1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



655 



number of queen-bees were sent to America 

 from an infected district — that the ciueens so 

 sent, including their attendants, had this ani- 

 mal parasite m their intestines. Would it 

 not be possible for the recipient of these 

 queens, when he introduced them among his 

 own bees, to introduce the deadly parasite 

 also? The new queen, after she is released, 

 receives lavish attentions from her subjects. 

 If she or the attendants that came with her 

 through the mails voided diseased matter the 

 bees of the hive would speedily contract the 

 disease. Through the constant bodily con- 

 tact it would be possible for the bees to catch 

 the infection and spread it throughout the 

 entire colony, and from that colony to every 

 colony in the yard. 



We have trouble enough now from Amer- 

 ican and European foul orood. It is highly 

 important that we use every precaution to 

 prevent this new disease from getting a foot- 

 hold in this country. To that end every 

 (jueen-breeder and bee-keeper who intro- 

 duces queen-bees in mailing-cages from 

 Europe should see to it that such imported 

 bees come from districts where the disease 

 does not exist; and he should also exercise 

 the precaution of keeping close watch on the 

 colonies to which his imported queens have 

 been introduced. Many Carniolan queens 

 are sent out from Carniola, a province of 

 Austria. While it is presumed that the dis- 

 ease does not exist in that locality, yet as it is 

 found a few hundred miles from the district 

 from where the queens are imported, Amer- 

 ican bee-keepers should exercise unusual 

 precautions. 



It goes without saying, that the Bureau of 

 Entomology, Washington, D. C, will take 

 every precaution to see that the disease is 

 not spread into this country. It might be 

 well for any bee-keeper who has bees suffer- 

 ing with any form ot disease like dysentery 

 to have some individual bees mailed to Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips, of the Bureau of Entomology, 

 who in turn will doubtless turn them over to 

 the bacteriologist. Dr. White, for a scientific 

 examination. 



In the mean time we are indebted to Edi- 

 tor Alois Alfonsus, of the Bienen-vater, for so 

 kindly transmitting this information, with 

 the photographs, directly to this country. 

 To be forewarned is to be forearmed. 



In reference to these two articles, one by 

 Editor Alfonsus and the other by Dr. Miller, 

 we may say that both were written without 

 the knowledge of the other; but the matter 

 is of such extreme importauce that we de- 

 cided to publish both articles together, even 

 if one writer does repeat some things said 

 l\v the other. 



WINTERING OUTDOORS IN WISCONSIN BY THE 

 USE OF TARRED FELT; ARE PAPER WIN- 

 TER CASES IN GENERAL A SUCCESS? 



In the Bee-keepers' Review for October ap- 

 l)ears an article by Mathilde Candler, of 

 Cassville, Wis., with an engraving showing 

 how she winters in two-story hives, using 

 ordinary tarred-felt paper as a winter case. 

 She uses two-story hives — that is, she finds 



it an advantage, she says, to put on an extra 

 brood-chamber when she takes off the comb- 

 honey super at the close of the main honey- 

 ilow. In her opinion the bees winter better 

 in these double bodies because they can 

 move up and away from the entrance. On 

 top «f the double story she puts a bee-escape 

 board, and on this, again, a comb-honey su- 

 per filled with planer-shavings or sawdust. 

 Around the whole from top to bottom she 

 wraps a band of tarred felt, allowing six 

 inches for lap. For the top she provides a 

 cap of the same material, which is neatly 

 folded around the top edge of the tarred- 

 felt siding, the same telescoping over about 

 six inches. In other words, her winter case 

 is made of two parts — a band or cylinder 

 fitting around the sides of the hive, and a 

 cap that telescopes over the whole. The 

 felt is held in place at the laps and folds by 

 a lath nailed on all four sides, only one nail 

 passing through each lath. 



She has used this material she says for the 

 last six or seven years, and for the last three 

 years has wintered 300 colonies or more 

 "with but little loss." 



But a very important factor, evidently, in 

 this successful wintering is her windbreaks. 

 Both the yards are located against a side-hill 

 which cuts off the prevailing winds, although 

 she says she had equally good results when 

 she used a high-board fence. 



As Wisconsin is a State where indoor win- 

 tering generally prevails, her success with 

 these single -thickness paper cases is but 

 little short of remarkable. In a one-story 

 hive without a windbreak, with no more pro- 

 tection, we are sure the results would be 

 disastrous; and this brings up the question 

 whether it is not very important to get the 

 cluster as far away from the entrance as 

 possible. In a shallow hive, or one compar- 

 atively shallow, like the Langstroth, the 

 cluster is necessarily forced down pretty 

 close to the bottom-board. By using two 

 bodies the cluster goes into the upper one 

 or at a point remote from the entrance; but 

 on the other hand, why is it that we almost 

 invariably find the cluster of bees in front 

 of a single-story Langstroth hive directly 

 over the entrance rather than at the rear of 

 the hive remote from the entrance? In the 

 language of Dr. Miller, we don't know. 



We would not advise any one to try Miss 

 Candler's method of wintering on a large 

 scale. There may be something in her par- 

 ticular locality, or windbreaks, that make 

 this sort of wintering possible. Reports, in 

 some cases at least, show that paper winter- 

 cases are not as effective as the double- 

 walled hive with good thickness of packing 

 on all six sides. While we continue to try 

 paper cases on double and single story hives 

 for experiment, we do not find them, thus 

 far, at Medina, the equal of wooden cases or 

 double -walled hives where ample thick- 

 ness of packing is provided. We are fear- 

 ful that the difference in cost between the 

 paper and wooden cases will be made up in 

 one season in the amount of stores con- 

 sumed. 



