THE BEE-KEEPERS' RKVIEVl' 



23 



Three-quarters of the stiiugeucy prevail- 

 ing in our craft is owing to tlie live-bauded 

 bee. (See.4pi., ir>4.) So. Well, it's a com- 

 fort to know what ails us. If we could only 

 be so happy now as to have a universal hard 

 winter, in which (according to friend A.) 

 they all die off, what a blessing it would be ! 



Prof. Cook denies claiming to have cured 

 bee paralysis by feeding— 'twas a disease 

 which he considers a very different thing. 

 Api., 1.52. This is quite a valuable clearing 

 up of our confusion-worse-coufoundedness. 



And the way R. L. Taylor goes for the 

 Italian bee, in the opening article for No- 

 vember, is almost enough to make timid 

 people climb up on tables. Not only are the 

 long-landed Italians bad, but if they fail to 

 be bad 'tis evidence that they are not straight 

 Italians. 



'■ For the specialist in tlie prodaction of comb 

 honey, I contend that the so-called hybrid, the 

 cross between the (jerman and the Italian bee, is 

 immeasurably superior." 



Makes me almost jealous and mad to see 

 brethren go so far beyond me on a favorite 

 path. And here's a fact which he contrib- 

 utes that is worth preserving. One of his 

 first Italian queens, mated to a black drone 

 because there were no others in the vicinity, 

 produced bees with four yellow bauds. 

 Crossing stimulates sporting ; and with 

 sporting we need not be surprised if some 

 very queer things turn up. 



THE General Round -Up 



I have wondered sometimes how far north 

 successful bee-keeping could go. On page 

 418 of the Canadian we have the answer. 

 .Johan Forssell, Secretary of the Swedish 

 Bee Association, says his apiary is in latitude 

 591.2^ ; and that bee-keeping is general up to 

 latitude 02% with an occasional bee-keeper 

 clear up to the artic circle. So quite a bit 

 of Greenland is further south than excellent 

 bee teritory in Sweden. But the most re- 

 markable thing is still to come. Bees are 

 wintered on their summer stands. Give us 

 the healthy bees, and the healthy nectar and 

 pollen, that were the rule 100 years ago and, 

 I take it, no one in the United States would 

 need to bother much with cellars. And if 

 by the traffic in foreign queens (or other- 

 wise) our prevailing microscopic lousiness 

 of bee and flower gets to Sweden, then the 

 bee-keepers there will need cellars too — if 

 not a blasted-hopes knot-hole to crawl into 

 — let 'era listen to me shouting. 



In the American Bee Journal, 402, the 

 swarming question is up again. Our stock 

 of theories on that subject is large ; but our 

 collection of positive facts, germane to our 

 needs, is not at all excessive as yet ; there- 

 fore the following sentences are worth cull- 

 ing. 



" ] have known a swarm to issue with no 

 (lueen ill the hive, having been removed a short 

 time before." ('. ('. Miller. 



So the queen didn't give the signal in that 



case. 



' Bees sometimes seem about half way mad at 

 their queen at swarmins time." Jennie Atchley. 



" I once had a swarm to issue while 1 had the 

 hive open, and saw the internal excitement, and 

 1 saw the queen make repeated attacks on a 

 sealed queen cell; but the guard stood firmly, 

 and even used force to drive her away." G. W. 

 Demaree. 



I suspect prime swarms often begin to 

 move out while the queen is attacking a cell, 

 or at least trying to get near one for purpose 

 of attack. A'ter a little while the uproar 

 and rush for the door become so great that 

 she feels constrained to yield and go out 

 with the rest. 



Jennie Atchley's favorite plan of non- 

 swarming (.4. B. J., 4(i0) is to cage the 

 queen and cut the cells. Continue the cag- 

 ing till the brood is all out ; then release the 

 queen until signs of swarming begin to ap- 

 pear, when the same process is gone through 

 with again. The season i.s not usually long 

 enough to require more than two cagings. 

 Excepting when you skip cells this plan is 

 probably efficient. It looks as if it was too 

 expensive, both to labor and to the queen's 

 time, though something like it has been 

 largely practiced in New York State I be- 

 lieve. 



Mrs. Atchley also thinks that swarming 

 can be prevented by steadily taking away all 

 combs full of sealed brood, letting the young 

 bees emerge elsewhere, and then bringing 

 them back. Not so sure about that ; but 

 may-be it's O. K. If this is a sure remedy, 

 oc- even somewhere near sure, it will be 

 licked into endurable and workable shape 

 somstime, by so.nebody. It is not necessa- 

 rily much work to put in certain combs reg- 

 ularly, and take them out regularly. But as 

 for the other plan, nobody can devise a 

 quick and sure way of getting all the cells 

 without skii)i)ing. or even of getting the 

 queens in a great colony with supers on. 



W. H. Morse says basswood sprouts split 

 off from a 8tum[) early in the spring will 

 grow and make basswood trees quickly. .4. 

 B. J.. 49(i. 



