AUUrST 15, 1912 



525 



cently hived stocks under one queen as soon as the 

 flow "cominences, so as to liberate a big gathering 

 force, and so as, when the flow ceases, he will have 

 comparatively little brood, and few bees to sell or de- 

 stroy ? Then extract from all the frames, making no 

 distinction between brood and super, and melt the 

 wax and put away the hives for another year. 

 Some would never need supers, and yet produce 

 larse quantities of honey and wax. Whether one 

 dequeened and doubled, or continued to produce 

 bees to the end of the flow, would depend upon the 

 market price of honey as compared with that of 

 bees. Thus we might revert somewhat to skep 

 methods, combined with the movable frame and tier- 

 ing crate. Foul brood would be unable to exist. 



Beverley, Eng., June 20. T. T. Taylor. 



[See Editorial. — Ed.] 



Worker Bees of Normal Size Reared in Drone-cells 



Some time ago there was some discussion about 

 large bees. Some one wanted to renew the combs 

 each year, and some one said use drone-comb foun- 

 dation and the bees would all be large ones. I did 

 not use di-one foundation, nor did I intend to ex- 

 periment along the line of raising big bees. It hap- 

 pened that I used inch starters in some frames last 

 fall for bulk comb honey. The bees made drone 

 comb of them all, 9, and did not finish them nice 

 enough for comb honey, so I let them stay on the 

 hive all winter. 



This spring, while working with the bees, I found 

 a whole body of 9 combs full of drone brood, as 

 might be expected. A few days later, I was looking 

 for queen-cells, when I accidentally uncapped one of 

 those drones ; and to my surprise a worker bee 

 walked out. That put me to looking and thinking, 

 so I uncapped some more of them, and thej- wer« 

 all worker bees, and, to my eyes, they were no larg- 

 er than those raised in common worker cells. I 

 used some of this brood with brood from other hives 

 to make some nuclei, and do not see any difference 

 in the bees. The little workers looked lonesome in 

 those big cells. 



Lane City, Texas, May 11. W. H. Moses. 



[Numerous cases like this have been reported in 

 times past. We may safely say that enlarging the 

 cells in order to rear larger bees is an old exploded 

 theory ; and yet every now and then some beekeeper 

 gets it into his head that he is going to be able to 

 rear larger bees, and he wants the foundation man 

 to furnish him cells slightlv larger than the worker. 

 It has been proven that old combs do not produce 

 smaller bees than new ones. See what our corres- 

 pondent, Mr. Gardiner, has to say. — Ed.] 



Do Young Bees Take up All the Room in the Cells? 



•Just a comment on Dr. Miller's Straws, p. 262, 

 May 1. If a man faced the south you would have 

 no difficulty in telling which was his right side. 

 Why is a hive different ? Those who claim that old 

 combs make small bees must think that the cell fits 

 the bee like tights. As a matter of fact, does any 

 young bee in a cell ever entirely fill it? 



Geary, Okla., May 27. N. Fred Gardiner. 



[You are entirely right, friend Gardiner. Any 

 one who has old combs, even though thev may be 

 thirty or forty years old, would do well to keep 

 them, if they are free from disease, are perfect, and 

 providing he is not running for choice extracted 

 honey of light color. Many beekeepers believe (and 

 there is some ground for their belief) that old combs 

 have a tendency to darken extracted honey. 



But the internal diameter of old combs is never 

 reduced beyond a certain point ; for when the cells 

 are a little too small, the bees will remove the excess 

 of cocoons, says Mr. Cheshire, so that the baby bee 

 will have room in which to grow to normal size. 

 — Ed.] 



Disease Instead of Poisoned Brood 



In the spring of 1910 a large apple orchard in 

 this neighborhood was sprayed, and at that time 

 nart of the trees were in blossom. There were two 

 farmers who had adjoining property, and each had 

 about a dozen colonies. A few days later they 

 complained of their bees being killed by the spray. 

 A while later I chanced to be at the house of one, 

 and examined some of the hives. They were filthy 

 with foul brood, and not a cell of honey in either, 

 so this was not a case of poisoning from spraying. 



