Vol. XXXIV. 



OCT. U 1906. 



No 19 



FoIj'R nuclei, according to D. Imker, will 

 winter l)etter piled one over another than 

 side by side. [I do not understand why this 

 should be so. — Ed.] 



N. D. Wkst piles his hives in the cellar 

 just as I do. as shown on p. 1183. only I don't 

 have those 1x2 sticks between, the hives. I 

 wish he woukl tell us why he does it. 



One colony may sometimes give more 

 surplus than ten others, and yet l)e only a 

 little better than either of the ten. Don't see 

 how? I'll show you. The yield is such that 

 the ten get just enough for their own sup- 

 port, but store no surplus. The one, being 

 a little bettei". stores a little. See? 



Naked colonies (bees and queen without 

 combs) seem quite in vogue in Germany, a 

 single numlier of Leipz. Bztg. having 40 ad's 

 of them. After Sept. 15 a 4-lb. colony with 

 queen-cells for about a dollar. [This is quite 

 in line with the plan that we used to practice 

 .vears ago. of selling bees by the pound. 

 They were put up in wire-i-loth cages, with- 

 out combs. We may go back to this method 

 in the near future. — Ed.] 



P. Neumann says, in Leipz. Bztg., that 

 German scientists have determined that 

 Bacillus alvei is not the caiise of foul brood. 

 Suspicion now rests upon a micro-organism, 

 not of the vegetable but of the animal king- 

 dom, to which has been given the name 

 Spirochaete apis Maassen. [Dr. E. F. Phil- 



lips, of the Department of Agriculture, in a 

 paper that he read before the National con- 

 vention in Chicago, said: 



The Bureau of AniiEal Industry, at mv sugg-estion 

 assigned a competent bacteriolog-ist to this investio-a^ 

 tion, and between us we have been getting a fair 

 start. So far the results are, briefly, that Bacillus 

 alrei has been found in every sample of " black 

 brood" and in not a single case of foul brood, confirm- 

 ing the work of Doctors Veranus A. Moore and G 

 Franklin White, of Cornell. 



I understand the Department is about to is- 

 sue a bulletin going into this subject more 

 fully. We shall be glad to give our readers 

 the result when it is issued. — Ed.] 



'•How use doth breed a habit in a man," 

 also in bees! In few things do bees more 

 plainly show force of habit than in the mat- 

 ter of entrances. Where the entrance is es- 

 tablished in early spring, there it is likely to 

 stay, no matter what other entrance is offer- 

 ed. No. 58 has an inch hole in the second 

 story in front, but not a bee uses it for an 

 entrance. In hundreds of cases I have 

 shoved the super or upper story forward, 

 making a i-inch opening at the 'back; but,' 

 although this may continue all summer, sel- 

 dom do any of the rising generation u.se it as 

 an entrance. Yet at No. 35 the back en- 

 trance is used altogether, and it looks in 

 front like a dead colony. The secret of it is 

 that, in early spring, a leak under the cover 

 at the back end allowed a single bee to pass, 

 and there the entrance was established. 



I AM afkaid, Mr. Editor, you don't. under- 

 stand the situation when you speak of show- 

 ing me at work among my bees here. p. 1167. 

 Not much of that (^an be "shown, for the sea- 

 son has been one of failure. In no other of 

 my 45 years of experience have I meddled so 

 little with i)ees as this year. Clover bloom 

 was abundant. l)ut no nectar. Fortunately 

 the fall Mow. heartsease, cucumbers, etc., is 

 giving a grand tiow, so that bees will go in- 

 to cellar heavy with honey, and a lot of seal- 

 ed combs will be on hand for use next spring. 



