1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



809 



LONGEVITY OF IMPORTED QUEENS. 



My imported queen, purchased of you late in the 

 season of 1883, died the following- winter, without 

 leaving- me a single one of her daughters. 1 won- 

 der how many of your ABC class have done the 

 same or nearly the same thing. Of course, if I 

 had succeeded in getting a large number of extra 

 good queens, noted for usefulness, you would 

 have had my report sooner. I resolved to tell you 

 this, even if it is seemingly adverse; but such ad- 

 versity only makes mo the more careful, and 

 appreciate success more when it does come. 



Mr REPORT. 



From 8 colonies I have 403 lbs. of extracted hon- 

 ey, 100 lbs. comb. My best colony has given me 

 lU gallons, and I shall probably get li» gallons 

 more. Tlie q-ieen was purchased of G. A. Beech, 

 Quitman, Mo., and is extra prolific. 



4-W. H. Lxws,li--2->. 



Pocola, Ind. Tor., Sept. 22, 1886. 



Thanks, friend L., for the vahiablc fact 

 you give in regard to the distance a swarm 

 of bees may travel. — I am glad to hear that 

 you succeeded so well with the hive made as 

 mentioned.— Where we sell imported queens 

 late in the fall, we presume they will, of 

 course, live long enough to be of some use 

 next season. Queens,' however, like other 

 farm stock, are liable to die at any time, and 

 without any apparent reason. In considei'a- 

 tion, however, that you secured no young 

 queens from her at all, we will f urnisli you 

 another at half price, any time when you 

 feel inclined to order. I' believe that im- 

 ported queens have not, as a rule, proved to 

 be shorter-lived than other queens; and in 

 some cases they have done good service for 

 two and even three seasons. 



FOUL BKOOD. 



FRIEND DOOLITTLE TALKS TO US ABOUT IT. 



TT seems to be a way we bee-keepers have, of dis- 

 1^ cussing a subject "to death" when onc3 we 

 ]|f begin on it, and for this reason I had thought 

 ■*■ I would not say a word regarding foul brood; 

 but as some errors have crept into this foul- 

 brood discussion, as I view them, I can not well 

 hold my peace, for 1 deem it wrong to allow an er- 

 ror to pass unnoticed. First, 1 wish to call to no- 

 tice that the phenol cure was brought forward to 

 cure Bacillus nlvci, which, in my opinion, is not our 

 foul brood at all, if we take Mr. Chcsbire's descrip- 

 tion of it, found on pages tj41 and TfO of A. B. J. for 

 a truthful outline of said disease. He then says the 

 disease is not carried in the honey, while our hon- 

 ored M. Quinby said that it is, and hundreds cf 

 bee-keepers can testify to the truth of Quinby's 

 words. He further says, "There is not a single old 

 idea about this disease (foul brood) which is not 

 incorrect, e.xcept that it is contagious." Again, ho 

 tells us it is a disease of the mature bees, and that 

 even the eggs of the queen contain bacilli, he hav- 

 ing counted " no less than nine" in an egg. All 

 this yjroves to my mind that Bacillus alcci is not 

 our foul brood, even although Mr. Cheshire says it 

 is, and that phenol is a remedy for only the lirst, 

 and not the last. I always prize scientific research- 

 es highly; yet, to be valuable to me such research 

 must not run squarely against I'apts kncwp to exist 



from practical experience. Hence 1 think there 

 is an error somewhere, so I am, like friend Root, 

 skeptica' regarding the phenol cure. 



Again, Mr. Hoyle is putting forth the idea that the 

 disease is caused by inferior honey, and that it can 

 be cured by feeding " nice honey from flowers or 

 sugar syrup," all of which convinces me that he 

 never had the genuine foul brood as it existed from 

 1855 to 1875 here in New York. 



Malignant foul brood is always aggi-essive, never 

 retrograding; and although there are times during 

 a heavy honey-tlow when the bees make a desper- 

 ate effort to clean it all out, yet, as soon as that 

 flow ceases, even an inexperienced eye can tell that 

 the disease is surely and steadily advancing, so that 

 in less than one year from the time many cells of 

 foul brood are seen, the colony must succumb to 

 the inevitable; for by that time the combs have be- 

 come literally a putrid mass. All other diseases of 

 the brood will get well, as Mr. Hoylc speaks of, and 

 would succumb to the mild treatment of coffee, 

 as Mr. Vance tells us about; but the genuine is not 

 gotten rid of so easily. 1 have not seen a genuine 

 case of foul brood in ten years, and I very much 

 doubt if friend Root has had real foul brood in his 

 apiary. At any rate, I think he has been a little 

 hasty in destroying those affected colonics by fire; 

 for if it were not foul brood, bees by the colony 

 make rather expensive fuel. Just what I should 

 do in a like case would be, when 1 found a colony 

 which gave appearance of foul brood, I would 

 carefully note the number of diseased cells it 

 contained, and the strength of colony, after which 

 I would close the hive and let it alone for two 

 months, when, just at night, when there "was no 

 danger of robbing, I would again examine it and 

 compare notes. If not materially worse, I would 

 again wait another two months, knowing, of course, 

 that there was no danger of its getting so weak 

 that it would be robbed out. If at the end of four 

 months it should be no worse, or had got better, 

 I would call it all right; for by this time the genu- 

 ine foul brood would have so spread that at least 

 half the brood would be dead, especially in the sum- 

 mer months. If it proved aggressive, I would take 

 the course friend Root has, providing only a few 

 had the disease. If many had it I would treat them 

 on the Jones plan, only I would not starve them as 

 he does; for from my experience with it in 1872 and 

 '73 I can see no need of this starving process; for if 

 swarms from a foul-broody colony, placed in an 

 empty hive, do not have any of the disease, driven 

 colonies will not. Colonies so hived in 1872 did not 

 again have the disease, while driven colonies were 

 left in an empty hive till larviv began to hatch, 

 when combs and frames of brood were given them, 

 and no signs of the disease appeared afterward. 

 By this plan I secured six frames, partly filled with 

 nice worker-combs, which were afterward complet- 

 ed with nuclei, which I should have lost had I used 

 the plan as Mr. Jones uses it. If not wanted as 

 above, these combs are splendid to use in sections, 

 a la Walter House, so in this way those six days of 

 fasting are made to be of value to the unlucky api- 

 arist. Having once " been through the mill" with 

 the genuine, 1 know whereof 1 speak. 



Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



Since our last report I (Ernest) have been 

 through the apiary personally, and now, 

 having examined lialf the colonies, I have 

 foujid five of the very icontt forms of foul 



