Sept. 6, 1906 



759 



American Hee Journal] 



swarming will be given up, and if you want to increase to 

 3 or 4, the surest way will be to take matters into your own 

 hands. If you have no other way in mind, you might pro- 

 ceed in the way offered to " Iowa," page 329. But you must 

 remember that it's getting-pretty late in the season to do 

 much in the way of increasing, and it may not be safe to 

 think of doing anything more than to double. In any case, 

 if little or no honey is coming in, you must be ready to feed 

 bountifully. 



2. The season is chiefly at fault. The bees are not get- 

 ting enough to draw out foundation, although getting just 

 a little more than they need in the brood-chamber, so they 

 put the surplus in the sections that have drawn comb, and 

 dig down some of the foundation to help finish out the few 

 sections filled. There's no help for it except to wait for a 

 better season, unless it be to take off the sections to prevent 

 the bees from destroying the foundation, and allow them 

 enough combs in a second story to store any little surplus 

 they may have. 



•* • »■ 



What Ails the Bees? 



I introduced a queen July 4, and at this date, Aug. 18, 

 there has not been a live bee hatched ; but for some time I 

 have noticed early in the morning young bees dead on the 

 alighting-board. The bees in the hive are blacks ; the 

 queen is a golden, as are the dead, young bees. What is 

 the matter ? Would you remove the queen ? Ohio. 



Answer. — I don't know what is the trouble. From 

 what you say I infer that the queen is laying, that brood is 

 reared, but no young bee matures sufficiently to make its 

 way out of the cell, the immature young bees being carried 

 out of the hive. It hardly seems that the queen is at fault, 

 yet it is barely possible. It looks just a little as if there 

 were poison in the case. If so, then the same trouble ought 

 to appear in other hives. I am sorry not to be able to give 

 a satisfactory answer, but can only plead ignorance. 



May Be Poul Brood 



I have a colony of bees that in early summer began to 

 dwindle. I examined them and diagnosed pickled brood. 

 I shook all the bees on new foundation, in a new hive. It 

 was just at the start of the honey-flow, as the forepart of 

 the summer was no good. They now have plenty of honey, 

 but as for the brood or increase it is poor. Some bees hatch; 

 brood all sealed, and lots have small holes in them, and the 

 bees look as though near maturity, and then die. What is 

 the disease, cause, treatment, etc.? 



My other colonies have done exceedingly well. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — I should be afraid of foul brood, although 

 you say nothing about the stringy nature of the brood. If 

 you are a member of the National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, send a sample to General Manager N. E. France, 

 Platteville, Wis. He is an expert in such diseases. If not 

 a member, send a dollar at the same time, and that will 

 make you a member. 



Lapse of Memory— Was Its Cause Mental or from 

 a Bee-Sting? 



A rather peculiar thing happened here a few days ago. 

 A young man in this neighborhood was working in the hay- 

 field, and just about noon he was stung on the lobe of the 

 left ear by a bumble-bee. He says that hurt him more than 

 a honey-bee sting usually does, and that it felt as if it had 

 pierced him through from ear to ear. His ear swelled some, 

 but after a short time felt easier. He ate his dinner and 

 went back to the field, where he drove a team hitched to a 

 buck-rake. At 6 o'clock p.m. he unhitched his team and 

 started to the house, riding one of the horses, and at this 

 time his memory ceased to work. He rode to the house and 

 put his team in the usual place and went into the house, of 

 which he remembers nothing. He would ask questions and 

 when answered would ask the same question over again a 

 number of times, and from this time until 12 o'clock noon 

 the next day he remained in this condition. He says " he 

 was a walking, unconscious man." His people tried in 

 every way by questions and other conversation to get him 

 to remember, but without avail. 



Just about 24 hours after he was stung his memory re- 

 turned. Those 24 hours of his life to him are blank. Did 

 the sting cause the trouble ? or what, in your opinion, was 

 the cause ? 



I have made diligent inquiry as to whether he could 

 have been stunned or bruised in any way. There were no 

 signs on the body of having been hurt' in any way. A slight 

 soreness was felt in the back of the neck and shoulders. He 

 went to sleep in the forenoon, and when he awoke he was 

 himself. 



We are all anxious to have your opinion on this case. 



Iowa 



Answer. — The case is a remarkable one, but by no 

 means without a parallel. Every now and ttien we hear of 

 some one who seems to lose his identity, perhaps wandering 

 away from home and friends, then after atime resuming 

 his former identity, but with no recollection of what trans- 

 pired during the time when he was not his usual self. Some- 

 times a person of that kind may be lost for years, and 

 sometimes the mental machinery may be out of running 

 order for only 2 or 3 hours. It is not impossible that in the 

 present case there might have been the same lapse if the 

 patient had not been stung at all. He was stung before 

 noon, suffered from the pain, but recovered from it and did 

 a half-day's work before the mental trouble occurred. If 

 the trouble came on 5 or 6 hours after the sting occurred, 

 might it not have been just the same if it came on 24 hours, 

 a week, or a year after the sting, and had the sting really 

 anything to do with it ? Yet it may not be wise to say the 

 sting had nothing to do with the mental difficulty ; while 

 not being responsible for the trouble it may have been the 

 "last straw that broke the camel's back," in which case it 

 might be called the exciting cause, although a dozen such 

 stings at another time might have no effect of the kind 



whatever. 



■* » » 



Sweet Clover Seed-When to Sow It 



Have you any sweet clover seed for sale ? If so, what 

 is the price per pound by mail? When is the time to sow it 

 — in the spring or fall? Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — I have no seed for sale, and don't know 

 where you can get it, unless you want the yellow kind, and 

 by looking back you will see that 'Mrs. Amos advertises 

 that. You can sow fall or spring, but sowing this fall will 

 gain nothing over sowing next spring, for the fall sowing 

 will not come up till the next spring. 



Shaken Swarms or Increase by Dividing 

 Second Super 



Putting on a 



My experience with bees extends only 2 years back, and 

 the longer I keep them the more interested I become in 

 them, and the less I find out I know about them. I have 16 

 colonies now. This year was an unusual one for excessive 

 swarming. I got 5 swarms from 2 colonies. 



1. I have read some about shaking swarms, but I don't 

 quite understand it. How can a person divide a colony of 

 bees and prevent them from swarming ? 



2. Is there any way one can make a new swarm produce 

 honey in the supers before they get all of the brood-cham- 

 ber full ? What can a person do to induce them to store 

 honey in the supers ? 



3. I have several colonies (this year's swarms) that have 

 their brood-chambers all full of honey and brood, but they 

 don't seem to want to go to work in the supers. Just a few 

 crawl around in the supers, and we have fine, sunny 

 weather every day. I have always been told by old bee- 

 keepers that the new swarm is the one that stores the sur- 

 plus honey that year, but I have never yet had a pound of 

 honey from a new swarm. About all they will do is to fill 

 their brood-chambers, and by that time fall weather has set 

 in, and the honey season is over. My experience has also 

 been that the old swarm, or last year's colony, is the one 

 that gives me the surplus. 



4. Last year I had a colony that filled one super nearly 

 full of honey, so I was advised to put on another empty su- 

 per between the full super and the brood-chamber, and that 

 the bees would go up into the upper super and finish cap- 

 ping that over before they went to work in the lower super. 

 But about a week after I went to look at them, and, behold, 

 all the honey from the upper super was gone. What had 



