98 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



sulphured the old hive with burning sulphur, 

 and stored it away in a safe place for future ex- 

 periments. I now thought my apiary free from 

 the pest ; but on thoroughly examining the whole, 

 three new cases of fonlbrood were found — one 

 very badly affected, and two slightly so, with 

 perhaps twenty to forty cells diseased and per- 

 forated. 



This was about the 1st of August, and again 

 hyposuli:)hite of soda was selected for the trial ; 

 and from the first application I have had the 

 disease under control. Three days ago I ex- 

 amined the three colonies thoroughly, and found 

 no new cells diseased in the two which had been 

 the least affected ; and in the almost hopelessly 

 diseased one (as much diseased, in fact, as any 

 of those that I destroyed, ) an entire brood had 

 been raised, with not over fifty or sixty diseased 

 and perforated cells with dead larva? remaining, 

 most on one comb, and nearly all the cells con- 

 tained a new supply of eggs ; this colony is cer- 

 tainly convalescent, and I think now, from the 

 recent and second iipplicatiou of the hyposulphite 

 of soda, is entirely cured. Still, I should not 

 be surprised to find two or three, or even more, 

 perforated cells after this second crop of brood 

 has hatched, as the whole hive, honey, and comb, 

 had been for so long a time so thoroughly satu- 

 rated with the disease, and at least two-thirds of 

 the cells had, before the medicine was used, been 

 filled with putrid larvte. If so, I shall treat it 

 to a third dose. 



Now, Mr. Editor, as it is frequently of as much 

 practical importance to tell how to administer a 

 remedy, as it is to know its name, I will ask your 

 indulgence a little longer, hoj^ing tliat others may 

 improve upon my remedy or at least test it, if 

 they are so unfortunately ignorant and careless 

 as I was, iu bringing "the wolf home to the 

 fold." 



The solution of hyposulphite of soda which I 

 used, was one ounce to half a pint of i-ain water. 

 With this I thoroughly washed out every diseased 

 cell with an atomizer, after opening the cap ; also 

 spraying over the whole of the combs and the 

 inside of the hive. The instrument I use is a 

 spray producer, invented by Dr. Bigelow of 

 Boston, and sold by Codman & Shurtletf of that 

 city. There are two small metallic tvd)es, a few 

 inches long, soldered together ; and by placing 

 the point of exit of the spray at the lower part 

 of the cell, the whole of the contents of the cell 

 is instantly blown out upon the metallic tubes. 

 With a very little practice there is no necessity 

 for polluting the comb with the putrid matter. 

 Place the comb perfectly upright or a little leaned 

 towards you, and there is no difficulty ; yet, if a 

 drop should happen to run down the comb, it 

 would do no harm, but had better be carefully 

 absorbed with a piece of old dry cotton cloth. 

 I quite frequently do this with the bees on the 

 comb, as it does them no harm, to say the least, 

 to get well covered with the vapor. 



It is not at all injurious to the larvre, after they 

 are two or three days old, though it may be before 

 that time, as I have noticed that after using the 

 hyposulphite where there are eggs and very 

 young larva, the next day the cells are perfectly 

 clean. 



There are many interesting points which have 

 come up during my summer's fight, which I 

 would speak of ; but I have already gone beyond 

 all reasonable bounds in this communication. 

 Edward P. Abbe. 



New Bedford, Mass., Sept. 18, 1870. 



[Translated from the Bienenzeitung', 



For the American Bee Journal.] 



Queen Breeding. 



To obtain not only purely fertilized queens, 

 but fine, bright yellow ones, I have for some 

 years proceeded thus: 



As all Italian queens do not produce equally 

 fine drones, I mark those stocks in the course of 

 the summer which contain queens producing the 

 choicest of these. Then, in the following spring, 

 when I desire to have a plentiful supply of prime 

 Italian drones early, and before common drones 

 make their appearance in neighboring apiaries, 

 insert iu the hives thus selected and marked, 

 combs of worker brood taken from other colonies. 

 I do this in order to make those colonies very 

 populous, so as to induce drone-egg-laying; for a 

 queen will always be disposed to commence doing 

 so, if she is in a strong colony well supplied with 

 honey, or is well fed. As soon as I find that 

 those colonies are becoming populous under this 

 management, I insert some empty drone comb 

 in the centre of the brooding space. These the 

 queen, stimulated by liberal feeding, will speed- 

 ily supply with eggs; and when the drone brood 

 so produced is nearly mature, I subdivide these 

 combs and insert pieces in nuclei previously fur- 

 nished with young bees, worker brood, and eggs, 

 taken from the colonies containing the choice 

 queens from which I design to breed, and which 

 are known to produce the largest, most active, 

 and best marked workers. 



As the drones form the brood thus introduced 

 mature several days sooner, than the young 

 queens bred in the same nuclei, there is a strong 

 probability that the latter will be fertilized by 

 them and consequently produce fully marked 

 choice progeny, as it is certain that queens will 

 almost invariably be fertilized early if they and 

 the drones are bred in the same hive or nucleus, 

 since that secures the simultaneous flight of 

 both and obviates the necessity of a wide range 

 in their excursions. I adopt this process also, 

 because if the Italian drones of the colonies, 

 which contain the young queens, are poorly 

 marked and dark yellow in color, we cannot rea- 

 sonably look for bright and handsomely marked 

 progeny. 



At about ten o'clock in the morning of a calm, 

 clear day, when the young queen is at least two 

 days old, I feed the bees of the nucleus with di- 

 luted honey. Drones and queens will then almost 

 invariably issue at the same time, and before 

 common drones from other colonies or neigh- 

 boring apiaries are on the wing. Thus both 

 disappointment and delay are in a great mea- 

 sure i>recluded. I do not stimulate the bees of 

 the nucleus by feeding either on the first or the 

 second day after a young queen has left her cell, 

 because she is then yet too feeble to make an 



