January 



American Hee Journal 



pass after she begins laying. In other 

 words, a laying queen can get through 

 any excluder she coulil get through 

 when a virgin. 



When queen-excluders were more in 

 the experimental stage than at the 

 present time, the slots were made of 

 different sizes; and some of them were 

 so large that there was more or less 

 trouble with queens getting through. 

 Now some one who had experience at 

 that time may say, "You must be mis- 

 taken about laying queens being as 

 small about the thora.x as virgins. I 

 had a number of virgins go through 

 the perforated zinc, but never a laying 

 queen." And he speaks very truly. 

 That, however, does not militate with 

 the fact that a laying queen inn go 

 through any slot through which she 

 could pass when a virgin. A virgin 

 will make frantic efforts to get through 

 an excluder, crowding against the zinc 

 with all her might. The writer has 

 found more than one virgin dead with 

 her thorax wedged tight in the zinc. A 

 laying queen is more prudent, and 

 when she finds it too much of a pinch 

 to get through she gives up the effort. 

 At the entrance of a hive containing a 

 virgin, put perforated zinc through 

 which she can just force her way, and 

 when ready for her wedding-flight she 

 will not be long in getting through. 

 Now put an excluder on the hive with 

 perforations of the same size, and over 

 this a super, and the queen will not go 

 up to lay in the super. Possibly, how- 

 ever, she might pass through the same 

 perforation at the entrance of the hive 

 in the excitement. 



Oroue-Fouuclation for a Swarm 



In the British Bee Journal the ques- 

 tion is asked what a strong earl}' swarm 

 with a young laying queen would do if 

 hived in a hive containing full sheets 

 of drone-foundation. The following 

 reply is given : 



If you try the exBeriment as we have done 

 you will find the bees will either tear down 

 the foundation and build worker-cells, or 

 they will build worker-cells upon the drone- 

 b-jse foundation. 



Has any one of our readers had a 

 like experience ? It seems a little diffi- 

 cult to imagine how the bees would 

 manage to fill out an entire frame with 

 worker-comb if it is filled with drone- 

 foimdation. The base would have to 

 be entirely changed. There is still an- 

 other alternative that the bees inight 

 select, as they did in a case in this 

 locality, in which a swarln was hived, 

 not upon drone-foundation, but upon 

 drone-comb. The bees would have 

 none of it, and swarmed out. 



Introduchit; Virgin Qiieeii.s 



Julian E. Lockwood says in the 

 British Bee Journal : 



I wanted to requecn an English colony 

 (with supers on) with a yount' virgin Italian 

 queen. About mid-day, wlien the bees were 

 flyuig well, the virgin was put into a tubular 

 cage of perforated zinc, and afti-r having 

 smoked the bees well at the entrance, she 

 was allowed to run in from the alighting- 

 board. Before running her in. she was kept 

 quite alone and without food for Su minutes 

 About evening the old queen was found cast 

 out, and in 4 days the colony was examined 

 and the newly-inserted virgin found to be 

 laying freely. 



In the second case, my experiment was 

 carried out with a colony that swarmed. 



After cutting out as many queen-cells as I 

 required for queen-rearing purposes, a 

 young virgin was kepi quite alone, and with- 

 out food for 30 minutes, and then allowed to 

 run down from one corner on the top of the 

 frames. On examining the colony a few 

 days afterwards, this queen was also laying 

 freely, and the queen-cells left in the hive 

 destroyed. Not only did this stop further 

 swarming, but the colony went ahead so 

 rapidly that they came up into the su- 

 pers again and at once got to work. Whether 

 the above methods would always work suc- 

 cessfully I am unable to say. but I hope to 

 test further next season. 



The probability is that the plan might 

 work always in the second case, but 

 hardly in the first. Something would 

 depend upon the character of the queen 

 to be superseded. If the queen were 

 old, or lacking in any way, so that the 

 bees of their own accord might soon 

 supersede her, there ought to be good 

 prospect of success; otherwise not. 

 If the virgin were not more than per- 

 haps 10 hours old, no precaution would 

 be needed. She would most likely be 

 received kindly in any colony. But 

 she would likely be killed before many 

 days older if the reigning queen were 

 young and vigorous. 



Bee-Lice iu New York State 



The bee-louse, or braula coeca, has 

 been known in Europe for many years, 

 and has been found in this country on 

 queens imported from Europe. But it 

 has never seemed to thrive here, and 

 has always disappeared of its own ac- 

 cord. Now, however. Rev. Geo. W. 

