1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



679 



help them?' still remains an unanswered 

 problem." 



"I have been told that the trouble comes 

 from the queen. What do you think of 

 this?" 



"In reply to this I must say, as I did to 

 the other remedies, that there were those, 

 some years ago, who told us the whole trou- 

 ble came through the queen, and that, if 

 the queen was killed and another given in 

 her place, then, as soon as the bees emerg- 

 ed from the new queen, the disease would 

 begin to grow less and less; and when all 

 the bees from the original queen had died, 

 the colony would be free from the disease. 

 This was tried more largely than any other 

 remedy; but after a thorough trial of the 

 same by hundreds, if not by thousands, it 

 was found that, in the majority of cases, 

 such change had no effect whatever." 



"What was your experience with this 

 remedy?" 



"The first time I tried it the colony kept 

 along about the same till fall come on, when 

 it got better, and I thought I saw a ray of 

 hope in the matter, although I had noticed 

 that diseased colonies which lived through 

 till then generally got better in the fall. 

 But the next year I had another colony come 

 down with it, the worst of any thing I had 

 ever had; and to fully test the matter I took 

 their queen away and gave her to a healthy 

 colony, at the same time giving the diseased 

 colony a young laying queen. The result 

 this time was that the colony to which I 

 gave the diseased (?) queen went right on 

 in a prosperous condition, with no signs of 

 the disease, while the diseased colony show- 

 ed no abatement of the disease, they becom- 

 ing so weakened in August that they were 

 likely not to repel robbers, when they were 

 united with another colony." 



"Did you have any further experience 

 with this matter?" 



"Yes. For a time every colony that was 

 put on a certain stand, when set from the 

 cellar, had the disease during the summer, 

 so I concluded that location had something 

 to do with it, or that the trouble came from 

 some infection which arose out of the ground 

 at certain places. But after a few years 

 the colonies set on this stand were all right, 

 and one on the opposite side of the apiary 

 contracted the disease; so that again I came 

 to the conclusion I knew nothing definite 

 about this trouble." 



"You speak as though the disease was 

 on the wane, and this gives me courage. 

 How long since you have seen any symptoms 

 of the disease?" 



"I have seen very little of it since 1897. 

 One colony showed some few bees diseased, 

 with swollen, shiny abdomens, and shak- 

 ing motions, in 1900, and that is the last I 

 have seen any thing of it. There was a 

 time when bee-keepers quite generally be- 

 lieved that this disease would ruin our pur- 

 suit; but you are the only one who has ask- 

 ed me about the matter in over a year; and 

 I have seen very little in print on the mat- 

 ter during that time. I do not think you 



need to worry over the matter if only a few 

 of your colonies have the disease. But I 

 am glad you called our attention to this, 

 for it is well for all to know that there is 

 such a disease as bee-paralysis, and I hope 

 that whenever and wherever any thing new 

 is discovered in the matter it will be told of 

 in the bee-papers. Perhaps when the edi- 

 tor of Gleanings sees this he will tell us 

 what he has heard in the matter of late." 



[So far as I can see, friend Doolittle is 

 orthodox in his teachings, as he usually is, 

 regarding bee-paralysis. Scientifically we 

 know little or nothing about it ; and as to a 

 cure, we know no more. I have heard little 

 myself lately about bee-paralysis ; but four 

 or five years ago it reached a virulent stage 

 in the case of one of our Southern subscrib- 

 ers — so virulent, indeed, that his whole 

 apiary was destroyed, and along about 

 that time I heard of its killing out many 

 colonies in California ; but of late I have 

 seen little or nothing regarding it. My 

 own conclusion was that we knew of no 

 cure — that it was practically harmless in 

 the North, but very destructive in some lo- 

 calities in the South. Our friend O. O. 

 Poppleton, of Stuart, Fla., has had an ex- 

 perience with this disease, that is not alto- 

 gether pleasant. — Ed.] 



QUEEN-REARING. 



Do we Rear Queens by the Best Methods ? the Proof 

 of the Pudding is in the Eating. 



BY HENRY ALLEY. 



It seems to me that the methods now used 

 by many who rear queens are not the best, 

 nor do they come very near the most natu- 

 ral ways — that is, the ways the bees do it 

 if not meddled with after being made queen- 

 less. It is not my purpose to criticise any 

 method used, yet I do not think good queens 

 can be reared by some of the methods now 

 being practiced; in fact, I know from actu- 

 al experience that first-class queens can 

 not be reared while there is a fertile queen 

 present in the hive. Now, why is this so? 

 Perhaps I can best explain the reasons 

 why in this way: What are the conditions 

 under which bees rear queens? I know of 

 onlythree reasons why bees will rear queens: 



1. W^hen preparing to cast a swarm. 



2. When about to supersede an old queen. 



3. When deprived of their queen by acci- 

 dent or otherwise. 



Pretty good queens can be reared by al- 

 most any method while there is a good flow 



