May 23, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



325 



Foul Brood, Fatal Bee-Stings, Etc. 



BY I'KOl-. A. y. COOK. 



MR. FLORY, of Stanislaus Co., Calif., sends me a sam- 

 ple of foul brood which is not at all typical. He says 

 black or pickled brood is common, but this seemed 

 more formidable. This has not just the same odor as the 

 usual foul brood, aiid as it is pulled out of the cell, it does 

 not fly back with quite the spring- of the ordinary foul 

 brood. Yet it appears so much like the genuine that I 

 believe it is the same with these differences. It is foul 

 brood but not the typical. 



We now have a g-ood foul-brood inspector in this 

 county. He is proceeding in just the right way to eradi- 

 cate this evil, which is not very uncommon in our apiaries, 

 though I doubt if it is so fatal as in the East. Some urge 

 him to burn all. I think he is wiser in treating the disease. 

 In case only one or two hives show the malady, he burns 

 all. If only diseased cells are found in one or two combs, 

 and a few at that, he burns these combs, watches the colo- 

 nies closely and hopes for no more trouble. In case many 

 colonies are affected he uses the McEvoy method — shakes 

 onto starters, and in four days onto full sheets of founda- 

 tion. He is very cautious that none of the honey in the 

 old hive, or that stored in the starters, is eaten by bees. 

 He further does a good work by carefully teaching all inter- 

 ested the nature of the disease, the modes of distribution, 

 the necessary caution in working with the bees, that none 

 of the honey shall be taken by any bees. 



It is wisest, of course, to work only when the bees are 

 at work, and some are so careful as to work only at the 

 evening time. It is safest to work under a tent. Wise 

 caution alone will prevent scattering the honey and the 

 disease. Let all remember that they can not be too careful. 



FATAL RESULTS FROM BEE-STINGS. 



A few days ago, two horses were stung to death by 

 bees in Yolo county, near Sacramento, Calif. The driver 

 was also seriously stung, but not fatally. He was driving 

 a four-horse team, and ran onto a hive of bees. The results 

 were as given above. This suggests that in such cases the 

 horses may be taken to a barn, if possible, as the bees will 

 not generally follow into an enclosure. Covering the 

 horses with blankets wet in cold water will stop the sting- 

 ing and subdue the fever, and will often prove the readiest 

 means to prevent fatal results. 



In case a person is severely stung, washing in strong 

 soda-water and covering with cloths kept wet in cold 

 water will do most to allay fever and afford relief. 



FAMILY sCROPHULARIACE.r:. 



This is a very interesting family of plants. The tig- 

 wort — a very valuable honey-plant — is one of the incon- 

 spicuous examples of these numerous flowers. Like the 

 mints, or flowers of the Labiate family, these flowers are 

 bilabiate. That is, the flower has two lips. One of these 

 has two and the other three lobes. 



We have here three very common species of the genus 

 Mimulus. They are like the snap-dragons of the East. 

 Thej- are known here as the "monkey flowers." Both the 

 above names are suggested by the peculiar form of the 

 flowers. The curious thing about these flowers, as is true 

 of all such irregular flowers, is the form in its relation to 

 pollination. The flowers are called ringent, as they have 

 an open throat. The stamens are in two pairs, one pair 

 being longer than the other. These are close up to the 

 upper lip of the flower, as is also the style and stigma. 

 The stamens do not shed their pollen at the same time that 

 the stigma of the same flower is ripe for the pollen. Thus 

 the flower can not be pollinated by its own pollen. 



Once I saw all the bees going into the hives, curiously 

 striped along the backs with white. They looked like 

 Hereford cattle. I sought the cause and found the stripe 

 was made by white pollen-grains. I sought its source and 

 found it in the yellow-spotted snap-dragons. This was in 

 Michigan. I find our monkey flowers here also have the 

 white pollen, and are quite attractive to sweet-loving 

 insects. 



