416 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



My method of Introducing Queens- 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



By referring to page 344, the reader 

 will see how I made my nuclei by 

 placing a frame of hatching brood in 

 a wire cloth cage, so made that it 

 would hang in a hive like a frame. 

 After the cage had been left in tlie 

 hive 5 or 6 days it was found well 

 filled with young bees, whicti would 

 always stay when put. Then by 



E lacing a queen-cell nearly ready to 

 atch in the cage at the same .time, 

 with the frame of hatching brood, this 

 nucleus would have a queen 4 or 5 

 days old when the nucleus was formed. 

 This was as far as 1 had got at that 

 time, but the next trial proved that 1 

 had not yet found out all the good 

 points of my cage. About this time 

 I made.a queen nursery according to 

 the description given in Alley's book, 

 and had therein several young queens 

 three days old. By tiie way, the Alley 

 nursery is tlie nicest of anything 

 of the kind 1 ever saw, and is well 

 worth several times the cost of the 

 book to any one who desires to rear 

 from 50 to 100 queens. As soon as 

 your cells are sealed, they can be 

 placed in the nursery, and the queens 

 kept until you wish to use them, by 

 simply placing the nursery in any 

 hive having sufficient bees in it to 

 keep up the desired warmth. 



But to return : At this time, as I 

 placed frames of hatching brood in 

 my cages, I let one of those young 

 queens three days old run into the 

 cage. In G days the frames and cages 

 were taken out of the hive in which 

 they were placed, and put in hives 

 where I wished my nucleus to stand, 

 by withdrawing the frame from the 

 cage and hanging it in the hive. This 

 was done near sunset, so but few bees 

 would take wing, for I find tliat if 

 done in the middle of the day, one- 

 half or more of the bees will tly while 

 the frame is being lifted from the 

 cage, they are so anxious to get at 

 liberty. "This causes them to take 

 their markings at other places besides 

 the entrance, which makes quite a 

 confusion before they lind their way 

 into the hive through the entrance. 

 The next day all these queens went 

 on their bridal trip, and in two days 

 more were laying. Thus I had a lay- 

 ing queen in each nucleus in three 

 days after forming them. 



Soon after this I received a choice 

 queen from a distance, which I did 

 not want to lose, so I went and got a 

 frame of hatching brood, put it in 

 one of the cages, turned my queen 

 and her attendants into the cage, 

 hung it in. a hive, and left it for five 

 days. Upon getting it at that time, 

 I found the cage well crowded with 

 bees, and the cells, wherever the bees 

 had hatched, were filled with eggs. I 

 now placed a hive where I wanted it 



to stand, put the frame, bees, and all 

 in it, together with a frajpe of honey, 

 and drew up the division-board. In 

 three days I gave it another frame of 

 hatching brood, and in a week two 

 more, when I had a colony readv for 

 anything in a short time after. Here 

 at least we have one plan by which 

 any queen can be safely introduced at 

 any time when there is brood in the 

 hive ; and tlie beauty of it is, that the 

 merest novice can do it and know no 

 failure. Repetitions of the above 

 have been equally successful, so I 

 know whereof I affirm. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Dysentery, its Cause and Cure. 



A. L. KEAE. 



No satisfactory explanation has been 

 given by any one on tlie much- 

 discussed question of bee dysentery. 

 Theories are advanced and experi- 

 ments explode the same, and each year 

 brings with spring the report of great 

 mortality among bees ; and yet if we 

 deduce from this and that theory we 

 may learn, we trust soon, the cause 

 and cure of tlie disease. 



In addition to what has been said, I 

 will give my experience, this spring, 

 with dysentery in making up a nucleus 

 in the latter part of May, from which 

 something may be learned on the 

 subject. 



