546 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 1 



HEADS OF Grain 



From Different Fields 



FOUJ--BROOD LEGISLATION IN CONNECTICUT. 



Mr. E. R. Root: — A bill presented by the bee-keepers 

 I which was, I understand, commended by Dr. Phillips 

 and yourself, and which called tor an appropriation of 

 $1000) was rejected; but certain members of the legis- 

 lature realized that something ought to be done, and 

 one interested member drew up a substitute bill which 

 was passed. This was the third attempt to secure 

 foul-brood legislation, and came near being a failure. 

 Credit is due Mr. Stephen J. Griffen, of Bridgeport, 

 who has persistently kept the matter before the bee- 

 keepers and legislators, and who succeeded in obtain- 

 ing valuable information as to the extent of foul brood 

 in the State, which influenced the General Assembly. 



Your editorial opinion of the bill will be appreciat- 

 ed. James A. Smith, 



Secretary Connecticut Bee-keepers' Ass'n. 

 • Hartford, Ct, July 31. 



FOUL-BROOD BILL 

 PASSED BY THE CONNECTICUT LEGIBLATURK, JANUARY, 1909. 

 Jie it eiiacteil ht/ the Seuate and House of Bepfexenlatives in 



General Asseiiihli/ convened: 



t-EC. ].— For the purpose of suppressing contagious or Infec- 

 tious diseases of tlie honey-bee, it shall be the duty of the 

 State Entomologist, when complaint is duly made, to examine 

 and verify, and treat or destroT eases of foul brood among 

 honey-bees. 



!SEc. 8.— In pursuance of the provisions of this act. the State 

 Entomologist, or any person whom he may appoint for that 

 purpose, shall have access at reasonable times to such apia- 

 ries or places where bees are kept, and where honey -comb and 

 appliances are stored, as may be designated in any such com- 

 plaint. 



SEC 3.— The State Entomologist is authorized and empow- 

 ered to prescribe suitable forms for and to make regulations 

 regarding such complaints, and shall keep the same on file, 

 and open to public inspection; and he Is further authorized 

 and empowered to make. In his discretion, reasonable rules to 

 govern, and reasonnble payments for the services of agents 

 V hom he may appoint to carry out the provisions of this act. 



SEC. 4.— Any person who impedes, resists, or hinders the 

 State Entomologist or any agent whom he may appoint in the 

 performance of the duties imposed by this act, shall be fined 

 not more than twenty -Ave dollars. 



Sec. 5. — To carry out the provisions of this act. the necessa- 

 ry expenses, to an amount not exceeding five hundred dollars, 

 shall be paid by the comptroller on duly credited vouchers. 



[This law seems to be not quite clear on some points 

 and silent on some others. In section 3 the State Ento- 

 mologist or his authorized agent is " empowered to 

 prescribe suitable forms and to make regulations re- 

 garding such complaints." While the agents can be 

 paid out of the fund of $500 appropriated, as provided 

 in Section 5, it is not made clear whether such agent 

 has authority to apply a penalty if the "regulations " 

 and "suitable forms " are not complied with. 



In section 4, any person who impedes, resists, or 

 hinders the State Entomologist or his agent may be 

 fined $25.00. If this section can be construed to mean 

 that such person cap be fined if he refuses to comply 

 with the instructions or orders for treatment of any 

 disease given by the entomologist or his agent, well 

 and good; but even then the fine is rather low. In 

 most of the laws imprisonment is made a part of the 

 penalty at the option of the court. 



In a general way, we would say that this law is far 

 better than nothing; and if the Attorney General of 

 your State should construe section 4 to mean that a 

 foul-brood inspector has full authority to apply the 

 penalty of §25.00 in ease of non-compliance with his 

 orders, then the law will do very well; but we should 

 say that, at the next session of your General Assem- 

 bly, this provision ought to be made a little clearer 

 and the penalties heavier.— Ed.] 



INTRODUCING QUEENS BY SPRAYING THE BEES WITH 

 WATER. 



Get some water and a bulb-plant sprayer and turn 

 the cloth back over the top of the frames. Shower the 

 bees as long as they come up, until they are quiet and 

 hugging the combs. In this condition they can not 

 sound a note; in fact, they are completely knocked out. 

 Now turn the queen in, giving her a dampening also. 

 We raise a comb if we like, and turn her right on to 

 the comb, when she will be received. If turned among 

 the bees on the comb the queen will be hungry, and 

 so need not be wet. 



