AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



431 



that anything administered to the bees 

 is a failure. As I am fully satisfied that 

 it is caused by some atmospheric or 

 other conditions of the weather, causing 

 the food that the bees take to give them 

 a fever. You may confine a bee, or bees, 

 just as soon as she has symptoms of the 

 disease, and she will shed all the hair 

 from her body, thus proving that it is a 

 fever of some kind or character, caused 

 by the food taken, and therefore I do 

 not think it is a catching disease. 



I have always been pretty successful 

 in curing bee-diarrhea, by giving new, 

 clean hives and new food. I firmly be- 

 liev.e that to take away their combs, 

 honey, brood and all, and give them 

 clean, fresh quarters, food, etc., will 

 cure quicker than any remedy yet tried. 

 I am going to name this disease " the 

 bee-fever" until something more appro- 

 priate comes out, as it acts more after 

 the nature of a fever than any other dis- 

 ease, to me. Now, as you live in the 

 South where you can take your bees out 

 of their sick rooms and give clean hives, 

 food, etc., at any time of the year, I 

 would suggest that you try my remedy 

 and report, as you have the proper ma- 

 terial to work on, and as you say more 

 than half your colonies are afflicted. 

 Should you try my plans, I will take it 

 as a special favor if you will let me 

 know the results. Jennie Atchley. 



Laying-Workers or an Old Queen. 



Mrs. Atchley: — In looking over my 

 colonies two weeks ago, i found one 

 with no worker brood or eggs, but a 

 very few scattering cells of drone-brood. 

 To-day I examined them again, and 

 found them in the same condition. Will 

 you please tell me what I am to infer 

 from the condition of the colony ? Are 

 they queenless, and a laying worker 

 conducting the affairs of the colony '? or 

 what is wrong with them '? 



They seem to be working well, and 

 storing plenty of honey in the brood-nest 

 for the winter. Could I safely introduce 

 a queen, or not ? John L. Murdock. 



Clark's Corners, Ct., Sept. 11, 1893. 



Friend Murdock, your colony has 

 either laying workers, or an old queen 

 that is nearly played out; or if she is 

 not old, she is no good, and if they are 

 not pretty strong in bees, you had bet- 

 ter introduce a young laying queen at 

 once. But if they are strong in bees, 

 you can let them run over until spring, 

 then give a queen. However, I am 



rather inclined to believe they are 

 weaker than you think, and it may be 

 better to give them a queen at once, or 

 a frame or two of hatching brood from 

 other hives, that they may have some 

 young bees to go into winter with. But 

 before you try to introduce a queen, 

 you must be sure there is no queen 

 there. Place in a frame of eggs and 

 larviB, and if they start cells in three 

 or four days, you may know they are 

 queenless ; if not, they have some kind 

 of a queen. Jennie Atchley. 



What iSubjects IShouId Bee-Ex. 

 perinient Stations Consider ? 



Query 891.— What subjects, to your mind, 

 are the most important to bee-keeping, and 

 should be first taken up by an experiment 

 station ?— Mich. 



Give it up. — Emerson T. Abbott. 

 Swarming and wintering. — J. H. Lar- 



RABEE. 



That's the question I am asking. — R. 

 L. Taylor. 



The nameless bee-disease and winter- 

 ing. — A. J. Cook. 



Those that bear ou practical bee-keep- 

 ing. — G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



The kind of bees. The hives and their 

 manipulation. — Dadant & Son. 



The best management for the largest 

 yield of honey.— Mrs. J. N. Heater. 



P"'ind some plan or way to have the 

 queens fertilized with selected drones. — 

 E. France. 



Please correspond with R. L. Taylor, 

 of Lapeer, Mich. He is "right in it." — 

 H. D. Cutting. 



Flowery subjects; and they should 

 not be "taken up," but planted out. — 

 Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Lets have the troublesome wintering 

 problem — that like Banquo's ghost, will 

 not down ! — solved for a certainty the 

 coming winter ! — Will M. Barnum. 



