692 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



llio comb, and the cells are well apart, and are 

 more easily transferred, as they become capped, 

 to a nursery. 



While I am writing I will say that I use pul- 

 verized sugar for candy instead of granulated 

 sugar. This I work into honey that has been 

 warmed until thin, and work well until it will 

 not run. After my candy is made and given 

 the bees, I notice it looks like granulated sugai-. 



The more I use the improved Benton cage, 

 the more I like it. J. -D. Fooshp:. 



Coronaca, S. C, Aug. 7. 



[Your article above, friend F.. is I'ight in line 

 with our expci-ience. and gives the keynote why 

 we first failed with the Doolittle queen-cell 

 cups. We gave them, in our first trials, to an 

 upper story of a strong colony having a queen, 

 and this, strangely enough, was during the 

 honey season. Out of a dozen cups given them 

 with larvte. at a time, we could secure on an 

 average about 2 cells fi'om a lot. The rest were 

 either torn down. or. what was more often the 

 case, comb was being built in the space they 

 occupied. In some cases comb completely cov- 

 ered cells that were nicely built out and capped 

 over. Well, before we knew it. the upper story 

 of our c(^ll-building colony had become queen- 

 less, and it was tlien we began to have success 

 with the cells given them. We could not im- 

 agine why the cells would be accepted in one 

 case and not in the other, under apparently pre- 

 cisely the same conditions. We were forced to 

 the conclusion that the absence of the queen in 

 the lower story accounted for it, and an exam- 

 ination proved it. Our cell-cups are now given 

 to queenless colonies to start; and nine-tenths 

 of those cups are accepted. After they are 

 once started, the upper story of a colony hav- 

 ing a queen will build them out. We do not 

 find any thing in Doolittle's book that contem- 

 plates just exactly the condition of cell-build- 

 ing as we find it in our own apiary. We have 

 no doubt that Mr. Doolittle can enlighten us, 

 or perhaps point out the missing link. 



We. too. have found that the bees in an upper 

 story sometimes get tired of cell-building, and 

 after a while do not do their work so well.] 



E. R. R. 



SOME ITEMS. 



BACILLUS DEPILIS. 



What causes the nameless bee disease? Does 

 any one know? Does the location of the indi- 

 vidual hive cause it? These are tiie questions 

 that are running through my mind at this time, 

 and I thought a few facts along this line would 

 not b.' amiss in Glkanings. Four years ago 

 was the first I ever had this disease in my api- 

 ary that I know of. I then found it in one hive, 

 and tlutt colony became so depopulated that I 

 united it with anotiier for winter. The colony 

 stood all summer near an ant-hill, which grew 

 during the summer to a large size; thus the 

 stand of this colony became of note in my mind, 

 so tliat a mistake would be impossible as to the 

 location. On this colony I tried no prevent- 

 ive, only carefully inspected the bees, hive, 

 etc., but could come to no conclusion regarding 

 the trouble. Three yeai's ago no bees occupied 

 that stand on account of the ant-hill, and dur- 

 ing that summer I dug the ant-liill out one wet 

 •day, and stamped other earth in the hole, a la 

 somebody — I can not tell who. but guess it was 

 Prof. Cook. This dirt, when it hardened, kept 

 the ants away that year. Last year I placed a 

 colony on this stand liaving a queen in it that 

 came from the South, and in about six weeks 

 from the time the colony was placed there I 



noticed that the ants had begun on their old 

 location again, near the entrance of the hive, 

 and in a week or so more I noticed that the 

 nameless bee di.sease was putting in an appear- 

 ance in the colony. In a short time this colony 

 became worse than the first, if possible, they 

 being out in front of the hive, rolling in the 

 dirt by the hundreds, and finally dying to such 

 an extent that there was a stench aliout the 

 place. 1 now gave them three frames of brood 

 from another hive to keep their strength up, 

 killed the queen, and gave them another, a la 

 Root. This new queen laid very prolifically. 

 and I hoped that these new bees would be proof 

 against the disease, as friend Root told us we 

 might expect; but not so. These took the dis- 

 ease, or were never free from it, and all died 

 before spring, in the cellar, while not another 

 colony died, or came anywhere near it. that 

 was wintered in the same cellar. This spring I 

 placed another colony on the stand — a colony 

 which had been perfectly healthy all of the 

 season of 181)0 (as were all the rest of my bees, 

 except the one spoken of above), and in less 

 than six weeks from the time this colony was 

 placed on this stand it began to show signs of 

 the' disease, and to-day is nearly extinct from 

 the great mortality of the bees, although the 

 combs have been kept well filled with brood all 

 the while. Some four weeks ago I tried the 

 brine (or salt-water) plan, as recommended by 

 Henry Alley and others, making a brine so 

 strong that not nearly all of the salt would 

 dissolve, and poured this on the combs and in 

 the hive. For a few days I thought this was 

 going to be a help, but now the bees are dying 

 and rolling about in front of the hive as badly 

 as ever, while on the combs and in the hive the 

 condition is no better, although there is still 

 plenty of salt in sight therein. I am now giv- 

 ing tiiem bi'ood and a new queen to try and see 

 if they can be wintered. During all this time 

 not another colony in the yard has shown signs 

 of the disease. Can the location of this hive 

 have any thing to do with the trouble, or the 

 ants? With Dr. Miller I will say, "I don't 

 know;" yet I must say that it is very singular. 

 I have studied the colony as closely as possible; 

 but so far I have no light as to what the trouble 

 is and how it can be remedied. 



IvEEPING DRONE BROOD. 



We que(Mi-breeders often want to keep the 

 very last eggs laid by the queen of our choice 

 in drone-cells, so as to have a very few fine 

 drones late in the season. By hand-picking 

 these, after all the other drones are killed oft, 

 we can have things our way as to the mating 

 of our queens. Now. I find that drones reared 

 in July '"play out" before October; hence, to 

 have good strong drones in October they must 

 come from eggs laid duiing the fore part of 

 August. I have no di faculty in getting these 

 eggs during the last of the honey harvest; but 

 to get the bees to perfect them to living drones 

 is where the trouble lies. Last year I tried 

 placing these in a queenless colony, but only 

 about 50 drones was the result out of about as 

 many thousand eggs. This year I tried putting 

 them in a populous colony which had lots of 

 honey, putting them over the queen-excluder, 

 in the second story, where I raise my queen- 

 cells. This did better than last year, yet the 

 bees destroyed over one-half of the eggs. Who, 

 in a locality similar to mine, where basswood is 

 the last hoiiey crop, can tell me how to rear and 

 keep drones during August and September? 



QUEEN-CELLS FROM WAX CUPS. 



I see friend Root is not having success with 

 the wax cell -cups, again, although he reported 

 success last spring. Now. my opinion regard- 

 ing the failure is. that the trouble lies in han- 



