682 



(JLEAXINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



on page 635. I can see no need of tVie " intermingling' 

 of bees " as there spoken of; and when the Jones 

 plan of starvation is fully carried out, no harm 

 could come, even did the bees intermingle after 

 they had passed through the starvation process. 

 With the late M. Quinby, I claim the starvation 

 which Bro. Jones puts the bees through is not only 

 cruel but useless. That new svvarms from foul- 

 broody colonies, hived in an empty hive, never have 

 the disease afterward, proves Quinby correct. 

 That such new swarms, hived on a new stand, do 

 not spread the disease along the intermingling line, 

 points to the conclusion that a driven colony left on 

 its own stand would not. I should sooner think 

 that the colonies on either side of the driven colony 

 had caught the contagion by robbing, than that it 

 came by the intermingling of bees. Robbing on a 

 small scale is carried on in the apiary far more 

 than most people are aware; and if any apiarist 

 will watch closely he will become convinced that 

 there ai-e few days, when honey is not coming in 

 freely, but that a bee-load or two of honey get 

 from one hive to another. That foul brood can be 

 cured by the Quinby or Jones process, I know; for I 

 cured my whole apiary in 1873 and '73; and from 

 what I read on page 63.5 it must be a quicker, more 

 simple, and more effectual plan than the carbolic- 

 acid plan there delineated. As a rule, when bees 

 do intermingle they don't carry a load of honey out 

 of their own hive into another, so that this could 

 not be the cause of the spreading of foul brood, 

 except in very rare cases. If you accept any other 

 theory of the spreading of foul brood than through 

 the honey— such as, that tlie disease is in the tissues 

 of the old bees, and in the ovaries of the queen, as 

 put forth by ISIr. Cheshire, you put an effectu- 

 al barrier on the queen-tralHc, and an untold catas- 

 trophe on bee-keeping throughout the world. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y., Sept. 7, T887. 



Yes, friend D., we did presuppose that 

 Mr. V.'s bees had got to robbing, although 

 tliere was nothing in his little note that con- 

 veyed this intelligence in so many words. 

 When a beginner reports that his bees are 

 cross, and wants to know what to do, as a 

 general rule we suppose tliat lie has allowed 

 them to get to robbing, and we advise him 

 to immediately take measures to allay the 

 trouble. We "are well aware, that rough 

 handling does make bees exceedingly cross, 

 and this may have been the trouble with the 

 bees of Mr. V. As it is, we are glad you 

 have spoken of it. We will put it this way : 

 Bees may be made cross by one or two 

 ways : Namely, robbing and" rough hand- 

 ling. 



In regard to foul brood, you seem to be 

 somewhat astonished at my statements, 

 made in reference to the starvation plan. 

 You say you see no need of the intermin- 

 gling of bees when the Jones plan of starva- 

 tion is fully carried out. If you will turn 

 back to pages 680, Aug. 1, I88ii, and 482, for 

 1887, you will see that we do not and have 

 not practiced Mr. Jones's plan of curing foul 

 brood, exactly as descril)ed in his book. We 

 caused the bees, to consume all the honey in 

 their sacks, in drawing out full sheets of 

 foundation, after which we feed them. 

 During all this time the bees are allowed 

 their libeity. for we have found it is almost 



impossible to shake all the bees from the 

 diseased hive into clean hives with frames 

 of foundation. There will be perhaps a 

 hundred in the air ; and over and over again 

 have we noticed a large percentage of these 

 bees flying into four or five different hives 

 whose entrances were situated similarly to 

 the parent stand. Perhaps you might say, 

 this could be avoided. Perhaps it might be; 

 but we have never been spry enough to close 

 the hive and get our tools and every thing 

 away so that the old hive might look natu- 

 ral before the bees in the air decided to make 

 for home. You see, if we close the hive up 

 immediately these flying bees would most 

 surely enter the neighboring hives. More 

 than " this, 1 can not help thinking that 

 there is considerable intermingling when 

 the bees are quietly domiciled in their new 

 quarters. Let us give a little fact in point : 

 A year or so ago, you will remember, we 

 had two Carniolan swarms in our apiary. 

 At this time it was a most noticeable fact, 

 that stray Carniolans were in not a few of 

 the neighboring hives, especially in those 

 whose entrances were in the same direction. 

 We likewise found Italians among the Car- 

 niolans ; therefore I can not but think from 

 this and other facts which have come under 

 my observation, that bees do intermingle to 

 quite a large extent ; and wliile J am ready 

 to admit, that this quiet steuling, or "rob- 

 bing on a small scale,'' as you term it, may 

 be one of the ways h\ which the contagion 

 may be spread, yet I think the intermin- 

 gling does the greater part of the mischief. 



Speaking of the starvation plan, you say, 

 it seems to be a quicker, more simple, and 

 more effectual plan, than the carbolic-acid 

 plan which I described on pag<j 635. If 

 you turn back to this page you will see that 

 I did not recommend the carbolic-acid treat- 

 ment as being the best. I intended to give 

 only my present knowledge of it. I am not 

 sure, even now, that the treatment by acids 

 is the best method of curing foul brood ; but 

 the fact remains, that ever since we began 

 using carbolic-acid we have checked the 

 spread of the disease in new colonies, and 

 so confined the disease to only those colo- 

 nies under treatment. On the other hand, 

 when we were using the modification of the 

 -Jones plan, the disease spread all over the 

 apiary, where colonies had. but a week or 

 two before, been perfectl> healthy, never 

 having had a trace of the disease. 



To your last sentence I must take a little 

 exception. While it is possible that foul 

 brood may be spread b\ means of the bees 

 or queens, aside from the agency of honey, 

 yet I do not think that even then we need 

 to be very greatl\ alarmed. Granting that 

 it is possible for queens to give the disease to 

 healthy colonies, I can hardly see that this 

 fact should ''put an effectual barrier on 

 the (jueen-tralHc, and an untold catastrophe 

 on bee-keeping throughout the world." In 

 reference to this point I can do no better 

 than to refer you to pag;' 291 of the .1. />'. /. 

 for 1885. Brother Newman there editorial- 

 ly gives these pertinent remarks : 



Wouldn't it be as consistentto require the suspen- 

 sion of all business in the United States of America, 

 because, forsooth, the cholera is expected here this 



