E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 



MAY, 1920 



FROM SEVERAL reliable sources we have 

 received infonnation that sugar will be 

 very scarce and 

 Sugar to be high priced next 



Scarce and fall. We have been 



High Priced. told that there is 



plenty of sugar, 

 but that certain speculators have bought it 

 up and are holding it until they can get 

 their price. It is rather unfortunate that 

 Uncle Sam let go of his control. If there is 

 any unfair speculation or profiteering, it is 

 not too late for that gentleman to take a 

 hand in the matter yet. However, there is 

 no great loss without some gain. If sugar 

 is scarce and high priced, it will make, of 

 course, a better honey market, and honey is 

 about the only real competitor of sugar. 



zjo^oc: 



ON ACCOUNT of railroad labor troubles, 



resulting in express embargoes thruout the 



country. Southern 



Shipment of 



Bees and Queens 



Delayed. 



queen and bee rear- 

 ers were unable to 

 ship much by ex- 

 press during about 

 three weeks in April, and shipping facilities 

 are not yet normal. Purchasers of bees and 

 queens in the North, who have placed or- 

 ders for early shipments from the South, 

 should certainly keep in mind that railroad 

 conditions have very greatly delayed almost 

 all of the earliest express shipments. Parcel 

 post service, which is not generally used by 

 the queen and bee rearers, has been far 

 from normal during this same period. Ship- 

 ments of bees by parcel post is likely to 

 grow in favor in the future, for the reason 

 that since Jan. 1, 1920, bees and queens can 

 both be insured and sent C. O. D. by mail. 



30^^eis= 



TAKING EVERYTHING into consideration, 

 this has been a hard winter and spring on 

 bees. Very severe 

 A Hard Winter losses are reported 

 and Spring. from some sections. 



In many j)arts of 

 the country a few days of beautiful spring 

 weather, which started the bees to breeding 

 heavily, have been followed by high winds 

 and blizzard cold. As late as Apr. 19 Colo- 

 rado and Nebraska suffered a severe bliz- 

 zard. We are expecting to hear reports of 



wide-spread spring dwindling. Where the 

 bees have been well housed in cellars, or 

 well packed, as they are farther north and 

 in Canada, there will not be heavy losses- 

 But last fall the high price of honey induced 

 many beekeepers to extract too closely. In 

 spite of warning to get sugar early, many 

 beekeepers have had either no sugar at all 

 or were compelled to feed brown sugar- 

 This latter, in many cases, caused dysentery. 

 Altho at present unable to give definite 

 figures on wintering, the Department of En- 

 tomology at Washington reports heavy win- 

 ter losses thruout the country, due to poor 

 stores and prolonged confinement to the 

 hives. 



"A STUDY of the Behavior of Bees in 

 Colonies Affected by European Foul Brood ' ' 

 is the title of Gov- 

 New Light ernment Bulletin, 



On European No. 804, by Arnold 



Foul Brood. P. Sturtevant. Tliis 



bulletin which was 

 issued in March is a preliminary report of 

 a series of investigations started in the 

 spring of 1918- 



During regular apiary work, important ob- 

 servations by such men as Dr. Miller, Alex- 

 ander, and other authorities have led to 

 many accepted practices based on such be- 

 liefs as the need of Italian bees, a queenless 

 period, and strong colonies in combating the 

 disease. Mr. Sturtevant gives a short review 

 of these practices and theories already ad- 

 vanced. These he considered very impor- 

 tant, but felt they should be backed by 

 proof. 



Altho the cause of the disease has already 

 been worked out bacteriologically, he says 

 there can be little further laboratory work 

 on the development of the disease until 

 ISncillus pliiton, the accepted cause, has been 

 grown in a pure culture. 



Accordingly, the experiments reported 

 were made in the apiary, colonies being in- 

 oculated by feeding them a sugar solution 

 infected with diseased larvae, and then a 

 •careful record kept of all important factors 

 during the development of the disease. The 

 use of a colored dye in the infected syrup 

 made it possible to note where the infected 

 syrup was first placed and where it was 

 moved. Daily observations were made to 

 determine the earliest appearance of the dis- 



