Aug. 2, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL^ 



487 



can not think that they are old, worn-out bees coming- out 

 to die, because their wings are not ragged and broken. 

 Some of them seem to be somewhat less than others. 



Can you tell me a remedy ? The colony is not any 

 stronger now than it ought to have been the first of May, 

 if as strong. 



Perhaps I should have said that there have been drones 

 until the last three or four days, and they are too feeble to 

 fly. Ohio. 



Answer. — I don't know, unless it be a case of bcc- 

 paralysis. In that case there should be seen a trembling 

 of the diseased bees, some of them having a shiny-black 

 appearance. If paralysis is the trouble, no satisfactory 

 remedy has yet been found. As far north as Onio, however, 

 it is not likely to be very bad, and will likely disappear of 

 itself. In the South it is a severe scourge. 



Bare-Headed Bees Feeding Back. 



1. Some time ago I received a queen from one of the 

 queen-breeders, and when looking thru the hive in which I 

 introduced her I found one or more frames with brood un- 

 even, some drawn out farther than level, and not capt ; some 

 looks dark. What is the trouble ? My opinion is that they 

 haven't enough bees to nurse the brood. 



2. Do you think it pays to feed to finish sections nearly 

 all capt ? I have a number of supers nearly finisht of bass- 

 wood honey, and have some colonies I run for extracted 

 honey, which I was thinking of using to feed to finish with 

 now, as I don't expect honey enough from the fields to 

 finish until buckwheat. Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. It is a case of " bare-headed bees." The 

 young bees are not sealed over at all, but they hatch out all 

 right, and no harm comes fi'om it. It is a matter of fre- 

 quent occurrence, and it is uncertain what is the cause, but 

 I suspect it is caused by worms eating the capping. 



2. A few bee-keepers think they can profitably feed ex- 

 tracted honey to have sections finisht, but most of those 

 who have tried it think it does not pay. 



Should the Public Be Encouraged to Keep Bees? — 



In answer to this question, J. B. Hall says in the Canadian 

 Bee Journal : 



"Yes — no. I would like to encourage all those that 

 have natural tact to keep bees, and are in a locality where 

 it would pay them to keep them, but indiscriminately to 

 advise every one to keep bees for a living would be to do a 

 great injury. We should be very cautious how we encour- 

 age people to keep bees. I may be a rather peculiar tem- 

 perament ; I think a bee-keeper, like a fiddler, is born. If 

 a man can look after ten thousand little things, and do 

 everything right, and do them at the proper time and in 

 the proper way, and is desirous of keeping bees, and is 

 willing to live in a new country, encourage him." 



Dr. Miller's " Qoback " Sections.— While I was visit- 

 ing Dr. C. C. Miller at his home, he and his sister Emma 

 quite incidentally made reference to their " goback " colo- 

 nies and " goback sections.'' 



It seems that, in taking oft their comb honey, they re- 

 move the supers when most of the sections are completed. 

 These are taken to the house, and the filled sections are set 

 to one side, to be scraped and cased ; but the unfinisht ones 

 ■' go back " into the same or another super. There may be 

 one or a dozen or perhaps a hundred or so of supers with 

 partly filled sections, and these are all designated as " go- 

 backs." They are either placed on top of other supers that 

 are being built out from foundation, or upon colonies that 

 seem to show a special aptitude for finishing up gobacks. 



In looking over Dr. Miller's hive-record book I found 

 there were certain colonies that had produced so many filled 



sections and finisht up so many gobacks. These gobacks 

 are all placed on the hives before Ihc honey-flow ceases ; so 

 when the season is over. Dr. Miller has nothing but No. 1 

 filled sections without any unfinisht ones, or practically 

 none, to be extracted, to be sold for less money, or to be 

 filled out after the hotiey-flow by feeding back— a wasteful, 

 laborious, and disagreeable job, because all has to be done 

 during the robbing season. 



Of course, there is nothing particularly new about plac- 

 ing unfinisht sections on the hives, to be filled out ; but, if 

 I mistake not, the general practice is to place such sections 

 on the colonies after the honey-How. 



Another interesting fact to me was that some colonies 

 are much better for finishing gobacks than for filling sec- 

 tions from the foundation— that is to say, when work is 

 apparently started or almost finisht, those colonies show a 

 special aptitude for completing work, but they are not as 

 much inclined to start on raw foundation as some other 

 colonies in the yard. 



It seems that the Miller family have a way of finding 

 out the peculiarities of each colony, and those peculiarities 

 are recorded in the record-book ; and if the (jueen is still in 

 the hive next year, that queen and her bees are devoted to a 

 special kind of work— it may be to filling out gobacks, to 

 running for extracted honey, if the honey is travel-stained, 

 water-soakt, or discolored, or to producing comb honey from 

 foundation at the start. The colony that is good both at 

 producing honey and finishing gotjacks is given light work, 

 and its queen is used for a breeder. 



Emma also gave me an interesting fact ; and that was, 

 when one has sections that from any cause have tiny drops 

 of honey oozing from the cappings, to put them in a super, 

 place the super on a hive for a few hours, when the sections 

 will all be lickt up clean and nice. It appears that the 

 Millerites so manage that their crop shall be practically all 

 of it No. 1 honey ; and yet I suspect that over half of the 

 producers of comb honey have anywhere from 10 to 25 per- 

 cent of it No. 2. A word to the wise is sufficient.— Glean- 

 ings in Bee-Culture. 



A Swarm of Bees on the March.— I thought it prob- 

 able that the following may possess some interest for you or 

 your readers : When cycling this morning on ray usual 

 professional " round " I was not a little astonisht to see a 

 swarm of bees zval/cing in procession, like a long, brown 

 snake, along the narrow footpath bordering the main road 

 from here to Newark. The resemblance to what one could 

 suppose Lord Robert's army on the march would appear like 

 at once struck me. There were some few bees flying ahead, 

 representing the " cavalry scouts;" then came the main 

 array in serried ranks, extending to a length of several 

 yards, all marching on foot— these were the " infantry," of 

 course; and, finally, separated from the main body by 

 about two feet, but with " scouts " passing to and fro, came 

 a considerable cluster forming the indispensable "rear- 

 guard." A man working- on the road informed me that the 

 whole swarm had thus advanced about 20 yards since he had 

 first observed them some time before. 



I at once rode back to the house of a bee-keeper I knew 

 who lived near, and failing to obtain a skep, got a box of 

 shallow frames with comb built out and an old newspaper. 

 Returning, I placed this " Pretoria " directly in front of the 

 advancing army, covering the box with the newspaper and 

 propping it up in front with a stone. I then continued my 

 journey, and on my return found, as I had expected, that 

 " the army " had " taken possession of the town," and that 

 " all was quiet." This evening I drove over and took pos- 

 session of the swarm, which I have now safely establisht in 

 my apiary at home. Knowing, as we bee-keepers do, the 

 loyalty of bees to their queen, it almost lookt as if these 

 little wanderers had caught up the patriotic spirit of the 

 day. Anyway, I have seen many swarms, but this is the 

 first time I ever saw one zt'aW-.— (Dr.) Percy Sharp. 



[The above is not only interesting, but our correspon- 

 dent's simile is a very happy one, there being little doubt 

 that the queen's inability to fly kept the bees loyally march- 

 ing on foot rather than take wing and desert her.— Eds.] — 

 British Bee Journal. 



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