1901 



THE A3IERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



111 



Marchant, Fla., May 10, 1901 

 Fkiend Htll: I am the one to have "phits." 

 Our bees are swarming about as much as one would 

 expect in an apiary of this size; but fully 90 per 

 cent, of all the first swarms are led by a virgin 

 queen, showing that the old queen had been super- 

 seded. Now, why this superseding? All our 

 queens were raised last year, so age is not against 

 them. All queens were extra prolific, so we can't 

 say it was because of failing powers; yet, the su- 

 perseding goes merrily on with from seven to ten 

 solid frames of brood per colony. 



In your foot-note to my article on page 92, you 

 say "the presence of laying workers betokens 

 lingering hope." I am afraid I will have to differ 

 with you on that point. I have thus far intro- 

 duced three laying queens to a colony containing 

 laying workersand in each case the queen was ac- 

 cepted and permitted to lay eggs from two to four 

 days, and then killed. Queen-cells were then 

 started, and, before ready to seal, were torn down. 

 I have run in two virgin queens that were accept- 

 ed and permitted to become fertile and then 

 killed. The strength of the colony has been kept 

 up by giving frames of hatching brood, so there 

 was and is no lack of nurse bees. My trouble is 

 not an isolated case, as others are reporting the 

 same conditions, but have not carried mattere so 

 far as I have. As I said in my former letter, it is 

 a condition, not a theory, that confronts us. Of 

 course, it is easy to offer a theoretical explanation, 

 but it does not fit the conditions. I have tried 

 everything I know or can think of. and yet it beats 

 me. Last season I had one or two cases; but this 

 season it has been epidemic with me as well as 

 others. We are busy extracting, and will have a 

 good crop; so I don"t see as our trouble has affected 

 the amount of honey gathered. I suspect that 

 after the season is over, our trouble will cease; 

 and there will be no trouble in re-queening the 

 apiary, which will be done from one of the best im- 

 ported queens that we could buy. 



Very truly, M. W. Shepherd. 



[It is rather humiliating, but we shall have to 

 confess that we "don't know'' what is the cause 

 of Mr. Shepherd's difficulty; and would suggest 

 that he ask Dr. Miller. It appears to be simply a 

 case of 'gone crazy," and our experience has not 

 encotintered a case of this kind. If any of our 

 readers have ever met a similar condition of affairs, 

 we should be pleased to have them express an 

 opinion in regard to its cause and treatment. — 

 EniTOK.] 



as the bees died in such numbers before the en- 

 trance that they could be taken up by the handful; 

 and I finally took them away because they gave off 

 an odor, when damp, that could be smelled two or 

 three feet away. I noticed, also, that the way in 

 which they died was exactly as Mr. Heddon says 

 they do with bee-paralysis, and as Mr. Ches-hire 

 says they do with Bacillus Gaytoni. I had read 

 somewhere before that many bee diseases could be 

 cured by changing tbe queen, so I bought an 

 Italian queen and gave her to the colony on the 

 7th of June, and by the middle of August the black 

 bees had disappeared and with them all traces of 

 the disease. Four weeks later, I cnuld not lift 

 that hive, as the bees had put more than one hun- 

 dred }iounds of honey in it. 



To simply remove the queen from a colony af- 

 fected with bee-paralysis, and allow the bees to 

 raise a queen from their own brood, could not be 

 expected to work a cure; or at least not more than 

 a temporary one. The queen that we give the 

 diseased colony must come from one that you 

 know has a young and vigorous queen, and pre- 

 ferably an Italian. 



It is a notion with me that a young Italian 

 queen from good stock, is a panacea for all bee 

 diseases. Many a colony dwindles in spring, or is 

 robbed during a dearth of honey in summer be- 

 cause their queen lacked spirit, either from age or 

 some other cause. If you would see the influence 

 of a queen on her bees, take the mildest colony 

 that you have and also the most irritable, and ex- 

 change their queens and note the effect thirty-six 

 hours after the queens are liberated. 



Yours. D. B. NoKTOX. 



Branford, Fla., May 10, 1901. 



EmTOK Americax Bee-keeper, Dear Sir: I 

 have received a sample copy of your excellent 

 paper, and am very much pleased with it. Here- 

 with please find 50c. stamps, to cover one year's 

 subscription. I don't see how you can give so 

 much for so little. 



Wishing you continued and increased prosperity 

 in your journalistic enterprise, I remain, 



Yours truly, A. D. Puterbaugh, M. D. 



Plainville, Conn., May 6, 1901. 

 Editor Hill, Dear Sir: I am almost certain 

 that my case of bee-paralysis was a genuine one, 



BEE-PARALYSIS — STINGS FOR RHEUMATISM — 

 RENDERING WAX. 



Hawks Park, Fla., May 9, 1901. 

 Dear Mr. Hill: To me, as to Mr. Norton, page 

 94, it " seems strange that Mr. O. O. Poppleton 

 should suffer as he has from bee-paralysis." Is it 

 absolutely true that the disease is so much worse 

 in the South than further North ? I ask for infor- 

 mation, for I do not know that this is so. Outside 

 of Mr. Poppleton's experience and that of one or 

 two others, I have never known it to do very seri- 

 ous harm. I have never had more than four or 

 five cases at a time in my apiary, and these have 

 apparently recovered as soon as the summer flow 

 of honey commenced, in May. I have had but one 

 case for several years, though I have taken no 

 measures to eradicate it. I know of none to take. 



