362 ANNUAL. REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



seyen days I destroyed all the queen cells, and after a few days more 

 I gave them a frame with a few unsealed larvae to keep them in 

 good condition. At the end of twenty-one days I destroyed the cells 

 on this cone and gave them some selected larvae to raise a queen 

 from ,and the built up nicely and were one of the best colonies I had 

 when the season closed. I did not fare so well with the old bees and 

 queen. I put them on some empty frames in an old hive for two 

 days, and then put them in a good frame hive. I think all would 

 have gone well, but I wanted to give them a chance to hurry up, and 

 so put in some old combs I thought were clean. When I examined 

 them again I had a good case of foul brood on my hands. As the 

 buckwheat season was close at hand, I thought I would wait until 

 then, as I find it pays to kill the old queen at that season anyway, 

 but when the time came I could find no sign of the disease. I be- 

 lieve this is often the case in a flow of honey. 1 think the excite- 

 ment caused by the unusual supply of nectar has something to do 

 with it, but what becomes of the bacteria in the honey? Whether 

 the disease that has done so much damage, but if I can get samples 

 next summer I will send them to Dr. White, of W^ashington, D. C, 

 for analysis. 



The season closed with fine weather in September, giving us a flow 

 of honey from fall flowers, late in the season, and plenty of young 

 bees to go into winter quarters with. During the summer I discov- 

 ered what is to me a new enemy of the bee, viz: the Cherry Bird or 

 Cedar Wax Wing. Having heard that they were fond of bees, I 

 doubted it, as it is often hard to get definite information on these 

 matters. But having occasion to cut a bee tree one foggy morning, 

 I found a large flock of these birds watching the tree, and as fast 

 as a bee would come out they would catch it. I could see the bee 

 plainly until it disappeared in the bird's bill. I watched them until 

 I was sure as to what they were doing, when I tried to drive them 

 away, but I had hard work to keep them away, as they seemed to 

 think the bees good food. As these birds are plenty, it will pay 

 bee keepers to keep an eye on them. 



The United States government is getting very much interested in 

 Agriculture, having carried out numerous experiments in different 

 lines. Dr. White has been carrying out experiments with the bac- 

 teria of brood diseases. Prof. Phillips has also been busily engaged 

 and Prof. Prank Benton has been traveling in foreign lands, mostly 

 in Kussian Caucasus, in search of new races of bees. 



There are several races of bees in Northeastern Europe that prom- 

 ise some improvement, mostly in the way of gentleness, especially 

 the Caucasian and Abahasian races. The former has been tried by 

 several bee keepers in this country with varying results. It will 

 perhaps be as well for the average bee keeper to confine his energies 

 to the good old Italian bees, and let the specialists experiment with 

 the new races, as they might get a repetition of the English Sparrow 

 nuisance. There are some twelve to eighteen specimens of stingless 

 bees in South America, but little is yet known about them. 



As we now have a national pure food law, that is a bright pros- 

 pect for the intelligent honey producer. There is only one drawback, 

 viz, brood diseases. The State government should lose no time in 

 passing a strict foul brood law. I think there should be an inspector 

 of apiaries, with as many assistants as necessary to do the work, 



