Ma> 'I, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



better; but April 1st thej began to dwindle, 

 and it looks now as if I were going to lose all 

 of them. They look all right in color, but 

 they can not fly. The ground is strewn with 

 them crawling around, and they can not gtt 

 on the wing. I opened the strongest colony 

 to-day, thinking it was queenless, but found 

 the queen and some brood, but no larva>, and 

 the queen had begun laying eggs, but not 

 many. The strong colonies have lots of dead 

 bees in front of them, and a great many not 

 dead yet. They act as if they were poisoned, 

 but it continues so long I fear it is bee-chol- 

 era. I have lost 13 colonies, and will lose sev- 

 eral more if the weather stays bad and they 

 keep dying as they have been doing. Their 

 abdomens are natural in size and the color is 

 natural. I do not see anyjoung larv;e in 

 front of the hives. 



My bees were short of stores last fall and I 

 fed them 1}4 barrels of granulated sugar, acd 

 so it can not be stores. Indiana. 



-\NSWER.— The probability is that there is 

 no trouble except the terrible weather. I 

 don't remember a spring just like it in 45 

 years. A few days of summer in March made 

 the bees start a lot of brood that they couldn't 

 care for when it froze up again, and the 

 nurses were in no condition to stand the con- 

 finement. To-day — 2 days later than the date 

 of your letter — it begins to look as if we 

 might have spring again in place of winter, 

 and we will hope that by the time this meets 

 your eye in print your bees will be on the up- 

 grade — greatly reduced, to be sure, but 

 healthy, ai3d hopefully building up again. 



Feeding Pollen Substitutes 



Where can I get a kind of bee powder or 

 food that is fed to bees to make them work 

 better and produce more honey? My neigh- 

 bor uses such, but refuses to tell me where he 

 got it, or what it is. It looks something like 

 wheat flour. Bees like it very much. 



Minnesota. 



Answer. — There is no sort of secret powder 

 or food that can be given to bees to make 

 them do more unless it be honey and pollen, 

 and there's no secret about that. The thing 

 probably meant in the present case is some 

 kind of meal used in place of pollen. In the 

 spring, when the weather is good, and yet 

 there is no pollen to be had, set out a box or 

 dish of any size containing some kind of 

 meal, and the bees will take it in place of pol- 

 len. Grain of any kind ground will answer. 

 The kind I have used more than any other is 

 ground oats and corn— the kind that cattle 

 and horses eat, that kind being conveniently 

 on hand. Put a stone or block under one side 

 of the box, and when the bees dig the meal 

 down level, change the stone to the other 

 side. They will dig out all the fine parts, and 

 the coarser parts that are left can be fed to 4- 

 legged stock. But just as soon as they can 

 get the natural pollen they will desert the 

 meal-boxes. 



Cold Weather for Bees-Rearing 



ttueens-Brood Foundation - 



Hive-Covers 



1. Is this steady cold weather liable to hurt 

 the bees very much? 



2. I also have a select breeding-queen which 

 I bought last spring, and would like to rear 

 all young queens from her. How would it 

 do to build this colony up strong early, make 

 them queenless, and after they had started 

 queen cells divide them into about 7 nucleus 

 colonies, and then when my other bees swarm 

 unite each swarm with one of these nucleus 

 colonies, letting the bees run through a queen- 

 excluder and catch the queen and put her 

 back into the old colony, move that to one 

 side, cut out all queen-cells, and set the new 

 swarm where the old one stood, and after 10 

 days remove the old colony to another stamii 

 If this plan will not work, will you please 

 give me a better one'! 



3. What kind of brood-foundation do you 



use, and how many sheets does it run to the 

 pound » 



4. How would you have your hive-covers 

 made if you were buying new hives? I want 

 to increase to 12 or 14 colonies this year. 



MiCBIGAS. 



Answers — 1. Yes, in some places there 

 has been a confinement of 3 weeks in April 

 from continued cold weather, and there is 

 danger that not a few colonies, reduced at 

 this time of year to their smallest numbers, 

 will have all stores within reach eaten, and 

 will starve with plenty of honey in the hive. 



