AUGUST 1, 1913 



547 



Heads of Grain from Different Fields 



A Peculiar Malady or Disease 



Having a colony of bees whose case I do not un- 

 derstand, and can find nothing in my books and 

 papers to explain, I take the liberty of writing you 

 if, perchance, you may be able to give me help from 

 your experience and knowledge of the experience of 

 others. 



During the day all seems to go well; but at night 

 I notice a peculiar odor at the entrance, not unlike 

 the odor of a colony when stirred up and angry, but 

 stronger. It was a sort of combined odor of acid 

 and bitter ; and in the morning, before sunrise, I 

 find a lot of bees in front of the hive apparently 

 dead, though they nearly all revive when the sun 

 warms them up. Indeed, they keep crawling out one 

 or two at a time until the sun shines quite warmly. 

 They come out with tongue extended and dragging, 

 and keep clawing at the tongue, and, indeed, some- 

 what at head and antennae with the fore feet, as 

 though something tasted very bad. In a few min- 

 utes they cease to struggle, and lie on the alighting- 

 board apparently dead until thoroughly warmed up, 

 when many of them revive and fly away, though 

 some die. When the warmth begins to revive them 

 they first begin to move the legs ; then the abdomen 

 begins to move with respiration, and after a time 

 they begin to buzz and tumble about in a drunken 

 sort of way, and at last get on the wing and dis- 

 appear. Most of those that do not recover revive 

 somewhat, and crawl about for a time, but do not 

 establish abdominal respiration, and finally give up. 



There seems to be no noticeable alteration in 

 shape, color, or condition, except the extension of 

 the tongue, and perhaps drooping of the head, the 

 most noticeable thing being the clawing at the mouth 

 and especially the tongue. 



I have noticed a few carrying in pollen of a deep 

 puiple color, and picked up one sick bee carrying 

 a full load of it. The colony cast a strong swarm in 

 May, and the hive is now well filled with bees. The 

 queen seems tO' be laying now very nicely, as they 

 have some brood in various stages, though I was 

 not able to discover any until the last few days after 

 I had given them a frame of brood, fearing their 

 queen was lost. They have quite a quantity of newly 

 stored unsealed honey, and are carrying lots of 

 pollen every morning, and keep busily at work all 

 day except that to-day they spent an hour or so 

 buzzing about the entrance and vicinity of the hive, 

 much as young bees do at first, though I am sure 

 none have yet hatched from the young queen's eggs, 

 and all the brood left by the old queen hatched, and 

 the cells were all cleaned out long ago. 



S. Fred Webber. 



Colorado Springs, Colo., June 24. 



[We have carefully read all you have to say, but 

 are unable to decide what is the real cause. There 

 are some symptoms that seem to indicate bee-paraly- 

 sis. Other symptoms seem to point to poisoning. We 

 can not understand, though, why the bees should 

 apparently revive if poisoning is the source of trou- 

 ble, when they begin to warm up in the morning. 

 If any of our readers can offer a satisfactory ex- 

 planation we should be glad to hear from them. — 

 Ed.1 



Freaks of Swarming 



I should like to know if others have had the same 

 experience with bees that I had this morning. My 

 hives are marked A, B, C, etc. I saw that the bees 

 were clustered on A and C. I went up to them, 

 and a swarm came out of C and soon pitched on an 

 apple-tree. As soon as they were settled I got things 

 ready and shook them. They went into the hive all 

 right; went back to the other hives and found the 

 bees coming out of A with a rush. They whirled 

 around in the air, and I waited for them to cluster. 



but they did not, and soon I saw that they were 

 going into C, where the swarm had just come out. 

 There was no fighting nor disputing about it. I 

 thought it was the same swarm that issued ; but it 

 was not. That swarm is in the hive they went into. 

 The bees that were clustered on the alighting-board 

 of A did not fly ; and after the rush was over they 

 went into the hive. They are flying at 2 P. M., while 

 those in C act quite like a new swarm getting settled 

 in new quarters. 



Norridgwock, Me., June 27. Mrs. Rosa Wade. 



[ Sometimes during the swarming season bees will 

 act as if they were crazy. Instead of behaving them- 

 selves as bees should, or as laid down in the stand- 

 ard text-books, they will go contrary to all rules of 

 procedure in the case of swarming, and leave their 

 owner guessing just as they have done with you. 

 There was nothing unusual in the case of the first 

 swarm that came out and which you hived; but it 

 was quite unusual for the other swarm to go out 

 and to go into the hive where the first swarm came 

 out. We don't know how to explain it other than to 

 say it was a freak swarm. We should naturally expect 

 that the swarm that went into C would come out 

 again, because the cells left in C by the first swarm 

 will soon start an after-swarm, providing the honey- 

 flow continues. — Ed.] 



How to Protect Combs from the Bee-moth 



Please tell me how to keep combs of honey, and 

 where to keep them to keep the moth from getting 

 to them, and how to keep extracted combs. I should 

 like to save some over for another year if I can do 

 so. The moths are plentiful here. 



Rev. F. M. Welborn. 



Newcastle, N. C, June 24. 



[Combs of honey or empty combs left on hives 

 containing Italian bees or their crosses will be com- 

 paratively free from the wax-worm. After combs 

 are removed from the hives they should be placed in 

 a building that is bee-tight — that is, a building where 

 neitlier the moth-miller nor any bees can get at them. 

 If so protected there will be no eggs laid, and con- 

 sequently no work of the wax-moth. If, however, 

 the combs contain eggs from the wax-moth before 

 they were put into a tight compartment, the wax- 

 worms will develop later on. Where there is any 

 trouble of this kind it is usually the rule to stack 

 the combs in a series four or five high, place a sau- 

 cer of carbon bisulphide on top of the combs, then 

 cover the whole. Tlie fumes of this stuff will settle 

 down and destroy (he eggs or any moth-millers that 

 may be present. Sulphur may be used in a similar 

 way. But, as a rule, apply the brimstone or sul- 

 phur in a room. Place a quantity of it in an iron 

 kettle and ignite it. The room is then closed, and 

 left for twenty-four hours. For full particulars on 

 how to take care of such combs see " Bee-moths " 

 in our A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture. — Ed.] 



"Honey- bound" Queens 



In looking over the colonies this morning I find 

 two without brood, one with only a little. One has 

 the brood-chamber full of honey, but is beginning 

 to work in the super, so I think they may take that 

 up into the super. Had I better put a new queen 

 into the two that show no brood? I could not find 

 a queen in either colony, but they are working — 

 one of them very well, the other not so well. 



Lakewood, O., March 3. J. D. McCalmont. 



[It is not entirely clear to us whether the two 

 colonies you mention are queenless or not. When 

 there has been a heavy flow of honey a colony will 

 get into a condition that we call " honey-bound;" 

 that is to say, every available cell is filled with 



