October, 1907. 



j American Me Journal 



the late swarms were not strong enough 

 in bees to withstand tlie terrible cold, 

 and scores of colonies died with plenty 

 of stores in the brood-chambcr. 'i his 

 changed our young man's ideas, and 

 he concluded that if there was a "royal 

 road to wealth," bee-culture was not 

 on that road. I tried to explain to him 

 that winter losses could soon be re- 

 couped as long as there were a num- 

 ber of colonies remaining to breed from, 

 and plenty of combs and honey to make 

 increase by divisions, or what is now 

 called " shook-swarms." But nothing 

 would do, and at his instigation the 

 father sold me most of the bees and 

 kept only a few colonies. 



There have been plenty of instances 

 of such discouragements after good sea- 

 sons. The success and failure of most 

 lines of business, and of many crops, 

 are like the waves of the seas — full of 

 ups and downs. Now you are on the 

 crest of the waves, and now between 

 two billows that threaten to engulf you. 

 But with a good rudder, and a good, 

 determined man at the helm, there is 

 no such thing as "fail." The methods 

 are always being improved, and the 

 management is becoming easier every 

 day. 



But we must not expect sunshine 

 every day, neither should we expect 

 a storm every night. I remember that, 

 a few years ago, a man living in the 

 vicinity of East St. Louis had sold 

 something like $2,000 worth of cabbages 

 from s acres. The next season every- 

 body around him planted cabbages, with 

 the result that they could hardly be 

 given away, and had to be shipped to a 

 distant market. Then all those who had 

 so willingly rushed into this business 

 rushed out again with the same eager- 

 ness. But the man who has experience 

 and perseverance does not give up be- 

 cause of a failure. He knows that after 

 the storm, comes the sunshine, and he 

 makes ready for that sunshine, while the 

 storm is raging. 



In this part of Illinois, the summer 

 of 1906 and the spring of 1907 were 

 probably the worst known in 40 years 

 for bee-culture. At any rate, I had 

 never seen such unfavorable conditions 

 for bees, up to the beginning of June, 

 1907. But so long as we have bees 

 enough to build up again, there is no 

 need to give up. On the contrary, it is 

 then that one must persevere with re- 

 newed energy, for there are going to 

 be plenty of weak hearts, and those 

 who give up make the market better 

 for those who stay in the business. See 

 the prices of honey rising. It is be- 

 cause of poor crops and discourage- 

 ments. But some of the bee-keepers 

 are already reaping a rew-ard for per- 

 severance. Those who have held on 

 and sustained their apiaries are in many 

 places harvesting good crops, for which 

 they secure a good price. 



This is not the case only with bees or 

 cabbage. Take the grape-growing busi- 

 ness. For years grapes have sold at a 

 loss to the producer, because they were 

 too cheap. This year, many vineyards 

 have been destroyed, and those who 

 took care of their grapes are securing 

 a good price. 



So dear friends, if you have had bad 

 seasons, do not give up; care for your 



bees with renewed courage and firm- 

 ness. But if you have had good sea- 

 sons — extraordinary crops — do not im- 

 agine that there are no more storms 

 ahead. On the contrary, take heed, for 

 by and by, another storm will come. 

 Bad winters and dry summers are not 

 over ; but, on the whole, remember that 

 there is money in bee-culture for the 

 man who "stays with it." 



In my opinion, the prices of honey 

 are destined to remain firm for many 

 years. There have been short crops, 

 , apiaries are less numerous, and, in ad- 

 dition, the new pure-food law is put- 

 ting a stop to much of the adulteration, 

 so that we have a much better chance 

 to inspire confidence in the consumer, 

 when we tell him that we "guarantee 

 our honey to be absolutely pure." A 

 few years ago he might have taken this 

 as empty talk, but he now knows that 

 there is a penalty for deception in foods, 

 and this is helping us out. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Are a Queen's Drones Af- 

 fected by Her Mating ? 



BY T. W. LIVINGSTON. 



Our bee-books and periodicals have 

 long taught that a queen's drones are 

 unaffected by her mating, so that a pure 

 Italian queen, for instance, that has 

 mated with a black drone will produce 

 pure Italian drones, nevertheless. Now, 

 I think it is time for this theory to be 

 exploded, and I propose to explode it, 

 and I want all bee-keepers interested to 

 hear it "bust," because facts have never 

 failed to show me its falsity when given 

 the chance. 