2. If your bees don't get to swarming be- 

 fore you are ready for them, the plan will 

 work. By adding combs of brood from other 

 colonies you can have your best colony oc- 

 cupy 2 stories. Then you ought to be able to 

 get your queens started in fruit-bloom, as 

 this is supposed to be very abundant in your 



region. I have worked the plan a little dif- 

 ferently. Queens were clipped, and when 

 the swarm issued the queen clipped was 

 picked up, the nucleus eet in place of the old 

 colony, allowing the swarm to return and 

 enter the nucleus of its own accord. This al- 

 ways succeeded, but some others have said 

 that their queens were killed by the return- 

 ing bees. It this should happen with you, 

 you could cage the queen in a provisione(J 

 cage. 



3. Medium brood, running 7 or 8 sheets to 

 the pound. 



4. " I'm not sure whether I'd get the kind I 

 now have, or try rubberoid or something of the 

 kind that might cost less. The ones I have 

 are double, an upper and a lower part of ?» 

 stuff, 'V inches apart, so as to leave an air- 

 space between, covered with tin or zinc. The 

 only objection is that they cost about 30 cents 

 each. 



Report of the 37th Arnjal Conven- 

 tion of the National bee- Keepers' 

 Association, held in 5an An. 

 tonio.Tex., Nov.8-io, '06 



(Continued from page 376 ) 

 Cause and Cure of Bee-Paralysis. 



"What is the cause of bee-paralysis, 

 and what is the best cure?" 



Mr. Coggshall — I have been where 

 it is. Mr. Poppleton has it in Florida, 

 He can not cure it; the bees die about 

 as fast as they increase, and just about 

 keep even. 



Mr. Piper — I asked that question. Of 

 course I think I have a cure, but I 

 would like to know the cause of it. I 

 use sulphur as a remedy. Some recom- 

 mend putting it on top of the frames. 

 If you do you will kill the brood, though 

 I found putting it on the bottom-board 

 is effective, and it does not kill the 

 brood. But of course I know there is 

 another cure by introducing a new 

 queen. 



Pres. Dadant — I wish to say that this 

 is an international disease; it is known 

 in every country, although in cold 

 countries it is less prevalent. 



Mr. Anderson — I once thought that it 

 was caused from certain flowers until 

 I experimented with extracted honey 

 from a few colonies. Those bees I car- 

 ried through on the sugar syrup. In 

 order to test the matter I extracted the 

 honey late in the fall, from a few colo- 

 nies, and allowed the bees to clean up 

 the combs, and I used those combs to 

 feed the other bees; that is, I fed the 

 sugar syrup. I hived the bees and 

 found them this way: Those bees that 

 were carried through on the sugar syrup 

 showed the disease equally as bad as the 

 others. 



Dr. Bohrer — With regard to paralysis, 

 my opinion is that it affects the bees 

 just as it does mankind, and I don't 



know what to attribute it to. Persons 

 are not exempt from paralysis at any 

 age ; the infant will have it, the 5 or 

 10 year old boy will have it, a.id the old 

 man will have it, and very often when 

 he least expects it. In fact, an old man 

 in my settlement boasted of his good 

 Health and yet he was taken home from 

 • prayer-meeting stricken with paralysis 

 and died the next day. Paralysis, I 

 say, affects the nervous system, and if 

 we can find some kind of honey that 

 will injure the nervous system we may 

 get at the cause. Dr. Phillips is con- 

 ducting experiments along this line. I 

 suggest that he try it. Sulphur, it is 

 said, has cured it by being sprinkled 

 among the bees ; but I don't know 

 whether it has. 



Mr. Rankin — The last year and a half 

 I have been in California, and most of 

 my work has been on bee-diseases. I 

 am not prepared to say that it is a 

 nervous disease, but I am prepared to 

 say that I don't know the cause, and 

 don't know a remedy. 



Wm. Atchley — I have had a little ex- 

 perience along that line. I don't be- 

 lieve that it is catching. I have tried to 

 see if I could not affect other colonies 

 with it, but failed. It is no doubt caused 

 by the queen, and I have cured it by 

 doing away with that queen. 



L. Jones — I have had some experience 

 with paralysis of the bees. Dr. Bohrer 

 said he attributed it to the nervous sys- 

 tem. I think it is due to the digestive 

 system. I read an article advising the 

 use of sulphur — just sprinkle it over 

 the top of the frames. I had a man 

 working for me, and we sprinkled the 

 sulphur over the frames, and the next 

 two or three days he said: "Look here, 

 Jones, I believe you have killed every 

 one of them." That was late in the 

 fall, , and the next spring the disease 

 did not show up. Mr. Atchley says he 

 does not believe it is catching. I don't 



