(Entered as second-class matter July 30, 1907, at the Post-OfBce at Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3. 1879.) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Company, 146 West Superior Street, 



GEORGE W. YORK. Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JUNE, 1910 



Vol. L -No. 6 



Editorial Notes and Comments 



" Nosema Apis "—Is It a New Bee- 

 Foe? 



Under the title, " Nosema Apis — A 

 New Bee-Foe," in the November, 1909, 

 issue, page 358, there appeared an edi- 

 torial giving a brief resume of a report 

 in the Praktischer Wegweiser, of the 

 work of Dr. Enoch Zander on Xosema 

 apis, a member of the animal kingdom 

 which he finds in adult bees suffering 

 from dysentery. He considers the or- 

 ganism as the cause of the diseased 

 condition, and considers the disease in- 

 fectious and a serious manace. The 

 published accounts of this work have 

 seemingly led many of our bee-keepers 

 to be alarmed for the future of the in- 

 dustry, and to fear that this disease may 

 be introduced into America. There is 

 no cause for fear in the matter. 



The disease with which Dr. Zander 

 has evidently worked is our old friend 

 and enemy Dysentery. He does not 

 claim that this is a new disease, but 

 rather that he has found the cause of 

 the old one. We should be glad that 

 the cause of a well-known disease is 

 being investigated, rather than alarmed 

 because a new name has appeared on 

 the bee-keeping horizon. 



Dysentery is a well known and read- 

 ily prevented disease, which causes no 

 great inconvenience to progressive bee- 

 keepers. It is brought on by poor win- 

 ter stores and long confinement in the 

 hive. Honey-dew is a very common 

 source of this trouble, and during the 

 past winter, when it was so abundantly 

 used for winter stores, dysentery caused 

 heavy losses. The progressive bee- 

 keeper, however, got the honey-dew 

 away from the bees before cold weather 

 set in, wintered on sugar syrup or good 

 honey, and no dysentery appeared. A 

 disease which we can predict, prevent 

 and produce if we should so wish, is 

 not likely to frighten progressive bee- 

 keepers very much. 



In the meantime, let us patiently wait 

 until full knowledge of the new organ- 



ism is obtained. We need not worry 

 about the introduction of dysentery 

 into America, for it is already here. 

 Now that Dr. Zander has found Xosema 

 afi's in the intestines of diseased bees, 

 dysentery does not thereby lose or gain 

 any undesirable characters. 



When to Put On Supers 



To put supers over a colony much 

 before they are needed is simply a 

 waste of heat, and so, indirectly, a loss 

 in the harvest. To leave them off till 

 they are needed helps to bring on 

 swarming, and this again interferes 

 with the harvest. It is better, however, 

 to put them on a week before they are 

 needed than a day after. 



The old rule was to give supers as 

 soon as bits of white wax are seen on 

 the upper part of the comb or on the 

 top-bar. This is all right where swarm- 

 ing is desired, but otherwise rather 

 late, for this extra wax is a sign of 

 some crowding, and that induces 

 swarming. It is better to have the 

 supers on at least a few days before 

 there is any danger of crowding. A 

 little before the real honey-flow begins 

 is all right. For example, in the North, 

 where white clover grows, watch for 

 the very first clover blossom that 

 opens, and then, or within a week, give 

 supers. The real flow from clover does 

 not begin until about 10 days after a 

 stray blossom opens here and there. 



Honey vs. Sugar for Feeding 



Is sugar as good for feeding bees as 

 honey? That depends. Sometimes it 

 is not so good : sometimes better. Let 

 it be well understood that sugar and 

 honey are not precisely the same. 

 There are elements in honey that are 

 not in sugar. Authorities tell us that 

 young bees reared on sugar will be 

 lacking in vitality, and those bee-keep- 

 ers who empty all honey from the 



brood-chamber replacing it with sugar 

 may unwittingly be losing heavily there- 

 by when they think they are gaining 

 the difference between 20 or more 

 pounds of honey and the same weight 

 of sugar syrup. 



On the face of it, it may look to some 

 a very simple problem. Extract from 

 the brood-combs 20 pounds of honey, 

 sell it for 10 cents a pound, and you 

 have $2.00. Then feed back 20 pounds 

 of sugar syrup at a cost of 70 cents, 

 and you have $1.30 for your trouble. 

 But suppose the vitality of your bees 

 the following spring be so much les- 

 sened that the colony shall store 13 

 pounds less of honey. You are then 

 nothing ahead, and have no pay for 

 your labor. Also, there is some danger 

 that enfeebled vitality may become a 

 permanent factor. 



Sometimes, however, the brood- 

 chamber is filled with honey-dew of 

 such character that it means sure death 

 to the colony before spring. In that 

 case it is certainly better to extract and 

 teed sugar. 



Latterly, however, we are told that 

 bees winter all right on part honey- 

 dew. Perhaps if the matter be looked 

 into closely, it may be found that it is 

 even better to have part honey-dew 

 than to have all sugar. For the sugar 

 being fed last will be consumed first. 

 Sugar is all right to keep up the heat 

 of the colony when it is needed for that 

 alone. If the sugar holds out till the 

 bees fly daily, then they may takefreely 

 of the honey-dew without harm, and 

 find it better than sugar for brood- 

 rearing. 



The important point is that plans 

 should now be made to have on hand 

 next spring plenty of good sealed honey 

 for brood-rearing, so as not to have to 

 depend upon sugar. 



Double Shaking for Increase 



Under the captivating title, " Making 

 100 percent increase, yet getting a full 

 crop of honey," is given in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review, Leonard S. Griggs' 

 plan of honey-getting and swarm-pre- 

 vention. As soon as any colony is 

 found to have larv:e in queen-cells pre- 

 paratory to swarming, the hive is taken 

 from its stand and in its place is put a 

 hive containing frames filled with 



