598 



.lulv 12, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



Canadian 

 f, freedom 



Conducted by Morley Pettit, Villa Nova, Out. 



What Attracts Bees to Flowers 



A short time ago a long- article in the Mail and Empire 

 showed conclusively that bees are attracted to blossoms by 

 nectar and pollen regardless of color or perfume. Now the 

 same paper copies from the Agricultural Epitomist, a para- 

 graph stating, without proof, that " the attraction exercised 

 by the form and color of flowers is approximately four times 

 as great as that exercised by perfumed pollen and nectar 

 taken together." That the latter statement should be true is 

 contrary to Nature, reason and facts. 



Outlook Not Promising' 



The bees are pretty nearly at a stand-still with us just 

 now. The fruit-bloom was short and the clover is just com- 

 ing in. The thermometer this evening is down to 48 de- 

 grees, and the outlook is not at all promising for a good 

 honey-crop, but it may improve in a few days. We will 

 hope for the best. J. Creech. 



Lambton Mlils, Ont., June 11. 



Bee-Paralysis in the North 



We generally consider this disease hardly worth serious 

 consideration in the North, yet occasional experiences and 

 reports from correspondents show that it is well worth look- 

 ing after. 



Unlike foul brood, the disease seems to attack only 

 adult bees. In the hive, at watering-places, even on blos- 

 soms where they are collecting honey and pollen, they sud- 

 denly become palsied, abdomens swell and turn black. 

 They crawl about, trembling violently, and soon die. A 

 correspondent writing just recently gives his experience as 

 follows : 



Mr. Pettit: — I have a colony of bee6 which seems to have some- 

 thing seriously wrong with it, and as you are probably the nearest 

 bee-man of experience, I am taking the liberty of asking your advice 

 and experience on the subject. 



I transferred the colony from an old chaff hive into an S-frame 

 Langstroth hive in apple-bloom time. It built up remarkably well, 

 and had commenced work in a full-depth super of combs. Yesterday 

 morning (June 15) 1 noticed about a pint of dead and dying bees in 

 front of the hive, and a great many sick ones crawling through the 

 grass. The other bees were at the same time hauling out dead and 

 dying bees, and have been doing so ever since. 



Upon opening the hive I noticed a great many which seemed sick, 

 with their wings sticking up, and their bodies shiny. I did not know 

 what it was, and this evening I took the advice given in " A B C of 

 Bee Culture " on bee-paralysis, and 6hook all the bees into a new hive 

 of comb, at the same time dusting sulphur on the bees and comb. 

 The old frames of comb and brood I placed upon another colony 

 minus any bees. 



Do you think it look6 like bee-paralysis? The combs I shook the 

 bees upon in the new hive had about 25 pounds of honey in them. 

 Will that do any harm, or 6hould they have been placed upon new 

 frames of foundation? I do not know if what they have is catching, 

 and judging from the way they have died it would soon ruin an apiary 

 if it is contagious. Your opinion would be greatly appreciated. 



By the way, I did not give the super which the diseased colony 

 had been working in to any other colony. All my other colonies seem 

 perfectly healthy. H. A. Smith. 



Palermo, Ont., June 16. 



Some recommend sprinkling brood and bees with dry 

 sulphur, but this is rather contradictory to the advice we 

 had recently to sprinkle drone-brood with dry sulphur to 

 kill the brood. Sprinkling top-bars of brood-chamber and 

 entrance freely with brine is recommended. Salt is cer- 

 tainly a great disinfectant. 



Another digs a trench in front of the hive for the dead 

 and dying to be dropped into, and gathers them up and 



burns them every day or two to prevent contagion. No 

 matter what the treatment, the disease usually disappears 

 in a good honey-flow, after having done considerable dam- 

 age. Still, it should be thoroughly investigated by our 

 scientific men. Reports from such, and from all who have 

 had any experience, will be of mutual benefit to " Canadian 

 Beedom " readers. 



Mr. /lasty^yl 



The " Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Weak Colony Over Strong and No Bee-Zinc 



So it turns out (just to surprise us) that in keeping a 

 weak colony warm over a strong one, it is not absolutely 

 necessary to have perforated zinc between. " Nebraska," 

 without any zinc, lost fewer queens than several did who 

 used excluders as per program. Page 429. 



Bees Warming an Empty Upper Story 



As to the Miller-Doolittle experiments about making a 

 colony warm an empty upper story, I will not dip in very 

 deeply. I'll just say this much : If the upper story is 

 warmed (9 degrees, or 22 degrees, or any other amount) it is 

 warmed in one or both of two ways — by warm air rising, or 

 by radiation from the body-surface of the bees — and their 

 immediate surroundings. In winter very little air passes 

 through the cluster to rise afterward, the cluster is so solid. 

 After spring work begins, indoors and out, more air gets 

 through because the bees are not compact, but moving 

 about. In winter the surface bees can not radiate much 

 heat — they are so torpid and cold ; and the warm ones are 

 not exposed. In spring the radiation is considerable be- 

 cause the surface bees are warm. Page 441. 



Uncapped Bait-Sections of Honey and Granulation 



It's surely a very comforting doctrine to believe that 

 bees will always empty baits if the cappings are broken. 

 Doolittle ought to know. My faith would be too weak to 

 trust 12 of them on one hive. I never, of late years, have so 

 many as even 3 to a hive ; and I manage to use them mostly 

 when the bees are hungry and ready to take out the honey 

 because they want it. Guess he's right in scouting the 

 idea that just a few granules can be harbored in empty cells 

 and plant seeds of future granulation, somewhat as microbes 

 plant the seeds of diseases. Page 444. 



Foul Brood in Ontario 



Ontario's new foul-brood law seems to be unusually 

 vigorous and severe. For selling diseased bees a $400 fine 

 can be inflicted, or two months in jail. And it looks as if 

 McEvoy had failed to convince the Canadians, as a whole, 

 that hives are harmless. Hives are ordered destroyed when 

 the colonies are destroyed. Page 446. 



Mesquite for Honey and for Rhyming 



And so the mesquite, which same grows in the arid 

 southwest — and piles in much exquisite honey — is so pro- 

 nounced as to rhyme with " sweet " and " beat." Worth 

 four stanzas to find out. Page 448. 



Alley's "Two Queens "—Laying of a Queen-Bee 



Arrah, Comrade Alley ! That was a foine bargain the 

 widder drove with ye. Wouldn't sell ye the quane except in 

 a job lot — with herself for one item. And ye had to have 

 the quane all the same ! 



Mr. Alley gives us some mathematics of the knock- 

 down sort. Impossible for a queen to keep 14 frames full of 

 brood except by laying 111,384 eggs every 21 days. We 



