298 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1922 



requeening is more than taken care of in an 

 increase of the crop. One drawback is that 

 we are never sure that the replaced queen 

 is going to be as good as the one removed 

 — often she is not. It pays, however, under 

 all conditions to requeen every year. And 

 it pays likewise to requeen with Italian 

 stock colonies affected with European foul 

 brood. Eequeening is in order for severe 

 cases of sacbrood and for the so-called par- 

 alysis. 



Eequeening Time. 



Aside from requeening for mismated and 

 inferior queens, and on account of diseases, 

 which practice may occur at any time dur- 

 ing the year, we hear the question, "What 

 is the best time for the commercial bee- 

 keeper to do his general requeening?" The 

 factors under consideration are to prepare 

 colonies for the (1) main flow, (2) one or 

 more secondary flows, (3) winter, or to re- 

 queen at a (4) time when the beekeepers 

 can spare their precious moments to the best 

 advantage. There is another consideration, 

 however, that outweighs the above factors. 

 Requeening is not synonymous with queen- 

 rearing. The best time to raise queens is 

 during spring brood-rearing. Optimum con- 

 ditions prevail at that time. Springtime is 

 the natural breeding season, and the finest 

 specimens of males and females are develop- 

 ed under their most favorable environment. 

 Simplest Requeening Method. 



We requeen our colonies as the main floAV 

 tapers oflf in June. It is useless to take up 

 valuable space in a description thereof, for 



our method was partly described in the cur- 

 rent February issue, and is much more fully 

 and efficiently handled in an editorial in 

 "Gleanings" for May, 1921. One word 

 though; we certainly do like queens raised 

 naturally in their own homes, and nobody 

 appreciates more than we do, the great sav- 



I 



European mating nuclei — a method of conserving 



warmth. This so-called nucleus house is built for 



12 nuclei. 



ing of time which this method makes pos- 

 sible. 



Queens perform best when reared in nor- 

 mal colonies in spring. Avoid the queen- 

 less impulse and leave the bees alone when 

 the honev plants are on a strike. 



Big Sur, Calif. 



il 



BROOD DISEASE VARIATIONS 



Explanation for Some of the Con- 

 fusing Symptoms in the Gross Diag- 

 nosis of '^ee 'Diseases 



By A. P. Sturtevant 



THE diagno- 

 sis of the 

 brood dis- 

 eases of bees, 

 part icularly 

 without the aid 

 of the micro- 

 scope, cannot be 

 carried out by 

 the use of any 

 definite rule. If the symptoms never varied 

 from those typical ones pictured and de- 

 scribed so often in the various papers on 

 bee diseases, then some of the sources of 

 confusion to the average beekeeper in diag- 

 nosing brood diseases could be eliminated 

 to a large extent. Unfortunately, with the 

 varying conditions under which the brood 

 diseases are found present or thriving, the 

 symptoms differ accordingly. These varia- 

 tions, when encountered, may lead the bee- 

 keeper to erroneous conclusions and conse- 

 quent losses unless he gives the matter care- 

 ful study. 



It is not the purpose of this paper to take 

 up the entire subject of a comparative study 

 of all the symptoms of the brood diseases 

 of bees. This has been covered more or 

 less completely in various bulletins of the 



Department of 

 Agriculture and 

 elsewhere. N o 

 further refer- 

 ences to specific 

 literature will be 

 made. There are, 

 however, a few 

 confusing varia- 

 tions, often mis- 

 understood or unrecognized by the average 

 beekeeper. A more complete description 

 may prevent mistakes being made in gross 

 diagnosis. 



There are many external influences affect- 

 ing the progress of the diseases which may 

 have more or less direct bearing on these 

 variations in symptoms. The actual changes 

 in appearance of the diseased larvae are 

 caused by certain bacteria. Since some of 

 these confusing conditions are easily ex- 

 plained by the action of the bacteria asso- 

 ciated with the disease in question, only 

 this side of the subject will be considered at 

 this time. 



The Nature of Bacteria and Some of Their 

 Functions. 

 A short digression is here necessary in 

 order to understand the nature of these bac- 



