January, 1916. 



American Hee Journal 



duty at unexpected times was acciden- 

 tally noticed by the elder Dadant, years 

 ago, as mentioned to us in a contribu- 

 tion to the June, 1915, number of the 

 Swiss "Bulletin D'Apiculture." And 

 while glancing over the pages of the 

 first volume of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, we found, page 138, June, 1861, the 

 following from the'pen of Samuel Wag- 

 ner, its first editor and a remarkable 

 observer : 



" Freshly laid eggs have been found 

 within four days after the removal of a 

 queen, and Dzierzon records an in- 

 stance where a fertile worker laid eggs 

 in a hive which contained a fertile 

 queen." 



This accidental laying of eggs by 

 drone-laying workers explains quite a 

 few puzzles and sets at rest the 

 assertion that the worker-bees can 

 change the sex of the egg, by special 

 food, made occasionally by adversaries 

 of the parthenogenesis theory. The 

 eggs laid by workers invariably hatch 

 as drones, of course. 



Requeeuing Colonies With Fer- 

 tile Workers 



'■ When introducing a queen by the 

 smoker method, it is advisable to give 

 a frame of brood in all stages to en- 

 sure success. Bees must be confined 

 down to the brood-chamber only with 

 a tight wood mat, and the quality of 

 the smoke just right. A laying-worker 

 colony was treated by this method this 

 spring, and in 13 days the introduced 

 queen had brood in three additional 

 frames to the one supplied. Laying 

 workers will accept no queen except 

 by the smoke method of introduction." 

 — J. S. COTTERELL, in .Vew Zealatid Bee- 

 keepers' Journal. 



Experiences differ. The Editor of 

 the American Bee Journal has intro- 

 duced dozens of queensto drone-laying- 

 worker colonies without trouble, by 

 the cage method, with 48 hour confine- 

 ment. The experiences on this point 

 came as follows: We often had to de- 

 stroy hybrid queens to be replaced 

 with better stock. Many of these 

 queens were good and prolific, and we 

 disliked to kill them. So we tried the 

 experiment of introducing them to 

 hopeless colonies with drone-laying 

 workers. We never failed, and we 

 ascribe the success to the fact that the 

 queens thus introduced were in the 

 best of health and prolificness. We 

 concluded that it is much easier to in- 

 troduce a queen to any colony when 

 the queen is in first-class laying trim. 

 The problem is to succeed in introduc- 

 ing queens that have been traveling 

 two weeks or more and are both tired 

 and non-laying. 



Arabian Apiculture in the Xllth 

 Century 



The annual bulletin of the Algerian 

 Association, " Nahla," published in 

 Algiers, contains in its 1915 edition a 

 very interesting account of the apiarian 

 teachings of Ibn-El-Awam, an Arabian 

 writer on agricultural subjects, living 

 in Seville, in the 6th Century of the 

 Mohammedan Hegira, which corres- 

 ponds to the 12th Century of the Chris- 

 tian Era. This writer follows in great 

 part the teachings of Aristotle who 

 lived some 16 centuries previously. 



This educator already recommended 

 to clip the wings of the " king " (queen) 

 with scissors, "in order that he be un- 

 able to fly away, for as long as the king 

 remains in the hive the bees do no 

 leave it." 



He also taught that the males have 

 no sting and take no part in the prep- 

 aration of honey, and that the females 

 (workers) kill them on account of 

 their laziness. 



He erred, however, in stating that the 

 old bees have a very hairy body, and 

 that the young bees on the other hand 



are smooth and hairless. It is exactly 

 the reverse. 



Influence of Nurse Bees Upon 

 the Young Bees 



For some time past, the possible in- 

 fluence of nurse bees upon the temper 

 or character of their nurslings has 

 been discussed in the Swiss " Bulletin 

 D'Apiculture." It is held by some that 

 not only the young bees, but the 

 young queens' progeny inherit to 

 an extent the general dispositions of 

 temper of the nurses who supplied 

 them with the pap. Mr. Marguerat, in 

 the October number of the above named 

 journal holds, on the other hand, that 

 queens reared in the same colony, from 

 the same mother and at the same time, 

 will produce workers showing entirely 

 different dispositions in temper, activ- 

 ity, propensity to rob, etc. 



If any of our queen-breeders have 

 made experiments and observations 

 upon this question, we would like to 

 hear from them. It is a matter of in- 

 terest to the entire beekeeping world 

 and is worth investigating. 



A Widespread Bee Disorder 



The readers will remember that, in 

 the September number, N. E. France, 

 the Wisconsin State Inspector, made 

 mention of a disease of the adult bees, 

 which depleted colonies 10 to 15 per- 

 cent. The digestive organs were swol- 

 len and full of brown-colored matter; 

 the bees fell in the grass by the hun- 

 dreds, never to return to the hive. 

 About the same time, a similar trouble 

 was noted in Washington. Concerning 



this, we have been handed a letter from 

 Prof. Trevor Kincaid, of the University 

 of Washington to J. B. Ramage, of 

 North Yakima, President of the Wash- 

 ington State Beekeepers' Association. 

 We quote from this letter : 



" The cause of the malady is a minute 

 parasite, not bacterial in origin, like 

 most disease germs, but a small animal 

 organism allied in nature to the para- 

 sites causing malaria in man and the 



A 



INTESTINAL WALL OF A DISEASED BEE MAGNIFIED ABOUT 5 .0 TIMES 



—Courtesy of Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



