84 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Feb. 9, 1899. 



But laws of this kind cannot be past by the isolated in- 

 fluence of a few individuals. It requires comined action. 

 We therefore urge all Illinois bee-keepers who have an in- 

 terest in the pursuit, and who appreciate what a scourge it 

 would be. should this dread disease make its appearance in 

 their vicinity, to write to the representative or senator of 

 their district, and ask the extension of their vote to the bill 

 which is about to be introduced. 



c , I understand that Mr. J. Q. Smith, the genial president 

 of the State assooiation, has been recommended for the 

 State inspector. He is certainly well fitted for such work, 

 which, I believe, will require but very little of his time at 

 present. Better have such an appointment now than wait 

 until the disea:Se has made ravages among our apiaries. 



I must say that, personally, I have never seen a case of 

 foul brood, but it seems to me that I would become entirely 

 di.sgusted with the pursuit if it ever struck our bees. That 

 it is difficult to eradicate, when once establisht, is clear, and 

 has been proven by all who have suffered in the past. 



Friends of Illinois, do not let this subject drop out of 

 your mind before you have done your share towards getting 

 our law-makers to help us in this matter. 



Hancock Co., 111. 



[See editorial columns for further reference to this sub- 

 ject. — Editor.] 



Pickled Brood : 



Its Origin and Prevention- 

 laring Bees. 



Cel- 



BY DR. C. C. :MII,I,EK. 



SOME time ago Miss Fannie C. Damon, of Massachusetts, 

 wrote me about her bees, which were badly diseased. I 

 referred her to Dr. Wm. R. Howard, to whom she sent 

 samples of the dead bees, and he decided it was a case of 

 pickled brood. Some points obtained from him are of gen- 

 eral interest. 



The disease is in the old pollen. If j'ou want to keep 

 clear of the disease, don't use moldy combs or old pollen. 

 A 10 percent water solution of salicylate of soda will destroy 

 the spores of the mold if it comes in contact with them, but 

 if any bee-bread be present, the application will be useless 

 .so far as the bee-bread is concerned. When fresh honey 

 and pollen are coming in, the disease usually subsides. 

 Freezing will not affect the fungi. 



Dr. Howard's observation is that old bees as well as 

 j'oung consume pollen at all times, more or less of it being' 

 consumed in winter. In all the years that he has been dis- 

 secting bees, he has never found an adult bee without pol- 

 len in the alimentary canal. Queens are also consumers of 

 pollen. 



The di.sease appears to be epidemic some seasons ; the 

 seasons and resulting conditions having much to do with its 

 spread. Inferior food may have much to do with it, espe- 

 cially if pollen is rained on every day. If fresh pollen is 

 lacking, sterilized (baked ?) rye-meal or flour maj- be fed. 



The disease will not be conveyed to the brood unless 

 fed in the pollen or water. It must be fed to it. Old as well 

 as young bees must have pollen to be furnisht their normal 

 food, and the absence of it changes materially the qualitv 

 of the food. 



Miss Damon is somewhat puzzled to reconcile matters, 

 as she says she has not a comb in the apiary in which mold 

 was visible to the naked eye, and while her apiary is almost 

 ruined, one within a mile of her arid another within two 

 miles are entirely healthy, altho she thinks they must have 

 gathered some of the same pollen. 



IS IT BAD TO CEI,I..\R BEKS WITHOUT A FLIGHT AFTER 



MOVING ? 

 Dk. Milli:k:— If I understand you correctly, you teach that it is very 

 important to alhnv bees to have a flif^Ut after hauling-, before puttinjr 

 them into the cellar. On paye 16, C. Davenport tells about 10 colonies 

 that were hauled from an out-yard and put into the cellar apparently 

 without a flifrht in the middle of the winter, all but one wintering- well. I 

 think others have also said it was not necessary that bees should have a 

 flipht after tlit*y ha\e been hauled before bein? put in the cellar. Which 



is rigrht? NOKTHEKNEK. 