Many years ago I had some 20 colo- 

 nies of black bees, and, wishing to Ital- 

 ianize, I purchased a $5 tested queen, 

 and from her reared queens and sup- 

 planted all my black ones, first sup- 

 pressing all the black drones I could, 

 and allowing the Italians to rear all the 

 drones they would, so that about 2-3 of 

 the young queens were purely mated. 



The next year I thought I would have 

 things pretty much my own way, for at 

 that time I did not know any better 

 than to believe what I had read on the 

 subject, but facts always were stub- 

 born things, and that year about 90 per- 

 cent of the queens I reared showed un- 

 mistakable impurity in their worker 

 progeny, but less, as a rule, than the 

 impurely mated ones of the previous 

 year. Since then I have carefully sup- 

 pressed all drones from mismated 

 queens with satisfactory results. 



Last year found me with 25 colonies — 

 all hybrids or blacks except 3 apparent- 

 ly pure Italians, and one Golden recent- 

 ly purchased, whose bees were all 3 to 

 5 banded. I reared queens from these 

 pure Italians, but mostly from the Gold- 

 en, and supplanted these hybrid and 

 black queens. This year I reared my 

 queens from the Golden, but, as I ex- 

 pected, this time only 3 out of 12 failed 

 to have some black bees among their 

 worker progeny. 



I have recently visited a neighbor- 

 ing bee-keeper and he showed me some 

 colonies whose queens he said he had 

 reared from a pure Caucasian mother. 



but which JKiil mated with Golden 

 drones, and, as I expected, their drones 

 were (some of them) fine Golden in 

 appearance, like some of their workers. 

 Now, who would expect that these 

 drones mating with pure Caucasian 

 queens, would fail to mark their prog- 

 eny with the golden coloring? 



Bee-keepers, you need nor take my 

 word for it, but just try it as I have 

 done, and let the facts speak for them- 

 selves; and when you are convinced by 

 the facts, we may then indulge in a lit- 

 tle philosophizing as to why it is so. 

 But let the facts speak first. 



Leslie, Ga. 



The Bacteria of the Apiary 



BY ADRIAN CETAZ. 



"The Bacteria of the Apiary, with 

 Special Reference to Bee-Diseases," is 

 the title of a bulletin by Prof. G. F. 

 White, published by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 



The first point to which Prof. White 

 calls our attention is the fact that not 

 only the bacilli, or other kinds of bac- 

 teria which produce diseases, will be, or 

 may be, found on or in the base, but 

 also a number of others. Nearly always 

 those producing putrefaction or decom- 

 position in dead vegetable or animal 

 substances are present in large number, 

 not only on the bees and combs, but, in 

 fact, everywhere. Occasionally those 

 producing other diseases in other ani- 

 mals, for instance, those producing colds 

 or consumption in the human race, may 

 be found on the bees or on the combs, 

 or even in the bodies of the bees where 

 they may have been carried in, either 

 with the food or by the respiration. 

 As a matter of fact, however. Prof. 

 White found much less of them than 

 would be naturally expected. 



To the uninitiated, it may seem sin- 

 gular that all these different germs are 

 so different to recognize. We easily 

 dstinguish the ordinary plants and ani- 

 mals because we can ascertain all the 

 details of their organizations. But it is 

 not so with the bacilli and other bac- 

 teria. The bacilli producing the Euro- 

 pean foul brood, when looked at through 

 a microscope enlarging them 1,000 times 

 look something like this : 



* z' /^ ^ I / 



^ -^ ^ --\ ' 



Suppose that cats, dogs, foxes, etc., 



were not larger than that, how could 

 we differentiate them? Furthermore, 

 they are mixed with the globules of 

 blood or fat, or particles of flesh, or 

 other substances belonging to the ani- 

 mal with which they have found lodg- 

 ment, and all that increased the difficul- 

 ties. 



The only way to separate them and 

 study them is by "cultivation." The 

 bacteria live at the expense of the ani- 

 mals or substances with which they as- 

 sociate. For instance, those that pro- 

 duce the alcoholic fermentation eat the 

 sugar contained in the fruits. The alco- 

 hol resulting is the excreta, or matters 

 transformed and rejected by them. The 



