706 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



the Pridgen plan, taking the cocoon-cup with 

 the larva? In that case I think there is never 

 any stinting. [Some one else, some little 

 time ago, I do not remember who, stated that 

 all the royal jelly will be removed. Possibly 

 there is something in this ; but our Mr. War- 

 dell says that, whether it is removed or not, 

 it has a tendency, and a decided one too, to 

 induce the bees to accept cells so supplied. 

 The Pridgen method would probably be an 

 improvement on this. — Ed.] 



In Germany, besides the malignant foul 

 brood, they say they have a mild kind. Gra- 

 venhorst's Bienenzeitung says the mild kind 

 extends only to the deith of the unsealed 

 larvse. These become a ckar gray purulent 

 mass, finally drying into a crust. From the 

 hive, proceeds a foul, sour smell, and brown- 

 ish crumbs that the bees hive dug out of the 

 cells lie on the botton-board, which, when 

 rubbed in the fingers, give out the same smell. 

 In this stage the disease is not yet contagious, 

 and generally disappears by the efforts of the 

 bees. It may be considered of the mild sort 

 so long as the dead bees lie curled up on 

 the bottom-board ; but when they take a 

 stretched-out, reversed position, then we have 

 the malignant form. [From the description 

 you give, I should be almost inclined to be- 

 lieve that what the G ;rmans call a mild form 

 of foul brood we call "pickled brood ; " for, 

 under some conditions, such brood has a sour 

 smell, and hence the name. — Ed.] 



The greatest part of the cost of rearing 

 a queen has been considered the time occupied 

 in the nucleus to get her to laying ; and, like 

 others, I have made some effort toward seeing 

 how few bees might be successfully used in a 

 nucleus. But is not the c jst of nuclei magni- 

 fied ? If I am not mistaken, a colony with a 

 virgin queen will work just as vigorously as 

 one with a laying queen, and a field bee will 

 carry just as much nectar to a nucleus as to a 

 full colony. If that is correct, and if a ripe 

 cell is given at the time of removing a laying 

 queen from a nucleus, then there will not be 

 more than two days when the nucleus will not 

 be in good storing condition, and when too 

 much honey is in a nucleus a full frame can 

 be exchanged for an empty one. Of course 

 there will be some loss from the larger pro- 

 portion of bees required to keep up the heat 

 in a small nucleus. But I suspect that the 

 gain from fewer bees in a nucleus is overrated. 



You ASK, Mr. Editor, whether the fact that 

 a preconstructed cell is never first occupied by 

 a larva does not seem to argue that, if the 

 bees were given their own way, they would 

 prefer an egg? Hardly. The cell being pre- 

 pared in advance, the egg is a sort of necessi- 

 ty. When given their choice on the removal 

 of a queen, they prefer the larva to the ^%^. 

 In rare cases I've seen them start with the 

 egg, but I think there were no larvae present. 

 [There you go, using the word " preconstruct- 

 ed." Although I spent seven years of my 

 school life on Latin, I had to go and look up 

 our last issue to see whether it was swarming 

 or supersedure cells. I now see that a pre- 

 constructed cell is a swarming cell. Of course, 



I understand that pre means before, and post 

 means after ; but before and after what? That 

 is what I could not remember. Well, it would 

 seem, then, from your experience, that a 

 swarming cell usually has an egg, while an 

 emergency cell has a larva. Is this correct ? 

 Now, look here ; if you come at me again 

 with "preconstructed" and " postconstruct- 

 ed " I will throw my old shoes at you. — Ed.] 



Been watching bees working on corn. 

 Pollen lemon-colored. They stand in the air 

 poised on wing, making their legs work lively 

 packing the pollen. Now and then the tongue 

 is thrust out, appearing to be wiped by the 

 front feet. What's that for, unless to provide 

 honey to pack the pollen ? All the packing, 

 however, is not done on the wing. A good 

 bit of it is done while hanging to the flower, 

 some of the time by one foot. [You are right. 

 I also have watched this act on the part of 

 bees while they were gathering pollen. It is 

 very interesting and at times ludicrous. The 

 tongue certainly has an important part to 

 play ; but, as nearly as I can make out, the 

 moist edges of the tongue rub among the 

 pollen grains in the flower, and then the bee 

 draws the tongue between its two front claws. 

 This will leave a wad of pollen grains, mixed, 

 probably, with a little honey. It is then trans- 

 ferred from the fore feet to the middle legs, 

 and from these, by a wonderful piece of dex- 

 terity bordering on sleight of hand, to the 

 hind legs on which are located the wax-pock- 

 ets.— Ed.] 



I'm glad that sugar question is getting a 

 stirring up. I've an uneasy feeling that Mr. 

 Cowan may be right, that beet sugar is not so 

 good as cane sugar. [Personally I do not 

 have any uneasy feeling about the sugar ques- 

 tion. It is not proper for us to boast ; but for 

 the last ten or twelve years we have used beet 

 sugar for feeding our bees ; and if any one 

 can show a higher wintering average than we 

 — one who has used cane sugar — we should 

 like to have him hold up his hand. Our win- 

 tering losses very often do not exceed 2 per 

 cent, and the very highest is 15 per cent, I be- 

 lieve. This covers a period of about 20 years, 

 I suppose a fair average would be between 3 

 and 4 per cent. If Mr. Morrison, in our last 

 issue, is correct, the beet sugar is better than 

 cane. But my honest impression is that, 

 with either sugar, we shall get good results. 

 The trouble from sugar-fed colonies is more 

 because the syrup is fed too late or too thick, 

 and the bees do not have opportunity to ripen 

 it. If it is fed during warm weather, when 

 they can fly, half and half, other things being 

 what they ought to be, I would not give two 

 cents to have the colonies insured. — Ed.] 



Editor Hill raises uneasy feelings by sug- 

 gesting that, when a colony is storing while 

 others have to be fed, the storing colony may 

 be quietly stealing from those that are fed — a 

 fact which might be ascertained by compar- 

 ing a sample of the surplus with the goods be- 

 ing fed. [While this may be true, yet when 

 red clover was in bloom the only colony that 

 stored any honey during this time was the 

 colony of our old red-clover queen-breeder, 



