September, 1912. 



American l^Qe Journal k 



269 



-w^^^K 



firm hold on the male organs by the 

 (|iieen remains, it is doubtful Whether 

 the bees can remove them as intimated. 

 Considering, however, that this firm 

 hold may exist only at the time of cop- 

 ulation, and that the muscles of the 

 female organs in the queen may rela.x 

 after this period, the male organs may 

 not be held as firmly, and, therefore, 

 may be easily removed. In that event, 

 this would be a good explanation for 

 some queens mating more than once. 

 Of course, after a queen becomes /'tr- 

 /i7i:i(i she remains so the rest of her 



life, and our authorities agree that she- 

 does not mate again. 



This matter is intensely interesting 

 to me. It is of some scientific value, 

 as well as giving us an explanation for 

 queens mating oftener than ordinary. 

 If other observations of this nature 

 have been reported, we would like to 

 hear about them. 



[The only other explanation we have 

 ever heard is the possibility of the 

 spermatheca not being sufficiently 

 filled by one copulation. — Editor.] 



Canadian 



Beedom- 



Conducted by J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy. Ontario. 



Foul Brood and Pickled Brood 



While I have been much interested 

 in the recent discussion about the vari- 

 ous kinds of dead brood, for various 

 reasons I purposed to have nothing to 

 say on the question, but as the Editor 

 has urgently requested me to give my 

 opinion on the matter, I will do so in 

 as few words as possible. It is quite 

 unnecessary to give the various de- 

 scriptions of the dilterent maladies, as 

 they have been so well described in 

 the American Bee Journal that any one 

 should be able to diagnose dead brood 

 of any kind that might be found in his 

 apiaries. I wish to emphasize though 

 the statement made by Mr. Millen, that 

 starved brood does not have that 

 "greasy appearance" so characteristic 

 of a bad case of European foul brood, 

 and that peculiarity was the first thing 

 that impressed me so forcibly when I 

 first found the outbreak in Northum- 

 berland county some years ago. How 

 any one can confuse this disease with 

 " starved brood " is a mystery to me, 

 and in the words of Mr. Pyles, "It is 

 beyond my comprehension." 



I was not at all surprised at Mr. Mc- 

 Evoy's statement that 90 percent of the 

 so-called European foul brood is only 

 starved brood, as that opinion is right 

 in line with his position on the ques- 

 tion. He has more than once told me, 

 when the disease was at its worst in 

 New York State, that if they " would 

 turn on the feed " that " black brood " 

 would disappear. .^fter finding the 

 genuine thing in Northumberland 

 county a few years ago, I have ceased 

 to agree with Mr. McEvoy on this 

 matter. 



.\s to pickled brood being "starved 

 brood," I cannot see it in that light, for 

 as Mr. Pyles says, "There is quite a 

 ditTerence in the two." I believe that 

 pickled brood is caused by some or- 

 ganic or constitutional weakness in the 

 queen, and a simple e.xperiment should 

 prove this. Go to a colony that has a lot 

 of pickled brood and kill the old queen, 

 requeening with a young, vigorous 

 queen of Italian or Carniolan stock. 

 The very first lot of brood reared from 

 this queen will be perfect, and as the 

 nurse-bees are of the same variety as 

 those that were there when the pickled 

 brood was in evidence, how can it be 



caused by poor feeding ? The starva- 

 tion theory, as applied to pickled 

 brood, is that the nurse-bees are poor 

 feeders, and do not properly care for 

 the larvae. 



I have repeatedly seen pickled brood 

 stay in a hive right through a heavy 

 honey-flow, but when requeening is 

 done it disappears as soon as the first 

 batch of brood is in evidence from the 

 new queen — is it not plainly evident 

 that the queen is at fault ? I have re- 

 peatedly proven this to my own satis- 

 faction, and if there are any doubters 

 on the question it certainly is an easy 

 thing to try the plan. From the dis- 

 cussions in the American Bee Journal, 

 it is plainly evident that ei'ery bee- 

 keeper should know the different bee- 

 maladies at a glance, and unless he 

 does know them he will be sure to get 

 " stung " badly. 



