150 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1919 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



it any longer; so I stacked shook foul-brood 

 combs in the same apiary with the treated 

 bees, leaving enough nurse bees to look 

 after the brood. This was during a brood- 

 rearing honey flow, with a one-bee-way en- 

 trance. Shook bees will work almost like 

 a new swarm, but they are much worse to 

 rob. There were a few field bees left with 

 the diseased combs that went back to the 

 old locations, and evidently they did some 

 robbing on the practically defenceless brood 

 for some time. I had recurrences for a 

 year thereafter. Now I have as much re- * 

 spect for foul brood as I ever did have, and 

 a bit more of late, and I find I am not get- 

 ting hurt much by it any more. 



My location is almost isolated. I've clean- 

 ed up two yards entirely — not a cell for 

 over two years. In the other two I have it 

 down to less than 5 per cent. I would 

 rather dig a hole and bury at night the 

 whole blamed hive, bees and all, than take 

 any kind of a chance of its spreading or 

 recurring, for those two yards must be 

 cleaned up, entirely. 



But, now, if I had disease all around me 

 and some thruout my own bees, I would cer- 

 tainly use this method — but only in a good 

 honey flow, unless I could start a hospital 

 yard at a safe distance. I know what it 's 

 like to melt up a strong two- or three-story 

 colony. But even so, I believe it safer, and 

 I doubt the advisability of Mr. Right's 

 treatment for more than about one beekeep- 

 er in fifty. T. W. Riggs. 



Overton, Nev. 



Mr. Eight Takes Exception to Mr. Holter- 

 mann's Comment. 



On page 98 of February Gleanings, E. F. 

 Holtermann says, "there are altogether too 

 many beekeepers who now try to cure Amer- 

 ican fowl brood that way. ' ' This was said 

 in criticism of my article, page 21, January 

 Gleanings, on the treatment of American 

 foul brood. This criticism is an injustice 

 both to the readers of Gleanings and myself, 

 for the reason that he evades the main 

 points at issue by talking about the "cut 

 out ' ' method when one can see that the 

 nursery or hospital method was the treat- 

 ment advanced. The cut-out method was 

 mentioned only in the first paragraph of 

 that article as being successful in one in- 

 stance where the cells that were diseased 

 were cut out. I would use the cut-out method 

 only where there were but a cell or two 

 that had American foul brood and confined 

 to but one comb. If I had more than one 

 hive diseased, no matter how limited, I 

 would adopt the nursery method absolutely. 



In reading Mr. Holtermann 's criticism of 

 my treatment and his brimstone method, 

 one is led to believe he would advocate the 

 extreme method in the cure of any con- 

 tagious disease, whether in bees (or human 

 beings). 



Going back to the cut-out method that 

 Mr. Holtermann talks about, I wonder what 

 would be his advice to the surgeon should 

 one of his family show symptoms of cancer 

 in a leg or arm or any other part of the 

 body where it could be reached with the 

 knife; would he suggest to cut it out or cut 

 the patient's head off as a sure means of 

 eradication? 



There are many things about the honey- 

 bee to be learned, and I know of no better 

 way than to experiment and adopt the 

 methods most successful with the least pos- 

 sible loss. J. F. Right. 



Indianajjolis, Ind. 



"GOING AHEAD BACKWARDS" 



That's What a Big New York Beekeeper Says ot 

 Home Breeding of Queens 



The extension workers of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Entomology as well as many 

 other educators in apiculture are urging 

 beekeepers to rear their own queens rather 

 than to buy them of the men who have been 

 and are making a specialty of queen-rearing. 

 Such stuff is not going to get us very far. 

 For however advisable it may be for the 

 beekeeper to raise his own queens, there is 

 not one in three hundred capable of select- 

 ing stock whose progeny will maintain to 

 any degree the qualities for which it was 

 originally selected. 



The rank and file of farmer beekeepers, 

 whom the extension workers are trying to 

 induce to "keep more bees," are, to say 

 the least, not anxious to spend any money 

 on their bees for good queens or anything 

 else, and they are the ones who are going to 

 bite, and rear their own queens because it 

 is cheaper. 



To raise good queens requires not only 

 skill on the part of the beelceeper but also 

 very favorable local conditions — conditions 

 other than we have in western New York. 

 The firm of which I am a member has spent 

 hundreds of dollars in buying queens not 

 only for their own use but also for improv- 

 ing the surrounding locality by giving 

 queens to near neighbors and selling at re- 

 duced prices to those more distant and many 

 times donating their own time for requeen- 

 ing. This has been practiced over ten years, 

 and still we are unable to secure pure mat- 

 ing of one-tenth of the queens we rear for 

 our own use. These mismated queens will 

 often produce colonies that will outdo their 

 ancestors, it is true; but were it not for the 

 purchasing of two well-bred queens to each 

 of these home-bred ones we would soon be 

 out of the bee business, so far as honey 

 production is concerned, for when it comes 

 to the second and the third generations of 

 thope home-bred queens they are worthless. 



We are still buying queens by the hundred 