Being in a hurry on making up nu- 

 clei, to save some valuable queen 

 cells, I put 2 frames of brood, with the 

 usual amount of bees, into a hive from 

 which I had in March taken a queen- 

 less colony of bees, which spotted the 

 hive, showing unmistakable signs of 

 dysentery. The combs were all taken 

 out in March, but the usual refuse 

 was left in the hive. I closed the bees 

 in the hive, as usual, in making up 

 nuclei, until dusk, when I opened it 

 and found that the bees had spotted 

 the hive, the same as the bees did in 

 March. The next morning the bodies 

 of the bees were swollen, and the bees 

 were in a stupor. I then proceeded to 

 cleanse the hive, and found the refuse 

 to be verv offensive. After the hive 

 was cleaned out, the bees soon com- 

 menced to move about more briskly, 

 and a normal condition was soon as- 

 sumed. 



From the above, and numerous 

 other experiments, I am of the opinion 

 that the greatest trouble lies in the 

 refuse on the bottom-board of the 

 hives. We are asked why it is that 

 two hives exactly alike should be dif- 

 ferently affected, under the same 

 treatment ? It is certainly easily ex- 

 plained ; one colony may so cluster 

 that the refuse may fall in a part of 

 the hive that is poorly ventilated, and 

 therefore become very poisonous by 

 the damp accumulation of the same ; 

 the other may drop the same in a dry 

 part of the liive, and produce no bad 

 results. And again, any one who will 

 take the trouble to observe, that col- 

 onies with pollen in excess, after win- 

 tering, will lind the refuse having a 

 bad smell, being worse than in case of 

 less pollen, hence the refuse assumes 



a more offensive form, if it is wet. I 

 am of the opinion that if we could 

 cleanse the bottom-board without dis- 

 turbing the bees, during the winter, 

 we would not have any cause for dys- 

 entery, or so manage the bees that the 

 refuse would be dry, the same result 

 would be attained. 



For some years past I have not had 

 dysentery in my apiary, and this 

 spring only in a very limited way, 

 having carried all of my bees through 

 (92 colonies) in sawdust hives, made 

 porous, so as to be as dry as possible 

 and yet warm. I made my hives from 

 plasterer's laths (no patent) and cover- 

 ed the bees over with sawdust. Bees 

 have done but very moderately here, 

 this spring. We had too much rain. 

 It rained 26 days in June ; that is, it 

 rained some time in every 24 hours, 

 for 26 days, during the month. 



Pana, ill., Aug. 8, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Many Fertile Workers in a Hive. 



B. F. CARROLL,. 



In reading the questions and an- 

 swers in the " What and How" de- 

 partment of the Bee Journ,\l, I see 

 some one wants to know why there are 

 such a variety in drones in a colony 

 of a mismated pure Italian queen. I 

 do not remember Mr. Heddon's re- 

 ply, but I am satisfied I have found 

 out the " why " long since, and I now 

 have a colony of pure Cyprians that 

 have a very fine young queen in it, 

 and there are not less than 100 laying 

 workers in there, too, .and had been 

 there a long time before I gave them 

 a queen cell. I have seen 20 or more 

 workers laying as regularly as if they 

 were laying queens, but it takes them 

 a little longer to perform the opera- 

 tion. I have seen tliem, after laying 

 an egg in a drone cell, try to turn 

 around in the cell, and often they 

 would bend back their wings against 

 their head. Now, what 1 want to say 

 is this : 1 have long claimed that any 

 bees (workers) are capable of laying 

 eggs, and I earnestly believe a goodly 

 portion of the drones in all hives are 

 from the eggs of workers. The idea 

 advanced by some that a fertile 

 vi'orker is a bee raised near queen 

 cells, and received a portion of royal 

 jelly cannot be true, for in the above 

 mentioned colony, I believe over 1,000 

 bees were laying eggs ; queen cells 

 started would have 10 and as high as 

 16 eggs; drone cells would have 3 to 

 10 ; worker cells the same. I have 

 watched this colony for an hour at a 

 time, and the bees would lay while I 

 held the comb in my hands, and would 

 pay but little attention to me. I 

 would open the hive several times 

 per day, using no smoker, raise a 

 comb and hold it up before my face 

 and the bees would always be busy 

 laying eggs, attending to tlie young 

 larvse, and would seem too busy to 

 notice me. I have seen this before, 

 and have introduced laying queens to 

 these fertile worker colonies, and I 

 am satisfied that the bees would con- 

 tinue to lay drone eggs while the 

 queen would be busy laying worker 