.Another thing I have been glad of, 

 is that it is made pretty plain that Ital- 

 ians are not hnmuiie to the disease. 

 While Italians or Carniolans usually 

 resist the disease betterthan the blacks, 

 yet this is not always the case. One 

 well-known strain of Italians suffers 

 just as badly as the blacks, while an- 

 other strain is more immune. Please 

 do not ask me to which strain I am re- 

 ferring, as I have no desire to hurt one 

 man's business and give another free 

 advertising. 



Dr. Miller's Queen-Rearing Plan 



The latest plan of queen-rearing, 

 given by Dr. Miller in the August 

 American Bee Journal, " looks good " 

 to the writer of these notes, and again 

 a resolve has been made to try some 

 queen-rearing experiments in the near 

 future. Very humiliating to make such 

 a confession, but the truth is that such 

 " resolves " have been made before, and 

 only once put into execution. While 

 that solitary trial at rearing queens by 

 the "new fangled" schemes was en- 

 tirely successful, somehow I always 

 seem too busy to do much of that kind 

 of work when I have half a dozen 

 yards of bees to look after. While I 

 have bought lots of queens that would 

 hardly qualify as " good," yet the most 

 of them have turned out fairly well, 

 and I expect that for some time yet I 



shall keep paying out hard-earned dol- 

 lars each year to the commercial 

 queen-breeders. Some bee-keepers like 

 to rear their own queens; perhaps I 

 would, too, if I had but one or two 

 yards, but as it is I would rather keep 

 more bees and let some one else rear 

 my queens, provided I can get good 

 value for. my money. 



"Red Clover" Bees? 



'. Talking about "red-clover" bees, I 

 have them this year. This afternoon, 

 about 2 o'clock, the bees were working 

 hard on the buckwheat, as the forenoon 

 had been misty — ordinarily with us no 

 bees will be seen on buckwheat after 



1 p.m. Passing a field of second crop 

 red clover, I left the horse in the road 

 and climbed over the fence to see if 

 there was anything doing — any of the 

 rest of you fellows ever do such ramb- 

 ling around like that ? 



Imagine my surprise to see the clover 

 blossoms literally covered with bees ; 

 in fact, just as many bees on the blos- 

 soms as though it were alsike instead 

 of red clover. Other years, when our 

 bees worked some on red clover, it 

 would always be in time of a drouth, 

 but at present the ground is literally 

 soaked with rain. \'ery few Italians 

 in the field, as at the yard I had just 

 left there are no more than half a 

 dozen colonies of this race, the bees 

 being mostly Carniolans and their 

 crosses, with some black blood still 

 present. 



This would seem to prove that it was 

 not a case of "long tongue," and that 

 the clover blossoms were either shorter 

 in the tubes than usual, or that the 

 nectar was SD profuse that it literally 

 bubbled out so that the bees could 

 reach it. I prefer to take the latter 

 view, as with abundance of moisture in 

 the ground, and the air warm and full 

 of humidity, the conditions were ideal 

 for nectar secretion. From the fact 

 that the bees were there at the time 

 when the buckwheat was yielding 

 freely, is proof that theywere getting 

 honey. _ 



Bee-Escapes — The Steam-Heated Knife 



This season, for the first time, we 

 have used bee-escapes for taking oH 

 honey. While they were used in only 



2 of the 7 yards, yet our experience 

 was extensive enough to give a general 

 idea as to how they work. Placed on 

 the hives at noon, and the supers taken 

 oflt the ne.xt morning, gave best results, 

 but as the weather was cool all the time 

 they were used, I cannot say how they 

 would have worked in real hot weather. 

 As to their value, no question but what 

 they are a good thing to use in a yard 

 which is near neighbors, or at any 

 place where it is not desirable to have 

 cross bees. 



When it comes to a question of mak- 

 ing time, they are not to be considered, 

 and I would not be bothered with 

 them in a large apiary where it is de- 

 sirable to " hustle off " a lot of honey 

 in a short time. .\t one yard I bought 

 40 boards all complete, and they cost 

 quite a lot of money, too ; in fact, I 

 think that the bee-escape itself is about 

 the dearest thing in the whole line of 

 bee-keepers' supplies. Using all of 