 Fuller reports in the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view that one day he saw a bee acting 

 queer, running around over the comb, 

 keeling over, pawing at her head and 

 thorax, trying to sting everything 

 about her, while the other bees were 

 trying to pull something from her 

 back. Close examination showed sev- 

 eral parasites upon her, likely the 

 braula coeca, and from one to eight 

 lice were found on each of a number 

 of other bees. Fortunately, even if 

 this louse gets a successful foothold 

 here, it is nothing to be so greatly 

 dreaded. It does not, as some have 

 supposed, suck its living from the bee, 

 but is merely a table companion, lodg- 

 ing on the back of the bee and coming 

 down over the bee's head to reach the 

 honey the bee is eating, and dodging 

 quickly back to its place. 



Carbolic Acid in the Apiary 



We are very likely to speak of women 

 in not the most complimentary way as 

 beings who blindly follow fashion 

 merely because it is the fashion. Are 

 not bee-keepers inclined quite a bit in 

 the same direction ? Take carbolic 

 acid as an illustration. In England it 

 has been tnuch in use for many years. 

 In this country scarcely at all. Is there 

 any reason why it is not just as good a 

 thing in this country as in England ? Is 

 it not merely a matter of fashion ? We 

 do not use it here because it is not the 

 fashion. Sometimes, however, an im- 

 ported fashion may be a good thing. 

 At any rate, there seems to be lately 

 instances in which carbolic acid has 

 been used in this country to good ad- 

 vantage, not as our British brethren 

 use it, in place of smoke, but rather in 

 unusual cases in place of smoke in 

 regular daily work, as in driving bees 



through an excluder to find a queen, or 

 as a means of keeping robber-bees away. 

 An instance of the latter kind is given 

 in Gleanings in Bee Culture by J. E. 

 Crane. He went to a yard of some 3.j 

 colonies, to inspect them. It was at a 

 time when robber-bees were bad. Mr. 

 Crane says: 



We worked leisurely, examining every 

 hive carefully, and. when through, there 

 were very few bees lurking suspiciously 

 about the hives. I had with me a lo-percent 

 solution of carbolic acid and an atomizer. 

 Before opening a hive I would sprinkle a 

 little of the acidon the front of the hive and 

 about the entrance, or, more frequently, 2 

 or t at a time. Possibly a much weaker 

 solution would do just as well, although I am 

 not certain. Now. I would not say that, if 

 the acid had not been used, there would 

 have been high-handed robbery; but it was 

 an occasion where, if ever, we would ex- 

 pect it. 



It would be interesting to learn 

 whether any readers in this country 

 have tried using carbolic acid in regu- 

 lar work to subdue bees, to the exclu- 

 sion of the smoker; also in driving 

 bees out of supers of honey. If they 

 have, will they kindly report with what 

 success ? 



European Foiil Brood 



Dr. Miller reports: " In the season of ion. 

 foul brood showed itself in 4i colonies out 

 of my ii6." I told you so. Doctor! Youthful 

 as ever, in spite of his " Fifty Years Among 

 the Bees." he takes an optimistic view of 

 matters and congratulates himself " that in 

 most of the hives there were only a few 

 cells." A hive with disease in one cell /< 

 ifiifusi',/ .'—D. M. Macdonai.d. in British /iff 

 JoiirnaL 



I wish I knew, my good Scotch 

 friend, exactly what that "told you so " 

 refers to. It hardly can mean that 

 you supposed I had thought that I was 

 forever rid of my unwelcome visitor, 

 especially as it still has the opportu- 

 nity of coming as it did in the first 

 place — from outside. Then for some 

 reason it seems that European foul 

 brood is more apt to appear than 

 American foul brood. 



Possibly if that "told you so" be 

 fully expanded it will read something 

 like this: " I told you that if you de- 

 pended upon any variation of the Alex- 

 ander treatment, and did not take away 

 all the old combs, you might rely upon 

 a good deal more trouble than if you 

 shook the bees upon foundation." 

 Maybe so. And — maybe not. 



Even supposing there was no chance 

 for reinfection from outside, it is prob- 

 ably a fact that the McEvoy treatment 

 does not leave the same permanent re- 

 sults with European foul brood as it 

 does with American foul brood. In- 

 deed, in general, there is too much 

 likelihooil that those who are not 

 familiar with both <liseasesare inclined 

 to think of them as being much more 

 alike than they really are. In some re- 

 spects the American is the more trou- 

 blesome of the two, in some respects 

 the European. 



In my first year of battling with 

 European foul brood, the treatment 

 was nearly altogether by brushing the 

 bees upon foundation. The proportion 

 of tliose thus treated, and which had 

 the disease the next year, to those 

 which remained cured was 11 to 36. 

 Along with that was the fact that the 

 treatment killed (I colonies; that is, 

 they deserted. That made 17 failures 

 to 'M successes — nearly half as many 

 failures as successes. Of course, I 



