an attractive clustering-place for issuing swarms. Perhaps nine-tenths of all our swarms that have formed a cluster have clustered in these ten evergreens. This particular tree is a favorite with the bees, while, with the exception of one afterswarm, no swarm has ever clustered on a willow or on two mountain-ash trees near by.

The drone-guard at the entrance and the queenexcluder on top of the hive were used on this occasion for two reasons: First, we were hiving the swarm in supers filled with empty extractingframes. Second, we had discovered that the colony's three-year-old mother-queen was dead, and that there were several virgin queens with the swarm. These we desired to save, for the colony had not swarmed once during the life of its mother-queen, and each year had surprised us with the rapidity with which it built up in the spring and the rapidity with which its supers were filled during the honey-flow. A very few minutes after the swarm had been shaken, it was possible to pick up and cage, one at a time, the virgin queens as they were vainly trying to enter the hive through the zinc. Four daughters of our choice queen were thus secured. Later the supers containing the swarm were placed on top of the brood-nest on the old stand, and the virgin queens, except the one in the brood-nest, were placed in nuclei.

Duluth, Minn.

SELF-HIVED SWARMS.

Some Curious Instances of Bees in the Walls of Buildings.

BY W. A. PRYAL.

The experience of Mr. Frank C. Pellett, page 1318, Nov. 1, 1908, brings to mind several cccasions when swarms came to my apiary and took possession of empty hives in which I had noticed bees in greater or less numbers for a week or more previously. The first case was over thirty years ago, when I had some discarded Harbison hives stored in the loft of the barn. How the busy little insects knew the hives were there I do not know, though I suppose they had been prying about every nook and corner from which the smell of bees, honey, or wax emanated. They must have made their way through a knot-hole or crack in the ordinary rough siding, and taken possession of the hive. I saw them in some of the hives some days before, but did not think any thing of it at the time, for up to that time I never had any self-hived bees. I bored a few holes on a level where the entrance of the hive would come, and moved the colony up to the wall so the bees could have easy ingress and egress. This colony did well, and remained in the loft until we raised the building to make room for a larger barn.

In years gone by I have had several swarms take possession of empty hives containing comb right in the apiary. In one instance a swarm came to the apiary in February. The hive was a small experimental one made of 3% inch lumber, and it was set aside to go in the hive boneyard or wood-pile. One day, about one o'clock, in the spring, a year ago, I happened to be in my workshop when I heard a commotion as of bees

A SELF-HIVED SWARM.

swarming close to the door. Looking out I saw a big swarm taking possession of a discarded three-quarter Langstroth hive that stood on top of another hive. Having a folding pocket camera handy I sprung it on the lively scene with the result shown in the accompanying half-tone engraving. Later the bees were shaken into a regular dovetailed Langstroth hive, and they became an industrious colony.

The cases above referred to are but two of several that came under my observation right in my apiary. There is a large house in our neighborhood in which bees repeatedly domiciled themselves, much to the discomfort of the human inmates. While the bees found their quarters warm and comfortable, those in the house probably suffered some on cold days because they could not start a fire in the grate. Smoke would not ascend the flue. A bricklayer was called, and dismantled the chimney under difficulty, until the colony was reached and removed.

A small cottage on a place adjoining ours has been a favorite abode for bees for some thing over twenty years. The rustic would be removed, the colony destroyed, and the boards replaced. In a year or two another swarm of bees would come and squat on or in the same place. It

seemed the bees found an opening in a chink under the eaves. Recently I saw this house, and the rustic is not replaced any more, so the bees could not find it a suitable quarter to nest in.

For years a colony of bees held sway in one of the flying buttresses of old St. Joseph's Church, Berkeley, near here. The bees had their entrance within a yard or so of the church entrance, and I never heard of the congregation being molested by the busy honey-gatherers.

A little over a year ago one of my neighbors in the Claremont district, just over the hill from our place, asked me to come to his place and see what he could do to banish a colony of bees that had taken possession of his attic. I found that for years he had been the victim of the bees' industry. They got in between the shingles and the plaster. The case was one of the most extraordinary I ever heard of. Several years, during hot weather, the honey melted and ran down even into the rooms below. One year, a mass of comb, honey, and bees was dislodged by the heat and went tobogging to the eaves. The plaster was ruined. Buckets, pails, and tubs were set to catch the dripping honey. When I visited the place the ceiling where this colony was located had been replastered. The swarm had been removed, and its place of ingress on the outside stopped.

The pestiverous colony that I was called to advise about was lodged in the immense wooden cornice, and was to be reached only from within the attic. One of the owner's sons had made an opening, and was trying to capture or dislodge the bees. He procured a smoker, and had tried to drive the bees away or kill them with sulphur fumes, but to no purpose. He was advised by some one connected with the University of California to give them their quietus by means of carbon bisulphid. Liberal applications failed to accomplish the desired result, owing, I suppose, to the fumes too easily finding an outlet at the bottom of the cornice. To ascertain the size of the colony I took a hand-saw and used it as a knife to cut the comb loose. Sheets of comb eight inches wide and over twenty-seven inches long were taken out. The honey was of the finest color and flavor But it was impossible to get those bees out-they crawled off into all sorts of corners. Every hole that could be found in the shingles and in the cornice had been plugged, but still the bees found an entrance. I advised the young man to let the bees remain until late in winter, when there would be fewer of them, and but little honey to make a muss as in the spring or summer, and then he could probably easily rout them from their stronghold.

Oakland, Cal.

FOUL BROOD AND BLACK BROOD.

How to Know Them.

BY E. R. ROOT.

