August, 1910. 



American Vae Journal 



only equal to the average in his yard, 

 he will be out of pocket nothing ex- 

 cept the trouble of making the change 

 if lie buys a new queen for a colony 

 that produces only ().■> pounds. If he 

 gets a new queen for a colony that 

 stores j") pounds, he is a dollar ahead 

 for his trouble. If he buys a new 

 queen for the colony that stored only 

 2.5 pounds, he is $.j to the good. 



Nor does the matter end there. A 

 change has been made, not only on the 

 single crop, but it is more or less a 

 permanent thing for future years. The 

 presence in his apiary of those poor 

 queens, with the chance of their drones 

 meeting his young queens will be a 

 constant menace, bringing down the 

 average of his apiary. 



We have supposed that the queens 

 bought are only the equal of the aver- 

 age queen in his apiary. In too many 

 cases the average of the apiary is so 

 low that queens bought from a reputa- 

 ble dealer would bring up the yield 

 azvay abo:'i' the prf.^e?it aj'fra,ire. In 

 fact, it is not too much to say that manv 

 a bee-keeper could buy H) or 1.5 good 

 queens at $5 each and make money by 

 it. But when we get untested queens 

 at a dollar each, or less, he is surely 

 standing in his own light not to make 

 the elTort to replace extra-poor queens 

 with those that are at least up to par; 

 and in a number of untested queens he 

 is likely to get some that are extra- 

 good. 



Black Bees v.s. Italiau.s 



That vigorous Scotch writer, D. M. 

 Macdonald, in a paragraph in the 

 Britisli Bee Journal, says : 



" The Italian bee is an excellent bee. but 

 it is not the fct/— at least, in all circum- 

 stances, in all localities, and in all countries. 

 At last justice is slowly working towards a 

 fairer view of the subject." 



Then referring to the American Bee 

 journal, he says : 



"The editor, a great stickler in the past 

 for the pre-eminence of Italians, agrees that 

 over a great part of Europe "immunity be- 

 longs to the blacks rather than to the Ital- 

 ians." "" 



As the paragraph is headed "Justice 

 at Last," as Mr. Macdonald says "jus- 

 tice is slowly working towards a fairer 

 view," and in that connection says the 

 editor of this paper was a stickler for 

 Italians i>t the pasl, it seems clear that 

 Mr. Macdonald believes there has been 

 a change of heart"' in this locality" as 

 to the comparative merits of the two 

 kinds of bees. It is not so very strange 

 he should have that view, but it comes 

 from not comprehending the tc/iolc 

 situation. 



That there may be no misunder- 

 standin.t! in the case, it may be well to 

 place here the Article of Belief held 

 here at the present time. It is this : 

 The black bee is nal an excellent bee. 

 As compared with the Italian, the black 

 bee is not worth the powder to blow 

 it up. 



That expresses in brief the view held 

 at the present time. It is the view that 

 has been held in the past, and there is 

 not an iota of diminiuion of the con- 

 tempt in which the black bee has al- 

 ways been held. 



The point in the case that Mr. Mac- 

 donald failed to get is that the two 

 kinds of bees thus spoken of are blacks 



and Italians as they average in //its 

 coiinlry. As to personal experience, 

 there is no guessing in the case; we 

 kiio-cc that the blacks we have had are 

 greatlv inferior to the Italians we have 

 had. 



When a man of Mr. Macdonald's 

 candor and intelligence says blacks are 

 as good as, or better than, Italians, his 

 word goes. Only it must not be for- 

 gotten that he is talking about bees as 

 he sees them, and not about the bees 

 of this country. Even at that, it is 

 likely that there are black bees and 

 black bees in Great Britain, for there 

 are not wanting bee-keepers there who 

 prefer Italians. Bee-keepers in this 

 country are almost a unit in preferring 

 Italians. On the other hand, they are 

 very much united in Switzerland in pre- 

 ferring blacks. 



According to foreign bee-papers, 

 black queens from Swizerland have 

 been sent to this country. It would be 

 interesting if those who have received 

 them would report as to their success 

 here. The Atiierican Bee Journal will 

 be glad to publish such reports. 



Bees Cleaning' C'onibs with Amer- 

 ican Foul Broo«l 



Henry Stewart, reporting in Glean- 

 ings his experience with foul brood, 

 begins with this rather startling state- 

 ment : 



'" American foul brood can be cured with- 

 out the loss of a particle of healthy brood 

 or of a single diseased comb, and without in- 

 terfering materially with the production of 

 honey, a laying queen being on duty at all 

 times." 



Early in the season when half or 

 more than half the combs in each hive 

 contain as yet no brood, Mr. Stewart 

 makes 2 colonies exchange combs, 

 putting in No. I combs of diseased 

 brood from No. 2, and giving to No. 2 

 broodless combs from No. 1. Generally 

 No. 2 will be free of the disease. 



