808 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bee-l>isease is l>isappearing'. — 



Prof. Cook, writing from Claremont, Calif., 

 on June 13th, about the bee-paralysis which 

 has been very prevalent the past spring in 

 his locality, said this in regard to it: 



I am very glad to write that the " bee- 

 disease " seems to be rapidly on the \vsine. 

 Colonies that seemed very bad two or three 

 weeks since, seem nearly or quite well now. 

 One of my colonies is quite bad yet ; but I 

 think it is also mending. I think the dis- 

 ease is to be transient. A. J. Cook. 



We hope the Professor is correct in think- 

 ing that the disease "is to be transient," 

 though even a " transient " disease may do 

 much damage sometimes. Perhaps a suc- 

 cessful treatment may yet be found, how- 

 ever. 



'I'lte JFoiil JBrood ISoolc, by Dr. 



Wm. R. Howard, received generous and 

 thorough reviews at the hands of Bros. 

 Hutchinson and Hasty in the June Bee- 

 KeeperK.'' Jiemew. It is surprising to note the 

 many kind words that book has called out. 

 Dr. Howard should feel satisfied when he 

 thinks of all the good things said about his 

 little book. Every bee-keeper should read 

 it, and then he will know for himself its 

 valuable yet concise manner of dealing 

 with the subject of foul brood. Only 25 

 cents, postpaid. Orders received at this 

 office. 



J\ew Enemy to Ilees.— Mr. K. R. 

 Mathey, in Glcmdnys, some time ago wrote 

 thus about a new enemy to bees: 



The worst enemy of the bee is, according 

 to anew naturalist, the thick " humpbacked 

 fly," Fhora mrrnsmta — a black little fly with 

 a well-defined hump. It has lately been 

 observed in Germany, and also in Russia 

 and Sweden, as a terrible enemy of the 

 bee-brood. This insect sneaks into the hive 

 at the first opportunity, seeks out a still 

 unsealed cell in which the queen has laid 

 an egg, and from which the larva has lately 

 emerged, and then, by means of a long 

 ovipositor, inserts an egg of its own under 

 the skin of the immature bee. This egg 

 possesses a terrible tenacity of life ; for 

 after three hours this larva creeps out and 

 bores itself deep into the fat of the bee- 

 pupa, and the cell meanwhile is capped 

 with wax. 



After 48 hours the larva of the phora 

 sloughs its skin for the first time; but at 

 the end of another day and a half it goes 

 through the same operation again. A pupal 

 existence of 24 hours suffices to give it a 

 bodily length of a tenth of an inch. Now 

 the creature sheds its skin the third time, 

 makes its way toward the larva of the bee, 



devours the rest of it, bites through the wax 

 capping of the cell, and creeps out of the 

 hive at the entrance, to seek the ground 

 outside in order to pupate, and from the 

 pupa to become a perfect fly. If this does 

 not succeed, the transition from stage to 

 stage takes place in the hive itself — the 

 worst thing possible for the bees, for the 

 newly-hatched phora does irreparable mis- 

 chief, so that the colony perishes. 



"Ever since I have been receiving 

 the Bee Journal it is the first and last 

 paper that I read through the week. No 

 one can appreciate it more than I do." — 

 Geo. Spencer, of Kansas, May 26, 1894. 



A S^vinrtliiig" Pirin. — In the Ameri- 

 can Bee-Kceper for June, we find this edi- 

 torial item : 



The Wm. Penn Bargain House, whose 

 advertisement appeared in our columns 

 some time ago, has turned out to be a 

 swindling firm. Our readers are cautioned 

 against having anything to do with them. 



We reprint the above for the reason that, 

 unfortunately for us, the same firm had an 

 advertisement in the Bee Jouknal some- 

 time ago. 



ISees l>y tlie Poiincl. — In comment- 

 ing on an article on "Traffic in Bees by the 

 Pound," written by Bro. Hutchinson for 

 the Progressive Bee-Keeper^ the editor of that 

 paper says : 



While it sometimes pays to buy bees by 

 the pound, in most cases it is unprofitable 

 both to the seller and the buyer. This we 

 have always believed to be so, and have 

 never offered bees by the pound, and when 

 having inquiries for them, we have cited 

 the parties to some one who advertised 

 bees that way. Bro. Hutchinson expresses 

 it thusly : 



To rob the bees of their brood, or to rob 

 the brood of sufficient bees to protect it, is 

 like separating a man from his wife. We 

 would as soon cut off the heat from an in- 

 cubator full of half-hatched eggs, or pull a 

 sitting hen off a nest of hatching eggs, as 

 to sell a pound of bees that are needed in 

 the spring of the year to protect and care 

 for the brood. We believe that when a 

 portion of the bees are sold, the same por- 

 tion of brood should accompany them. We 

 think it was Oliver Foster that gave away 

 a piece of comb containing brood with 

 every pound of bees sold. Although he ad- 

 vertised V:)ees by the pound, he believed 

 that the brood and bees should not be sep- 

 arated. 



Oreat Premiuois on page 803 



