424 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



would soon res\ilt in a normal condition. 

 This idfa was concurred in. 



"Is tliere bee-iiiarrliea in Texas ?" 



Mr. Carroll said that lie had had cases of 

 real diarrhea in his apiary, and that it 

 could be produced at any tiiue by feeding, 

 andyivingthe bees no chance to take a 

 flight. 



Dr. Marshall said that the bee-diarrhea 

 of the Xorth is very dififerent from any- 

 thing we have. 



Judge Andrews said tliat he was quite 

 certain that voiding accumulated feces 

 after a Texas "norther " is very distinct 

 from the results of that highly intiamatory 

 disease known in the Xorth as diarrhea, 

 which does not abate even with a change 

 in the weather and an opportunity for a 

 flight. 



" Is there 'springdwindling' in Texas ?" 



Judge Andrews said that there was not 

 —and there was no further remarks upon 

 the question. 



" How do we know that the queen lays 

 drone eggs ?" 



Dr. Slarshall said that though he had 

 never seen a queen lay drone eggs, yet 

 there are circumstances that demonstrated 

 that she does. He then stated many nice 

 points showing the correctness of his 

 position. 



Judge Andrews said that the proper use 

 of the microscope had demonstrated, over 

 and over again, that the queen lays drone 

 eggs. 



Mr. Carroll said that Mr. Langstroth 

 I ad seen queens lay drone eggs. 



"Is there any practical way of prevent- 

 ing after-swarms ?" 



Mr. Carroll said that in nine cases out 

 of every ten, by cutting out all queen-eells 

 on the Hfth day after the issuing of the 

 prime swarm, will prevent an after-swarin. 



Judge Andrews said that he thought it 

 less trouble to hive the after-swarm and 

 build it up from the parent hive, taking 

 about one-third of its combs, brood and 

 adhering bees, placing the after-swarm's 

 hive upon the stand of the parent hive, 

 and using the remainder to build up other 

 weak colonies. 



" What is the test of purity in Italian 

 bees, as distinguished from blacks ?" 



Mr. Carroll said that the test is three 

 distinct yellow bands on the workers, and 

 a good disposilion. Judge Andrews con- 

 curred in what Mr. Carroll said. 



"What is foul brood, and how should it 

 be treated ?" was discussed at great 

 length. 



Dr. Marshall described it very minutely, 

 and gave his experience with it both in 

 the North and in this State, and gave the 

 result of his observations last spring in 

 the apiary of Dr. West, in Tarrant county, 

 having gone home with that gentleman 

 from our last convention, tor that purpose. 

 He thought that it never could come from 

 chilled brood, and tliat after all that had 

 been said and done, the best remedy was a 

 big, hot tire well and tlioroughly applied. 



Judge Andrews agreed with Dr. Mar- 

 shall in his description of the disease, and 

 the utter futility of all efforts to save the 

 bees, but he thought that the honey, 

 combs, hives and frames might be ren- 

 ovated by boiling ; but thought that this 

 was risky, except in the most careful 

 hands. 



Mr. Carroll said that bee-keepers could 

 not be too careful in this matter, and 'hat 

 it was his opinion that it might be pro- 

 duced in the process of decomposition of 

 chilled brood ; that there were too many 

 "ifs" and "amis" in all the remedies 

 now offered, excejit lire. 



" What is the best method for the intro- 

 duction of queens ? 



Mr. Carroll said that he introduced from 

 oWJ to .50U queens every year, and that he 

 never caged them if there was then a good 

 lioney-flow ; he turned them in at the en- 

 trance at dark, preceding them with a 

 liberal smoking, an<l folhivvin.:^ them up 



with a few puffs. In case of a very val- 

 uable queen to be introduced, he cages 

 her, puts her among the bees, and lets her 

 remain so for three days, and then liber- 

 ates her. Much depends upon the queen 

 as to her acceptance. 



Judge Andrews said that he always 

 caged his queens (except in cases of ex- 

 periment), for he never introduces o:ie 

 that he can afford to lose. He keeps her 

 confined for two days, near the middle of 

 the cluster, then removes the reig;ning 

 queen and liberates the new one. Some 

 queens he liberates sooner than at the end 

 of two (lays, tor he can invariably tell by 

 looking at the bees upon the cage whether 

 it is safe to liberate her or not. Other 

 queens need to be kept confined longer 

 than two days ; the further the colony is 

 from the normal condition the less in- 

 clined all queens are to be reconciled to 

 them. He never feared that the bees 

 would not feed the caged queen. The 

 presence of a reigning queen did not 

 affect them in the least. If the queen, 

 when let upon the comb, tucks her nead, 

 humps her back, and hoists her wings, he 

 recages her at once. These actions are 

 unmistakable, and indicates great dis- 

 satisfaction on her part, and a "balling" 

 is sure, if she is not recaged. He did not 

 wish to be understood as holding that the 

 retention of the old queen was a point 

 in the safe introduction of the new one, 

 but only to save her two days work in the 

 colony, for he did not rigidly observe this 

 rule except in April and May, these being 

 the months in whicli the workers are bred 

 to gather from horse-mint, and numbers 

 are then essential. It also prevents the 

 loss of work by the workers, from the 

 great commotion that follows the missing 

 of the reigning queen, and prevents the 

 starting of queen-cells. 



