436 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



they only had a few drones), and then 

 went to work. 



I did not pay much attention to them 

 for several weeks, supposing them all 

 right (they had a new hive with founda- 

 tion) until I noticed they were flying 

 hardly any. On looking them over I 

 found a very light colony, with only 

 about as much comb as they had a few 

 days after being hived, little brood and 

 eggs, and practically no honey. 



On the bottom of the frames and 

 covers of the hives I found two or three 

 dozen whitish or lead-colored worms, 

 from % to 1M inches long, with dark- 

 colored heads, fattish, and good crawl- 

 ers, smooth, with no hair on their 

 bodies. 



Are these the young of the bee-moth ? 

 What can I do to get rid of them, and 

 prevent them in other colonies? I have 

 looked them over several times, dipped 

 the bottoms of the frames in hot water, 

 and put the bees into a new hive. I 

 found, just the other day, 3 or 4 worms 

 (always on the bottom of the frames). 

 I scalded them again, and put the bees 

 in another new hive. I. have never seen 

 any worms on or in the combs. 



Since buckwheat and smart-weed are 

 in bloom, these bees have built some 

 more comb, and have stored quite a little 

 honey. I also gave them a good frame 

 of brood and partitioned them off with 

 a division-board. They have a laying 

 queen, and are getting a little stronger 

 in workers all the time. 



I also found at one time a gray-colored 

 moth, or miller, about one inch long, 

 under the cover of this hive, and one 

 once under the cover of a box-hive I 

 have. 



Last spring was a hard one on bees in 

 this locality, but the summer has been a 

 good one, I think. Of course, I am only 

 a beginner, and therefore not much of a 

 judge. 



Denison, Iowa, Sept. 2, 1892. 



Mr. J. A. Green, of Dayton, Ills., to 

 whom was referred the above questions 

 for reply, has kindly given his opinion 

 as follows : 



It would be impossible to say why the 

 bees should have swarmed out so per- 

 sistently, without knowing the exact 

 circumstances. Bees will often leave 

 the hive in which they are placed be- 

 cause it is too small or too large, or be- 

 cause there is some bad odor about it, or 

 for a dozen other reasons. One of the 

 most common causes of swarming out, is 

 a hive that has been left out in the hot 



sun until it is more like an oven than an 

 inviting home. 



In some of your manipulations you 

 probably killed the queen, or she was 

 superseded soon after the swarm was 

 hived. During the interval that it took 

 to rear another queen, the colony, not 

 having any accessions of young bees, 

 dwindled rapidly in numbers so that 

 before the progeny of the young queen 

 began to hatch out, only a small propor- 

 tion of the original colony was left. 



Or, it may have been that the honey- 

 flow ceased so soon after you hived them 

 that they were unable to build more 

 comb. Bees consume large quantities 

 of honey in secreting wax to build 

 combs, and if the daily supply is pn'y 

 sufficient for daily needs, or less, little 

 or no comb will be built, nor will foun- 

 dation be drawn out. The queen is thus 

 restricted in egg-laying for want of cells 

 in which to deposit her eggs, so that the 

 strength of the colony is not kept up. 

 As you say you found little honey in the 

 hive, the latter explanation is perhaps 

 the more probable. 



The worms you found on the bottom 

 of the hive were the larvae of the wax- 

 moth, the perfect insect being the miller 

 you saw. The way to keep them out of 

 your colonies is to get Italian queens 

 and Italianize your bees. Strong colo- 

 nies of common bees are seldom injured 

 to any extent by moths, but even the 

 smallest colonies of Italians are proof 

 against them, as they are so much more 

 energetic than the common German or 

 black bees. Moth worms are to be found 

 in the combs of nearly all common bees 

 during the summer, but such things are 

 a rarity in an Italian apiary. This, too, 

 is one of the least important points in 

 which the Italians are superior to the 

 blacks. J. A. Green. 



Appropriations for Apiarian Statistics. 



HON. J. M. HAMBAUGH. 



It is with pleasure I have the honor of 

 addressing you in accord with the kind 

 request of your worthy Secretary upon 

 the subject of " A State Appropriation 

 for the Collection of Statistics and Dis- 

 semination of Information in Apicul- 

 ture." Truly, this is a subject that com- 

 mends itself to the consideration of 

 every fair-minded man who has the weal 

 of his fellow-man sincerely at heart. 



It is universally conceded that apicul- 

 ture is one of the legitimate industries 

 of our land, and while it may not rank 