Perhaps neitlier. A rather costly experience has made 

 me hold strongly to the view that a flight is important. One 

 winter part of the bees in one of my out-apiaries were 

 brought home late and did not have a flig-ht before going 

 into the cellar. The loss in this hit was very heavy, while 

 the other bees in the same cellar wintered well. I know of 

 no reason why the mortality was gfreater among those cel- 

 lared without a flight except that one item, as in all other 

 respects conditions were the same so far as I know. So I 



feel pretty safe in sa^-ing that in that case cellaring bees 

 without a flight after moving was a bad thing. 



But Mr. Davenport says he moved bees and put them 

 into the cellar without a flight, and they wintered well. 

 Others have s'aid the same thing. Evidently cellaring 

 moved bees without a flight is not i:i all cases so bad a 

 thing as I have believed. The question is whether it just 

 happened that my case was different, or was there some dif- 

 ference in conditions to account for the different result ? I 

 am inclined to take the latter view. M^- bees were hauled 

 when it was not very cold weather, altho too cold for them 

 to fly, and they were probablj- as much frightened and ex- 

 cited by the journey as if the weather had been a good deal 

 warmer. 



I think those who report good success in wintering bees 

 that were cellared without a flight after being hauled, in 

 each case moved their bees in very cold weather (evidently 

 Mr. Davenport did), and at that time it may be that the 

 bees would not become so much excited as in a warmer time. 

 Possibly they may al.so have been moved very quietly in a 

 sleig-h, while mine were hauled over hard roads (not very 

 rough) in a wagon. 



It is quite possible I have been wrong- in thinking it did 

 so much harm to put bees directh- into the cellar after being 

 moved in the middle of winter. But it would take consider- 

 able money to hire me deliberately to put my bees into the 

 cellar without a flight after being hauled in the fall. 



McHenrv Co., 111. 



Proceeding's of the Colorado State Bee-Keepers' 

 Convention. 



(CONTRIBUTED BY THE SECRETARY.) 

 [Continued from pape 70.] 



WHEN TO REQUEEX BEES. 



Question — What time is the best to requecn a colony ? 

 H. Rauchfuss — We need to know what object is to be 

 accomplislit by requeening. 



E. H. Northrup— I askt the question. I wish to change 

 the character of my bees, and get a better grade. 



H. Rauchfuss — Do not requeen until you can get good 

 queens cheap. Then if increase is not wanted, introduce 

 young queens just before swarming-time. By so doing you 

 accomplish two objects. I did this with 40 colonies, and not 

 one swarmed. 



Mr. Martin — The inost convenient time is during the 

 swarming season, because the bees accept strange queens 

 better then. If you have a large numberto requeen, I would 

 not buy, but get a choice queen and requeen during swarm- 

 ing-time. 



Mr. Foster — For IS or 20 colonies, I would requeen from 

 the best colony as early in the .swarming season as possible. 

 For only two or three colonies I would buy queens. 



Mr. Gill — Whenever a colonv is poor, I would requeen 

 any time, tho I would not interrupt them in tiie spring. But 

 I would especially do so in the swarming season, choosing 

 the prime cells for that purpose. 



S. M. Carlzen — I had a queen that laid drone-eggs in 

 the spring. If I had bought another queen early, I could 

 have obtained three supers from that colony. By letting it 

 go I got only one super. 



USU.^L AMOUNT OF HONEY TO A COLONV. 



Question — What is the usual amount of honey to a 

 colony ? 



F. Rauchfuss — Probably the usual amount of surplus is 

 meant. 



Mr. Gill — In Wisconsin, m^- average for a term of IS 

 years was 110 pounds of extracted honey, including two 

 years of failure. On the Western Slope, my average in 

 comb honey has been 40 pounds ; one year it was 90 pounds. 

 This year, the grasshoppers cleaned everything out. and 

 my bees lackt 10 pounds of anything. From one apiary of 

 240 colonies outside I obtained 400 cases. Perhaps the gen- 

 eral averag-e of the Western Slope is 50 pounds. What has 

 it been over the State ? 



