1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



587 



rearing queens in upper stories. In order to get queens reared 

 in upper stories, there must be a certain amount of isolation, 

 and if you fall short of that, the thing won't work. Try this : 

 Put a cloth between the two stories, so that there is only a 

 little space at tne sides for the bees to up through ; and, if 

 that doesn't work, put two stories of empty frames between 

 the brood-nest and the upper story that has the brood in. 



Dividing^ a Colony. 



We have a very large colony of bees in a box-hive. If I 

 should drum them out in fruit-bloom, next spring, and leave 

 enough bees in the box-hive to keep the brood warm, would 

 they not rear themselves a queen in the time they were hatch- 

 ing out the brood ? If not, how shall I proceed, as I want to 

 make two colonies of the one in fruit-bloom, next spring. 



Peris, Oreg. W. D. M. 



Answer. — Yes, if you leave enough bees in the hive to 

 take care of the brood, in about three weeks from the time 

 you drum them out, they will have a new queen laying. But 

 now look here, unless they are stronger than most colonies 

 are at the time of fruit-bloom, you may do mischief by divid- 

 ing them at that time. It will be a good deal easier for you, 

 and most likely better for the bees, to wait till they swarm 

 naturally: but if they don't swarm then and are strong, it 

 may be well for you to take things in your own hands. 



Seems to be Bee-Faralysis. 



What ails my bees? They are dying ofE in one colony by 

 the hundreds every day. They turn very black, shiny and 

 slim, and become unable to fly well (with some exceptions). 

 Then the well bees fight them and drag them from the hive. 

 I sometimes see similar actions to those asked about by " H. 

 C. T.," on page 522 — a struggle between two bees, the well 

 one dragging the other to the ground, a separation, the sick, 

 shiny one not yet being too weak to fly, hence both returning 

 to the hive. Sometimes the appearance of the sick ones is 

 varied by apparent flattening and enlargement of the abdo- 

 men ; but I imagine this to be in the earlier stage before be- 

 coming noticeably black, slim, or shiny. The bees, until be- 

 coming sick, are active, etc., as any other bees. But the col- 

 ony has been queenless for some time (over three weeks now), 

 and I found them absolutely destitute of honey, and (some 

 days ago) with dead young bees nearly mature enough to come 

 from the cells with the cappings off. I thought that this was 

 possibly the work of the old bees, because of absence of food. 



Monterey, Calif., Aug. 20. A. N. 



Answer. — From your description, it seems to be a case of 

 bee-paralysis. A good many remedies have been given from 

 time to time, as you will see by looking at back numbers of 

 this journal, but it seems that after a remedy is given some 

 one reports that he has tried it and failed to find any benefit. 

 The remedy most commonly recommended is a change of 

 queen, but there may be a doubt whether that has much 

 effect. The truth, I think, is that we are yet in the doubt as 

 to the cause or cure of the disease. In the North the disease 

 usually disappears of its own accord, and amounts to but lit- 

 tle, but as far south as you it seems to be a real scourge. I 

 can only repeat to look up back numbers, and try any of the 

 remedies you like, but I don't feel wonderfully sanguine that 

 any of them will do much good. 



Drunken Bees — Beet-Sugar and China Sugar — Bee-Lit- 

 erature — That "Dime Smoker." 



1. Do you know that bees get drunk on honey around the 

 seductive blackberries, and die ? In Oregon thousands perish 

 this way yearly, and whole colonies are disrupted. What is 

 the remedy — a Keeley bi-chloride of gold cure, or total ab- 

 stinence (on the part of the bee-keeper) in planting blackber- 

 ries ? That awful Australian nuisance — the so-called Oregon 

 ever-bearing blackberry (which some of the Eastern seedmen 

 have nerve enough to ask 50 cents per plant) blooms a long 

 time — over three months under certain conditions — and bees 

 work on them greedily. Now, will it pay to plant them and 

 have drunken bees? 



2. Is beet-sugar, granulated, as good for feeding bees as 

 cane-sugar? Is China, granulated (the kind most frequently 

 met here), as good ? 



3. Why have bee-journals better written articles, more 

 humor, better literary style, and a more scientific treatment 



of topics than other journals devoted to other branches of agri- 

 culture ? Is it on account of the " poetry " of it ? 



