382 



November, 1915. 



American Hee Journal 



to other larvae, I regard it as remotely 

 possible but not probable. I have 

 watched this disease most carefully, 

 and I have seen nothing to bear out 

 such a theory. If that were the case I 

 would expect it to spread with much 

 greater rapidity in a hive, and when 

 more than half the brood was dying of 

 the disease the health of the remaining 

 brood would be unaccountable. With 

 me a diseased colony will last for two 

 or three years; the progress of the 

 disease is at first very slow, and the 

 colony becomes seriously weak only a 

 comparatively short time before it dies 

 or is robbed out. Then the additional 

 fact that, due to the heat of the hive 

 and the delicateness' of the larval tis- 

 sues, putrefaction sets in almost im- 

 mediately after, if not before, the larva 

 is dead, and that the shrinkage of the 

 dead larva is only what we might ex- 

 pect of evaporation at that tempera- 

 ture, would seem to me to preclude 

 such a possibility. 



Another season I expect to experi- 

 ment further with the disease, intro- 

 ducing to nuclei queens from the worst 

 diseased colonies I can find, only be- 

 ing certain that I do not bring any of 

 the American variety to my yards, and 

 giving the diseased queen theory a 

 final tryout, being confident from past 

 experience as to the result. 



Having studied and worked for four 

 years with bees having this disease, I 

 simply wish to place in your hands the 

 results of my limited experiments. 



Kingsley, Pa. 



^♦-^ 



The Life of a Bee Inspector- 

 Some of the Fun 



BY F. DUNDAS TODD. 



MAYBE my readers think that it is 

 a very serious thing to be a foul- 

 brood inspector, but I want to 

 assure them that there is a humorous 

 side to the occupation, and that I man- 

 age to get a little fun out of it nearly 

 every day. As in all other walks of 

 life, the morsels are so small that they 

 are hardly worth passing on, even if 

 they brought a good healthy grin at 

 the moment. On the other hand, some 

 of them were so big that their memory 

 lingers, and brings a smile whenever 

 they jump into recollection. Let me tell 

 some of these experiences in the hope 

 that even in tamer form they may raise 

 a smile on the face of my readers. 



Working a district so thoroughly as 

 I do, I come to learn all the regular 

 wayfarers on the roads, so have a 

 hailing acquaintance with the bulcner, 

 the baker, the grocery-man and such 

 like. One day 1 noticed the butcher's 

 cart driven by a well dressed stranger, 

 and soon observed that he stopped 

 quite a little while at every farm house 

 along the road. My jumps were fre- 

 quently over distances of 2 and '.i miles, 

 but each time I got on the main road 

 there he was. Having no other occu- 

 pation I began to wonder what he was 

 doing, but I suspected he was peddling 

 something. 



About 3 o'clock in the afternoon I 

 landed at the far end of the road, right 

 at the foot of the mountain and decided 

 I had lost track of the stranger. When 

 I tackled the farmer's apiary I found it 

 located in 3 rather neglected orchard, 



along'iid'? the fence and with grass so 

 high in front of the two hives that we 

 actually had to search for them. The 

 owner informed me that the bees were 

 so vicious that he had been forced to 

 remove them to a considerable distance 

 from the house, say about 200 yards. In 

 those days I was rather ignorant of 

 farmers and their ways of doing things, 

 so without realizing the possible con- 

 sequences I sugge-ited that he ought to 

 cut the grass, picturing to myself that 

 he would use a reaping hook or clip- 

 pers gently, as I would myself. I 

 turned my attention to preparing the 

 veils for himself, assistants and family, 

 so did not observe his movements until 

 I heard a loud thud. On glancing up I 

 saw him in the act of swinging his 

 scythe, and before I could open my 

 mouth there was a second thud, even 

 louder than the first. The grass was 

 gone from the hives all right, but in an 



instant the air was alive with thou- 

 sands of the most vicious little fiends I 

 had met up to that moment. 



I was there to work, so I sailed right 

 in. The supers, innocent of sections, 

 had been on the hives for years and 

 were full of beautiful honey, so I got 

 hold of a couple of dish-pans and re- 

 plevined the lot. In the brood-cham- 

 ber the combs were mostly cross-built 

 so I had a rather slow task. Long be- 

 fore I got to the end of it, everybody 

 but the farmer had bolted, and when I 

 got to the house I found several thou- 

 sand angry bees on the rampage, the 

 honey being of course a source of at- 

 traction. Dogs and cats had bolted for 

 shelter, while the chickens were behav- 

 ing as if possessed of evil spirits. I 

 had gotten to the end of my day's cir- 

 cuit, so I did not worry. I decided to 

 postpone the yoking of my horse for 

 awhile so as to give the bees a chance 



GOLDHN KAKS FROM HAT/.IC, B. C. 

 riiotOKraphed from llie apiary of J. R. Morrison by F. Dundas Todd 



