188^ 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



495 



that every one of your colonics is afllictecl, and that 

 the colonies of a number of your neighbors are in as 

 bad a tix as your own. You ought to proceed with 

 the utmost care, as your neighbors' bees, alighting 

 on your frames, or even on your hives, will take the 

 spores of the disease home with them. Empty hives 

 should never be left in the yard (nor exposed) before 

 they are thoroughly disinfected, as they have on 

 them the spores of foul brood. 



If in your place, I should commence wiih the hive 

 ne.\t to the house; extract its combs and put all of 

 those parts not having brood in, into the wa.v-barrel 

 (combs Willi brood ci'catc too much of a stench for 

 me to render into wax). Let no bees have access to 

 your operations. Combs with brood are burned up 

 by me. I burn up the frames also, as they require 

 so much care to be disinfected. And if you apply 

 brimstone to every hive before you cotomence oper- 

 ations, it will be best for you. If your hives are 

 good, you can disinfect th(>ni by appljing the medi- 

 cine given on page 20 of "Practical Hints," to cvcrij 

 part thcrciif. If your hives are not worth the trou- 

 ble, burn them up also. If you make a clean sweep 

 with every hive as you go, you will And that it is the 

 best and cheapest way for you. It takes much time, 

 labor, and expense to cure your stand of foul brood, 

 judging from the comb you sent me, and your de- 

 scription of manipulation. Besides the labor, it re- 

 quires more expense than all of your hives and bees 

 ai-e worth. I am sure you can replace them for less 

 m(iney than the cure would cost you. It is so catch- 

 ing a disease, that your unwashed hands or knife 

 will infect a healthy colony. As stated above, your 

 bee-keeping neighbors should all assist you in keep- 

 ing out the disease, because they can not keep from 

 being affected also, if the disease is in your apiary. 

 By the meilicine recommended, the foul brood could 

 be easily cured, if the colonies would not be again 

 and again infested. 



Hoping, for the good of yourself and neighbors, 

 you will take my advice, I am very truly yours,— 



Cincinnati, O., Aug. :5, 1^83. C. F. Muth. 



The above was put in print at friend M.'s 

 request, to save him the labor of answering 

 so many questions. It will doubtless have 

 the etfect of warning our friends who have 

 not already got it, of the importance of 

 avoiding any thing tliat may possibly intro- 

 duce it into their apiaries. 



qiji<:eiv-ct!;i.i.s not always an iini>i€A- 



TIOIV OF UlEENliESSNESS. 



I>ARK COLOR OF IMPOUTEI) STOCK. 



fBECElVED from you a few weeks ago by mail 

 a piece of larva- from one of your Italian 

 — ' queens, for the purpose of raising some queens 

 from it if possible. I succeeded in getting three 

 queen-cells from it, which I gave to three queenless 

 colonies that had no material ol their own from 

 which to raise a queen. In course of time they 

 batched out; and when I thought it was about time 

 for them to begin laying I looked for them, and 

 found two; but in the third hive I could not And any 

 queen nor any signs of one, although I had seen her 

 when only a day or two old. To be sure whether she 

 was lost or not, I gave them a piece of larvie, and 

 within two days they had started a queen-cell on It, 

 so of course I concluded they weie queenless. Aft- 

 er an interval of a day or two I examined it again, 



and found it so small that I contemplated cutting It 

 out and giving them a larger one, but did not do so; 

 after another interval of a few days I looked Again, 

 and found it nearly ready to seal, with a good-sized 

 larva and plenty of the milky food. To-day I looked 

 again, expecting to find it sealed over; but it was 

 demolished, and the re were eggs in several of the 

 combs, and after a Utile looking I found a large laj'- 

 ing queen of the exact color of the other two, and 

 the one 1 had supposeil to be lost, so I am quite sure 

 it is the same one, as there wei'c no other cidls in 

 the hive, nor was there anything out of which to 

 makeont!. Isn't it a rather unusual occurrence for 

 bees to start queen-cells like this when they already 

 have a queen in the hivc'i' The queens spoken of 

 above are quite dark-colored —darker, in fact, than 

 I supposed the daughters ol' pure Italian queens 

 ever (or at least hardly ever) are. It is too soon, of 

 course, to know what their worker progeny will be; 

 but it will most likely be hj brid, as I have more 

 black drones than I have yellow ones. 

 Sheridan, Montcalm Co., Mich. E. Hunt. 



I have had a few cases where queen-cells 

 were started, when there was a virgin queen 

 in the hive ; but it usually hajipens when 

 the young queen is so long in getting fertil- 

 ized that the bees seem to get tired of wait- 

 ing ; and probably, in deciding to start a 

 new queen, they tliink it can do no harm, 

 even if it do no good. Can you tell us how 

 long it was from the time this queen was 

 hatched, until you found her laying? The 

 dark color of daughters of imported stock 

 will always be a theme of comment, I fear, 

 but it has been several times suggested that 

 the transmission of the larva' through the 

 mails has the effect of making the young 

 queens unusually dark, and 1 think very 

 likely this is the case, for any unusual expo- 

 sure of the brood is pretty sure to make 

 both bees and queen dark. One friend in- 

 sisted the larva we sent him was from black 

 stock, but it was certainly from our best im- 

 ported queen every time. 



SYinPHORA <'ARPUS, 



AND OTHER MATTER.S. 



INCLOSE you a sprig from a shrub growing in 

 our yard, that seems to be such a favorite with 

 the bees that I thought perhaps it would inter- 

 est you, if you are not already cultivating it. It 

 does not grow in Vif-ginia, this being the only one I 

 know of. My father brought it many years ago 

 from South Carolina, where it was considered quite 

 ornamental, the dark-green leaves and red berries 

 contrasting beautifully with the white sands of Car- 

 olina. The berries are not as large and bright here, 

 but the bush is prettily shaped and graceful. I do 

 not know its bocanical name. Tliore, it bore the eu- 

 phonius and classic name of " Devil's shoestring." 

 I do not know why, unless its long racemes of bright- 

 red berries were suggestive of his majesty's native 

 element. I have often accused my bees of a want 

 of enterprise; but as they have undertaken to ob- 

 tain honey from such a source, I shall have to ac- 

 knowledge myself a slanderer, and ask their pardon. 

 But to tell the truth, I could not Bay pn.f it ivcly thai 

 they do get a great deal of honcij from It. All I know 

 Is, during the whole of this month the bush has been 

 literally covered with bees "from early dawn to 



