June 7, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



355 



come right in our basswood honey harvest, so it cuts off 

 what we are seeking after, nai-ely, surplus comb lioiiey ; 

 for it is well known that bees having the swarmiiig-fover 

 do little or no work in the sections ; and if allowed to swarm 

 again the section honey we were seeking for has past away 

 with this second swarming. 



Now let us look and see how the matter would have 

 stood had we allowed the colony to rear its queen, instead 

 of giving one : 



Eight days after the swarm issued the young queen 

 would have naturally emerged from her cell, and if at that 

 time we remove all other queen-cells from the hive all sec- 

 ond swarming is entirely prevented. In ten days more, 

 this young queen is ready to lay, which is about the 

 time basswood begins to yield honey freely. During the 

 period between the time the prime swarm issued and when 

 the young queen commences to lay, the bees not having 

 any brood to nurse for the last half of the time, consume 

 but little honey, hence, as fast as the young bees emerge 

 from the cells they are filled with honey, for bees not hav- 

 ing a laying queen, nor any unsealed brood, seldom work 

 to any amount in sections. So when the young queen is 

 ready to lay she finds every available cell stored with honey. 

 At about this time, or perhaps a day or two before, the in- 

 stinct of the bees teaches them that they must have brood or 

 they will soon cease to exist as a colony, and a general rush 

 is made for the sections. The honey from below is carried 

 above, and this, together with the large amount coming in 

 from the field at this time, results in nearly completed sec- 

 tions in a week's time, so that by the time the basswood 

 flow is over we have well filled sections of the very finest 

 quality, such as alwaj-s bring the very top price in market. 

 Many and many a time have I had such colonies fill and 

 complete section honey to the amount of 60 pounds in from 

 10 to 12 days, while, when I was experimenting with the 

 plan recommended to the questioner, those upon which it 

 was tried, did little else than swarm during the same time. 



Different localities give different results, and where a 

 locality gives one continuous yield of honey for months at 

 a time, then the giving of a laying queen to the old colony 

 immediately after swarming would work better, especially 

 where working for extracted honey. But according to the 

 various localities reported to me during the past 30 years, it 

 is evident that by far the larger number of localities give a 

 large flow of honey at a certain period rather than a con- 

 tinuous j'ield during the whole summer. 



Then I have another reason for not liking the plan in a 

 locality which does not give a steady yield, which is this : 

 After basswood we have a honey-dearth, hence the bees 

 from the introduced queen are of no special value, but, on 

 the contrary, are brought on the stage of action only to be- 

 come consumers. On an average it takes 37 days from the 

 time the eggs are laid till the bees from such eggs go to 

 the fields as laborers ; hence the eggs for the honey-produc- 

 ing bees must be deposited in the cells that length of time 

 before the honey harvest ends, or else they are of no value 

 as honey-gatherers. As the basswood is all gone before the 

 eggs of the introduced queen become honey-producing bees, 

 and as the larger part of them die of old age before buck- 

 wheat or fall flowers yield honey, it will be seen that we 

 are only working to a loss by giving such queen, and that a 

 great gain is made by letting each old colony, having cast 

 a swarm, rear its own queen ; for thereby we save the ex- 

 pensive feeding of the larva;, which are only to become ex- 

 pensive consumers of the honey brought in during the 

 harvest. 



Again the chances are that the colony rearing its own 

 queen will be better stockt with bees of the right age for 

 wintering at the close of the season than will the one hav- 

 ing the introduced queen. 



All of these things need to be considered before we en- 

 ter any matter which has not been fully tried with us. It 

 is always well to go slow in any new thing till we have 

 proven it a success, then we can enter it largely, with as- 

 surance, if successful. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Report of the Wisconsin Inspector of Apiaries 

 for 1899. 



BY N. E. FRANCE. 



THE severe cold weather last February was as hard on 

 Wisconsin bee-culture as ever recorded. "Out of~several 

 hundred reports I received from various parts of the 

 State, I judged about 70 percent of the colonies of bees, fall 

 count, in 1898, died before warm weather of 1899. A large 



portion of the bees were wintered in cellars, either built for 

 the purpose or under residences. A lack of proper heat and 

 ventilation caused a great loss. There bejng no snow on 

 the soil in the southern and eastern parts of the State at 

 the time, this cold wave killed the white and alsike 

 clover and many other valuable honey-plants. The result 

 was a light crop of Wisconsin's noted white honey. The 

 river bottoms and marshes in western and central parts of 

 the State produced a good yield of fall honey. 