" What markings indicate impurity of 

 blood in Italian queens (so-called) ?" 



Judge Andrews said that this is an im- 

 portant question, as thousands of queens 

 are sent out every year that show marks 

 of impurity in their blood that no man 

 need mistake. It young, she must be 

 bright ; if one, two or three years old she 

 may reach the very dark leather color we 

 hear so much about, for all queens grow 

 darker as they grow older. There are 

 many shades of bright yellow that do not 

 tell against the blond of a young queen, 

 but stripes across the back of the abdomen 

 are certain marks of black blood ; small 

 dark brown specks are allowable, but 

 black stripes never ! The stripes are on 

 the outer edges of the second, third and 

 fourth segments, counting from the point 

 of the abdomen, and they are somewhat 

 crescent in shape ; while the spots or 

 specks are on the inner edge (the edge 

 joining the next forward segment). A 

 queen, the back of whose abdomen is 

 very bright orange in color with a dark 

 brown point, will breed much more beau- 

 tiful workers than a queen with any other 

 or no dark or black upon her. She will 

 come nearer always duplicating herself in 

 her queen progeny than those that have 

 the least dark in the general yellow, or 

 those that have spots or specks : so, 

 while lie does not condemn those 

 with specks, yet he does not like them, 

 and does not breed (jneens from them ; 

 even though they may be daughters of 

 the finest breeding queens known ; for so 

 sure as he is capable of observing such 

 matters, there is more than mere blood 

 entering into the production of first-class 

 qneen<i, but it is not easy to determine 

 what it is— in other words, all pure blooded 

 Italian (jueens are not the same in color, 

 nor are they all suitable for ([ueen or 

 drone mothers, even though they may 

 breed as good worker-bees as any. 



."Vt tills lime Mr. Andrews was asked, 

 "What about the swarming impulse?" 

 He replied that he regarded that as a 

 patent-right queen-breeder's humbug ; 



that he had reared as good queens in 

 September as in May ; and if a choice 

 queen leads a swarm, and in a few days 

 afterwards she be removed, the workers 

 will rear just as good queen-cells as were 

 reared by them in the old home under the 

 " swarming impulse," as it is called. He 

 does not believe that small, halt-starved 

 nuclei can produce or develop a first-class 

 queen. 



Mr. Carroll said that he concurred in 

 the main as to the statements made on 

 this question, and added that he could 

 rear dark queens from bright mothers by 

 placing their brood in small, illy-provided 

 nuclei, when the temperature would be 

 below normal in a prosperous colony, and 

 that well-reared queens placed as soon as 

 hatched in such nuclei, would be seriously 

 affected in their devehqiment. 



"Can drones for tall breeding be pro- 

 vided at will ?" Mr. Carroll said that he 

 always succeeded in so doing, by simply 

 selecting queens from which to breed 

 them, and putting a nice empty drone- 

 comb in the centre of the hive, then feed 

 them moderately on sugar syrup for a few 

 days, and drone eggs would be the result ; 

 then remove the queen and keep the colony 

 without a laying queen as long as one 

 wants the drones preserved. 



Judge Andrews said that he concurred 

 as to the preservation of the drones, but 

 that he had never had success worth nam- 

 ing, in the production of drones out of 

 swarming time ; they were to be found in 

 his apiary from March to November, but 

 not of his choice colonies always, but as 

 liable to be of the poorest as of the best 

 blood. Jno. S, Kerr, Sec. pro tem. 



Dr. W. K. Marshall, Pres. 



For the American Boe JoumaL 



Wintering Bees, etc. 



TV. H. STEWAET. 



In this Northern climate a skillful 

 apiarist may succeed in wintering 

 bees ou the summer stands for several 

 winters in succession, without senous 

 loss ; but as often as ome in t3 or 8 

 years it so happens that the bees^are 

 nearly or quite all dead in the sprfng. 

 At least tliis has been my experience; 

 and after I had three titnes thus lost 

 all the bees that I was able to get on 

 hand by 6 or 8 years' hard work and 

 close attention, I decided that I must 

 winter them in a cellar, or get out of 

 the business. 1 then prepared an out- 

 cellar in a sand-bank, and put the bees 

 in, in the day-time ; and in handling 

 the hives in dayliglit, I found that 

 many bees would fly out, and others 

 run out and crawl around in the cold 

 air and become chilled and lost. 



Again, I took the advice of some 

 bee-masters and carried the bees out 

 on a nice, warm spring morning, and 

 I found that in handling and carrying 

 some of them 10 or 1.5 rods, and plac- 

 ing them properly on the stands, the 

 bees would get considerably aroused, 

 and as they seemed to be overjoyed at 

 the first appearance of the bright sun- 

 light, after their long confinement in 

 a "dungeon, they rushed out en masse,- 

 and by the time I had GO or 70 colo- 

 nies out, the air was literally full of 

 bees, in tlie greatest excitement ; and 

 on their attempt to return to their 

 hives, it was apparent that few, if 

 any. of them had marked well the 

 locality of their own stand, and con- 

 sequently confusion prevailed, and 

 the excitement became intense. 



