GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1922 



au early hearing, and at the same time ad- 

 dress another letter to each of your United 

 States Senators, asking for their support of 

 the same measure. Do not delay this a minute, 

 hut send a postal from your postoffice before 

 you leave. If you do not know who your 

 Senators are, ask your postmaster. 



We can imagine no greater calamity to 

 the beekeeping interests than to have the 

 Isle of Wight disease imported into this 

 country. It is infinitely worse than foul 

 brood, because there is no known cure. The 

 best and only cure is to keep it out of this 

 country. It would be unwise to make ex 

 emptions now unless it is in the case of 

 Canada; and the fact that the disease ' is 

 known to be not far from localities in Eu- 

 rope from which queens have been imported 

 makes the menace all the greater. The 

 early passage of the bill in the Senate is, 

 therefore, imperative. Later on, exemptions 

 can be made upon the submission of proper 

 evidence. 



THE following letter from Dr. E. F. Phil- 

 lips is self-explanatory. It is highly im- 

 portant that 



Samples of Adult Bees 



Wflnted by the Bureau 



of Entomology. 



beekee p e r s 

 c o - perate 

 in this, for, 

 if this mite 

 should be brought into this country, we 

 should know it the first minute possible. 



I shall appreciate it greatly if you will ask 

 through Gleanings in Bee Culture that beekeepers 

 finding any adult bees that show abnormal condi- 

 tions will send samples to this office for examination. 

 Last summer a considerable number of samples of 

 adult bees were examined, and no mites causing 

 the Isle of Wight disease were found. While it is 

 hoped that the mite is not found in this country, 

 there will remain the need for further search, and 

 this office will be glad to have such material. Queen- 

 breeders and others who have imported queen bees 

 from foreign countries should carefully examine the 

 colonies to which the queens were introduced, and, 

 if anything unusual is found, samples should be 

 submitted. It will be well to send about 250 bees 

 where that is feasible, together with a descr-ption 

 of the conditions observed. In some bees re- 

 cently examined which came with imported queens 

 unusually heavy infections of Nosema apis were 

 found, but so far the mite, Acarapis ivoodi. has 

 not been encountered in such cases. Your co- 

 operation in obtaining additional material for ex- 

 amination will be greatly appreciated. 



Very truly yours, 



E, F. Phillips. 

 Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C, June 7. 



IT may seem strange to begin to think 

 about preparing for the 1923 honey crop 

 now in the midst of 

 Planning Now the harvest of the 



for Next Year. 1922 crop, but the 



foundation of next 

 year's crop must be laid in July and Aug- 

 ust. Thousands upon thousands of colonies 

 are rendered useless for the following sum- 

 mer every year by neglecting some little 

 essential at this time. One great difficulty 

 is that, at this season, the beekeeper is so 

 deeply engrossed in the harvesting of this 

 season's crop that the crop for next vear 



seems of little relative importance; but, 

 later, there will be plenty of time to regret 

 having neglected some of the things essen- 

 tial to the maintenance of the colonies in 

 a prosperous condition. Two things in man- 

 agement for next year's honey crop stand 

 out prominently at this time — the replac- 

 ing of all inferior queens, and making sure 

 that the colonies are not stripped too close- 

 ly of their stores. When taking off honey 

 to be extracted, an upper story containing 

 considerable honey should be left on the 

 hive. If feeding for winter is to be done 

 later, as is the practice in Canada and the 

 coldest portions of the United States, the 

 unfinished honey may be put into this upper 

 story that is left on the hive through the 

 late summer and fall. This extra story, 

 partly filled with honey, not only provides 

 food for the bees after the honey flow 

 ceases, but if there is a fall honey flow it 

 provides room for storing the late-gathered 

 honey. If not too far north the extra story 

 can be left on all winter, in which case it 

 should be nearly filled with good honey. 



MOEE and more beekeepers are learning 

 that it pays to have young queens in their 

 colonies during the lat- 

 Reoueening ter part of the sum- 



in July, mer. It was noticed 



many years ago that 

 the largest yields usually come from colo- 

 nies that were parent colonies the last sea- 

 son, and not often from the swarms of last 

 season. The reason for this is largely that 

 the parent colony had a young queen during 

 the latter part of the season, while the 

 swarm usually retained the old queen. 

 Young queens, that begin to lay in July or 

 August, lay more eggs during late summer 

 and autumn than older queens, thus sup- 

 plying the colony with more young bees for 

 winter. These young queens are also in 

 their prime the next spring when they are 

 expected to do their best work for the 

 heavy spring brood-rearing period. While it 

 may not always be advisable to replace the 

 queens every year, the tendency for bee- 

 keepers to do so is increasing in some lo- 

 calities when producing extracted honey. 

 Comb-honey production does not place such 

 a heavy burden upon the queens as does 

 extracted-honey production, and as we go 

 northward from the tropics the burden is 

 also somewhat decreased on account of the 

 shorter season. In such cases it may be 

 well to keep the queens two years; but, 

 wherever the queens are worked hard, many 

 are coming to believe that it pays to re- 

 queen every year. 



In a large part of the country there is no 

 better time for doing this than during the 

 latter part of the honey flow in Julv. This 

 permits the doing of the work while the bees 

 are still easily handled, and the young 

 queen begins to lay in time to supply the 

 colony with an abundance of young bees 

 before the cessation of brood-rearing. 



