262 



August, 1914. 



American Sae Journal 



stone at 10:30 a.m. and 12:15 p.m., also 

 by electrics. Return to Worcester 4:48 

 and 6:-i7 p.m., also by electrics. 



Blackstone may he reached by trolley 

 from Boston via of Dedham and Frank- 

 lin. It takes about '2',i hours from 

 Dudley street. The best automobile 

 route is via Dedham and Franklin. 



Eastern Massachusetts Society of 

 Beekeepers, T. J. Hawkins, President. 

 Acting Secretary, 4 Emery St., Everett, 

 Mass. 



Worcester County Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation, O. F. Fuller, President, Black- 

 stone, Mass. 



I. S. Whittemore, Secretary, Leices- 

 ter, Mass. 



-♦^ 



Native vs. Foreign Bees. — The fol- 

 lowing letter, copied from the British 

 Bee Journal of June 25, is quite signifi- ' 

 cant. Its author is evidently referring 

 to European foulbrood : 



" For the benefit of your readers I 

 should like to give my experiences with 

 native and foreign races of bees. I 

 am located in a district infected with 

 foulbrood, and for a nu.nber of years 

 my apiary has not been free from it. I 

 have wasted gallons of Izal and tried 

 every known specific to cure or check 

 it, burning on an average three colo- 

 nies every season, only to find the dis- 

 ease triumphant the following spring. 

 I had often read of the greater immu- 

 nity from disease of the Italian and 

 Carniolan bee, so I 'etermined to give 

 them a trial. Two years ago I intro- 

 duced several queens of both races. I 

 put some of them into colonies which 

 were more or less affected with the 

 disease. One case is worthy of special 

 mention. Into one colony very badly 

 affected I put a golden Italian queen, 

 which, owing to bad weather, was 

 rather long in getting mated. 



"When brood appeared, I was grati- 

 fied to see a uniform mass of pearly- 

 white grubs without the slightest signs 

 of disease. I closed down the liive 

 strong in bees, with a sufficiency of 

 stores, and waited with some anxiety 

 the coming of the following spring to 

 see whether the cure was perm inent or 

 not. The month of April revealed solid 

 slabs of brood, which were a delight 

 to look at, every cell containing an 

 absolutely healthy grub. The colony 

 developed into one of hurricane 

 strength, and gave me almost 100 beau- 

 tiful sections. The beauty of the bees, 

 and the immense number were a mar- 

 vel to all beekeepers who saw them. 



" I should also say that every colony 

 headed by a foreign queen proved 

 healthy, and remained so up to the 

 tin'e of writing, despite the fact that 

 they were all put into more or less 

 affected hives. Let me turn to colo- 

 nies headed by native or black queens. 

 I had only two swarms last year, both 

 from natives. I noticed slight traces 

 of disease in one of them, which failed 

 to requeen. Now for the sequel. I 

 introduced a black virgin, which I got 

 from a friend about a fortnight after 

 the swarm issued. In due course she 

 mated and commenced laying. You 

 will observe they were treated almost 

 similarly to the colony into which the 

 golden Italian virgin was introduced. 

 More than three weeks elapsed from 



the removal of the laying queen until 

 ny eggs were deposited in either hive. 

 The golden Italian headed a colony of 

 bees of which any one might be proud, 

 while the native black is today at the 

 head of a rotten and dwindling handful 

 of bees. But I am not yet finished. 

 The other colony of natives which 

 swarmed, and which at the time ap- 

 peared quite healthy, came out this 

 spring in a worse and weaker state 

 than the aforementioned, and was de- 

 stroyed some time ago. 



"I have unfortunately still 7 colonies 

 of blacks, 5 of which were diseased, 

 while every one of the 12 colonies 

 headed by Italian and Carniolan queens 

 is healthy and very strong. 



"The native bee has its good quali- 

 ties, and succeeds very well in districts 

 free from disease, but where such 

 abounds it is helpless and a source of 

 contagion. In face of an experience 

 such as mine, I consider it rank heresy 

 to advocate sticking to blacks under 

 every condition." — Cruickshank, Gran- 

 ton-on-Spey. 



