590 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July IS 



ample in our bees. An impregnated egg can develop 

 into a queen or into a worker-bee, and which one will 

 develop is decided by the nourishment of the larva. 

 We know a worker-bee is not simply an undevelojjed 

 or crippled queen, as in the worker-bee the digestive 

 organs are fullv developed, which are missing or not 

 fully developed in the queen ; the same is true with 

 other organs. 



L. L. Andrews says the honey season in 

 Southern California has been greatly over- 

 estimated, and thinks it will not be a fifth 

 of a crop, and in some of the best localities 

 there will be none. That agrees with other 

 correspondents in that region. J. W. 

 George, same county as Mr. Andrews, gives 

 a report with a still deeper tinge of indigo 

 in the background. 



BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 

 In our preceding issue attention was 

 called to the case of a bee-keeper in Wales 

 who sent some suspicious-looking brood to 

 the editor of the BrJi. Bee Journal, Mr, 

 Carr, who pronounced it a very severe case 

 of foul brood, and said there was enough 

 of it to contaminate the whole of "Wales in 

 a season or two. As to what kind of proph- 

 et Mr. Carr is, the following extract from 

 Mr. John Morgan, of Wales, will bear tes- 

 timony, as also to the value of bee-keepers' 

 associations. He says: 



I, too, am another bee-keeper in Wales, and badly 

 hit by fovil brood. Of fifty stocks put vip for winter 

 only two were found in the spring unaffected by the 

 scourge. It had made its appearance in some of the 

 hives a year ago, and after then treating the affected 

 cases in a drastic manner and, as I thought, cured 

 them, the discovery made this spring that the disease 

 had spread throughout the apiary was disconcerting 

 in the extreme. The number of my stocks is now re- 

 duced by deaths and uniting to thirteen, and of those 

 not more than three are of effective, surplus-storing 

 strength. All old combs are destroyed, and hives 

 cleaned, and I am hopeful that with care the disease 

 will be kept under. . . . My present experience 

 has convinced me of the urgent need of a British foul- 

 brood act, for, so long as half or more of our counties 

 are without bee-associations, the means for keeping 

 foul brood under control are practically^ non-existent. 

 Even were every county provided with its association, 

 the non inclusion of a large proportion of bee-keepers 

 would go far to nullify the efforts of the associations 

 in their attempts at repression. It seems to me that 

 nothing short of compulsory powers will avail. 



IRISH BEE JOURNAL. 

 This new journal not only holds its own 

 in point of interest, under the direction of 

 Mr. Digges, but is improving. As to wheth- 

 er apiculture should receive public encour- 

 agement or not in Ireland, the following is 

 a suggestive pointer: 



At a meeting of the Iveitrim County Council, on May 

 Kith, when a grant of $150 in aid of bee-keeping in the 

 South Riding came up for confirmation, it was op- 

 posed by one of the councillors, Mr. Moran, who gave 

 expression to the following opinion, which we recom- 

 mend our readers to take as patiently as they can. 

 Mj. Moran. Bee-keeping is meant only for lazy, in- 

 dolent people, who are too lazy to work. I wonder 

 they don't start to rear frogs [laughter]. It is all bosh; 

 giving monej' to lazy people to rear bees, and we poor 

 hard-working people must pay for it all." Another 

 councillor, Mr. Wallace, who knows a good thing 

 when he sees it, spoke very warmly in support of the 

 grant, ard said: " I will send Mr. Moran a copy of the 

 Irish See Journal, and then I know he will be convert- 

 ed to bee-keeping," which turned the laugh upon Mr. 

 Moran, and, or course, the grant was confirmed. 



REPLACING QUEENS, ETC. 



"Say, Doolittle, I came this afternoon to 

 ask you a question." 



"Well, what is bothering you now, Mr. 

 Smith?" 



"I have several old h3''brid queens that 

 are past their usefulness, and I have tol- 

 erated them thus far only as I thought it 

 would be better to let them go through the 

 honey harvest rather than to run the risk 

 of less honey in replacing them while the 

 harvest was on. These I wish to replace 

 with young Italian queens. How and when 

 shall I proceed to do it?" 



"Perhaps we better take up the when 

 matter first." 



"Very good. How about the ivhenf'' 



" This can be done at any time; but I 

 find that the bees supersede more queens 

 just after the main honey harvest for the 

 season is over, in this locality, than at any 

 other time of the year; consequently, where 

 I wish to supersede queens for any reason 

 I do it just after the basswood-honey season 

 is over, as basswood gives our main honey- 

 flow." 



"But I live where white clover gives the 

 main yield." 



"Very well. Then your best time would 

 be just after clover has failed, which would 

 naturally be from July 1st to 15th." 



"I comprehend now. The superseding 

 is to be done after any honey- flow has ceas- 

 ed where the person resides who wishes to 

 do the superseding." 



"Exactly." 



"Then I am ready for the how.'''' 



"Unless a change in variety of bees is 

 desired, I would advise the beginner to 

 leave this matter of supersedure of queens 

 to the bees, as they will make fewer mis- 

 takes, if this matter is left to them, than 

 the smartest bee-keeper in the land — espe- 

 cially where there is anj^ Italian blood in 

 the bees." 



"But I told you I wished to change to 

 Italians." 



"Yes, I know you did; but I thought it 

 might be well to give yoti this hint, so that, 

 after your bees became thoroughly Italian- 

 ized, you need not think you must be super- 

 seding their queens all the while." 



"That was all right; but go ahead." 



"Where a change of the breed of bees is 

 desired, then, of course, the apiarist must 

 do it. The plan I use most, and like the 

 best, is to start queen-cells just before the 

 basswood-honej^ yield closes, when the bees 

 are in the best possible shape to raise ex- 

 tra-good queens; then two days before these 

 cells are ripe, or two days before the queens 

 will emerge from them, I go to the colonies 

 having queens which I wish to supersede, 

 and hunt out the queens and kill them. 



