840 



He was fairly sure of one thing-; and 

 that is. that the Isle of Wight disease is 

 probably not the same as the bee paralysis 

 of the United States. He also found here 

 specimens of infected bees that may or may 

 not be affected with the disease from the 

 mother countiy. 



Mr. Bocock, careful investigator that he 

 is, did not assume to draw any positive 

 conclusions, but very modestly gave his 

 tentative opinions about as follows : 



1. The Isle of Wight disease and bee pa- 

 ralysis are probably not one and the same 

 thing. 



2. The disappearing disease found in this 

 country may be the Isle of Wight disease. 



3. It is doubtful whether the Isle of 

 Wight disease would make any serious head- 

 way in the United States with our climatic 

 conditions and American Italians. 



4. He found Ap^is nosema in some 

 bees in this country that appeared to be 

 normal and also in some that were not nor- 

 mal. 



5. Apis nosema may be the cause of Isle 

 of Wight disease, but probably it works 

 with some other organism before any seri- 

 ous symptoms show up. 



6. A vigorous strain of Italians in Great 

 Britain seems to be more immune than the 

 native black bees. 



7. American Italians may be partially 

 immune to the English disease. 



Introducing Queens Daubed with 

 Honey 



While our correspondent Prof. Baldwin, 

 in his department in this issue, page 845, 

 does not claim originality for the method 

 of introducing queens daubed in honey, we 

 are of the opinion that he has brought out 

 a modification that is original and impor- 

 tant. His plan differs from the old one in 

 that he uses a whole cupful of honey in- 

 stead of just a mere daub. The queen is 

 dipped in a cup of honey, when both are 

 poured over the frames. The general spill 

 and apparent ruin of the combs so diverts 

 the attention of the bees that the queen is 

 forgotten. After they have licked up the 

 combs and the queen which, in the process, 

 is made to acquire the odor of the colonv. 

 the new mother is accepted as a matter of 

 course. In fact, she is only an incident. 

 Merely daubing the queen with honey fo- 

 cu.ses the attention of the bees on the queen. 

 Baldwin diverts them away from her. See 

 the difference? 



A year ago last spring we fed up a whole 

 apiary by smearing Porto Kican honey over 

 the combs of about fiftv culonieg. There 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



was probably a cupful or even two cupfuls 

 poured on the frames. The result was 

 magical. Every bee was engaged in the 

 operation of putting things to rights. We 

 found we could go back to those colonies 

 and lift the cover without smoke, and give 

 them another dose, because they were busy 

 in cleaning up. Busy people do not ordi- 

 narily get into mischief. It is the idle, wait- 

 ing for something to turn up, that make 

 trouble, and so with bees. 



If Prof. Baldwin has introduced an im- 

 provement it would be perfectly legitimate 

 to call the method Baldwin's. While A. C. 

 Miller did not introduce the method of in- 

 troducing queens with smoke he did intro- 

 duce a very valuable improvement, and 

 hence the plan is called today the Miller 

 smoke method. 



Sweetened Spraying Solution 



There has been conflicting testimony 

 regarding the effects of spraying on bees. 

 Where a spraying solution is sweetened 

 with molasses, either to make it stay on the 

 foliage better or to make it more inviting 

 to the insects that it is supposed to kill, it 

 seems to us that the danger to the bees 

 would be very much greater. On the first 

 page of The Pennsylvania Farmer for May 

 20 a recipe for rose-chafers is given as 

 follows: 10 pounds of arsenate-of-lead 

 paste, 8 quarts of molasses, and 50 gallons 

 of water. The explanation is given that 

 the insect is fond of sweets, and in eating 

 the molasses gets the arsenate of lead. 



If this solution were used in a wholesale 

 manner Ave see no reason why bees in large 

 numbers should not be poisoned. Since this 

 insect does considerable damage on roses, 

 grapes, and cherries, we suppose there is 

 a possibility that such a solution or a 

 similar one might be used a good deal. 



If a sweetened solution is the only one 

 that such insects will eat it would hardly 

 do for the beekeeper to decry such practice, 

 perhaps, and yet in a way this is a serious 

 situation; for this liquid, whether it were 

 sprayed on the blossoms or on the leaves, 

 would be attractive to the bees at certain 

 times of the year when they could get no 

 nectar from the flowers. Two or three 

 rains would wash it off, but considerable 

 damage might be done meanwhile. In the 

 clipping above referred to the statement is 

 made that these insects are the most com- 

 mon on light sandy soil, but they are scat- 

 tered pretty well, nevertheless. What is 

 the beekeeper to do in a locality where a 

 sweetened spraying solution is used on a 

 large scale? 



