 colonies, and 63 empty hives, all 10frame Langstroth, with full surplus arrangements for all. I get my comb honey in section boxes, of which I have 1000 on hand, many of them partly filled with comb. I also have an extractor, smoker, a quantity of foundation, and a goodly number of such traps and fixtures as bee-keepers are likely to gather around them. My entire outlay, including the cost of the 19 colonies, books, periodicals, hives, hired help; in short, every cent expended, directly or indirectly, for my apiary, is $355.50.

Since I took the first honey from my bees, honey has never been absent from our table for a single meal, unless by oversight, and we have used it to some extent in cooking. Then my gifts of honey to friends have averaged over 100 lbs. annually. Lack of time has led me in selling honey to choose the quickest, instead of the most profitable method, and therefore I have never received a high price for what I sold. I have not sold all of my last summer's crop; but, guessing at the value of what I have on

I began the spring of 1878 with the 19 colonies I had

purchased; but, one of them died before the honey season come. I resolved to let my bees swarm naturally, and that has always been my plan. The first year I increased to 39, and took 630 lbs. of comb honey. My cellar being small, and used for storing

roots, etc., for winter use, I thought it would not answer for my bees, so I prepared them for winter in this way: I laid some sticks on the ground, and on these I set the hives close together, two deep. I then built around them prairie hay, making a wall four feet thick, and topped out with hay so it looked like a stack. I felt that there they would keep nice

me $267 50 cash in hand, besides having my apiary and fixtures clear. I take no account of the honey used in my family, or given to my friends. I never sold any wax, but have had it all made into foundation. I have enjoyed the study of bee culture very much; but on some warm days the practical part

was rather trying to the flesh. W. D. RALSTON. Scotch Grove, lowa, Nov. 20, 1882.

Yours has been by no means a great success, friend R.; but you have made a fair, steady gain of it, and I predict that, with your present stock and experience, you will. before the next five years' experience, find honey pouring in at such a rate that you may be thankfully reminded of Malachi 3:10. Haven't you some boys and girls around you who have learned by this time to lend a hand when it comes?