4. Could that Doctor (G. P. Hachenberg, of Austin, Tex.,) 

 be made to yield up the secret of his " dime smoker," which 

 he says he described in the American Bee Journal of Dec. 5 

 and Aug. 8, 1888, for the benefit of those who did not know 

 of the Bee Journal's existence until the last few months ? 



Yankton, Oreg. M. S. L. 



Answers. — 1. No, I didn't know bees were so affected by 

 blackberry blossoms. I've read of such things with different 

 kinds of plants, but never saw bees in anything but a respect- 

 able degree of sobriety except when working on the Chapman 

 honey-plant. They don't get riotous or fighting drunk, just 

 appear stupid. I've little faith in the Keeley cure, but should 

 try to arouse in the bees a feeling of self-respect, and induce 

 each one to sign a total-abstinence pledge. 



Seriously, isn't it possible that only part of the bees are 

 incapacitated for work, and that more stores are carried from 

 the blossoms than to pay for all harm done ? 



2. I don't know, and I can't find out for certain. Gen- 

 erally we are told that there's no difference between beet-sugar 

 and cane-sugar, and that a chemical analysis shows them to 

 be exactly alike ; but across the ocean they insist that beet- 

 sugar is not fit to feed bees for winter, I don't know about 

 China sugar. If it's made of cane, I don't know why it 

 shouldn't be good, always supposing it's properly refined. 



3. My dear fellow, you're way off. Bee-literature is in 

 such a bad state that an essay at the last Michigan State con- 

 vention was read lamenting its decadence, and suggesting 

 that the present writers be shoved out of the way and a fresh 

 lot set to work. Perhaps if the writers of the bee-journals 

 wrote upon other topics you wouldn't find them so interesting. 

 Still, there's A. I. Root, who writes about everything under 

 the sun — from piety to pie-plants — and he's always interesting. 



4. Respectfully referred to ye editor. — [Probably Dr. H. 

 will comply with M. S. L.'s request. — Editor.] 



What Ailed the Bees P 



Last summer I had 10 good, strong colonies of hybrids, 

 and about Oct. 1 I moved them from my ranch into town, and 

 they all seemed to be all right after the trip, and went into 

 the winter with a good supply of honey, and seemingly all 

 right. I did not notice anything wrong with them until a 

 warm spell in February, I noticed that two colonies of them 

 had the dysentery, but it came off nice and warm for a few 

 days, and they seemed to get over it. Some time along in 

 the latter part of March it made its appearance again in those 

 two and one or two others, and aloug the last of April, while 

 the fruit-bloom was out, I transferred them from the box- 

 hives they were in into some new hives with Langstroth 

 frames. A few days before I transferred them I noticed that 

 the ground on a warm day would be just covered with bees 

 crawling away from the hives, and could not fly. I would 

 pick them up and toss them up into the air, and they would 

 fall to the ground. They did not seem to have any use of 

 their wings. After transferring them, they all had an attack 

 of the dysentery, caused, I suppose, from filling themselves 

 with honey when I was transferring them, but I could not find 

 anything wrong with the honey, as far as I could see. 



They kept up this crawling away until three of the colo- 

 nies disappeared altogether, and the remaining seven were 

 very weak. 



About two weeks after transferring, I put in Italian 

 queens, and after the young bees from those queens began to 

 hatch out, they began'to build up. and the seven I have left 

 are pretty fair colonies now, and nearly all Italians. None of 

 them swarmed this summer, nor stored any surplus honey, but 

 I noticed a day or two ago that crawling on the ground again, 

 tbut do not see any signs of dysentery, but, on close examina- 

 tion, I find those that are crawling on the ground seem to be 

 swollen, or look as if they mi^ht be full of honey, but on 

 smashing one of them, the body seems to be full of that dark, 

 yellow fluid, like the discharge when they have the dysentery. 

 1 cannot find anything in " A B C of Bee-Culture " that gives 

 any information in regard to it. A. E. H. 



Tacoma, Wash., Aug. 20. 



Answer. — I'm sorry to say I don't know enough to help 

 you. Something of the same kind has occurred before in 

 Wisconsin, and perhaps elsewhere, but so far as I remember 

 the cause seemed a mystery. I think the trouble disappeared 

 of itself, and I hope that may be the case with you. In the 

 meantime, I shall be glad if any of the friends who can do so, 

 will give information that will help us out. 