In all of these species of Mimulus the lower lip of the 

 flower, where the bee alights, and which must sustain the 

 insect as it pushes in to reach the nectar, is strengthened 

 by two prominent ridges, which, from both their form and 

 position, must tend marvelously to give strength to the 

 thin petals, or lower part of the flower-tube. If Nature 

 does abhor close pollination, as some one has said, then 

 surely these interesting plants are well fashioned to pre- 

 vent it. Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Prevention of Increase— Other Matters. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



X a letter from a correspondent I flud the following- : " What is the 

 best way to keep down increase .' The colonies which I now have fur- 

 nish all the honey my home trade demands, so that I do not want to 

 increase my number of colonies further than I now have. Please 

 hrouj^h the columns of the American Bee Journal." 



The surest way is to give plenty of corab-roora, and 

 then extract closely till the swarming season is over. Prob- 

 ably not one colony in SO will offer to cast a swarm treated 

 in this way. In fact, very few colonies will off'er to swarm 

 where tiered up for extracted honey, and the extracting 

 not done till the end of the season, providing that eiupty 

 comb-room is given as fast as needed. But when working 

 for comb honey the case is different, and the bees are 

 almost sure to swarm, no matter how much section-room is 

 given, or whether these sections are filled with foundation 

 or not. 



I know of some apiarists who keep their apiaries at the 

 original number of colonies, while working for comb 

 honey, by uniting the colonies about three or four weeks 

 before the honey harvest, making one colony out of two, they 

 preparing for this in advance by keeping each colony shut 

 on only half the combs contained in the hives they use, 

 making the stronger help the weaker till all have the half 

 of their hives just solid with brood, and then let them 

 divide by natural swarming to the original number, keep- 

 ing down all after-swarming. Or you can let them swarm 

 without uniting before the honey harvest, and, after the 

 honey season is over, unite back to the original number. 

 This accomplishes the same object as the former, only the 

 colonies are not as strong in numbers for storing, and it 

 gives more mouths to feed after the honey harvest is over, 

 with, as a rule, less results in section honey. 



Swarming is the bane in comb-honey production, and 

 Dr. C. C. Miller and myself are waiting, and living in 

 hopes, that some bright bee-keeper will yet invent some- 

 thing, or evolve some plan, which will entirely do away 

 with the swarming desire in bees, so that they will work 

 all the " livelong day," and all the days of the season, 

 with the vim manifested by a new swarm, with no such a 

 thought as swarming ever entering their heads. What fun 

 there would be, then, in having a number of out-apiaries, 

 and all piling up the comb honey — yes, and home apiaries, 

 also. 



DRONES FROM VIRGIN QUEENS. 



Another correspondent writes thus: "Please tell us through the 

 columns of the American Bee Journal whether virgin queens ever lay- 

 any but drone-eggs ? And are the drones from these queens capable of 

 fertilizing other queens?" 



To the first question I think it would be perfectly safe 

 to answer no, although one or two cases have been reported 

 looking a little as if a virgin queen might have produced a 

 few eggs which matured into workers; but I think this can 

 not be other than a mistake. 



The second question is one which has not been settled 

 satisfactorily to all minds. Some claim that such drones 

 are just as good as any, arguing from a scientific stand- 

 point that it must necessarily be that, as the drone is the 

 " son of his mother," he could not be otherwise than as 

 perfect from a virgin queen as from the same queen after 

 becoming fertile. On the other hand, some of our most 

 practical bee-keepers claim that such drones are not capable 

 of fertilizing queens, and give instances where plenty of 

 such drones were flying but no queens would get to laj'ing 

 till drones from mated queens began to fly, when they 

 would become fertile and make good mothers. 



I have had very little personal experience going to 

 prove the correctness of either, but have always supposed 

 drones from a virgin queen, when reared in drone-comb, 

 were as good as any. Such drones, when reared in worker- 

 comb, may be virile, and, even were they not so, I would 

 not expect any queen to prove first-class which had mated 

 with a drone reared in a worker-cell. 



Who can tell us more along this line? A practical 

 article by some one having experience in these matters 

 would be read with interest by thousands of apiarists. 



"OUTGO MUST ALWAYS BE LESS THAN INCOME." 



This is what Prof. Cook tells us is necessary if happiness 

 is to result. (See page 24S.) And I agree with him exactly 

 as applied to successful business, or to " successful " health. 

 But when he intimates that the " balance of trade " between 

 this and other countries is " very cheering," because our 

 exports exceed our imports, I can not harmonize his logic ; 

 for this, to our nation, is like Macawber's "Annual income. 



