406 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 26 1902. 



no matter how crazy the bees were to rob. I wish to modify 

 this by saying that there are times when it is not practical 

 to expose a colony long enough to find the queen, espe- 

 cially with German or black bees, for one disadvantage 

 about this race of bees is that they sometimes become so 

 frightened or excited when being handled that they race 

 and run all over the combs and hive, and finally cluster in 

 bunches on the bottom-bars, so that it often takes a long 

 time to find the queen, and in some cases, this spring, be- 

 fore the queen could be found, the great horde of robbers 

 following me around would have a good share of the ex- 

 posed stores carried off. But I will say that, bad as the 

 robbers were, a medium to a strong colony never failed to 

 expel them after their hive was closed. Although I have 

 Italian bees from some, and, in fact, from almost all the 

 noted strains, the majority of my colonies are of the Ger- 

 man race, and I say that to find the queens in all of them 

 would be a big job. even if there were no robbers. 



I have done a good deal of studying over this problem, 

 which was finally solved in a most satisfactory way by the 

 use of zinc and Rambler's famous jouncer. About sun- 

 down, on warm evenings after the bees had ceased to fly, 

 entrance-guards would be attached to a large number of 

 hives, and the bees jounced out and allowed to run in 

 through the zinc. Myself and assistant timed ourselves 

 one evening, and found that one of us could attach the en- 

 trance-guard and jounce out a colony in three minutes. It 

 was such a simple, quick and easy way to find black queens 

 by this method that I was afraid there must be a catch 

 about it somewhere, and thought that perhaps it might be 

 that the jouncing would injure the brood or eggs, for the 

 jouncer I use is not the elaborate padded affair that Ram- 

 bler invented ; so I went slowly until I had time to watch 

 and notice if there were any bad after-effects on the brood. 

 A frame in a number of hives was marked, and the brood 

 carefully inspected before and each evening after the hives 

 were jounced. No ill effects whatever could be noticed, and 

 this is the method I shall practice to find queens after this, 

 whether robber-bees are bad or not : if they are not the bees 

 could be jounced out during the day, which would save 

 night work, for it takes the bees some time to work through 

 the zinc. 



I used to go around with a lantern two or three hours 

 later, and the queens were easily found among the bees 

 that were still outside. 



I have had experience enough with clipped queens be- 

 fore, though, to know that when natural swarming occurs 

 everything does not always go just right, for I have had 

 swarms without queens cluster and hang for some time 

 before returning to the hives they issued from, and in 

 numerous cases they would try to enter some other hive, 

 usually one in which a swarm had been hived shortly be- 

 fore. Again, I have had them break or divide up and try to 

 enter a number of hives ; in such cases they would usually 

 all get killed, if the colonies in the hives they were trying 

 to enter were not well smoked. Such cases, while by no 

 means rare, are exceptions ; the majority of swarms will, 

 if their queen is clipped or confined by zinc, return to their 

 own hive without clustering. But going over a yard, in 

 the spring, and clipping all queens, does not insure that all 

 queens that issue with the first or prime swarms will be 

 clipped, for it is not very rare for a colony to supersede its 

 queen just before or during the swarming season, and, 

 when this is done, if they are fairly populous they are 

 almost sure to s%varm with the first young queen that 

 hatches. 



Now, I will give beginners in clipping a little advice 

 that may in time pay them for the trouble of reading this 

 article. 



When a swarm issues and clusters, if you can't find the 

 queen don't decide they will come back anyway until you 

 raise or tip the hive up so you can look along and up be- 

 tween the bottom-bars of the frames. If they have super- 

 seded the old, clipped queen there will be ripe queen-cells in 

 sight. Cells from which young queens are nearly ready to 

 hatch look considerably different from those that have only 

 been sealed two or three days. If not able to tell in this 

 way, by taking the frames out and looking^ them over the 

 cell from which the young queen has hatched can be found. 

 If no such cell is in the hive the bees can be depended upon 

 not to leave for the woods, provided no young queen from 

 some other hive on her wedding-flight, or one driven out, 

 has not joined them. This only happens in quite rare in- 

 stances, but I have lost swarms in this way, and so have 

 others. 



The bright side, or the ease and simplicity of handling 

 natural swarming on the clipped-queen plan, has been told 



by others. I have told about the balks and difficulties that 

 one will sometimes encounter when practicing this plan in 

 a large wav. Southern Minnesota, June 7. 



