1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



107 



pared to buy land of his own, and to raise 

 alfalfa seed. Land here is very valuable 

 —$35 to $200 per acre. 



E. F. Atwater, GetiH Mgr. 

 Boise, Idaho, Dec. 22, 1902. 



[I am glad you are going- to make an ef- 

 fort to have a foul-brood law^, and Glean- 

 ings will give you any assistance possible. 



Saj', if you will give us the name of that 

 Utah apiarist who threatens to scatter foul 

 brood in Idaho, and can give satisfactory 

 proof from several witnesses that he made 

 such a threat, we will publish him to the 

 world. Get his picture if you can. Such 

 a fiend and rascal as that ought to be 

 branded all over the bee world. My own 

 opinion is, he could be held accountable for 

 such a threat, and Gleanings will put $25 

 up to begin the cost of prosecution. I am 

 not sure but this case should be brought be- 

 fore the National Bee-keepers' Association. 

 Such a man should be driven out of the 

 State, or sent to jail, where he belongs. 



When the writer went through a portion 

 of your State, he drove over a great deal of 

 alfalfa country where there seemed to be no 

 bees; and I was told there was much more 

 of it in other portions of the State also 

 available for bees. Since then I have been 

 informed that there has been a great rush 

 of bee-keepers to the locality mentioned, 

 and the probabilities are there is no field va- 

 cant. 



I do not believe bee-keepers in any local- 

 ity object to having more bee-keepers come 

 to their vicinity, providing that such new 

 comers do not encroach on bee-range al- 

 ready taken up. But there are some who 

 rush into new count r3% and squat their bee- 

 j'ards within a mile or so of another yard, 

 that has the reputation of getting much 

 hone}'. Let bee-keepers take note of the 

 fact that Idaho, so far as it is settled, is al- 

 ready dotted over with bee-j'ards. 



But in Idaho, as in nearly every other 

 State, there is a great deal of sage country 

 now desert that will be opened up just as 

 soon as the State and nation put in irriga- 

 tion-ditches so that this land, fertile as it is, 

 can be made available for growing alfalfa 

 and other crops. If one really desires to 

 get a new location, let him ascertain what 

 fields are to be reclaimed by irrigation. 

 There is no law against being the first one 

 in the field.— Ed.] 



WHAT MADE THE BEES DIE SO? 



I had four colonies of bees, and the}' have 

 all died since the first of November. The 

 two first were late swarms, and had but 

 very little honey; the other two had plent}^ 

 of honey. The trouble began early in the 

 fall. Every time that I examined them 

 there would be quite a number of dead bees 

 on the bottom-board, and some litter like 

 bits of comb. When I opened the hives 

 there was about a quart of bees in the clus- 

 ter which looked very much like live bees 

 except that their abdomens were slightly 

 swollen, and looked whiter than usual. 



There was no young brood, and no moth- 

 worms. I failed to find a queen in either 

 hive. I should like to have your opinion in 

 regard to what was the matter; and if you 

 know what caused the trouble, what would 

 be the remedy? If I get more bees, would 

 they be liable to take the same disease? 



Beaver, Mo. Jacob Wimmer. 



[I assume in the first place you are win- 

 tering y6ur bees outdoors. There is a pos- 

 sibility that the bees gathered something in 

 the fall that induced early dysentery, al- 

 though you do not speak of the fact that any 

 of the hives are stained, although I infer 

 that the bees are diseased because you say 

 the bodies are swollen; and that leads me 

 to suggest that possibly they have paraly- 

 sis or bee palsy — sometimes called the 

 trembling disease. The litter of little bits 

 of comb in the bottom of the hive suggests 

 that mice or some other rodents are gnaw- 

 ing at the combs. Without knowing more 

 of the conditions it is pretty hard to say 

 what the trouble was. It is possible that 

 the hives being in an exposed position, and 

 the entrances large, the bees became chill- 

 ed, and they are dying from cold. — Ed.] 



THE BEST METHODS OF QUEEN-REAR- 

 ING, ETC. 



1. Is the " Doolittle method " of rearing 

 queens in upper stories above a queen-ex- 

 cluder, and getting them fertilized from the 

 same a success — that is, when there is an- 

 other queen below? 



2. What book has the best method or 

 methods of rearing queens in it? 



3. How is the Danzenbaker hive for queen- 

 rearing? J, F. Diamond. 



Fly Mountain, N. Y., Oct. 10. 



[ 1. No, only at certain seasons and under 

 some conditions. The appendix to Mr. 

 Doolittle's book fully covers this point. 



2. This is a hard question to answer. 

 Some prefer the Doolittle method, and some 

 prefer the Alley plan. Both have their 

 good points. But a modification of the 

 Doolittle method as recommended by W. H. 

 Pridgen or by Swarthmore ( E. L. Pratt) 

 I would consider an improvement. Mr. 

 Doolittle brought out, or, rather, brought 

 to prominence, the artificial-cell-cup plan. 

 The two other gentlemen have, in my judg- 

 inent, made improvements to such an extent 

 that one can rear more queens with less 

 labor. Therefore if you wish to get the 

 best "book" on queen-rearing you will 

 have to consult the current literature in bee- 

 journals. 



3. Very well adapted for it. In the rear- 

 ing of queens it is an advantage to have 

 frames a little smaller than the Langstroth; 

 and to the extent that the Danzenbaker 

 frame is smaller or shallower than the 

 Langstroth, to that extent it is better for 

 queen-rearing. But this is not all. The 

 general construction of the Danzenbaker is 

 such as to make a warmer brood-nest — a 

 very important consideration when the clus- 

 ters of bees are necessarily small. — Ed. J 