We have introduced many queens in this -jvay and 

 had no failures. It is not necessary to drown them. 

 If there is no sprayer handy they can be simply sprin- 



kled with the hand. At a time when there is brood in 

 the hive, use warm water, otherwise the cold^is just as 

 good. o > 



We took one of our most vicious hybrids and gave a 

 live-bee demonstration at the fair to a large crowd, 

 with no cage or protection of any kind, handing a 

 comb around to show the queen, and no one was stung, 

 the bees being treated to a light showering a little be- 

 fore opening. The sprinkling was done through a 

 wire-cloth covered super placed on the hive as used 

 for ventilation. 



Queens can be changed by this plan without having 

 a colony queenless, and work goes on as usual as soon 

 as the bees are dried off. J. W. Ware. 



Puyallup, Washington. 



[The scheme of spraying bees with water, or with 

 water sweetened with a little sugar, for the purpose of 

 facilitating the process of introducing, has been men- 

 tioned at various times in these columns; but we do 

 not advise either, for the reason that the regular meth- 

 od of introducing we consider much more reliable. 



The application of water in a fine spray has the ef- 

 fect of disconcerting or putting out of normal a colony 

 of bees for the time being; and while in that condition 

 it will be a little more inclined to accept a queen than 

 otherwise. If any others have had any experience in 

 this plan we shall be glad to hear from them.— Ed.] 



QUEENS FLYING AWAY WHEN HIVES ARE OPENED, AND 

 NOT RETURNING. 



I received a queen by mail and introduced her all 

 right, but I don't know where she went to. About 

 four days after I put the cage in the hive I opened it to 

 see how the queen was. Suddenly she flew, and, of 

 course, I thought she would come back; but in twenty 

 minutes I could not find her in the hive. So I looked 

 in my six other hives (I have only seven), but she was 

 not in any of them. 



Strangest of all, the last hive I opened, the queen 

 flew from that hive too, and did not come back. I can 

 not account for their not coming back except that 

 there was a swarm hanging near, and the queens en- 

 tered that. The latter queen knew her hive, because 

 she was mated there about a week before. 



Oakland, Cal., July 22. L. McCargar. 



[It is very rare that a queen will deliberately fly off 

 the comb when the hive is open. When she does this 

 the only thing to do is to leave the hive just as it is, 

 with the cover off, and step back. The queen will cir- 

 cle about in the air to mark her location. If the hive 

 is left open for fifteen or twenty minutes she will, in 

 all probability, return. If, however, the queen was 

 raised in that hive, and was mated from it, there will 

 be no harm if she does fly off the comb, for she will be 

 almost sure to return. Why your queen did not do so, 

 as mentioned in your second paragraph, we are un- 

 able to explain. As we have said before, bees (or 

 queens either for that matteri follow no invariable 

 rule.— Ed.] 



can ripe CELLS BE SENT BY MAIL? 



If, as I am led to believe, it is quite a task to intro- 

 duce virgin queens, why not make it a point to have 

 almost ripe queen-cells always coming, and, so far as 

 practicable, ship them instead of the virgin queens? 



FENCES ATTACHED TO SECTION-HOLDERS. 



Why are not section-holders made with fence sepa- 

 rators attached, since, as it seems to me, comb-honey 

 production without separators would be almost a fail- 

 ure. I have some home-made section-holders with 

 separators attached, the separator being, of course, 

 necessary on only one side of the holders. This also 

 does away with a follower in the super, as the wedges 

 or springs can be put between the ends of the last 

 holder and outside wall of the super. 



St. Paul, Minn., July 23. J. A. Rye. 



[A ripe cell sent through the mails for not longer 

 than 24 hours during hot weather, if immediately put 

 in a queenless hive on arrival, may hatch out into a 

 good queen, but the chances are that she will fail to 

 hatch; or if she does, she will be dark-colored, short- 

 lived, or both. Practical queen-breeders know that, if 

 ripe queen-cells are subjected to a temperature lower 

 than that of the hive for only a short time, the queen, 

 when she does hatch, will not be as strong and vigor- 

 ous as one that has been kept during the entire period 

 of incubation in a good cluster of bees. 



Many years ago, pieces of comb from some good 

 breeder were sent through the mails, which, on arri- 

 val at destination, were used for grafting cells. In a 

 few cases, apparently a good batch of cells was se- 

 cured. It is not practicable to graft from these pieces 