His second method of treatment may 

 be used at any time with a strong col- 

 ony in a good flow. Here is the gist 

 of it in Mr. Stewart's own words : 



I prepare a hive with a set of clean combs, 

 or with full sheets of foundation, in either 

 case using a frame containing some honey 

 and a small amount of brood taken from a 

 healthy colony, placed in the center of this 

 newly prepared hive. I next secure the 

 Queen and place her upon this frame of 

 brood, and at the same time remo\'ing the 

 old hive from its bottom-board, putting the 

 new one on the old stand in its place. As 

 soon as the tield-bees have found their 

 queen in her new quarters, i place the 

 honey-board on top. and over it I i>ut the old 

 hive containing the diseased brood. Lastly I 

 put on the cover and then let the hive alone 

 for 2 weeks, at the end of which time it is 

 well to remove any queen-cells that may 

 have been started in the upper hive. 



The set of foul-broody combs now be- 

 comes an extractingsuper. and it should be 

 left until all the brood is hatched and the 

 combs are tilled with honey. If the bees 

 need more room, another story in extract- 

 ing-combs should be added; and when these 

 combs are tilled with lioney. it matters not 

 how foul they may have been, they are now. 

 together with the honey in the cells, as pure 

 as the purt-'st. .As soon tin.? new brood-nests 

 become well stocked with brood they should 

 bo examined: and if in any of thum foul 

 brood is found, the set of combs above, as 

 soon as all the cells contain honey, may be 

 extracted, the queen placed on tliem. and 

 the position of the bodies reversed and 

 treated as at the start. 



The honey-board mentioned is a 

 " board of solid wood witli the excep- 

 tion of a strip of queen-excluding zinc 

 containing two rows of slots length- 



wise through the center of the board." 

 The object of this board is " to prevent, 

 as far as possible, the siftings of dis- 

 eased matter down on the brood-combs 

 below from the diseased combs above." 



If, in the foregoing, the word '"Amer- 

 ican " be changed to " European," then 

 it agrees entirely with what Percy Or- 

 ton and others have done with Euro- 

 pean foul brood, being more or less a 

 variation of the Alexander treatment. 

 If it can also be applied to American 

 foul brood, it will be worth thousands 

 upon thousands of dollars. But if it is 

 effective in getting the bees to clean 

 out combs affected with foul brood of 

 the American type, then all previous 

 teachings have been incorrect. The 

 regular Alexander treatment gives the 

 bees a better chance to clean out the 

 combs, one would suppose, than Mr. 

 Stewart's treatment. And yet Mr. 

 Alexander protested most earnestly 

 that bees could not clean out combs 

 affected with American foul brood, as 

 the rotten brood was of such a gluey 

 nature that it could not be dug out of 

 the cells. On the other hand, in Euro- 

 pean foul brood the dead brood dries 

 down in such a state that the bees can 

 remove it. 



There is still opportunity for many 

 to try Mr. Stewart's cure the present 

 season, and to settle the question 

 whether bees can, after all, clean the 

 remains of the dead larvae out of the 

 cells, the disease being American and 

 not European foul brood. 



The Anatomy of the Honey-Bee 



The United States Department of 

 Agriculture's recent publication, on 

 "The Anatomy of the Honey- F!ee " 

 (Bui. 18 Tech. Series, Bureau of Ento- 

 mology), embodies the results of de- 

 tailed studies and should prove of value 

 as bringing to bee-keepers reliable in- 

 formation concerning an insect of 

 such great economic importance, and 

 also as furnishing a sound basis in de- 

 vising new and improved practical 

 manipulations. The subject has been 

 for years the object of study of many 

 careful studetits ; but the popular de- 

 mand for information has also induced 

 untrained men to write accounts of 

 bee-anatoiTiy containing numerous er- 

 rors, and illustrated by drawings more 

 artistic than accurate. 



All practical manipulations of bees 

 must depend upon an understanding of 

 their behavior and physiology under 

 normal and abnormal circumstances, 

 and this knowledge must rest ulti- 

 mately on accurate information, as to 

 the structure of the adult bee. 



Following a brief introduction the 

 author first gives a chapter on the 

 "General External Structure of In- 

 sects," and then taking up the honey- 

 bee he gives a detailed description of 

 the head of the bee and its appendages ; 

 the thorax and its appendages ; the ab- 

 domen, wax-glands, and sting ; and 

 alimentary canal and its glands. He 

 discusses the circulatory and respira- 

 tory systems, the fat body and the 

 tenocytes, the nervous system and com- 

 pound eyes, and the reproductive sys- 

 teiu. The text is profusely illustrated, 

 57 figures, including a full-page median 

 longitudinal section of the body of a 

 worker-bee, being used, all but 3 of 



