656 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



development of some of the new plants. It 

 remains for the experiment stdtious to show 

 the possibilities so that the rancher ard the 

 farmer can put these demonstrated pussi 

 bilities into s^od hard dollars. — Ed ] 



DR. miller's book; the sfcret of get- 

 ting SECTIONS PERFECTLY FILLED OUT. 

 Dr. C. C. Miller: — \ have been diving- 

 into your " Forty Year^? amon^ the Bees " 

 for some time, and must couftss to you I 

 have been more than repaid the cost of the 

 book. I am Interested in comb honey, hav- 

 ing about 30 colonies — some pure Italians — 

 but they do not work on red clover for me. 

 Could I possibly get a strain that will do 

 it? I want to be able to produce section 

 honey like the picture I see in the ABC 

 book, page 99, evidently a picture of some 

 one's honey. I have never been able 1o do 

 any batter than that on page 98 — No. 1. 

 My bees just will not fill out the section. I 

 am using the 4X5 plain with fences this 

 season, and am delighted with them. I 

 had much trouble last season in using the 

 A]/i and no separators with bulged comb. 

 I am a subscriber to Gleanings, and 

 should be more than obliged to you if you 

 would help a Tarheel. 

 Charlotte, N. C. Geo. M. Phi^-er. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



I'm not sure that I know the exact secret 

 cf getting sections beautifully filled out, 

 although I have produced thousands of 

 them. I'll give you the combination, how- 

 ever, as nearly as I understand it: A heavy 

 flow of nectar, a strong force of bees, the 

 colony somewhat crowded for room. Try 

 th' se three things and see if you don't get 

 satisfactory results. The first and second 

 are desirable conditions under all aspects; 

 the third — well, if it takes too much crowd- 

 ing to get sections well filled out and seal- 

 ed, I'd rather do with something not quite 

 so fine; for too much crowding is likely to 

 lessen the crop at least a little, although it 

 may increase the crop of wax, making the 

 bees plaster wax where not needed. It may 

 also Set the bees to thinking of swarming. 

 Indeec', it is probably wise at all times to 

 give the bees too much rather than too little 

 surplus room; yet I have seen sections fill- 

 ed out and finished up beautifully when I 

 thought the bees had abundance of room. 



Yes, > ou can h tve bees that will at least 

 do better than the average on red clover, 

 some bees especial]}- distinguishing them- 

 selves in that diriction. And I suspect that 

 bees that d > better than the average on red 



clover will do better than the average on 

 other plants. Try a queen of the red clover 

 strains advertised — an untested one, per- 

 haps. You may strike on one not much 

 better, if any, than your present stock; and 

 yon may strike on one that will boost you 

 away ahead. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



BEE paralysis, AND THE USE OF SUBLI- 

 MATED SULPHUR. 



In July, 1903, I bought a select tested 

 Italian queen from one of our most renown- 

 ed American queen- breeders. I introduced 

 her successfully, and gradually built the 

 colony up by adding brood-combs until 

 about the end of August the hive, a one- 

 story ten-frame regular Langstroth, was 

 fall of bees. In September I noticed many 

 dead bees in front of the hive, which accu- 

 mulated from day to day, until in October 

 the colony was reduced to a nucleus having 

 only a few bees left, and the queen. I had 

 clipped the queen as soon as 1 had received 

 her, so that I could easily recognize her. 



I came to the conclusion that here was a 

 case of paralysis, and, strange to say, the 

 only one case in a yard of about 30 colonies. 



One evening I took about 2 lbs. of flour 

 sulphur in a burlap sack, and dusted, by 

 shaking the sack, just enough sulphur on 

 all bees and combs so that every thing was 

 pretty well covered with the yellow sulphur 

 color. Then I took this hive and changed 

 location with a prosperous hive full of bees. 

 The next few days I noticed again a few 

 new dead bees on the new stand, but no 

 dead bees on the old stand. After about 

 one week there appeared no more new c ead 

 bees on the new stand of the paralytic col- 

 ony. This colony did not accumulate suffi- 

 cient stores for wintering. I fed with plenty 

 of sealed honey. 



This spring, when I examined the colony 

 in February it was weak, reduced to about 

 two frames of bees and little brood. There 

 was plenty of honej' left. May 11 they are 

 doing better, having some five combs of bees 

 and brood. I do not notice any more new 

 dead bees, so the disease seems to be gone. 



I reared two young queens from the above 

 queen, which are doing fairly well — about 

 as well as any average colony in the yard. 

 But I am afraid of this stock, and will dis- 

 card it by requeening. 



The CDlony which I put on the place of 

 the paralytic colony in the fall of 1903 had 

 a Carniolan queen bred to an Italian drone. 

 This colony never showed any sign of dis- 

 ease, of which I was afraid on acccunt of 

 the change of position. It wintered well, 

 and came out this spring as one of my best 

 colonies. Otto Luhdokff. 



Visalia, Cal., May 11. 



[I would not advise keeping the queen of 

 a paralytic colony. I think we have pretty 

 good proof that this disease is somewhat 

 hereditary; and if the queen is retained she 

 is liable to transmit it to the bees, even aft- 

 er they have been cured by sulphur. To 