Many Wisconsin bee-keepers keep only a few colonies 

 of bees, and seldom read a bee-journal or book on modern 

 methods of bee-culture. Such persons know nothing about 

 diseases of bees. There is a great need of education in this 

 branch of agriculture. 



The university short course in agriculture and farm- 

 ers' institutes held thruout the State have greatly improved 

 the agricultural resources of Wisconsin. I am pleased to 

 state bee-culture is of late being called for at the farmers' 

 institutes. Several of the institutes I have attended 

 showed as much interest in bee-culture as an)' topic on the 

 program. I also found the two days I spent at our State 

 Fair, showing diseased combs and answering the many 

 questions to bee-keepers in attendance, was valuable to 

 many. 



I hope soon to see this valuable branch of Wisconsin 

 agriculture encouraged more at our State and county fairs. 

 The white grades of Wisconsin honey are noted as be- 

 ing in quality equal to that of any other part of the earth, 

 and by a little encouragement and better methods the pro- 

 duct could be doubled. 



Some years ago an eastern United States bee-keeper 

 located in San Diego County, Calif. His success became 

 noted, other parties engaged in the enterprise, and by the 

 encouragement of the county, and later the State, said 

 county became noted, as shown by the report : Said first 

 bee-keeper in 1870 harvested 3,750 pounds of honej', 17,000 

 pounds next year, 30,000 pounds next season, and in 1873, 

 61,000 pounds. Said county shipt 75 carloads of honey in 

 1895 ; IS carloads in 1896, and 85 carloads in 1897. 



Wisconsin has averaged more honey per colony for a 

 term of years than California. There are Wisconsin bee- 

 keepers whose honey crop is from 25,000 to 52,000 pounds 

 per year. 



As there are many bee-keepers in Wisconsin that could 

 not understand my circular on diseases of bees, I had 1,000 

 copies translated into German. 



Chapter 150, Laws of 1897, have been revised, and so 

 materially varied that I am compelled to work to a disad- 

 vantage. This year I had to leave some diseased counties 

 not cared for, as a result. To show the need of Sec. 4 

 Chap. 150, Laws of 1897, I call attention to an example : 



I found foul brood quite bad in an apiary with several 

 other apiaries near. I quarantined the diseased apiarj- and 

 gave the owner full instructions for treatment and cure of 

 the disease ; said owner to follow printed directions and re- 

 port to me later. In a few days I received a letter from one 

 of the neighboring apiaries, stating those diseased combs 

 had not been burned as directed, but had been put in ex- 

 posed places where bees from other apiaries were working 

 freely on them, taking to their hives the diseased honey. 

 The next day I found the complaint was correct. I at once 

 saw all diseased material properly cared for ; but our pres- 

 ent revised statutes provide no penalty for such crimes, or 

 compulsion to make said owner do as instructed. The Wis- 

 consin State Bee-Keepers' Association carefully drafted the 

 law of 1897, and I hope the next Legislature will place the 

 same back on the statutes. 



Out of 4,454 diseased colonies I have inspected, I am 

 pleased to state that with a few exceptions like the above, 

 the owners have been anxious to know what was the trouble 

 with their bees, and almost every one who followed my in- 

 structions now has a healthy apiary. If it were not for the 

 few exceptions and a little importing of the disease into our 

 State from adjoining States and Cuba, I fully believe by 

 this time I could have eradicated the disease in Wisconsin. 

 Most of the honey-producing counties are now free from 

 foul brood, and bid fair again to export their carloads of 

 honey. 



I wish before closing to quote from one of our former 

 bee-keepers in his report at the 30th annual convention of 

 the United States Bee-Keepers' Association, Sept. 5, 6 and 

 7, in Philadelphia : 



" So plentiful is foul brood in Cuba we have nearly all 

 had a sight of it. I know of over SlOO worth of bees to 

 dwindle out of existence from its ravages in Havana Prov- 

 ince alone, and I still know of hundreds of colonies on the 

 same road to sure and certain death. Many of the affected 



