1901 



rHE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



27 



DRONE-REARING. 



BY ,>iWAKTH5IORE. 



It is now the Inst of October and I yet 

 have a lot of fine drones in flight on 

 pleasant days. I shall preserve them as 

 long as possible for experimental purpo- 

 ses in securing long-tongued golden 

 bees. I have had no trouble the past 

 season to secure all the drones I wanted 

 from the fine queens. I used several 

 different methods to encourage their 

 production and then took good care to 

 preserve tbem afier I had secured them, 

 If one continually takes away the drone 

 eggs from a colony that feels tlie want 

 of male bees and supplies plenty of 

 empty comb that has been polished up 

 by queenless bees, I believe a shortage 

 in drones should never occur. By tier- 

 ing empty bodies above those colonies 

 containing tlie drone queens and placing 

 from time to time any and all brood and 

 honey one knows not what else to do 

 with, during midsummer time, plenty 

 of drones will be flying at a time when 

 they are much needed. Feeding a little 

 each day at this time will accomplish 

 the same end, but that is a good deal of 

 trouble, while the oJier method works 

 in with the everyday tasks. In urgent 

 cases I sometimes take away a queen 

 for a few days and re-introduce her. 

 Feed all the while before and after and 

 provide plenty of nice drone comb taken 

 from queenless bees. By closing down 

 the ventilation and strengthening with 

 hatching brood most any bees will re- 

 quest their queen to put in some drone 

 eggs before they will stand the jam 

 many days. By grafting patches of 

 drone comb along the bottom of square 

 combs one is apt to secure at least a 

 comb or two containing eggs. By any 

 of the above metiiods young queens will 

 give dione eggs every time if introduced 

 to a colony that has been queenless 

 three or four days. 



An important point is to preserve 

 your drones after you have secured 

 them and in the meantime bend every 

 effort to produce more. 



Swarthnjore, Pa. 



BLACK BROOD. 



Some Interesting Peculiarities of the 

 Disease Revealed by Experience. 



BV ,J. H. JOHNSON. 



IN the fall of 1897 I bought two bar- 

 rels of buckwheat honey from two 

 bee- keepers in New York State (I 

 can give their names if desired). To 

 this honey the bees got access. Next 

 spring (1898) as I was making my 

 round of the apiary, clipping queens' 

 wings, I came upon a colony greatly re- 

 duced in bees and brood; there was 

 brood of a few hands' size, mostly un- 

 sealed, in the center of three frames, 

 but such as I had never seen. The 

 larvfe were of a yellowish or light coffee 

 color, with black-like spots on each and 

 apparently dead. I had read of foul- 

 broftd. Looked for described symptoms. 

 They seemed not to tally. No abnor- 

 mal smell nor yet that ropiness said to 

 be peculiar to foul-brood. So I ad- 

 judged it to be not that disease. Think- 

 ing it to be chilled brood or some other 

 harmelss malady,! proceeded to run the 

 risk of spreading the disease broadcast 

 over the apiary by exchanging the 

 frames of the diseased stock with 

 healthy ones; my object being to build 

 up the stricken colony. It would not 

 build up. For a few weeks the acces- 

 sion of young hatched bees was visible, 

 then all combs were again diseased with 

 the malady. Think I gave more capped 

 brood, but. to no purpose. They grew 

 weaker, scarcely any young bees were 

 hatched. In September I brimstoned 

 them and buried everything except the 

 hive, cover and division boards more 

 than plow deep. In June of same year 

 I discovered No. 2 of black brood. In 

 early spring they seemed strong and I 

 put on surplus boxes. On passing the 

 hive one day in June I perceived their 

 weakened condition. Thinking a swarm 

 had issued, I opened the hive to exam- 

 ine ; but worse than if a swarm had de- 

 camped: I found that peculiar disease. 

 As they were badly diseased and weak. 



