AiiguKt. i!n:l. 



259 



American l^ee Journal 



accident or otherwise a queen is miss- 

 ing, and the first we know of the case, 

 is that a virgin has been reared by the 

 colonv. It seems too bad to kill such 

 a virgin, but if it is very early her death 

 is the best thing for us if not for her. 

 When we yield to the temptation to 

 spare her life, we are likely to regret it. 



We had one case of that kind this 

 year. April 22, upon opening No. (ifj, 

 we found no unsealed brood. Instead 

 of breaking up the colony at once, we 

 temporized by giving it a frame of 

 brood in all stages. The hive was not 

 opened again for 15 days, when a fine- 

 looking virgin was found. Instead of 

 promptly dispatching her, we again 

 yielded to temptation and spared her. 

 Eleven days later she was found in the 

 hive, just as handsome as ever, and 

 laying just as many eggs as ever — that 

 is, none. As she was then probably 2 

 weeks old, the chances were that she 

 would never amount too much, and as 

 a ripe queen-cell happened to be on 

 hand, the queen was given her quietus 

 and she was replaced by the cell. 

 Eighteen days later we looked to see if 

 the young queen was laying. A few 

 scattering eggs were found, and then a 

 patch of drone-cells in which we found 



eggs, 4, 5, or more to the cell. That 

 settled it. Laying workers! 



This is not a thing to be proud of 

 and is not held up as an example for 

 imitation, but as a frightful warning. 

 Here were 2 weeks fooled away in the 

 vain hope of rearing a queen ahead of 

 time, the bees doing nothing but 

 dwindling all the time. If we had 

 broken up the colony in the first place, 

 giving the bees to other colonies, in- 

 stead of dwindling away, they would 

 have increased perhaps double. 



Within the past few years dande- 

 lions have increased to such an extent 

 that one ought to be able to rear 

 queens during its bloom, especially 

 with the aid of fruit bloom. We made 

 a little effort at it this year. May 7 the 

 start was made, and of the cells started 

 we utilized fi. Just half of these were 

 failures; the other half succeeded to 

 laying queens. How good these queens 

 are remains to be seen. But we are 

 not greatly encouraged about rearing 

 dandelion queens, and may have to be 

 satisfied if we can succeed in having 

 young queens laying about a month 

 after the very first clover blossom is 

 seen. 



We believe more and more that the 

 South is the country for early queens. 



cover we reproduce a photograph of a 

 typical apiary in Illinois. Mr. L. L. 

 Ness, the owner, is a progressive bee- 

 keeper. He keeps only Italian bees. 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



Rearing Queens from Foul-Broody 

 Colonies. — The following suggestions 

 were received from a correspondent in 

 California. There is no little danger 

 from letting such a statement go un- 

 challenged. It was referred to Dr. 

 Miller for his opinion. We append 

 the inquiry and the editorial on it: 



"Did you ever stop to consider that 

 it would be impossible to rear queens 

 in an apiary that was affected with foul 

 brood ?■' How could the larvae or the 

 cells be accepted if the brood from 

 which it was taken be so impregnated 

 in any way with this disease ? The 

 queens would manifest this as readily 

 and as quickly as the brood. The 

 queen-breeder must surely have his 

 colony (breeding queen) absolutely 

 free from this pest or he would never 

 for a moment be able to rear a single 

 queen. 



It is not the intention of the writer 

 to create any argument, but on the sur- 

 face it looks very plain and clear that 

 a queen rearer or breeder would have 

 to close up if foul brood was prevalent 

 in his apiary. 



It would be a fine thing if it were 

 true that "it would be impossible to 



rear queens in an apiary that was af- 

 fected with foul brood." In that case 

 there would be no temptation for an 

 unprincipled queen-rearer to send out 

 queens, and there would be no danger 

 of spreading disease in that way. 



Unfortunately, larvre in queen-cells 

 follow the same rule as larva: in worker- 

 cells ; some of them are affected and 

 some are not, and whatever proportion 

 of workerlarvx come to maturity just 

 that proportion of queen-larvas may be 

 expected to come to maturity. So in 

 an apiary badly aiTected by foul brood 

 just as many queens can be reared as 

 in a healthy apiary. To be sure, not 

 so many virgins can be reared from 

 the same number of cells ; but the 

 queen-rearer is not restricted in' the 

 number of queen-cells started. If half 

 his cells fail, all he. has to do is to 

 start double the number of cells. 



The question is; Would any honest 

 man send out queens from a diseased 

 apiary ? c. c. M. 



The Panama-Pacific Exposition — Mr. 



Thomas G. Stallsmith, formerly of 

 Ohio, has been appointed Chief of the 

 Department of Agriculture at the 

 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Under his 

 jurisdiction will come the department 



Thos. G. Stallsmith, of the Panama- 

 Pacific Exposition. 



of Apiculture. In a recent letter to 

 this office, Mr. Stallsmith announced 

 that this was to be one of the strong 

 departments of the Exposition, owing 

 to the fact that the California bee- 

 keepers are already discussing the 

 placing of exhibits. Any one wlfo is 

 at all interested in obtaining informa- 

 tion about exhibits would do well to 

 get in touch with Mr. Stallsmith. Let- 

 ters may be directed to him at the Ex- 

 position Building, San Francisco. 



The Exposition will be held from 

 Feb. 20 to Dec. 4, 1915. 



Our Front Cover On our front 



Fined for Failure to Have Bees In- 

 spected. — An apiarist of southern Cali- 

 fornia has paid dearly for failure to 

 observe the ordinance of Tulare county 

 in regard to the bringing of bees in 

 that county. He shipped three car- 

 loads of bees into Tulare county, and 

 proceeded to station them amidst the 

 orange groves. 



No notice of the shipment was given 

 the inspector of apiaries of Tulare 

 county, as recjuired by the ordinance. 

 Hearing of the arrival of the bees, the 

 inspector filed a criminal complaint 

 against the owner, who was very much 



