1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



725 



what might be called the natural foundation, 

 stands out very distinctly. The other side the 

 comb, though mashed, shows the cells very 

 distinctly. The stone itself has the color of 

 ordinary sealing-wax ; and the veiy remai lia- 

 ble thing is, that, even after petrilaciion, the 

 color of the original wax should have been so 

 nearly preserved. There are exactly five cells 

 to the inch; and there can be no question but 

 that the sample before us is the comb of Apis 

 mellifica. 



There has been a desire in the past to stiffen 

 combs ; and perhaps some inventive genius 

 will now put a few combs in a petrifying- 

 spring. After they have been turned to stone 

 he can extract from them to his heart's con- 

 tent. There might be just a little trouble en- 

 countered with the uncapping-knife, and just 

 a little trouble from the great inertia in the ex- 

 tractor even when empty. 



A PECULIAR KIND OF BEE DISEASE OR 

 MALADY. 



One of our subscribers, Mr. L. B. Smith, of 

 Lometa, Texas, has a peculiar disease or mal- 

 ady that is making pretty bad work in his api- 

 ary. Whatever it is, it affects both the brood 

 and mature bees. The former looks very 

 much like foul brood, and the bees themselves 

 die off by the thousands. One would natural- 

 ly suppose that the real cause of this trouble 

 was poison — something that the bees gather- 

 ed ; but Mr. Smith is very confident that this 

 is not the cause. After some little correspond- 

 ence we learn that the malady begins about 

 the time watermelons appear in his vicinity, 

 especially after they begin to rot, and contin- 

 ues with its greatest virulence about the time 

 the melons are being grown ; for he says there 

 are many rotting melons, and that, as a gener- 

 al rule, as soon as these are gone the disease 

 begins to disappear. But now, notwithstand- 

 ing the melon season has been long past, the 

 trouble is still going on. He has lost some- 

 thing like 35 colonies out of 80, so far, and 

 still the bees are " dying by the thousands." 

 Some colonies apparently recover before a re- 

 lapse, and finally die off. 



I should be glad to know if any of our other 

 subscribers have noticed the same trouble fol- 

 lowing or during the time of growing fruit. 



QUEENS FOR BUSINESS ; THAT $100 OFFER. 

 A FEW days ago a correspondent wrote, 

 saying, " Your offer of $100 is too high ; and 

 by the terms of the same it would be imprac- 

 ticable for any one to secure the prize, for the 

 reason that it will take the breeder who pro- 

 duced her at least a year to determine whether 

 she possesses all the desirable points named ; 

 and it will take a year or more for the pur- 

 chaser to prove her qualities. By that time 

 her usefulness will nigh be gone." There 

 is a good deal in this. In talking with W. Z. 

 Hutchinson, of the Review, recently, he gave 

 expression to similar sentiments. So, taking 

 it all in all, the maximum price we can put 

 on queens would be something like $25. We 

 have already given $10 apiece for a couple of 

 queens whose bees did record-breaking work 



in comb honey the past season. From one of 

 these we hope to be able to find one that will 

 reach the $100 mark ; that is to say, a queen 

 with which we would not part for less than 

 $100. 



But this talk about $100 queens has been 

 productive of a great amount oi good. Honey- 

 producers all over the country, as well as 

 queen-breeders, judging from the scores of 

 letters that have been received, have been and 

 are selecting for the coming season breeders 

 whose bees have done splendid work in sec- 

 tions. I doubt whether any thing else would 

 have stimulated such a healthful state of 

 affairs as our offer of $100 ; and I will say now 

 that, if the conditions are fully met, our $100 

 is still ready to be paid over. We are on 

 track of two more queens whose bees last sea- 

 son produced nearly 200 pounds of comb hon- 

 ey when the other bees in the same yard were 

 doing practically nothing, showing that the 

 season was generally a poor one. What might 

 be expected from those same bees in a good 

 season may be readily guessed ; for it is bees 

 that will get honey during a poor season that 

 we want. 



I hope the race for color has had its day ; 

 and while there have been several specimens 

 of bees that have been good workers, as well 

 as beautiful, the majority of those ive have 

 tested have had some bad traits, either in 

 temper, swarming propensity, or a lack of 

 hardiness for wintering. Let the matter of 

 color be only a secondary consideration. Put 

 first, ability to get honey ; second, wintering 

 qualities ; third, disinclination to swarm ; 

 temper next, and color last of all. But, other 

 things being equal, I should very much prefer 

 gentle bees if at the same time they can have 

 the othtr three desirable qualities. Color 

 really amounts to nothing. 



Of color or markings it may be said that, 

 of whatever blood the queen may be, she 

 must be pure, whether Carniolan, black, or 

 Italian. A hybrid queen with an ancestry of 

 hybrids back ten years might be able to re- 

 produce her kind without sporting toward 

 either the blacks or Italians. Dr. Miller has 

 such a queen. Her bees outstripped every 

 thing else in the apiary last season, and he is 

 going to use her for a breeder. 



Hybrids are apt to be more or less cross. 

 It has been observed, I believe, that the cross 

 or "snappy" kind are the ones that produce 

 results in honey. Did you ever notice that it 

 is often the "snappy" kind of people who 

 can get out a big day's work, even though 

 they are not, perhaps, the most popular 

 among their fellows ? 



"ADVANCE, AUSTRALIA;" PICTURES, WHAT 

 DO THEY MEAN TO US? 

 A FEW days ago a bulletin from Australia 

 came to hand, and in it was a picture that 

 brought forward to my own mind familiar in- 

 cidents. It was a half-tone from a wash-draw- 

 ing, and not from a photo. But notwithstand- 

 ing the picture was made with pen and brush, 

 there was something about it that was decid- 

 edly natural ; and I therefore sent the bulle- 

 tin to our engravers, and asked them to repro- 



