GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



same time, I sent a sample of their brood to 

 the Bureau of Entomology, Washing-ton, 

 and soon had an answer from Dr. Phillips, 

 stating that the trouble was American foul 

 brood. He also reported the ease to our 

 State Entomologist at Indianapolis, who 

 immediately wrote to me for further par- 

 ticulars. 1 answered at once, and arrange- 

 ments were made for an inspector to call 

 on me soon. The inspector made a thor- 

 ough examination of my apiary of 37 colo- 

 nies, but could find no foul brood. Even 

 the colony that had been infected be pro- 

 nounced all right, but said they undoubted- 

 ly must have had it, or Dr. Phillips would 

 not have said so after seeing the sample. 

 He gave me a clean bill of health. 



I now see danger in hiving these stray 

 swarms, although I hived three this season 

 which are doing well. If I hive any more 

 I think I will hive them on narrow starters 

 instead of empty combs, then the honey they 

 carry with them will be consumed before 

 they have any brood to feed. 



This swarm that I hived last season, and 

 that caused all my trouble, w^as evidently 

 not an after-swarm, but an old colony so 

 reduced by foul brood that they had desert- 

 ed their old home, and I hived them to my 

 disadvantage. There are but few bees kept 

 in the neighborhood, and there is no disease 

 among them, so far as I know. The infect- 

 ed bees might have come from a tree in the 

 woods. I was fortunate in discovering the 

 trouble so soon. 



Hunting-ton, Ind. 



HOW I CHOOSE A BREEDER 



BY MAJOR SHALLARD 



I was at one of my branch farms lately, 

 where they were extracting. My son asked 

 me to choose a queen to breed from, as he 

 wanted to raise some new queens to replace 

 some mongrels. I had no time to go through 

 any hives, as I had to get away to extract 

 at another farm; but I walked through and 

 chose half a dozen by external. signs. 



The first two I came to were hanging out. 

 I passed them by, as bees that hang out, in 

 my opinion, are no good. I came to a four- 

 story hive. This looked good because the 

 bees on this farm had only combs they 

 could occupy ; and where most of the hives 

 -were two and three story, the possession of 

 four showed honey-gathering qualities. I 

 then had a look at the bees at the flight- 

 hole. 



They were all evenly marked with three 

 bands.^ They had a fair number of bees fan- 

 ning, and they were working steadily. What 

 I mean is that there was a steady stream of 



bees going- in and out. Some bees make a 

 great show at the flight-hole. They fly about 

 a lot, hover over the flight-board before 

 they alight, and fuss about on coming out 

 before they finally leave for the fields. 

 These bees were not doing- that. They flew 

 straight at the flight-hole, dropped on the 

 board, and ran right in. The bees that fuss 

 a lot never get much honey — at least that 

 is my experience. 



Having satisfied myself that the queen 

 was pure, and that her bees were good 

 workers, the next point Avas how much hon- 

 ey they had. I put my hand under the back 

 of the bottom-board and tipped the hive. 

 It required an effort to raise it at all, and 

 it was apparently full of honey. I picked 

 out five more hives with the same character- 

 istics. They wei'e all four-story hives. I 

 said to my son, " Go through these six hives 

 and i)ick out the one with the minimum 

 amount of honey and the maximum amount 

 of brood in the bottom story. Choose a 

 queen that is large and long. It does not 

 matter if she is a bit black to-ward the tail; 

 but the black must be solid, and gxadually 

 merge into the yellow, or the yellow into the 

 black, whichever way you like to put it; 

 but there must be no suspicion of any black 

 ring. She should lay a good plump egg, 

 and all at the same angle, or as nearly as 

 possible, and the brood should be in solid 

 sheets. The bottom-board should be clean; 

 and if she has these other qualities it will be ; 

 and, above all, her bees must be good hon- 

 ey-gatherers. Without the latter qualifica- 

 tions all the others go for naught." 



In comi^aring these six queens one will 

 sliow more of these desirable qualities than 

 the othei-s, and that is the one, so far as can 

 be told at this stage, to breed from. 



The next step is to breed from her, and 

 see if she reproduces herself in appearance 

 and honey-gathering qualities in her daugh- 

 ters. If she passes the second test she is 

 good enough to breed from until another 

 queen is found which has all her good 

 qualities, and will get more honey. 



South Woodburn, N. S. W., Australia. 



When to Introduce Virgin Queens 



With reference to waiting three days after taking: 

 a laying queen from a mating-box before giving a 

 cell or virgin queen, as advocated on p. 466, July 1, 

 I would say that I put in virgin queens immediately 

 after taking out the laying queens. I use the smoke 

 plan. I noticed one that I introduced July 5, at 

 three o'clock. I examined them at four o'clock, and 

 she had mated in one hour after I had introduced 

 her. 



I have tried the smoke plan on requeening strong 

 colonies, but I do not have good success. 



Brook Park, Minn., July 11. Harey Bell. 



