FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 321 



I made the inexcusable blunder of understanding 

 that AJr. Alexander had given a laying queen at the end 

 of 20 days of queenlessness, instead of giving a virgin. 

 So I gave a young virgin after 10 days of queenlessness, 

 so that there would be a laying queen present in about 

 20 days from the removal of the queen. I now think 

 that the blunder was a fortunate one, since there is a gain 

 of 8 or 10 days in the time of the treatment, always pro- 

 vided that continued trial of the plan by myself and 

 others should prove it to be reliable. 



There were some cases of failure, but in each of 

 these cases the colonies had not been made very strong. 

 Mr. Alexander had emphasized the point that in order 

 to have the treatment eitective the colony must be 

 strong, either by uniting or giving frames of sealed 

 brood. Aly experience leads me to think that not only 

 must the colony be strong but it must be strong in young 

 bees. 



With the opening of the season of 1910 you may 

 well suppose I was on the alert to see whether any 

 colonies were diseased. In fact I was really hoping 

 there would be some cases, for I had formed a theory 

 and wanted to try some experiments. I was not disap- 

 pointed. In 27 hives could be found the distinctive 

 mark of the disease, in some only a cell or two, while 

 in others as much as one cell in every ten was afifected. 

 Some one may think it a difficult thing to detect the 

 disease if only one or two bad cells are to be found in a 

 hive. It is not difficult. The healthy brood is pearly 

 white, while the diseased larva being distinctly yellow is 

 quickly spotted, just as you would easily detect a yel- 

 low hen in a flock of white ones. It was impossible to 

 say how many of the 27 cases were old offenders and 

 how many of them were fresh cases brought in from 

 outside. For there were diseased colonies all abo::t me. 

 and there was no law in Illinois to clean them up. 



About that theory, the theory as to how the disease 

 is continued in the hive and conveved from one cell to 