Xow, I am not saying that they can't be killed by 

 spraying, but that a great many thought to be 

 killed in this way are starved to death or else die 

 of disease. 



We Jiow have a law against spraying during 

 time of bloom. The penalty for violation of this 

 law is a fine of $50.00. I think this is a good law, 

 and all fruit-growing States should have a similar 

 one, as it has been proven that it is better not to 

 spray while the trees are in blossom — just before or 

 afterward. 



Some of the best fruit in the State is grown at 

 South Haven. The Scalacide cup for the best three 

 bushels of apples was captured for two successive 

 years by South Haven orchardists. I am an apple- 

 raiser, "and keep bees to pollenize the fruit blos- 

 soms as well as for the honey and the pleasure de- 

 rived from keeping bees. Robert McLean. 



South Haven, Mich., June 10. 



[There can be no question but that there are 

 some cases like this, where disease and not the 

 spraving liquids is the cause of the dead brood; but 

 we are equally certain that there are other cases 

 where brood is killed because fruit trees are sprayed 

 while in bloom. A remarkable instance of this was 

 in Mesilla Park, K. M., two years ago. Both the 

 brood and the bees died while the spraying was go- 

 ing on ; and when it ceased, the loss of both stopped. 

 It may be that some make their spraying liquids too 

 strong; but in view of the fact that there is no ad- 

 vantage in spraying while in bloom, from the stand- 

 point of the fruit grower, there ought to be a law in 

 every State against such spraying, to protect not 

 only' the beekeeper but the fruit grower himself 

 from his own folly if he does not know any better. 

 — Ed. ] 



Three Carloads of Diseased Bees Brought into a 

 Healthy Location 



In Butte Co. a man moved in about three car- 

 loads of bees from Nevada, and a number of pro- 

 gressive beekeepers found his bees terribly diseased 

 with European foul brood. As this county has been 

 free from foul brood it is time that every county 

 have a good foul-brood inspector. We tried very 

 hard to get one for this county; but the supervisors 

 will not help the beekeeper. They claim it is not 

 important. I hope the United States will enact a 

 law that will compel all States to see that they have 

 an inspector, with deputies in all counties. 



I heard that this man has gone into another lo- 

 cality that has no county inspector, just to avoid 

 losing his bees by an inspection. It is time to de- 

 mand certificates of inspection that are dated not 

 longer than five to ten days prior to entrance to 

 each State or county, and on arrival be inspected 

 again if free from disease. The party should be 

 entitled to a right to enter a desired location. 



I sincerely hope to see that a safety valve is put 

 on this industry, as we should be guarded against 

 evils like European foul brood. It will do a great 

 harm to California, now being in the North, by this 

 introduction of bees of Nevada. I hate to think of 

 this, as it places fruit men in a bad place too. I 

 am in favor of stopping this migratory beekeeping 

 if disease is going to be brought in to healthy places. 



Chico, Cal., June 2. S. J. Morrison. 



Queens do Not Use Wings to Balance Themselves 

 when Laying 



A. C. Miller, p. 755, says regarding the clipping 

 of queens, "When a queen backs into a cell to lay, 

 her wings slide out over the surface of the comb 

 to balance her. As she starts out the wings mate- 

 rially assist her." This seemed conclusive until I 

 watched a queen lay. Of ten undipped queens that 

 I have seen laying within the last 48 hours, only 

 one touched the surface of the comb with her \vings. 

 She was a very small queen. I do not think she 

 used any pressure of her wings to balance her — at 

 least there was no noticeable flexure of the wings. 

 In three cases the wings did not come within % of 

 an inch of the comb; in the other six, not within % 

 inch. Several times worker bees came up behind 

 under the wings while the queen was laying, and 

 seemed to look down past her body into the cell, but 

 her wings did not touch the worker bees. All these 

 eggs were laid in worker cells. There was no indi- 

 cation of a balancing action by means of the wings, 

 nor any motion of them. It would have been abso- 

 lutely impossible for either of the nine large queens 



