DECEMBER 1, 1913 



861 



tions that some of nn^ colonies were sut¥er- 

 iug from dysentery. The fall honey here 

 is principally from asters and goldenrod, 

 and contains considerable pollen, so that 

 bees wintered on it need several flights dur- 

 ing the winter. 



As there was no prospect of mild weather 

 I cast about for some way of giving the 

 bees in the affected hives a fliglit. Accoi'd- 

 ingiy I made a framework tliree feet scjuare 

 and four feet in height, and covered it with 

 common blue mosquito netting. On one side 

 tlie netting was left very slack and long, and 

 not tacked to the bottom of the frame, thus 

 providing a jjlace to pass a hive and tools 

 or sealed combs into the cage. On the same 

 side two holes were made in the netting, and 

 a pair of bee-gloves were sewed securely to 

 it. The cage was put in the dining-room 

 before a large sunny window, with the slack 

 side turned away from the light. 



Sitting on a low stool I w'as enabled to 

 onen a hive and give the bees a flight, sup- 

 ply sealed combs of honey, and perform 

 every manipulation as easily as in summer, 

 and all without a bee escaping. 



Before putting a hive in the cage I placed 

 a layer of old newspapers on the bottom, 

 and when the bees came out for a flight the 

 discharge of faeces w'as something amazing 

 in quantity, to say nothing of odor. 



The hive-cover was left i^artly off; and 

 when the bees were tired of fl.ying, some of 

 them would find tlie hive and set up a call 

 and attract their companions. By covering 

 tlie top of the cage with a thick cloth, and 

 allowing the light to shine only near the 

 entrance, all the bees would crawl down and 

 find the hive. Several colonies were short 

 of stores, and I supplied them with sealed 

 combs by this method. 



After giving the bees good flights for two 

 days, the next evening I confined them in 

 the hive with a piece of wire netting, and 

 then set the hive in a cold room for a day 

 1o give them time to re-form their winter 

 cluster. The next evening I put them back 

 in the outside case on the winter stand and 

 removed the wire netting. 



One colony furnished a surj^rise. It was 

 only a three-frame nucleus in a thin box, 

 and had been left outside and simjily cover- 

 ed with old carpeting and boards. As there 

 were no sig'ns of life about it I concluded it 

 had succumbed. However, when the box 

 was put in the cage, and the cover removed, 

 it proved to be literally crammed with bees, 

 and they boiled out full of fight at being- 

 disturbed. On taking out the center frame 

 I found a large patch of brood on each side, 

 which was surprising, considering that it 

 was only a nucleus, and had been subjected 

 to severelv cold weather for six wrecks. This 



imcleus made a strong colony the following 

 summei'. And here 1 maj' say that these 

 bees were Banats, the only ones I ever own- 

 ed. Tliey were certainly tough and hardy, 

 but I had to get rid of them for their drones 

 were so vigorous that it was almost impos- 

 sible to get Italian queens purely mated, 

 even with the air filled with drones from 

 twenty-five Italian colonies in the yard. 



Several Italian colonies that I examined 

 liad a small amount of brood, but not as 

 uuich as the nucleus before mentioned. Of 

 course it is better to avoid disturbing bees 

 in the winter; but in cases of emergency- a 

 cage like the one I have described will meet 

 all requirements, although the height might 

 l)e somewliat reduced and still give plenty 

 of space for flight. 



Ipswich, Mass. 



BREEDING FROM IMMUNE STOCK TO GET RID 

 OF PARALYSIS 



BY CH. NOEL EDDOWES 



In an article, p. 723, Oct. 15, Mr. N. L. 

 Stapleton advocates requeening as a cure 

 for paralysis. I am in accord with Mr. 

 Slapleton as far as that, but I do not agree 

 with him that the queen is not resjjonsible 

 for the trouble. In my experience I have 

 foun.d that the queen has most to do with 

 tl'.e trouble, in that her bees are more sus- 

 ceptible to the attacks of jjaralysis than the 

 bees of a queen that comes from a stock 

 lliat has not suffered from the disease. I 

 am (as Darwin was) a strong believer in 

 the survival of the fittest; and if a breeder 

 wishes to get the most fit he must select 

 from queens whose bees do not show signs 

 of disease. 



In 1905 I bought -10 colonies of bees. 

 When the season came when bees are at- 

 tacked by paralysis, the apiary was strewn 

 with dead and dying bees so that it was 

 impossible to take a step without treading 

 on bees. 1 noticed, when examining the 

 hives, that there were two colonies that did 

 not show signs of paralysis. These two 

 queens I picked to breed from. The next 

 year the improvement was marked. I con- 

 tinued to pick my queens in this way until 

 now I rarely have more than one per cent 

 of my colonies attacked by paralysis. But 

 this was not enough, as the supposition had 

 to be proved. 



In 1909 I had a queen whose bees con- 

 tracted paralysis. I reared five queens from 

 her and scattered them through the apiary 

 as far apart as possible. The rest of tlie 

 apiary was requeened from a queen that I 

 knew was practically proof against paraly- 