9, 1914, has an article on the prepara- 

 tion of beeswax, in which it is shown 

 that the total exports of beeswax from 

 India during the official year 1912 13, 

 amounted to 7648 hundredweight (hun- 

 dredweight = 112 pounds), amounting 

 in value to $22-3,822, which was consid- 

 erably below the normal vo'ume and 

 value of exports. Almost all of this 

 beeswax was exported to the United 

 Kingdom and to Germanv, the former 

 during 1912-13 taking 3340 hundred- 

 weight and the latter 2.580 hundred- 

 weight, and Belgium, France, and the 

 United States taking most of the bal- 

 ance. 



It is stated that the beeswax export- 

 ed from India is the product of three 

 species of wild bees found mostly in 

 mountainous and hilly districts in Ben- 

 gal, Assam, the United Provinces, Pun- 

 jab, southern India and Burma. — C. S. 

 Consular Rc-p07-t. 



Indian Exports of Beeswax — The In- 

 dian Trade Journal in its issue of April 



Willie Wants to Know 



"Ma." 



"What is it, Willie ?" 

 " Is a 'sweet tooth' a tooth from a 

 honey-comb ?" 



Bee-Keeping ^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson. Mareneo. 111. 



Equalizing Colonies 



In reading the contributions of that 

 interesting Canadian, J. L. Byer, it is 

 often a matter of congratulation to find 

 that we in Marengo are following so 

 closely the practices he follows. In- 

 deed, it rarely happens that there is any 

 difference to be found, and when that 

 does happen, it may be worth while to 

 discuss it, albeit with nothing but the 

 kindest feelings toward Mr. Byer, for 

 it is quite possible that a face-to-face 

 conference would show the difference 

 much less than appears on the surface. 



On page 232 of the Bee Journal for 

 July, he says: "As a general rule it 

 is not good policy to do equaliz- 

 ing before clover flow." Practice here 

 is far from agreeing with that. The 

 first show of any flow from white clover 

 this year was June 6, and the record- 

 book shows that there was no equaliz- 

 ing after May 18. 19 days before the 

 clover flow, and 9 days before the very 

 first clover blossom was seen. All the 

 equalizing that was done— and a good 

 deal of it was done— was done before 

 May 18. Indeed a look at the record 

 of the first score of colonies shows 

 that in all but two cases the equalizing 

 was done no later than May 4. 



Mr. Byer is quite right in saying 

 " weak colonies never want for brood 

 provided the queen is in normal con- 

 dition, and to give more brood to such 

 colonies would be simply making the 

 situation worse instead of improving 

 it." That's true; if the bees have all 

 the brood they can cover, how can they 

 cover anymore? But there is a vast 



difference in the kind of brood. One 

 frame may be filled with brood that is 

 all, or nearly all, sealed and another 

 with eggs and very young brood. The 

 former will turn into active bees two 

 weeks sooner than the latter, and it 

 takes no more bees to cover sealed 

 brood than unsealed and eggs. So a 

 frame of mostly young brood in a weak 

 colony may be exchanged for one two 

 weeks more advanced, to the great 

 benefit of the weak colony. 



That form of equalizing is, however, 

 not often practiced here; this year not 

 at all. A quicker and easier way is 

 used. As already said, the weak col- 

 ony has already all the brood it can 

 keep warm, and to give it more will 

 only be to have it c lilled. Well, then, 

 take enough bees with the brood to 

 keep it warm, and the trouble will be 

 remedied. That's exactly what we do, 

 and with a few precautions there is 

 never any trouble. 



" Even when the clover comes on I 

 would not think of doctoring up very 

 weak colonies at the expense of 

 stronger ones, as it would be a losing 

 game." That's generally true— perhaps 

 always true, and too much emphasis 

 cannot be placed on the unwisdom of 

 trying to strengthen a weakling by tak- 

 ing from othercolonies that have noth- 

 ing to spare. And when the flow is on 

 it's the strong colonies that count, just 

 as Mr. Byer says. Better double up 

 the weak colonies, and have fewer col- 

 onies and more bees, than to strengthen 

 them by reducing other colonies below 

 the effective working point. But 

 strengthening them before the flow, is 