During the warm part of the year we receive on the average from two to three samples of suspreted brood a week from various parts of the country. These we are always glad to examine and render a report on, free of charge, providing that the specimens are sent in a stout wooden or

tin box; but no ointment or cigar box must be used as it destroys the odor of the comb.

Last fall we received a remarkably characteristic sample-a whole comb, in fact, showing an advanced stage of the disease. So perfect was it that we took a photo of it and here it is. But no photograph or engraving can adequately represent the various shades of color, grading from that of a brown coffee berry to a bright yellow; so the reader will have to imagine this part from description.

The specimen here shown is typical of an advanced stage of the disease, because it shows sunken and perforated capped cells and those uncapped with the dead larvæ lying on one side. While we usually expect the larvæ to die in the case of old-fashioned or American foul brood after sealing, yet when the disease is very bad in the comb we find dead larvæ in almost all stages of growth, showing all gradations of colors, from a bright yellow to a deep dark brown. Just about as the larva dies it takes on a bright yellow. This turns darker and darker, showing next the color of the coffee we drink with milk in it. The shade deepens until it is of the color of strong coffee without milk. At this stage the larva loses its form, sinking down into a shapeless mass; and if a toothpick be introduced into this mass the dead matter will adhere to it, roping out some two or three inches like spittle. This has given rise to the term ropy foul brood, as distinguished from the type known as black brood, or, as the Bureau of Entomology has it, European foul brood.

The cappings of the cells of the old-fashioned foul brood are very apt to be sunken. Somewhere over the surface there may be a small hole as if it had been pricked with a pin. This hole may be very minute; but as it enlarges it is apt to be angular, with ragged edges. It would appear that the bees make an opening in the cells, knowing that something is wrong, and the mess within is so foul that they give it up in disgust. It would appear, also, that some of the bees go back, tear away the opening a little more, and then quit the job. By examining the engraving one may see the various sizes of openings in the cappings. Among the sunken cells and perforat ed ones will be found others that are perfectly normal. On opening up the same we find healthy grubs within.

It is very seldom that we find all the cells in a comb affected, even in an advanced stage. In the one before us, probably a tenth of them were in a healthy condition, and from them would emerge in the course of time healthy normal bees. Foul brood, then, seems to attack a comb in spots. This is due possibly to the fact that young larvæ are fed with the pap or honey containing the disease germs, and others may be accidentally fed by other bees a food that is in no way affected, and consequently they mature perfectly normal bees.

When the combs are badly diseased, like the one in the engraving, it will give off a strong odor like that of a glue-pot, such as one gets while the glue is boiling, except that it is worse. The stench is almost identical with that which emanates from a lot of dead bees piled up in a damp place in hot weather. Several times our men have been led to suppose there was foul brood in the yard by the peculiar odor, when examina

tion showed that a lot of dead bees that had died during the winter were in front of the entrance.

But we have heard bee-keepers sav that they do not regard the odor from foul brood as so foul as the books have stated. This all depends on the kind of nose one has. Some odors are sickening to one, but endurable to another. This is particularly true of the odor that emanates from foul brood.

When one finds a comb like the one shown in the engraving on the preceding page the colony is pretty badly diseased; and it is also probable that other hives in the immediate vicinity are likewise affected; because when a case is so far advanced as this, the probabilities are that several colonies in the yard are involved; and it would be well to make a general search through the apiary. Colonies with entrances pointing in the same direction, and near by, will be almost sure to show some diseased cells Possibly one will not find more than three or four affected cells, and those in only one comb, for the disease has only started in that hive. Sometimes one will not be able to find a single cell containing a dead larva. In one case, where we could plainly smell foul brood, we could not find any dead specimen in any cell until we had looked over the combs for something like half an hour, opening up here and there a cell, until we finally located a dead Jarva whose tissue would rope out as we have before explained. But as a general thing, before there is any pronounced odor a comb will be quite badly diseased. In that case one is not likely to notice it, even at the entrance. Something will depend on the direction of the wind, if any, and whether the bees are ventilating the hive.

BLACK BROOD.

So much for the old-fashioned ordinary foul brood. Black brood is much more difficult to diagnose. It may look very much like ordinary

dead brood or what is called "pickled " brood or "starved" brood. If the reader will imagine a slightly yeasty or sour smell combined with a faint suggestion of foul brood he will get an idea of the characteristic smell. But there is lacking the strong foul smell that one gets from ordinary foul brood that has been so often likened to that which we get from an ordinary glue-pot. Most of the larvæ have died before sealing, in the early stages; while in the case of the old-fashioned foul brood in the other stages, most of it dies after sealing. The dead larvæ do not lose their shape or form, neither does the matter rope except to a very slight extent.

In the case of either black or foul brood, when one finds a comb affected like the one shown in the illustration he may assume, as a matter of course, that the disease has gained a pretty good start in his yard. If one hive is badly affected there are liable to be a good many other grouped around it that will show more or less of the dis

ease.

If foul or black brood is in the vicinity one will do well to keep tab on every inch of his brood-combs, going over them every few days, especially when the bees are running short of stores, either before or after the main honey-flow. It is possible that one may catch the disease at its very inception. If he sees a cell or two that are ragged and sunken in one hive he had better go over his whole yard; but make these examinations when bees are not robbing. If it is during the robbing season, examine the hives during a misty rain or at night.

The greatest means of spreading the disease is by robbing. In spite of all we can do or say in our literature, many and many a bee-keeper will be careless. He will attempt to transfer when the bees are inclined to rob; to open up hives, scatter the honey on his clothes, on the ground, and on his tools. When working over a diseased colony one should be careful not to soil his