326 



Northwest Florida foul brood has never 

 been known. 



The first car of bees arrived in time to 

 catch the fruit-bloom flow, and a second 

 shipment will arrive in ample tinfe to catch 

 clover and basswood. The bees did not 

 leave Florida until they had gone through 

 the heaviest of the tupelo flow. We are, 

 therefore, making the same bees do service 

 through two honey-flows. 



MOKE BEES KILLED FROM SPRAYING FRUIT 

 TREES WHILE IN BLOOM. 



lilvERY year we get more or less of com- 

 plaints about the time fruit trees are in 

 bloom, showing losses of adult bees while 

 the trees are being sprayed. The following 

 is another sample of some of the letters we 

 get: 



Can any thing at all be done to secure legislation 

 in Ohio relative to the spraying of fruit trees ? The 

 seriousness of the condition demands that some 

 very stringent action be taken at once by beekeep- 

 ers, and all Interested In that pursuit, if beekeeping 

 is ever again to be profitable in this State. A cus- 

 tomer at Eltna, Licking County, Ohio, writes me 

 that he has lost ten hives of bees on account of 

 spraying done by his neighbors. This is but one of 

 many complaints of this kind. It seems that, in 

 spite of all the information on this subject circu- 

 lated by Government bulletins and agricultural 

 and aplcultural publications, a large proportion 

 of the fruit-growers persist in doing their spraying 

 while the trees are in full bloom. Is it ignorance 

 or sheer devilishness? I am inclined to think it 

 is a little of both. 



If the weather for the last month or six weeks has 

 been as favorable elsewhere as it has been in this 

 Immediate vicinity, the amount of spring dwin- 

 dling ought not to be excessive, and I am inclined 

 to believe that not a few of the cases of dwindling 

 reported can be traced to this spraying nuisance. 



Surely the apiarian Interests of this State, it com- 

 bined, are powerful enough to secure legislation 

 that will afford some relief from a condition that is 

 becoming intolerable. 



Zanesville, O., May 17. E. W. Peirce. 



Now, we don't know whether an anti- 

 spraying law could be secured in Ohio or 

 not. One is in force in Michigan and in 

 New York, and, if we are correct, two or 

 three States in the West have similar leg- 

 islation. Some believe (and they are men 

 whose opinions are worth considering) that 

 these losses are due rather to the presence 

 of bee disease than to the spraying liquids. 

 We hardly share tliis view, for the reason 

 that these complaints come regularly just 

 about the time that the trees are in bloom. 

 As the bees are found dead in front of the 

 entrances of the hives, and as foul brood 

 and European foul brood attack only the 

 larvae, or bees in the brood stage, we can 

 not get away from the belief that the bees 

 die because they are sprayed at the wrong 

 time. We should be pleased to get further 

 reports. 



A I'OSSIBLB LOOPHOLE IN THE RECENT 



I'OSTOFFICE RULING RESPECTING THE 



MAILING OF QUEEN BEES. 



DooLiTTLE <& Clark draw our attention 

 to the fact that the postal ruling concern- 

 ing the mailing of queen bees, and given 

 on page 292 of our last issue, does not make 

 it obligatory on the part of the breeder to 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



boil the honey he uses in his queen-cage 

 candy providing he can furnish a copy of a 

 certificate to the effect that his apiary from 

 which queens were taken was duly inspect- 

 ed by a State inspector, and found to be 

 free from disease. It would tlius be possi- 

 ble for a careless queen-breeder whose queen- 

 rearing apiary has been inspected, to buy 

 honey of unknown source, make queen-cage 

 candy of it without previous boiling, and 

 still keep within the postal ruling. Evi- 

 dently here would be a loophole by which 

 the disease could be carried in queen-cage 

 candy. Messrs. Doolittle & Clark take the 

 view (and we share the same opinion) , that 

 the Postoflfice Department, in making this 

 alternative ruling, had in mind those queen- 

 breeders who would not be able to secure 

 the services of a State or Government in- 

 spector except at a prohibitive price, that it 

 made the alternative ruling so that such 

 breeder could continue to send out queens, 

 providing he boiled the honey which he 

 used in making queen-cage candy. While 

 technically it might be possible to send bee 

 disease and not violate the ruling, yet we 

 believe that all right-minded queen-breed- 

 ers who are desirous of fostering and pro- 

 tecting the very industry from which they 

 derive their own bread and butter will com- 

 ply, wherever possible, with both regulations 

 — that is to say, they will send out a copy of 

 a certificate from their State inspector show- 

 ing that their apiary has been inspected, 

 and found free of disease, and likewise a 

 statement that the honey used in making 

 their (lueen-cage candy has been boiled. 

 We are doing this with all queens we send 

 out. All honest breeders we feel sure will 

 unite in supporting our Postoffice Depart- 

 ment in making such regulations as will 

 prevent the spread of bee diseases tlirough 

 the mails; and yet no one of us desires to 

 remove any competitor when, by reason of 

 his locality, he is unable to secure the ser- 

 vices of an inspector. 



BABY NUCLEI FOR QUEEN REARING BEING 

 ABANDONED AT MEDINA; QUEEN REARING 

 SIMPLIFIED FOR THE HONEY PRODUCER. 



A NUMBER of years ago the general plan 

 for mating queens was to use one and two 

 frame nuclei, using standard-sized frames. 

 Later on, the late E. L. Pratt, of Swarth-' 

 more. Pa., claimed he made a success of us- 

 ing baby nuclei containing only from 100 to 

 200 bees in miniature frames. This same 

 idea had been tried out before ISIr. Pratt's 

 time, but abandoned as being impracticable, 

 for the simple reason that these "babies" 

 would swarm out on the least provocation- 

 very often when young queens went out to 

 mate. But Mr. Pratt proved that these 

 "babies" could be made to mate queens. 

 We demonstrated that we could do it also, 

 but finally concluded that the 100 or 200 bee 

 baby nuclei were too small. Later on we 

 adopted larger "babies" that contained 

 something like 1000 bees, and two frames 

 that would have the combined area of two- 