Foul Brood in San Diego Co., Calif.—Needs of 

 Legislation, Etc. 



BY HON. ]. M. HAMB.\UGH. 



" During the years 18.59 and ISOO there were upwards of 6000 colo- 

 nies of bees imported from the East into this State [California]. They 

 arrived in better condition, apparently, than those of former years, 

 yet, owing to the fact that large numbers of these were infected with 

 foul hruuil prior to their purchase and shipment, together with the 

 effects of so long a voyage, probably halt of the whole number was 

 lost. Many of the remainder have since died, or now linger in a dis- 

 eased condition, which is infinitely worse for the parties owning them 

 than if all had died at onee. 



•'Thus the result has been bad for all concerned, for while some 

 have lost their money, others have injured their reputation, besides 

 paralyzing for a time an important branch of productive industry." 



So wrote Mr. Harbison, in 1861, as quoted from his 

 " Bee-Keeper's Directory." 



Just think of it ! Three thousand colonies of Joul- 

 broody bees allowed to enter our State, and be indiscrimi- 

 nately scattered all through the country ! From the read- 

 ing we would infer that the 3000 colonies were a putrid mass 

 of dead brood, germ-inoculated honey, wax, etc., and this 

 with the "many that lingered in a diseased condition," 

 destroyed the reputation of many beekeepers, and, for a 

 time, paralyzed the bee-keeping industry. 



This, you will notice, was over 40 years ago, and the 

 bee-keeping industry has survived this calamity, and many 

 might imagine that we were safe from a return of this ex- 

 tremely dangerous contagion. Let us not deceive ourselves. 

 The hydra-headed monster is abroad in the land, and I 

 very much doubt if it has ever been thoroughly banished 

 from our State since its introduction over 40 years ago. 



Like Mr. Dadaut, I never had any acquaintance with 

 this disease until I came to California, and was appointed 

 foul-brood inspector of our county (San Diego). Feb. 13, 

 1900, is the date of my first introduction. I had often won- 

 dered if I would recognize the disease. I had already come 

 in contact with many badly afflicted bees, and worried Prof. 

 Cook's patience (thanks to him) with various samples, but 

 they all seemed to lack the chief characteristics, viz.: " The 

 elastic ropiness, coffee color, and glue-pot smell." Here 

 was a case, however, that would not admit of a doubt, and I 

 was obliged to put my first seal of condemnation upon 30 

 colonies. Since that time I have found over 300 cases, and 

 it extends over an area of 70 miles square, and approximates 

 a total of nearly 7000 colonies. This will make one dis- 

 eased for nearly every 23 healthy colonies. This, of course, 

 does not include many apiaries not visited, which would 

 naturally lower the percent. 



I also found the disease in spots, with a central loca- 

 tion, traceable to imported diseased bees from foreign 

 parts, pointing very clearly to the need of a law prohibit- 

 ing the moving of bees from one locality to another without 

 a certificate from a duly authorized inspector, that such 

 bees are free from contagious diseases, etc. The bee-keep- 

 ing citizens in these unfortunate localities are vehement in 

 their expressions, and do not request such a law, but simply 

 say they (fei/ia/id iL They are the victims of unscrupulous 

 parties, who have simply unloaded their venom upon an 

 innocent purchaser, not only to poison him, but to con- 

 taminate and possibly ruin, an entire community. 



In the name of justice, bee-keepers of California, will 

 you not co-operate with us and see that our law-makers 

 frame and enact a law that will protect us from such an 

 unnecessary source of contagion among our bees? The 

 dread disease (foul brood) is among us, and without a proper 

 knowledge of it, and its cure, it is to be dreaded. 



Let me tell you, Mr. S. was a purchaser of over 100 col- 

 onies of bees in an adjacent county, two or three years ago- 

 There was always trouble among them, and, not being in- 

 formed as to the gravity of the situation, he took no pains 

 to read up. I found him, about one month ago, with 35 

 colonies, and the surrounding dead ones bore strong evi- 

 dence of the man's careless incredulity and ignorance. Of 

 the 35 colonies, 33 were in all stages of the disease, and one 

 of the remaining two was queenless ; hence, he had but one 

 sound colony in the yard. And this is not all. Every 

 neighbor's bees within reach of this apiary were more or 

 less afflicted. A widow moved 23 colonies within one: 

 fourth of a mile of him last fall, only six or seven months 



