April, 1913. 



127 



American Hee Journal 



of our products and a creditable pre- 

 mium list. 



As fast as these results are attained 

 others will be attempted. A bulletin is 

 now in course of preparation by the 

 Agricultural College devoted to oppor- 

 tunities for bee-keeping in Iowa. 



The lowabee-keepers welcome scien- 

 tific bee-keepers, and desire them to 

 join the association. We fear no com- 

 petition from this kind of men, and 

 feel that our interests are mutual. On 

 the other hand, we already have sev- 

 eral thousand too many shiftless bee- 

 keepers who have a few colonies in a 

 fence corner where the weeds grow 10 

 feet tall, and which are not examined 

 from one year to another. Such colo- 

 nies serve to breed moths and foul 

 brood sufficient to keep the careful 

 man on the anxious seat all the time. 



Watch the Iowa association move 

 into the front row. Every bee-keeper 

 worthy of the name owes it to himself, 

 and the cause of honey-production, to 

 join the society and lend his influence 

 to the work outlined. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 



Dead Larvae Among Live Brood 



BY D. W. MII.L.\R. 



IN THE February Bee Journal, com- 

 ment is made editorially on "Dead 

 LarvK Among Live Brood," and 

 "Causes of Many Eggs in a Cell." 

 Now. strange to say, I have a simi- 

 lar case of each in the same hive. The 

 dead brood has bees hatching all 

 around, apparently healthy, also eggs 

 and unsealed brood in adjoining cells. 

 I have already sent a sample to Wash- 

 ington just as described. The dead 

 brood in this form is not uncommon 

 with me, but never has been fatal, and 

 the temporary weakness is in time 

 overcome and the colony none the 

 worse. It occurs more in weak colo- 

 nies or nuclei that I am building up. 

 There are no symptoms of foul brood 

 so far as I can see, and the depart- 

 ment at Washington may be familiar 

 with the cause. 



In the hive from which the sample of 

 brood was sent, I at first thought the 

 queen was missing and that a laying 

 worker had developed, as many of the 

 worker-cells contained from two to 



four eggs, but there were no eggs at 

 all in the drone-cells. Not caring to 

 unite until I had heard from Washing- 

 ton, I decided to try the shaking plan 

 to get rid of the laying worker, but 

 was not thoroughly satisfied that there 

 was one, so I took a seat and prepared 

 to make a thorough search for the 

 queen once more. She was found, and 

 was to all appearances a fine one. The 

 colony I built up from a nucleus reared 

 and mated the queen, and since the 

 nucleus was formed there has never 

 been a change of queen, and she has 

 never stopped laying, to my knowledge. 

 Cells with more than one egg are to 

 be found not only on one frame, but 

 on nearly every one where there are 

 eggs at all. 



Might not this be a very prolific 

 queen, and, being weakened, the colony 

 is short of bees to clean up and look 

 after a larger brood-nest, and she just 

 cannot help laying, so gets rid of the 

 overflow by doubling them up ? When 

 seen, the queen would give one that 

 impression, as she seemed to be fertile, 

 and there were no drones at all in the 

 hive, and young bees, as I say, hatched 

 all around the eggs, dead larv;e, and 

 unsealed brood. The drone-cells, of 

 which there are a few in the hive, 

 have no eggs whatever in any of them. 

 I will not worry about the queen, for I 

 believe that when other things are ad- 

 justed she will be all right ; but the 

 dead brood has had me a guessing for 

 some time. 



Bartle, Oriente, Cuba. 



[This may or may not be the same 

 as Mr. Townsend speaks of. Even if it 

 never proves fatal, it must weaken a 

 colony. Please let us know if you 

 learn more about it. The duplication 

 of eggs, as you surmise, probably has 

 nothing to do with the disease. 



You speak of n possible laying 

 worker. When this nuisance appears it 

 does not appear singly, but in numbers. 



The following letters refer to similar 

 facts. Evidently, when disease is found 

 the bee-keeper should not at once con- 

 clude that foul brood is present. In re- 

 porting these cases it would be well for 

 the bee-keepers to make note of the 



conditions otherwise, whether in time 

 of scarcity of crop, and whether the 

 colony has plenty of stores. The asser- 

 tion of some writers that sometimes 

 the nurses are stingy and do not feed 

 the brood sufficiently might have to do 

 with some of these cases. 



The evidences are more and more in 

 favor of the Italian bees of pure race: 

 — Editors.] 



I had some experience with dead 

 larviE among live brood last summer. 

 It was a colony with a black queen. 

 About one-half of the brood was dead. 

 The queen was put on trial and con- 

 victed, and death sentence passed. I 

 sent for an Italian queen, which ar- 

 rived about the middle of June. The 

 black queen was killed, and the new 

 one introduced, and in a week or 10 

 days the dead brood was all cleaned 

 out and the combs filled with nice, 

 pearly brood. I don't know the cause, 

 but I hit the remedy. 



Festus, Mo. S. B. Reynolds. 



About dead brood in one colony and 

 none in the other. We had the same 

 thing in our apiary last summer. The 

 brood was scattered all over the combs 

 of the affected colony. Some of the 

 cells were filled with brood and some 

 not; some dead and others alive. We 

 became alarmed and moved every comb 

 that had brood from the hive and gave 

 other brood combs, but to our surprise 

 the same thing happened over again. 

 Then I thought it was owing to lack of 

 bees, as the colony was not very 

 strong, and I watched and found this 

 to be the case. I then sent for another 

 queen, put her in the hive, killed the 

 old one, and took all the brood from 

 the hive, giving half sheets of founda- 

 tion instead. The new queen com- 

 menced to lay in three days after we 

 put her in. The colony drew out the 

 three frames of starters, the queen 

 filled everything with eggs, and we 

 had no more trouble with dead larvae. 

 We think it the fault of the queen. 

 I Ottumwa, Iowa. Gregory & Son. 



: Concerning dead larvK among live 

 brood, this is a seemingly natural trou- 

 ble. I have it to contend with here in 

 mv section. Your quotation from Mr. 

 Townsend would be a fair description 

 of the conditions as they exist in my 

 apiaries during April, May or June. I 

 think this trouble is partially or nearly 

 cured through an application of daily 

 feed, and I believe breeding from colo- 

 nies that seem to be free from the 

 trouble would come nearer to a perma- 

 nent cure. B. A. Aldrich. 

 Smithland, Iowa. 



L. L. Andrews' Tanks for .Storing Honey. 



No Glucose in Bee-Candy 



BY W. S. PANGBURN. 



I NOTE with interest that the New 

 York bee-keepers object to the use 

 of glucose in bee-candy (page 58), 

 and they are right. I never read 

 about that "new discovery" of 

 making bee-candy, using part glucose, 

 but what I feel like getting up and say- 

 ing Xo. It would be a slur to the in- 

 dustry. Pure honey and pulverized or 



