656 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



■will soon disappear. It must be remembered 

 that, when breeding rapidly, bees need much 

 honey. When there is but little, some brood 

 must be ill nourished, and the scattering corpses 

 in the brood-combs would result. Some bees 

 might mature and yet be paralyzed, or have a 

 sort of " St.Vitus dance;" and so it may be true 

 that the bee-paralysis, in some cases, may have 

 a like cause. Of this last I am less certain. 

 Mr. Herron is of the opinion that the two dis- 

 eases are distinct. Some of my colonies seemed 

 to have both maladies; but with full rations 

 both are gone. 

 Claremont, Cal. 



[From the description given by Rambler of 

 this new bee-disease which has been running 

 in California, it is possible it is the same thing 

 that we have had m our own locality, and have 

 in a few of our colonies at the present time. 

 As It has done beiore for us and our neighbors, 

 we think it will 00 again — go utt of itself. If 

 starvation is the cause, when the affected col- 

 onies are supplied wiiu a lot of fresh stores, the 

 disease cures itself, and hence apparently 

 ••goes off of itself." But over against this is 

 the fact that we had some colonies at our out- 

 yard that seemed to develop the disease in the 

 neight of the basswood flow, and in one of the 

 heaviest honey-Hows we ever had; nor did the 

 dead brood manifest itself before that time. 

 For this reason it is barely possible that the 

 California trouble may be quite ditterent from 

 ours, although resembling it in outward ap- 

 pearance, liut your experience with medicine 

 Illustrates just how one may be led astray. 

 One less careuil ilian you might have tried 

 carbolic acia or salicylic acid alone; and if 

 starvatiun were the cause, the feeding wuuld, 

 of course, effect a cure, but the iiicdictue would 

 receive Lhe credit. 



Mow, lest some of our friends may be alarmed 

 at this peculiar malady whicii may appear 

 among their bees, we wuula state that the uead 

 brood, while resembling foul brood in color, 

 and in the perforation of lhe capping, is quite 

 aifferL'Ut in charactei'. The skin uf the dead 

 larva is tough and leathery, and the tissue 

 Uiilky but not ropy; neitlier does it liave the 

 odor of foul brood; and, moreover, it dues not 

 appear to be contagious. See editorials. — El). J 



FAX. 



By EUenj Krum. 



Why not kompromise the konlroversy by 

 settlin' on a 9-frame Dovetailed hive? 



Durin' a skeercity of hiinny, and when rob- 

 bers git plentiful, you kin alius introduce a 

 queen safely by makin' the colony broodless as 

 well as qiieenless, replacin' the brood after the 

 introducti in. 



Milkweed bloom comes in purty handy at 

 the wind-up of the seezin; but it don't take 

 much to scent up the hull hive with the same 

 flavor. 



It is natural fer hybrids to be born mean; if 

 you doubt it just give a frame of 'em to a colo- 

 ny of peaceable Italians, and when they hatch 

 out every bee in that hive will ketch the taint 

 of their evil inflooence. 



My friends, you ken help suppress adultera- 

 shun of huiiny by creatin' a lively home mar- 

 ket with the pure artickle. People out here is 

 gitliii' edukated to knovvin' what good hunny 

 is; and when some one imports enny kounterlit 

 stuff it goes off mily slow. 



A thrifty layin" queen don't look into every 

 cell when alout her work, but gits sort o' 

 keerless at times and deposits eggs in cells 

 partly tilled with beebread. 



Thay is a fixed and immovable rule by which 

 the bee is governed, and all a feller has to do to 

 be successful with 'em is to foller rite in har- 

 mony with it. You must not expect any in- 

 venshun to work that is made in opposishun to 

 that law. 



Slum Gum kep" a stand of bees 



Underneath the apple trees. 



In a box hive, six leet long; 



And the bees 'peared awful strong — 



Humped themselves until thay made 



Lots o' hunny; then they laid 



Sort o' lazy in the shade 



Of them trees, till Mister Gum, 



'Long in October, went plum 



Down to the cross-sticks and he 



Tuck out hunny, my-oh! three 



Dish pans full; but 'long next spring 



Wuzn't left a single thing 



Of 'em but old combs and dead 



Bees; and yit he skratched his head 



And said that he felt quite blue 



'Cause thay never wintered through! 



Br G.A\.DOOLITTLE.BOR00IN0.N.Y,|^ 



■ iiiiiNiiiyiMiiiiiiiiiiiniriiiiiimiiiiiiiiviinmiio, IIM 



BROOD IN THE SECTIONS. 



Question. — What is the cause of bees tilling 

 the sections with brood, and drone brood at 

 that'.^ What is the remedy for it? I put on 

 one case of sections some Lime ago, thinking 

 that the bees were ciowded for room, and per- 

 haps would be forced to swarm when there was 

 nu bloom to sustain swarms, and I find the 

 above result. Would you destroy the drone- 

 coinb, or shave off the heads of tlie drones in 

 the cells? Please answer through your •• Sea- 

 sonable Question" department in Gleanings. 



Answer. — The querist seems the more sur- 

 prised that the brood found in the sections was 

 drone brood, while if- 1 should find any but 

 drone brood in sections I should be as surprised 

 as he; for I have yet to see worker bi'ood in 

 sections, unless the colony was a new swarm 

 and commenced housekeeping upstairs, as is 

 sometimes the case where sections tilled with 

 foundation are placed on the hive when the 

 swarm is hived, with nothing but starters or 

 empty frames below. Where swarms are hived 

 on empty frames, the sections should not be 

 put on till the bees get well started at comb- 

 building below— say in three or four days after 

 the swarm is hived. But where empty combs 



