AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 375 



honey-flow, while the heavy hives kept up a heavy supply of brood all the time. Of 

 course the colonies where brood-rearins was restricted are worth the most now, 

 because their queens have preserved their fertility. This new disease appeared in 

 the scantily supplied colonies early in February^ at about the time of the first starv- 

 ing of brood, but not in the well-fed colonies until they had exhausted their supplies 

 and became dependent upon daily forage about the first of April. In 10 to 12 

 colonies which had previously had the disease, when abundantly fed, the disease 

 disappeared entirely. Of the affected brood the cells have (usually) the pin-holes in 

 the caps as in foul brood, and the caps are flattened or concave, and apparently 

 darker. The flattening is probably caused by scarcity of wix to cap, and when the 

 bees discover the occupant to be dead, they discontinue the work, which results in 

 leaving a hole in the cap. After the larva dies it turns black, and this gives a dark 

 appearance to the thin cap of the cell. By feeding the colonies well, the cells re- 

 turn to the usual healthy color by the supply of more and newer wax for sealing, 

 and the plump convex shape. 



In 1889, in Iowa, I noticed dead brood in many colonies, which was located 

 near the center of the brood-nest, where the supply of wax would naturally be ex- 

 hausted soonest. At the time I had secured a quantity of unfinished section honey 

 from fruit-bloom, but our clover harvest was a total failure. To secure the comple- 

 tion of one-half of the sections, I fed back the honey from the other half. Instead 

 of capping the sections when level full, they persisted in lengthening the cells out 

 through the slots in the separators and sections. So I thought to put the filled sec- 

 tions over unfed colonies, and they would immediately seal them, which they did, 

 but in place of new wax they used propolis. From this I concluded that they sealed 

 the brood with propolis and smothered it. 



In Iowa, or, for that matter, any Eastern State, in the spring, about the time 

 the winter stores are exhausted, and about the time, or a little before, clover comes 

 into bloom, apiarists begin to feel a little nervous because of danger of starvation 

 and destruction of the brood upon which depends the results of the harvest a few 

 weeks later. This season usually lasts not more than a week, or sometimes only 

 two or three days. Here this same condition has existed for a continuous four 

 months, or since the first of March. About the first of February it began to dawn 

 upon us that there was to come a dry year. For experiment four colonies having 

 their hives heavy with honey had their queens caged. Occasionally the queens were 

 given their liberty one or two days, and then recaged. This caused the colonies to 

 grow weaker and weaker until about a week ago, when the queens were released to 

 renew the force of working-bees. At present there are three to four patches of 

 brood in each hive, about the size of a man's hand, while the rest of the hive is 

 entirely filled with honey as last fall. The scant supply for brood-rearing in other 

 colonies, in the case of these broodless ones, has constantly augmented the old store, 

 and there is more in any one of these four hives than in any fifty others. 



Our prospects for a winter supply are no brighter for the future than they have 

 been all the spring and summer, for there is no more certainty of a honey-yield 

 from the dead and parched mountains or fields, than from a field of clover w"^hich 

 has been mowed and stowed in the mow. We may have abundant honey-yields from 

 flowers that customarily yieM but little, but it is easy to know what flowers are 

 going to bloom. Some flowers yield honey in dry years— alfalfa, for example — but 

 sage I believe never does. Basswood yields dry years, but clover is soon parched 

 brown. The only yield which cannot be foretold is that of honey-dew. But even 

 that is not excepted in many localities in California, because of the lack of leaves or 

 grain-stubble upon which it forms. 



A few bees, a prolific queen, and a hive full of honey, promise something far in 

 the future ; but bees, brood and queens, with no honey, "are a weak affair. 



Florence, Calif., July 7. 



