210 



June, 1916. 



American Me Journal 



In my very small way I have already 

 learned the value of advertising. Three 

 years ago. when I offered my honey in jars, 

 the merchants gave me the laugh, saying the 

 Cuban people did not eat honey; they have 

 an idea it is not healthy, being too heating, 

 and this idea is furthered by the physicians. 

 I left a few jars where they would let rne to 

 be returned or paid for. and I never had any 

 returned. Every chancel had. and I schemed 

 in every way to make chances. I wrote some- 

 thing in our local papers about bees or 

 honey, receiving more or less ridicule. Last 

 year as you know, I printed a small booklet 

 called •Campanula." in which I described 

 my honey and methods of extracting and 

 marketing. This I mailed to various ad- 

 dresses in Cuba and the United States. In 

 this booklet I had. as you advised me, my 

 prices high, but I am very glad I did. It 

 places my honey on a higher plane than the 

 ordinary. , „ , 



My advertising in the United States has 

 not brought me any great amount of busi- 

 ness so far but scarcely a mail comes with- 

 out something from someone about honey, 

 where can it be had in the United States, or 

 please give me some cooking receipts for 

 honey, etc. To my belief, telling people 

 how to use honey is away ahead of any other 

 advertising 



My jar business has increased steadily, 

 and I had to buy loo gross of empties to 

 carry me through this season. This year 1 

 have sold in barrels my best honey at 72 

 cents per gallon, but as yet I have not 

 enough local trade to consume it all. Yes- 

 terday I received a telegram from a firm in 

 Cuba. "Ship me all the Nos. 32 and 12 jars 

 you have." This firm sent me a check 

 March I for Jioo to settle for honey bought in 

 April. What the jar business nets is easily 

 figured; about four times the barrel price. 



Holguin, Cuba. D.W.Millar. 



the past season. The symptoms described 

 in the bee papers apply here with one ex- 

 ception, namely, the abdomen does not 

 swell; it s/irivis. it becomes much smaller 

 than normal. , , 



It only attacks mature bees. In one co pnv 

 of dark hybrids every maturebee was killed. 

 They had built up strong, producing some 

 surplus The disease disappeared with the 

 last maturebee. It did not attack queens 

 or drones j ,, ,. 



I tried introducing queens and cells (in 

 one colony), but they would not accept 

 either They seemed at first to be attacked 

 by robbers, but upon closer inspection the 

 apparent robbers proved to be occupants 

 of the hive. Upon opening a hive the first 

 thing to attract my attention would be 

 healthy bees chasing diseased ones across 

 the top-bars , , . 



They lose their down and become shiny 

 black and greasy looking ind smaller in 

 size. Their wings become spread, and 

 slightly raised and narrowed I'hey have 

 this appearance before or about the time 

 the healthy bees attack them. They do not 

 seem to die directly from the disease; the 

 life is hounded out of them by the other 

 bees much the same as they kill drones At 

 first I thought the weather had something 

 to do with the cause and cure, it being very 

 q-et when it started, about June i. and dry 

 when they recovered, the last of June. But 

 since then I believe the cure was in their 

 killing every diseased and mature bee. Next 

 season ? George E. Morris 



South Barre. Vt. 



Excluders 



lama farmer beekeeper and run mostly 

 for bulk comb honey. I have a number of 

 hives with supers, same size as lower bodies. 

 in which I use the Hoffman frame. Last 

 year is the first time I ran my hives in this 

 way / e large super with frames in which 

 to store the surplus, and was fortunate 

 enough to escape without the aueens going 

 into the upper story. I did not use queen- 

 excluders 



Now the question is: Will I fare this well 

 every year? I would rather not use the 

 excluders if they are not necessary, as I 

 think to some extent they retard the bees 

 from entering the upper story I only use 

 strips or starters of foundation. As you 

 are a large honey-producer. I would like 

 to have your opinion as to whether or not 

 there is much danger of the queens enter- 

 ing the upper story when running as 1 do tor 

 bulk honey? Nathan Clair. 



Mendon. Mo. 



(If you were to use combs already built 

 you would have brood in the upper story 

 about half of the time, because the Lang- 

 stroth hives are both too small and too shal- 

 low, even the lo-frame hives. The latter, 

 however, are better than the 8-frame hives 

 as they give more room to the queen in the 

 lower story. 



It is probable, however, that in running 

 for chunk or bulk honey you will have but 

 little trouble with the bees breeding in the 

 upper story. You will find it to happen in 

 seasons when the honey flow is irregular, 

 because in such seasons the bees build 

 comb to place the crop. ;^nd the bad weather 

 causes them to empty a part of the cells. It 

 quite often happens that the queen lays in 

 the upper story at such a time. But when- 

 ever the season continues steadily to yield 

 honey there is but little danger of the queen 

 finding any "-oom above if she happens to go 

 there. 



On the whole, however, if I were in your 

 place, I would use queen-excluders. In our 

 large hives, with deeper frames, and produc- 

 ing extracted honey, we do not use exclu- 

 ders. Once in a while only do we find 

 brood in the supers.— Editor! 



The New Disease 

 The new ^ee-disease struck this locality 



Paralysis 



In my bee-yard there appeared a disease 

 of the adult honeybee in three colonies last 

 winter, and in other colonies in the spring 

 and summer of 1015. , . , . 



