FEBRUARY 15, 1913 



129 



Heads of Grain from Different Fields 



Tendency to Revert Back to Black in Color; the 

 Origin of Foul Brood 



1. Is not the honeybee of America a dark bee! 

 «nd have not all other yellow imported queens a 

 tendency to produce bees that become dark after 

 several generations, irrespective of meeting with dark 

 drones? I mean, is it not a continental tendency, as 

 the black man is to Africa and the yellow to Asia? 



2. Is not foul brood caused by condition as well 

 as by contagion, the same as diphtheria in the hu- 

 man ? A queen run to her utmost limit in egg-laying 

 naturally becomes low in vitality. Her brood fails to 

 develop — dies, and becomes foul. The same holda 

 good in poultry run at high pressure, and handled 

 under artificial conditions. 



Slate River, Ont., Can., Jan. 8. J. M. MuNEO. 

 [1. The native bees found in this country in the 

 early days were black — very similar to and perhaps 

 identical with the German black bees, but probably 

 somewhat different from the black bees of Great 

 Britain. At the present time Italians predominate 

 largely in many localities, especially where bees are 

 kept in modern hives. But there are certain local- 

 ities where black bees are the only race to be found. 

 The extra-yellow Italians that have been bred for 

 color have a tendency to revert back to the original 

 type. In southern Italy the bees are yellower than 

 those in the northern part of that country. If the 

 original type was leather-colored, then the yellow 

 strain will show a tendency to revert to the leather 

 color- — that is, of course, supposing no effort is made 

 to breed from yellow drones and light-colored queens. 

 But in many localities Italians will cross with the 

 native black bees. In such cases we have a hybrid 

 of two races. If the predominant bee in any locality 

 is a native black bee, then any other race on the 

 yellow order introduced would, in a short time, be- 

 come so much crossed with the black strain that we 

 would have nothing but black bees. We do not be- 

 lieve that the habitat has any thing to do with the 

 color of bees; but the blacks are more persistent — 

 that is to say, they have greater power to force their 

 way into new territory than the Italians have. 



2. Strictly speaking, foul brood or any germinal 

 disease is not caused by condition ; but a condition 

 may be such that a disease finds a more ready lodg- 

 ment if the germs of the disease are alrtady present. 

 Speaking more specifically, no amount of rotten brood 

 caused by chilling or overheating will develop into 

 foul brood. But rotten matter, or bees in a weakened 

 condition, if they do not properly take care of the 

 brood, might help the propagation of disease already 

 present in tlie form of spores when a healthy colony 

 or well-fed brood would throw it off. In the human 

 family a healthy individual will resist disease much 

 better than one who is all "run down," and the same 

 general rule applies to bees. Let it be clearly under- 

 stood that corn will not grow where no corn has been 

 planted; neither can disease develop, no matter how 

 favorable the surrounding conditions, when no dis- 

 ease germs are present. This fact has been conclu- 

 sively proven. — Ed.] 



Can Increase and a Honey Crop Both be Secured 

 at the Same Time ? 



I have been a subscriber to Gleanings for a num- 

 ber of years, and have learned many things from it 

 that have been of value to me in beekeeping. I have 

 nearly all of the books you publish on beekeeping, 

 but can not find exactly what I want on increase. 

 My conditions are as follows: I have one hundred 

 colonies in two yards. Practically my whole surplus 

 honey is from clover and basswood. I run my bees 

 on the Alexander plan for honey, and have no 

 swarming to speak of. Our honey, coming as early 



as it does, I do not care to increase by the Alexander 

 plan. I wish to double my number without decreas- 

 ing my honey crop. I have plenty of hives and 

 foundation. Would I succeed if, instead of placing 

 the brood above the excluder, I would take one frame 

 of brood with the queen, one frame of honey, and 

 one empty comb, and start a nucleus from each 

 strong colony, giving each old stand a young queen 

 in two or three days ? 



Spring Green, Wis., Jan. 7. G. H. Peck. 



[It is practically impossible to double your num- 

 ber of colonies without decreasing your honey crop : 

 that is to say, you can not double the colonies and 

 produce a honey crop both at the same time. You 

 can make increase, but at the expense of your crop. 

 You can, however, do this: Run your colonies in the 

 regular way ; get them as strong as possible, produce 

 the crop, and then, after the crop has been secured, 

 divide and build up the nuclei by feeding. The plan 

 you propose would be perfectly feasible. Of course, 

 you need to bear in mind that, after the honey-fiow, 

 and the crop has been secured, the robbers are in- 

 clined to cause more or less trouble; and in the feed- 

 ing you will need to exercise more than ordinary 

 precaution to prevent robbing. — Ed.] 



Warm Weather Causing Much Brood-rearing in 

 the South 



In the fall I fed my bees about 15 pounds of 

 sugar syrup, made a little less than three parts of 

 sugar and one of water. They had the hives practically 

 full of good sealed stores the last of November; but 

 every warm spell I could notice that they were raising 

 young bees, ^rom the fact that they would bring out 

 some dead ones after we had had a cold snap, and 

 this I suppose to be chilled brood. 



I wrapped my hives well with old newspapers, and 

 then covered them on the outside with three-ply roof- 

 ing paper. On the 6th of January I noticed the bees 

 bringing in some pollen; and every warm day that 

 we have I notice that this pollen increases consid- 

 erably — that is, the bees seem to bring it in more 

 freely. On Sunday, Jan. 19, I noticed that they were 

 coming in with quantities of pollen, and working as 

 in summer time. I could not imagine where this 

 came from, so I hitched up my horse and drove to 

 the country, and found that it was coming from the 

 alder, of which we have an abundance. 



Now, what I want to know is, will not this pollen 

 coming in start them to raising brood very freely 

 during this warm weather ? and when they consume 

 what stores they have in rearing the brood, if we 

 have cold weather in February (which we generally 

 do) are they not liable to starve? I can feed the 

 bees during warm days; but I do not know whether 

 to feed them with thin or thick syrup at this time 

 of the year. Our weather here is very warm. Some 

 days the thermometer stands at 75, and we have had 

 but very little freezing weather. Our hives are run- 

 ning over with bees, and we do not want to lose 

 them. 



Kinston, N. C, Jan. 21. J. W. Black. 



[ During a warm open winter such as we have 

 been having, bees in the South will rear a consider- 

 able amount of brood provided they can secure nat- 

 ural pollen, and they will do a good deal of brood- 

 rearing, oftentimes, without natural pollen coming 

 in, if there is pollen in the hives, which is generally 

 the case. As you surmise, there is danger in such 

 cases that the bees will use up their stores to such 

 a point that starvation will follow. If you fed your 

 bees 15 pounds of thick sugar syrup, as explained, 

 so that the hives were practically full the last of No- 

 vember, we feel quite certain that there will be 

 enough to carry them through until spring. 



