314 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



of the parent colony in front of the swarm. 

 Another good way is to use the " shook- 

 swarm" plan. When the brood is hatched 

 out in the parent colony, shake again ; then 

 extract the combs containing the honey, or 

 use them as food supply for winter. — Ed.] 



TO MAKE A GIVEN BEE PASTURAGE A LEGAL 

 PROPERTY RIGHT. 



As to crowding the territory with bees, 

 how would it do to have a law to sell out 

 territories about three miles square to the 

 highest bidder, with provisions to let the 

 proceeds of such sale go the owners of the 

 territory sold, or to the number of acres of 

 some kinds of crops adapted to bee-pasture? 



Cuba, 111., Feb. 8. M. W. Murphey. 



[This looks feasible ; but when we come to 

 work out the details we run into difficulties. 

 The land-owners would sell to the bee-keep- 

 er paying the highest price. But suppose 

 Jones would want more than Brown for the 

 right of the bees to trespass on his land. 

 The law so far recognizes bees as ferae natu- 

 r«— that is, wild by nature, or, to put it in 

 another way, animals that go where they 

 please in spite of man. As long as these 

 animals do not interfere with the farmers' 

 crops, no complaint is now raised ; but just 

 the moment the land-owners find out that 

 the nectar in their clover-blossoms or other 

 honey-producing plants has legal intrinsic 

 value, then a lot of ignorant farmers might 

 ask all kinds of prices or combine and pro- 

 hibit the bees altogether from the territory 

 by putting up an exorbitant price. The law 

 might specify that no more than a certain 

 amount per acre should be paid ; but I am 

 afraid, taking all things into consideration, 

 if we were to try to draw our legislators in- 

 to the intricacies of the problem they would 

 become discouraged and kill the bill in com- 

 mittee. Then the question of constitution- 

 ality would also come to the fore. —Ed.] 



BEE DISEASE RESEMBLING DYSENTRY; PE- 

 CULIAR INCIDENT G^VES WARNING 

 OP THE ATTACK. 



I have now about thirty colonies of bees 

 and I want to ask you some questions about 

 a disease that has been raging among them 

 by which I have lost about ten hives in less 

 than two months. Some of these were in 

 modern hives, and others in old-fashioned 

 box hives, but every one of each kind had 

 plenty of good honey. The bees are mixed- 

 some blacks, some hybrids, some Italian, 

 and the disease works alike on them all. I 

 have examined the bees as closely as possible, 

 and they seem to have something like dysen- 

 tery. They seem to be swollen, and look as 

 if they had been dipped in grease. They 

 can not fly much after the disease seizes 

 them, and they linger along a week, more 

 or less, before they die. I have seen but 

 two queens in the ten hives. One was dead 

 in the cell, and the other was alive and all 

 right, or seemed to be, while there was not 



another single bee in the hive that could fly. 

 I didn't see any young brood at all in any 

 of the hives. A thin substance, something 

 like sweetened water, drops down on the floor 

 of the hive about a week or two before they 

 have the disease. Can you tell me what the 

 trouble is and if there is any remedy ? 



J. W. Harris. 

 Commerce, Ga., Feb. 11. 



[It is to be presumed you are familiar 

 with bee paralysis; for in some respects 

 the disease described resembles that partic- 

 ular trouble. If it is not bee paralysis one 

 might almost surmise the bees had been 

 suffering from suffocation. Without some 

 specimens of the bees it would be impossi- 

 ble to diagnose the disease more exactly. — 

 Ed.] 



A PLAN FOR REARING QUEENS AND RUNNING 

 FOR INCREASE AT THE SAME TIME. 



I submit a plan for queen-rearing, which, 

 if of sufficient interest, you can publish. I 

 studied out this plan; and as I am running 

 my apiary for extracted honey exclusively, 

 I hope it is entirely feasible. I want to in- 

 crease my apiary, as this has been a bad 

 winter for bees, and I have lost so far about 

 20 per cent— no weather for bees to fly here 

 since Jan. 1. It is now time, here in this 

 latitude, for bees to begin gathering pollen 

 and begin brood- rearing. This is the plan : 



In April, start cells in colonies by Alley 

 plan of mutilating strips of newly made 

 comb. When cells are capped, cut out, 

 place in protectors, and enter in a strong 

 queenless colony for hatching. When vir- 

 gins are hatched, place in introducing-cages 

 (to eat out candy and be released) , and intro- 

 duce in upper stories of strong colonies, the 

 queen below being prevented from getting to 

 the upper story by solid zinc excluders. A 

 small exit is to be left in the upper story at 

 the rear of the hive so the virgin queen may 

 fly out for mating. In about ten days from 

 introducing, when the young queen begins to 

 lay remove a frame or two with adhering 

 bees; confine for 24 hours, and let them be 

 made into a nucleus. Chip Henderson. 



Murfreesboro, Tenn., Feb. 11, 1905. 



[I see no reason why your plan won't work, 

 except in one particular, and that is, getting 

 the queens fertilized from upper stories. 

 Unless honey were coming in, many of the 

 virgins would be found missing instead of 

 fertilized. A surer and better way would 

 be to form the nuclei, and at the same time 

 give one of the caged virgins. Confine the 

 bees in the nucleus for 24 hours (better 

 48) , and the virgin, when released, can take 

 her flight. There would be no particular 

 advantage in forming the nuclei after the 

 queens were laying, even if it were feasible 

 to have them fertilized in upper stories. 

 -Ed. 



bee-stings not a permanent cure for 

 rheumatism. 

 Several years ago I wrote you that I 

 thought bee-stings had cured me, for I was 



