GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Following this paper there was consider- 

 able discussion on the peculiarities of Eu- 

 ropean foul brood. Mr. L. C. Dadant told 

 how European foul brood in several api- 

 aries had seemingly been carried by the 

 queen. Several of the inspectors present, 

 including Inspector A. L. Kildow of Illinois 

 and his deputy, Inspector N. E. France of 

 Wisconsin, and Inspector F. C. Pellett, had 

 observed that European foul bi'ood had 

 been carried through the queen. 



I put the question squarely to Dr. Phillips, 

 who, up to this point, had not volunteered 

 an opinion. He said frankly, '' I do not 

 knoAv." In some private conversation with 

 him afterward he thought there might be a 

 chance for a mistake. While he did not 



deny that it might be so carried, he thought 

 we should do some more work covering a 

 longer period before coming to the definite 

 conclusion that queens can transmit Euro- 

 pean foul brood. 



Mr. France, in one of his talks, went on 

 to state that it had been claimed that 

 American foul brood could be carried 

 through foundation. He had always argued 

 that it could not be so transmitted; but to 

 satisfy himself he had some comb founda- 

 tion made out of the I'ottenest combs he 

 had even seen. This was placed in 62 dif- 

 ferent colonies, all of them healthy, but not 

 one of them developed disease. Practically 

 all of the inspectors agreed that American 

 foul brood is not carried that way. 



A THREE-FRAME NUCLEUS, AND WHAT IS POSSIBLE TO BE DONE 

 WITH IT IN A SINGLE SEASON 



F;V R. J. T. MUCKLE 



'On page 41 i, May 15, there is a picture of the "bonanza colony," and a brief mention of wliat 

 was done with a tliree-frame nucleus and queen. On page 474 I called attention to this wonderful ex- 

 ploit, and suggested that there was a mistake in the date, as tlie letter sent us was evidently written 

 carelessly and in haste. I am glad to tell you, however, there was no mistake, and that our good 

 friend Muckle did exactly what he describes during I91i with a three-frame nucleus received May 25. 

 I asked him to give us full particulars of this wonderful increase and he has kindly written it out in 

 full as below. — A. I. R.l 



Although a very busy man from 4 A. M. 

 until dark I shall still try to answer your 

 questions. 



The whole thing was to me an experiment, 

 or, rather, a continuation of an eft'oi-t to 

 prove Alexander wrong except in the plu- 

 rality of queen.s. 1 succeeded only in prov- 

 ing him right, Avhich was really what I wa-'i 

 after. 



From the afternoon of May 26, 1914, 

 right through the season, I fed a gill of 

 syrup (3 water, 1 sugar), not only to the 

 original colony but to each swarm (artifi- 

 cial) right through the season up to Octo- 

 ber 20, when I gave those not sold 10 lbs. 

 of sugar by measure to 4 by measure of 

 water (2V2 sugar to 1 water by measure). 

 The queens being all young, and from the 

 grand one accompanying the nucleus, sim- 

 ply filled their hives to overflow with young, 

 and I was afraid the syrup would fail them 

 before the spring of 1915, they having 

 nothing else save the pollen in the two 

 outer combs. 



They came through in extra strong shape, 

 and they witlistood tlie worst spring and 

 early summer I've seen in my life. So 

 much for helping them and giving syrup 

 for winter. 



On May 26, 1914, I received a three- 

 frame nucleus (value $3.75) and a three- 

 banded Italian queen ($1.00), marked "a 

 good queen." One frame was solid capped 



worker brood, and the other two frames 

 were fully half the same — not a drone-cell 

 in the lot. The frames were swarming willi 

 workers and not oyer twenty drones; and 

 the queen, a lively medium-sized one, was 

 laying in 30 hours from airival. She laid 

 37 combs full, twenty of which her gang 

 drew out of full sheets of light foundation. 



We certainly had an abnormal flow from 

 dandelion. I never saw so many in my 

 life before (and it was the same this year) ; 

 wild fruits on a par, and wild mustard (in 

 this country a good yielder), several hun- 

 dred acres within two miles; also 20,000 

 acres of swamp land beginning one mile 

 east. 



On June 5 I put a queen and one frame 

 of hatching brood in a new body, filling up 

 with full sheets of foundation on wired 

 frames. On this I placed a wire excluder, 

 then a body full of drawn comb. Above 

 this was a wire honey-board having two 

 bee-escapes. Then having shaken two-thirds 

 of the bees ofl^ the frames I placed the old 

 body on top and the job was done. 



Eight days later I cut out all but five 

 (|ueen-cells, four of which I put in queen- 

 cages; and four days after I drew out a 

 plug in the front end of the wire honey- 

 board, putting on a five- inch-square alight- 

 ing-board, and provided the top story 

 (hatching-nest! with a hall door. My first 

 queen mated; and when laying I moved to 