In the first three colonies almost every 

 day there would be a few bees that 

 would fly and drop in the snow, although 

 it was too cold for bees to fly A con- 

 siderable number would have greatly 

 swollen bodies and were full of fluids and 

 had a greasy, shiny look. They looked like 

 they had been in syrup or honey. Every 

 day that was warm enough for flight, the 

 bees carried out great numbers of bees that 

 were daubed and swollen. When spring 

 finally came these colonies were greatly 

 depleted, and one was so weak that it was 

 robbed out almost the first thing. Very 

 soon I found two other colonies were 

 affected in the same way. But as warm 

 weather came on I noticed that the number 

 of bees that had swollen bodies was much 

 less, as was also the number with the shiny 

 appearance. , , . . ,. j- 



But there were other characteristics dis- 

 similar to those of winter time. There was 

 great commotion all about the entrance and 

 a considerablearea of ground in front ot the 

 hive, a seething quivering mass. I he col- 

 ony spirit seemed to have changed from a 

 desire to store honey to one of self-destruc- 

 tion. Many of the bees that were ejected 

 looked as it nothing were the matter with 

 them, but were unable to return to the hive. 

 A peculiar thing about many of the ejected 

 bees was that, contrary to the natural in- 

 stinct of the bee to relieve the colony of her 

 presence when disabled, they seemed to 

 resist being ejected, would pull back. It 

 reminded one of incidents on the police 

 force, when it took two or three coijs to 

 put out one "drunk." So it looked like 

 these sick bees did not know that they were 

 diseased and resisted being ejected; but 

 once out. being unable to return, lay with 

 wings quivering. I assure you that it looks 

 bad to the bee-lover to see his harvesters 

 lying by the gallon in front of the hives in 

 this condition. , , , . • u. 



During the season just passed I had eight 

 colonies affected as desciibed; all of them 

 pure Italians. I had some hybrids and a 

 few black bees in the yard, but none of 

 them had this disease In this yard of 60 

 colonies, 8 were diseased. A part of them 

 recovered enough to build up and store 

 some honey from fall flowers; the others 

 had to be supplied with honey for winter 

 stores. All seemed to have recovered fully 

 by late fall. Today (Jan. 22. igi6) we have 

 had a fine warm day and the bees had a 

 good flight after three weeks' confinement. 

 To my surprise. I found threeother colonies 

 with the disease. They. too. were doing 

 just as the others had done. These three 

 colonies were not affected the past season, 

 but did big work storing, and went into win- 

 ter with abundant stores, strong in young 

 bees and plenty of insulation. 



During the past season I supposed that my 

 bees had bee-paralysis, or is it that other 

 disease of the adult bee, Isle-ofWight dis- 



ease or /Voscma A/>is i* 



I am sending some of the diseased bees to 

 Dr. Phillips, of Washington. D C, for ex- 

 amination, lam very anxious to learn just 

 what the disease is. and hope some corres- 

 pondent will be able to give me light, and. if 

 possible, a remedy. H, C, Gadberky. 



Miami. Mo. 



IMr. Gadberry's description is similar to 

 that of the so-called " paralysis " which an- 

 swers in practically all particulars to 'he 

 maladies mentioned on pages 14 and 15 of the 

 January number. Personally, we ascribe 

 the trouble to the exceedingly wet season of 

 igiS. As the climate of the Mississippi Val- 

 ley is usually dry.' there is probably no 

 danger of such a scourge as they have had in 

 England under the name of Isle-of-Wight 

 disease, but the complaintsaresimilar. Our 

 columns are open to the discussions and 

 suggestions of beekeepers and scientists on 

 this matter.— Editor.] 



Statement of Ownership, Management 

 Circulation, Etc., 



of the American Bee Journal, published 

 monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Editor— C. P. Dadant. 



Managing Editor — M. G. Dadant. 



Owner— C. P. Dadant, Hamilton, 111. 



Knownbondholders, mortgagees, and 

 other security holders holding one per- 

 cent or more of total amount of bonds, 

 mortgages or securities — None. 



[Signed] M. G. Dadant, Manager. 



Sworn to and subscribed before me 

 this 3d day of April, 1916. 



[seal.] R. R. Wallace. 



Notary Public. 



My Commission expires Sept. 21, 1917. 



Classified Department 



[Advertisements in this department will 

 be inserted at 15 cents per line, with no dis- 

 counts of any kind . Notices here cannot be 

 less than two lines. If wanted in this de- 

 partment, you must say so when ordering. 



BEES AND QUEENS. 



Finest Italian Queens. Send for booklet. 

 Jay Smith. 1150 D e Wolfe St., Vincennes, Ind. 



Phelps" Golden Italian Queens will please 

 you. 



Twenty-Five colonies of bees for sale. 

 G. W. Lindle. Muscatine. Iowa. 



For Sale cheap 45 colonies of bees, ex- 

 tractor and other supplies. Write, 



Mary Vernon, Carlyle, 111. 



Fine three-banded Italian queens. Circu- 

 lar and price list free. J. L. Leath, 

 Corinth, Miss. 



Tell several thousand people what you 

 have for sale with a few words in this de- 

 partment. 



Bees and Queens from my New Jersey 

 aoiary J- H. M. Cook, 



lAtf 84 Cortland St.. New York City. 



Phelps' Golden Italian Bees are hustlers 



Queens from the Penn Co. See our large 

 ad, elsewhe re in this Journal, 



DooLiTTLE & Clark's Italian breeding 

 queens will be ready for delivery May i. 

 Prices. Jio. t s 00. and $2.50. Marietta. N Y. 



Ready now i-lb, 3-band Italian bees with 

 queen, $1.65. 2-fr. nuclei with queen. $2.25. 

 Rosedale Apiaries. J. B. Marshall, 



Big Bend, La. 



