JUNE 15, 1913 



one thing is certain — they can not stand the cold and 

 rigid weather of the North. 



They are beautiful bees to look at, but that's about 

 all there is in their favor. In nearly twenty years 

 of beekeeping experience, and after trying nearly 

 every strain of bees advertised I have found the 

 pure" leather-colored Italians ahead of all the rest — 

 at least they are the best bees for this locality. The 

 past season, when so many bees died, the Goldens 

 were the first to succumb; and while many of my 

 Italians pulled through, not one of the Golden colo- 

 nies did. In the future I shall have none other than 

 the leather-colored. 



La Crescent, Minn., Jan. 21. G. A. Barbisch. 



Hoffman Frames with Square End-bars; Some Rel- 

 ics of the Past 



I like the Hoffman frames in every way except 

 that mean V shoulder. It slips over the shoulder 

 of the opposite square one. Why not make all the 

 shank shoulders square? 



The Langstroth hive is hard to beat, and the Ital- 

 ian bee has come to stay; but what about the hive 

 that was going to do away with swarming? I think 

 it was called the " reversible " hive. It was claimed 

 to stimulate brood-rearing by turning it upside 

 down; and if at any time you suspected a swarm 

 was about to issue, all you had to do to forestall the 

 swarm was to give it another turn upside down. 

 I wish I had such a hive. I have beep looking for 

 it ever since. 



Have queens mated in confinement been a suc- 

 cess ? 



What was the outcome of the lamp nursery? 



Slate River, Ont., Dec. 10. J. M. Munro. 



[There has been some objection to the V edge of 

 the end-bars of the Hoffman frame. The purpose 

 of this was to cut the propolis, as the frames are 

 crowded together. Some beekeepers wish the end- 

 bar square on both sides, and we have made Hoff- 

 man frames in this way, although bj- far the greater 

 majority prefer the V edge, for the reason stated. 

 There is no question but that in localities where 

 propolis is very bad the square edge end-bars are 

 much harder to keep accurately spaced than the V 

 edge. 



Reversible hives and reversible frames have come 

 and gone, and probably more will come and go in 

 the future. There are some advantages to be gained 

 by reversing the frames or reversing the whole 

 \ brood-chamber ; but in the end the extra expense of 

 the equipment and of the labor required probably 

 offset these advantages. 



So far as we know, there are no experiments be- 

 ing conducted at the present time along the line of 

 getting queens mated in confinement. The experi- 

 ments that seem the nearest to success were those 

 in which mammoth tents of wire cloth were used, 

 but there were so many failures that the few suc- 

 cesses did not pay for the expense of the undertak- 

 ing. 



The lamp queen nursery or incubator is likewise 

 a thing of the past. There were po.'sibilities, but it 

 was found that bees can attend to work of this kind 

 better than man aided by artificial heat, etc. — Ed.] 



Carniolans Not Immune to Disease, but Fully as 

 Resistant to it as Italians 



Nov. 15, page 744, H. Perkins, of Artesia, Gal., 

 mentions the claim made by Eugene Baker, of Los 

 Angeles, that Carniolans are more resistant to Eu- 

 ropean foul brood than Italians, and asks that 

 others having tried them give their experience. 



I have been battling with European foul brood 

 for two years, my apiary being located about half 

 a mile from Mr. Baker's. When I first discovered 

 the disease I purchased a few leather-colored Italian 

 nueens, and with cells from these I requeened my 



423 



apiary. By winter they were, to all appearances, 

 free from disease. As most of my colonies were 

 weak, and the following spring was cold and un- 

 favorable, the disease broke out anew. Many colo- 

 nies showed but an occasional bad cell; but I de- 

 cided to treat all that showed any disease. Nearly 

 all the queens were full-blooded Italian, but mated 

 to black or dark hybrid drones. 



As Mr. Baker seemed to be having better success 

 with Carniolans I procured some eggs and larvae 

 from his bees, and raised cells with which I re- 

 queened nearly all of my apiary. They cleaned up 

 nicely, as they had done the previous season, but 

 in like manner the disease reappeared later on. These 

 queens were also mismated, no doubt, though it is 

 difficult to tell from the appearance of the bees. As 

 there are hundreds of colonies in other apiaries, 

 and in houses and rocks near by, it is a difficult 

 undertaking to cure disease permanently or to get 

 queens of any race purely mated. On this account 

 I ordered two dozen Carniolan queens from the 

 same breeder from whom Mr. Baker gets his. These 

 were placed in strong and apparently healthy nuclei. 

 Two were lost in introducing; and in the remaining 

 twenty-two disease appeared in six before fall. I 

 also ordered two more Italian queens at the same 

 time, and later two Caucasians. One of the Italian 

 colonies became slightly diseased late in the summer, 

 but the Caucasians have shown no disease so far. 



In tlie fall of 1911 I had 100 colonies. While 

 the most of these contained mismated Italian queens 

 there were several purely mated, and also one colony 

 of Banats. The queen was sent me for trial by the 

 late Walter M. Parrish, of Lawrence, Kansas. That 

 Banat colony is the only one of the hundred which 

 has never shown a trace of disease up to the pres- 

 ent time. I expect to try the Banats out further 

 the coming season. Of the large number of diseased 

 colonies which I have had during the past two years, 

 in manv cases it became necessary to unite several 

 into one before treating by the Alexander method. 



Most of those which became infected during the 

 past summer and fall were taken in hand upon the 

 first appearance of disease, and were ciired by cag- 

 ing the queen for two or three weeks, or by placing 

 the brood above an excluder. The latter plan, which 

 I believe was first mentioned by Percy Orton, of 

 Northampton, N. Y., I consider the best of any I 

 have tried for mild cases, provided the colony is 

 strong and already has a" desirable queen. This 

 plan will prove a success, however, only during a 

 honey-flow, as at times when no nectar is coming 

 in tlie bees will allow the dead larvw to remain m 

 the cells week after week, making no attempt to 

 remove them. 



As to the disease-resisting powers of the two races, 

 my experience would indicate that the Italians are 

 superior to the native blacks, and that Carniolans 

 are equal to and possibly somewhat superior to the 

 Italians. They are, however, by no means immune. 

 Carniolans biiild up for our late flow better than 

 the Italians, and for that reason I intend to con- 

 tinue keeping them, unless, after further trial, one 

 of the other dark races should prove superior. 



Monrovia, Cal., Jan. 1. Levi J. Ray. 



My Experience in Early Brood-rearing 



I remember being located in a high cold part of 

 northern Vermont where it was necessary to build 

 up colonies quickly in order to keep up with the sea- 

 son. I used the old-style ten-frame Langstroth hive. 

 The first day after taking the bees from the cellar 

 I used to examine every colony; and as I did this 

 I had an extra hive in which I had fitted a tight 

 movable partition. I took out the comb with the 

 most honey in it, putting this comb at the side of 

 this extra hive. If this hive was to face the east 

 I put this comb on the south side. Next I selected 

 a good brood-comb with some honey in it, and scrap- 

 ed the cappings of this honey with a common table 



