o 



1861 





42dYEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, DEC, 11, 1902. 



No. 50. 



^ Editorial Comments, i' 



The Bacillus of Foul Brood.— That excellent apicul- 

 tural journal, Le Rucher Beige, has published an article of 

 exceeding interest, being a report of investigations made 

 at the laboratory of the Institute of Pathology and Bacteri- 

 ology of the University of Iviege. in Belgium. The report 

 is made by Dr. Ul. Lambotte, who, at the instance of the 

 Society of Apiculture, made the most searching investiga- 

 tions, and announces that instead of the microbe of foul 

 brood being a specific bacillus to be found nowhere in Na- 

 ture except in cases of foul brood, it is one of the common 

 microbes to be found everywhere, the bacillus alvei being 

 identical with the well-known bacillus mesentericus vulgaris. 



This announcement will be received with surprise — 

 indeed, by many, with incredulity. But there seems little 

 chance for any mistake in the matter. Microbes of the 

 foul brood were obtained from many and widely different 

 localities, and comparisons were carefully made with bacil- 

 lus mesentericus, as also were searching tests, and all led to 

 the one conclusion. 



For the present it may suffice to withhold comment, 

 further than to say that under the assumption that the two 

 microbes are identical, every effort should be made to pre- 

 serve our colonies in clean and healthy condition so that 

 they may be able successfully to resist the attacks of the 

 enemy everywhere lying in wait, and await investigations 

 on this side the water, especially looking toward Prof. Har- 

 rison over in Canada, and Dr. Howard, in Texas. 



Late Introduction of Queens has been recommended, 

 but perhaps no one has given the matter just as G. M. 

 Doolittle gives it in the Progressive Bee-Keeper. He says : 



There is one thing I have learned of late which I have 

 never seen in print, which is, that it is almost the easiest 

 thing immaginable to introduce a queen in the late fall 

 after all the brood has emerged from the combs. Simply 

 take the old queen out, then wait a couple or three days, dur- 

 ing which time the colony will find out that they are hope- 

 lessly queenless, and being in this condition, and not hav- 

 ing even any sealed brood, they will take kindly to any 

 queen even if she is dropped right in amongst the bees. 



So, if you know that any colony has a poor queen in 

 August, and you have not supplied them with another till 

 October, it can be done during that month more easily than 

 at any other time. Therefore, do not put off this matter 

 till another spring, when it will be hard work to get a 

 queen, and hard to introduce her. 



What is a Tested Queen? — Not long ago, at a bee- 

 convention, a committee was appointed to report an answer 

 to this question. The appointment of such a committee 

 will bring a smile to the faces of some who know that for 



years it has been understood that a tested queen is one 

 whose worker progeny shows three yellow bands. 



But a thing that " has been " may not be the best. At 

 least not for all time. When Italians were first introduced 

 into this country, their superiority over the common stock 

 was considered so great that any admixture of Italian blood 

 was an acknowledged gain, and the easiest way to tell 

 whether a queen was of pure Italian stock was to see 

 whether her worker progeny were uniformly provided with 

 the three yellow bands. It was worth much to have such a 

 test, and great good has come thereby. But in these days 

 of golden Italians and 5-banders the possession of three 

 yellow bands is not the clear proof that it once was of pure 

 Italian stock. Moreover, now that pure Italian blood has 

 become so common, the mere fact that one has Italian 

 workers uniformly 3-banded is not sutilcient. Uniformity 

 as to bands is by no means indicative of uniformitj' of char- 

 acter. While possessing the desired number of bands, a 

 colony may be the best storers in the world, and it may be 

 one of the poorest. 



So the set of bee-keepers who raised anew the question. 

 " What is a tested queen ?" are merely taking the lead in 

 trying to decide a question that is likely to be a very live 

 question. It is not the purpose here to discuss the ques- 

 tion, but this much may be ventured, that the tested queen 

 of the future will not, as the tested queen of the past, be 

 one which has been laying only three weeks. 



The Inversion System — turning the brood-frames up- 

 side down once in so often for the sake of having the bees 

 destroy the queen-cells — was at one time looked to as a 

 hopeful method of overcoming the swarming evil ; but 

 nothing has been heard of it for some time. Now, however, 

 " Dilston " says in the Australasian Bee-Keeper that the 

 system " is carried on successfully year after year by one, 

 if not more, of our Australian bee-keepers." N. E. Loane 

 also says in the same journal : 



" Whatever sort of hive is used in the home apiary (I 

 prefer the " Langstroth '"), those in the out-apiaries should 

 permit of inversion, and have a divisible brood-chamber, 

 as, with such, swarming troubles can be greatly minimized." 



The question is, whether " Dilston," in saying the sys- 

 tem "is carried on successfully," merely means that 

 " swarming troubles are greatly minimized." 



Here comes something later on in the same journal by 

 the editor, which gives a clear exposition of the system iq 

 full: 



"Inverting the hive will not prevent swarming nor will 

 it check swarming, but inverting the hive at the right time 

 gives the bee-keeper entire control of swarming, if he visits 

 his bees every eight days. Inverting has no effect on the 

 hive unless queen-cells are present. Say you visit your 

 bees, you find one colony preparing to swarm in three days, 

 several others with queen-cells so far advanced as to swarm 

 in four, five or six days, you don't want to be all those days 

 in the apiary, simply invert those hives. Now consider 

 what you have done. All colonies showing indication of 

 swarming have their queen-cells turned the wrong way up. 

 The bees destroy them and start fresh cells. You have 



