1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



829 



weak colonies good for nothing. The dis- 

 eased brood has been cleaned out by the bees; 

 in general, some have dried down, and I pre- 

 sume they are covered with honey. It seems 

 that, when brood grows scarce, or a colony 

 becomes queeuless, all strong colonies will 

 get the dead brood out of sight. I do have 

 some fears that this malady may clean us all 

 out of bees ; but I have faith, and hope that, 

 if we reach a good honey season, this dreaded 

 disease may practically disappear. 



However, I do not wish to be understood 

 that all bees have been cured, or cured them- 

 selves, for many have destroyed their bees by 

 the hundred swarms this fall. But where 

 more favorable conditions have prevailed it 

 has been otherwise. I have never been in the 

 habit of feeding bees very much ; but I am 

 not sure but it will pay to feed, in time of a 

 honey-dearth, those colonies that are affected. 

 The use of drugs may help — I don't know. 

 I have seen some good results where drugs 

 have been used ; but the bees were fed sugar 

 syrup at the right time, in my opinion. 



I am the bee-keepers' servant, doing the 

 best I know to help them. I am trying to in- 

 form myself, and hope to be able to know 

 much more about how to handle diseased 

 brood, etc., than I do now. I invite my 

 brother bee-keepers to write their experiences 

 along the line of bee-diseases, and especially 

 diseased brood, such as foul brood, pickled 

 brood, and something about half way be- 

 tween — or is it all one? What do you think 

 about the trinity? Thus far in my work I 

 have been careful to burn only such colonies 

 as have been really bad, or those on a clean 

 territory, or very nearly so. I find that some 

 have sold bees from a foul -brood locality in 

 the early spring, to parties on what I call 

 clean territory. It should be clearly under- 

 stood that the law forbids the sale of bees 

 from foul-broody apiaries. Be careful. 



This has been the poorest honey season I 

 ever knew, especially so in buckwheat local- 

 ities. N. D. West, 



Bee Inspector. 



Middleburgh, N. Y., Oct. 23. 



[See editorials. — Ed.] 



MRS. SWEETHEART. 



A .$200 Queen found at Last. Her Bees Gentle, and 

 Good Workers; a Valuable Article. 



BY A. J. WRIGHT. 



Doctor Miller rightly says, p. 603, " You're 

 on the right track in offering a premium for 

 good working stock." It is the queen that 

 gets the honey, and no mistake. Now, I am 

 not rearing queens for sale, but I have one 

 queen that nothing short of $200 in clean cash 

 would buy; and if I knew that I should never 

 have another as good, I should hesitate to part 

 with her at that price. Why? Well, I don't 

 mind telling you. Last season, which was the 

 poorest but one that I ever knew, and that one 

 the present, this queen gave me 167 pounds of 

 beautiful marketable honey in sections, while 



my other colonies were doing all the way from 

 20 to 50 pounds. This season at this date 

 (Aug. 19) this queen (or, more properly, her 

 bees) has filled and capped four crates of 24 

 pounds each, and has gone into the fifth one, 

 which I have just given them with a double 

 hustle, and which I think they will fill. My 

 other colonies are doing from nothing to 50 

 pounds. The bees from this queen pay but 

 little attention to buckwheat, but at this time 

 are getting their supplies from the second crop 

 of red clover. The honey is capped very 

 white. 



I handle the bees from this queen at any 

 time and under any circumstances, rain or 

 shine, full honey-flow or none, without gloves, 

 smoke, or veil, removing the cover with a 

 snapping of propolis, taking off or putting on 

 sections, diving into the frames, etc., and I 

 have never yet been stung by them ; but, on 

 the contrary, they appear pleased to see me, 

 making a buzzing sound of contentment when 

 the hive is opened. 



This queen is very prolific, and the bees win- 

 ter substantially without loss. Last season 

 this queen threw off a swarm in May — I can't 

 tell the date. This season a swarm was thrown 

 off May 15. No disposition is shown to throw 

 off a second swarm. The bees from this queen 

 are uniformly marked with three distinct 

 bands of light amber, and are of large size. 



This is the second season that I have had 

 this queen, and I am requeening my apiary 

 with her daughters as rapidly as possible. 



"Sweetheart," the name of this queen, is 

 ju-st my ideal of what a queen should be. In 

 my bee-keeping experience of nearly twenty 

 years I have never known her equal. 



PREVENTING AFTER-SWARMS. 



On p. 397 several methods are given — all of 

 them probably good. The following plan is 

 the one I use, and always with good results : 



My parent colonies all have clipped queens. 

 When a swarm issues I place the new hive on 

 the old stand, and hive the swarm and old 

 queen, removing the old hive to a new loca- 

 tion. It is from this old hive, of course, that 

 after- swarms may be expected to issue. About 

 the time the cells are to hatch I place an en- 

 trance-guard of perforated zinc on, and leave 

 it a few days, when several dead queens will 

 be found at the entrance. I now remove the 

 zinc, and have the best queen of the lot on 

 the plan of the survival of the fittest. 



MAKING INCREASE. 



On pages 140, 226, and elsewhere, methods 

 are given for making increase. These methods 

 all make increase at the expense of honey-pro- 

 duction. Suppose the bee-keeper has several 

 strong colonies in movable-frame hives, which 

 in a good season should give a surplus worth 

 five to ten dollars each ; should he attempt to 

 increase by the method given, he would get 

 no surplus, thus making the methods too ex- 

 pensive. 



The following plan will not disturb your 

 original colonies, and will also utilize the box- 

 hive man : 



In the early spring, say in March, in this 

 latitude, purchase of the box-hive man or 



