1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



89 



tainly will hide a multitude of sins, especial- 

 ly in sections where the disease is already 

 established. 



IS HONEY-DEW AN EXCRETION? 



I for one shall be more than pleased if D. 

 M. Macdonald's view, page 763, Dec. 15, is 

 established as to honey-dew not being an 

 excretion. I hope he is right, so much that I 

 almost believe already that his view will be 

 substantiated. The subject of honey-dew 

 has, with my present knowledge on the mat- 

 ter, always been the one subject that I did 

 not want to explain to the prospective bee- 

 keeper, and especially so to the buyers of 

 our honey. As the editor pertinently re- 

 marks, entirely too much has been said on 

 the excretion phase of the question, which, aft- 

 er all, now seems to be a debatable question; 

 and in the light of friend Macdonald's opin- 

 ions it may prove to be a libel on the honey 

 industry. 



Mount Joy, Ont., Can. 



[There is no denying the fact that differ- 

 ent batches of queens will vary somewhat, 

 according to the season. Any queen-breed- 

 er of experience knows that it is much more 

 difficult to rear good queens during a drouth 

 than during a honey-flow. Practically all of 

 our best breeders have found it absolutely 

 necessary, during a dearth, to feed copious- 

 ly those colonies that are rearing cells. Some 

 even go further and make the cell-builders 

 queenless, broodless, and combless for a few 

 hours, feed copiously, and then give them 

 one comb with a bar of grafted cells. No 

 matter how severe the drouth, such bees 

 will build as tine cells, and supply them as 

 copiously with royal jelly, as bees directly 

 under the swarming impulse. 



But it sometimes happens that a queen- 

 breeder who has been depending upon the 

 natural honey-flow gets caught. Before he 

 knows it the supply of nectar has suddenly 

 stopped. Unless he is able to take a "stitch 

 in time " by feeding the cell-building colo- 

 nies, the queens from those cells will be of 

 low standard. While we do not know that 

 this was so in the case of the queen-breeder 

 mentioned, it might have been. 



Regarding European foul brood, we doubt 

 very much whether there was any difference 

 in its virulence in different localities; but we 

 do know that a difference in the strain of the 

 bees does have a marked influence in the 

 matter of cure. It is possible that, in 

 some localities, there is more of the Italian 

 blood than in others. It is possible, also, 

 that there is a strain of blacks, with just 

 enough of Italian blood, that will resist the 

 plague as much as or more than the Italians. 

 Dr. Miller uses hybrids very largely. It will 

 be remembered that he has been working 

 for years to produce an extra energetic strain 

 of bees without regard to markings. That 

 he has to a great extent been successful is 

 borne out by the fact that he has secured 

 high averages per colony. This was espe- 

 cially true m 1908. Now, it is possible that 

 the Dr. Miller strain of hybrid hustlers also 

 have a great resisting power against Euro- 



gean foul brood — as much as or more, per- 

 aps, than some of the good strains of Ital- 

 ians. 



Whatever the merits of the Alexander 

 treatment, or the treatment as modified by 

 Dr. Miller, it would seem to us that it would 

 be wise to combine the McEvoy and the de- 

 queening process of Alexander and Miller. 

 Speaking about Mr. McEvoy, it will be noted 

 that, in the editorial department elsewhere, 

 he says Dr. Miller's experience in the matter 

 of treating European foul brood is quite in 

 line with his own. Mr. Percy Orton, of New 

 York State, who appears to have had a large 

 experience, claims that he has known all 

 along that the Alexander method of treat- 

 ment, even before Alexander gave it to the 

 public, was effective. 



We shall be glad to get reports from others 

 who are able to offer testimony on the ef- 

 fectiveness of the Alexander plan of curing 

 black brood. We are not seeking favorable 

 reports only; we want the unfavorable as 

 well. Mr. Orton feels that European foul 

 brood is easily handled, and it certainly is if 

 the Alexander-Miller form of treatment or 

 the one used by Mr. Orton is effective. — 

 Ed.] 



♦ ■ ^ i * 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE HAB- 

 ITS OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



Bees Gathering Wax. 



BY \VM. M. WHITNEY. 



Mr. Editor:— Dr. Miller, in Stray Straws, 

 July 1, refers to bees being seen loading 

 their pollen-baskets with wax which they 

 found outside the hive. It has been a com- 

 mon observation in my yard, when bits of 

 comb outside have sufficiently softened by 

 the sun to be worked; also, later in the sea- 

 son, I've been very much amused watching 

 the bees gathering propolis left where the 

 sun's rays had softened it. I have many a 

 time seen them filling their baskets with' it, 

 glistening in the sunlight like little brown 

 beads. My entire time for thirteen years 

 and more has been spent in carefully watch- 

 ing the bees. 



HOW TO TELL FROM THE OUTSIDE WHETHER 

 A COLONY IS PREPARING TO SWARM. 



The question is sometimes asked if it is 

 possible to tell from the outside appearance 

 of a hive whether there are indications of 

 swarming before it actually occurs. This 

 question, I think, was asked at one of the 

 meetings of the Chicago and Northwestern 

 Association, and it was generally conceded 

 that there was no way to tell. Notwithstand- 

 ing all this, I believe there are outward 

 signs of swarming; but it requires careful 

 watching to discover them. There is a mark- 

 ed difference in the appearance of young 

 bees out at play, as it is termed — marking 

 their location — from that of old ones appar- 

 ently doing the same thing. When one sees 

 old bees during the swarming season come 

 out and fly before the hive liKe young bees 

 at play (excepting at a time when they have 



