l'J05 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1129 



pound of well-ripened honey that is sold to 

 consumers is a help to the general industry 

 of bee-keeping, and every pound of unripe 

 honey sold is a detriment to the same. 



Some seasons there would be no need to 

 resort to such methods, as the honey will be 

 ripe and heavy in a very short time after it 

 is stored. Last season it was that way on 

 this field. Honey was so thick that it was 

 difficult to handle. 



I will give you a plan for outdoor feeding, 

 which may not be as good for curing the 

 robbing nuisance as the one you describe, 

 but it is a safe way to have the feed taken 

 care of without injuring the bees. 



In the upper story of an empty hive, hav- 

 ing its entrance verv small, place a pan or 

 crock of the thin sugar syrup. Use grass 

 or excelsior for float. I have several of 

 these feeders going in different parts of the 

 yard at the same time. This is in order that 

 every hive in the apiary may be the more 

 hkely to get some of the feed. The bees, 

 after entering the lower hive, have to go so 

 far for the sweets that it does not excite 

 them too much. Each bee gets its load, 

 and then hikes for home. What a blessing 

 if every man would do the same, and had a 

 home to which he could "hike"! 



Bridgeport, Wis., Oct. 6. 



NOTES FROM CUBA. 



Italian Bees in the Tropics. 



BY LESLIE BURR. 



"Survival of Italian blood shows them 

 best fitted for the tropics " will not apply to 

 Cuba, for here it is, if any thing, more diffi- 

 cult to keep up pure Italian blood than in 

 the North. The reason is, that queens here 

 lay every month in Ihe year, and for that 

 reason theiraveragelife is about half as long 

 as that of queens in the North; and, as a 

 result, an apiary of Italians will degenerate 

 about twice as fast. I think there is some- 

 thing in the theory that black drones are 

 quicker on the wing than the Italians, and 

 are not so prone to rear drones, which is 

 another factor in favoring the blacks. 



MOVING BEES WITH THE ENTRANCE OPEN. 



To.do SO a great deal depends on the strain 

 of bees you have. I have come in contact 

 with stock from Jamaica, also from some 

 southern queen-breeders, and to attevi'pt to 

 move them with the entrances open would 

 be suicidal. We have a case on record here 

 on this island where bees of this strain were 

 being moved, when a hive broke open, with 

 the result that the mules which were haul- 

 ing them were stung to death. 



BEE PARALYSIS. 



This trouble, or, as some here call it, 

 * ' that crazy disease, ' ' at times has done con- 

 siderable damage. There were cases last 

 year where it depleted whole apiaries. It 

 attacked the colonies just before the cam- 

 panula bloom, and weakened them to such 



an extent that they were worthless for that 

 flow. This year 1 saw a few cases of it in 

 August. The colonies that were affected 

 were all in one corner of the apiary. The 

 disease seemed to make no distinction be- 

 tween blacks or Italians, as both were af- 

 fected. With this disease there still seems 

 to be plenty for the scientific investigator to 

 unravel. 



THE FOUL-BROOD SITUATION. 



The Cubans say, "Wherever American 

 bee-keepers go, foul brood follows;" and 

 one of the extensive Havana bee-keepers 

 says, " I always expect to get foul brood in 

 an apiary about every so often." As to the 

 extent of its existence, I personally know it 

 has existed the past year in Pinar del Rio, 

 Havana, Matanzas, and Santiago Provinces; 

 and much has been shipped into Santa Clara 

 and Puerta Principe Provinces from the 

 others, in some cases from infected districts. 

 I think there is still a chance for the Amer- 

 ican colonist, who has seen nothing of Cuban 

 bee-keeping outside of his own banana-patch, 

 to become aware some day of the fact that 

 foul brood does exist in Cuba. 



TREATMENT. 



Conditions here make it more difficult to 

 treat foul brood successfully as it is treated 

 in the North. The best, surest, and cheap- 

 est way in the end to handle it here is to 

 shake the colonies, and then move them im- 

 mediately to a new location. 



COMB-HONEY PRODUCTION. 



For the average location this is not a suc- 

 cess; in fact, there are but very few Icca- 

 tions where it can be produced profitably; 

 for to do so you must have a summer flow. 

 Then, again, there is but little of the honey 

 gathered during the summer months that is 

 good enough to compete with the Northern 

 product; so, although the campaniila honey 

 of Cuba is as fine an article as any the North 

 can produce, the cool nights which we have 

 at the time of year it is in bloom make it 

 very unprofitable to produce comb honey. 



QUEEN-REARING. 



Cuba has several natural advantages for 

 queen-rearing, which are as follows: We 

 have locations where queens can be reared 

 under the swarming impulse during March. 

 That makes it possible to produce the very 

 best kind of queens and have them ready for 

 shipment as soon as the Northern apiarist 

 can use them. And, again, by having the 

 queens mated on a small island, of which 

 there are plenty, a league or so from the 

 coast, pure Italians can be guaranteed; and 

 then last, but not least, thanks to the Ward 

 Line mail boats, which, with the assistance 

 of the Gulf Stream, take but two or three 

 days to reach New York, it is possible to get 

 as quick delivery as from the Southern 

 queen-breeders. 



The disadvantages are, of course, foul 

 brood, paralysis, and the like. But Cuba is 

 no worse in that respect than many parts of 

 the United States; and the danger of buying 

 from Cuba would be no greater than any- 



