1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



109 



Italian stock. From this and the results of 

 similar treatments the following deductions 

 may apply: 



That the logical cure of European foul 

 brood is composed of two parts: The tem- 

 porary and the perinanervt, the first con- 

 sisting of the elimination of the diseased 

 brood in the hive, and the second the es- 

 tablishment of immunity in the colony. 

 Alexander accomplished part one in an ef- 

 fective way by employing a large queenless 

 force of young bees to clean house. As his 

 hives had some diseased sealed brood, he 

 found it necessary to extend the queenless 

 period to at least 24 days. Dr. Miller, not 

 having to deal with much sealed diseased 

 brood, found that, in his cases, a shorter 

 period would suffice. Mr. Alexander, hav- 

 ing rid the hives of the diseased matter, at 

 the same time established the immunity of 

 the hive by starting the colonies strong, 

 with vigorous young Italian queens. Again, 

 Alexander's location has a heavy fall flow 

 which is bound to give a lot of young bees 

 for winter and the following spring. His 

 spring location is also admitted to be ex- 

 ceptionally good, in addition to the fact 

 that Mr. Alexander feeds syrup stimulative- 

 ly. The success of the Alexander treatment 

 in this case, as it must be in all others, was 

 finally due to the thorough manner in which 

 immunity was established, and also to fa- 

 vorable conditions, natural or artificial. 



From what I have read of Dr. Miller's ex- 

 perience I can not believe that he had much 

 diseased honey to deal with after he had ac- 

 complished "part one." The disease was 

 of recent contraction to begin with, being, 

 no doubt, treated the same season as discov- 

 ered. The cure was effected during a dearth 

 of honey when the only stores the bees had 

 were the pure honey which they uncapped 

 along the top-bars. Having then accom- 

 plished "part one," the getting rid of the 

 diseased brood, the rest of the cure should 

 have been as easy for him as it proved to be 

 with me. Both of us, and Alexander as 

 well, had a fall flow of honey to put our bees 

 in good shape for the following spring, so 

 again we have peculiarly favorable condi- 

 tions entering into the success of the treat- 

 ment. 



During a fall flow of honey this disease 

 will usually disappear of its own accord, in 

 which case colonies may be put on an al- 

 most equal footing with those treated on the 

 Alexander plan by simply requeening early 

 in the season with Italian stock. 



Why, then, has the Alexander plan failed 

 in some cases? Because of one or two rea- 

 sons: Either the man was not adapted to 

 the cure or else the cure was not adapted to 

 the locality. Some men are never thorough 

 enough to accomplish real success in any 

 thing, much less in the cure of such a con- 

 tagious disease as European foul brood; and 

 I suspect that this disease would be hard to 

 cure by Alexander's method in a location 

 which had no fall flow, by reason of the lack 

 of late- reared young bees affecting the im- 

 munity of the hive the following spring. It 



would be interesting, in fact, to hear from 

 some one has tried these cures in a strictly 

 clover location. 

 Hebron, Ind. 



To be continued. 



BEE-KEEPING AS A HOBBY. 



The Bee Community. 

 BY F. DUNDAS TODD. 



Chapter Three. 



After all, when bees are kept for pleasure 

 the chief interest is not derived from the 

 amount of honey one gets, though that is 

 always welcome as well as profitable, but 

 from studying the ways of the little insects 

 themselves. There are many misconcep- 

 tions existing among ordinary people as to 

 bees and bee nature. For instance, when 

 the writer is about to address a general audi- 

 ence on the pleasure and profit of bee-keep- 

 ing, almost invariably the chairman in his 

 introductory remarks explains that he him- 

 self would like first rate to work with a col- 

 ony, but he rather dreads an intimate ac- 

 quaintanceship with the business end of a 

 bee. This little joke always gives a capital 

 opening for the lecturer, who can at once 

 start out by explaining that the stinging 

 end of a bee is not the business end at all — 

 in fact, only one of many thousands of them 

 ever has call to use its weapon of defense. 

 Very rarely is a honey-bee offensive. The 

 business end of a bee is the head, for in it is 

 found the wonderful tongue with which it 

 gathers the nectar from the blossoms. Then 

 careful experiments and observations al- 

 most suggest it is something more than a 

 creature of instinct; that, in fact, it can 

 reason and act with judgment when face to 

 face with new conditions. 



A SOCIETY or COMMUNISTS. 



But first let us look at a colony of bees in 

 the mass. Inside the hive are many thou- 

 sands of inhabitants, the number being esti- 

 mated to reach as high as fifty to seventy 

 thousand in the hey-day of summertime. 

 These are startling fieures, and in the most 

 natural way we are led to ask what is the 

 nature of the bond of association that holds 

 them together. Does a bee- hive house a 

 herd, a flock, a pack, or a covey? Are the 

 inhabitants merely units brought together 

 in a more or less haphazard way like a 

 flock? or is it a family, like a covey of 

 pheasants? Not one of these terms fitly de- 

 scribes the aggregation, for it differs from 

 them all in one important respect; it owns 

 property consisting of combs, honey, and 

 pollen, and this puts it into the same class 

 with ourselves. Human beings produce ar- 

 ticles that are not at once consumed, and 

 these must be preserved from the ravages of 

 natural forces and enemies, hence arises the 

 necessity for men to live together in society. 

 Since bees, like men, produce food for fu- 

 ture consumption — own property, in fact — 

 they are banded together in a form of socie- 



