240 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Bees From Northern Bred Queens Seem 

 More Free From Bee Paralysis. 



T. S. FOKD. 



T HA.VE bee paralysis in my apiary, aud 

 1 have noticed that Northern queens seem 

 to resist the effects of the disease more than 

 do colonies bred from Southern queens. It 

 may be that I am reasoning from a very lim- 

 ited experience, having bought only about 

 half a dozen Northern queens, but I have 

 found no exojptio:! so far. Is thare any 

 remedy for bee paralysis V I have tried salt, 

 re-queening, and to a limited extent, sulphur, 

 but have never seen much benefit except 

 from re- queening, and that seems tempo- 

 rary. I take several bee journals, and have 

 been watching for the appearance of some 

 new remedy. 



The disease does no harm except in the 

 spring and during the honey flow. At that 

 period, the bees die in such quantities that I 

 have seen as many as a peck of dead ones in 

 front of a single hive. When warm weather 

 sets in during .June, it disappears in nearly 

 all the colonies, and only an experienced eye 

 can detect it, 



Columbia, Miss. Sept. 19, 1894. 



Ps^>3:r^>5^ 



Mir 



Carniolans are Good Workers, Very Gentle, 



and Not Great Swarmers.— The Energy 



of a New Swarm Explained. 



E. FBANOE. 



" Y experience with Carniolans for the last 

 years has convinced me that, for 

 extracted honey, they are the best bees I 

 ever worked with. I have never tried them 

 for comb honey, but I have no doubt about 

 their good behavior in that direction. I 

 now have 140 colonies of them. A very few 

 of them are a little mixed with the Italian, 

 and I did intend to requeen the whole yard 

 the past season, and bought two queeLS in 

 the spring from which to raise my queens, 

 but as our honey harvest was short I raised 

 only about forty. The only time we had 

 that I could open hives without setting rob- 

 bers to work was about sixteen days — when 

 the basswood was in bloom — so I had to give 

 up requeening the apiary this year. However, 

 I have but few in my home yard that are not 

 good Carniolans. 



Some raise objection to them on account 

 of their swarming too much. I have never 



had any trouble with them by their swarm- 

 ing too much. I work them in 8-frame L. 

 hives three stories high, keep them strong 

 and then swarm them by dividing them. I 

 made only forty-five new ones from ninety- 

 five old ones, aud had only three natural 

 swarms. I don't call that excessive swarm- 

 ing. 



They are good bees to winter. I winter 

 all out of doors on their summer stands. 



Some think they are poor honey gatherers ; 

 mine made more honey to the colony than 

 any other bees I have. 



We have five out-yards, over 400 colonies 

 in all away from home, many of them good 

 Italians, the balance mixed Italians and 

 blacks, and the Carniolans beat them last 

 year when we had a good season and the 

 same this year when we had a poor season. 



They are the mildest and easiest to work 

 of any bees I ever worked with. I worked 

 with them all summer without a veil. I 

 wish all of our bees were pure Carniolans. 



In the Review of 189.8, page 2.33, is the fol- 

 lowing idea expressed by R. C. Aikin : " The 

 energy of a newly hived swarm is more 

 aparent than real. There is no brood to care 

 for — nothing to do but gather honey and 

 make comb — hence the apparent energy and 

 the great rapidity with which stores accu- 

 mulate." 



That the new swarm does work with more 

 energy is certain. Why is it? We make our 

 increase by division ; take brood, combs and 

 bees from three or four old colonies, put 

 them together in one hive, fill the hive, let 

 them raise a queen or give them one, and 

 make them strong. Will they work with the 

 apparent energy of the newly hived swarm ? 

 No sir. Why not ? Because about all the 

 bees ^^e have in this artificially made col- 

 ony are young bees. They have never been 

 out to work ; they are not old enough, and 

 we don't expect much of them for a week. 

 So if we make a new colony near the close 

 of the last honey harvest we give them 

 enough honey to winter on. After about a 

 week or ten days this artificially made swarm 

 will work as good as any natural swarm, and 

 in three weeks the artificial swarm, will have 

 the best honey gatherers of any in the yard. 

 So a swarm that was made in clover time 

 will just revel in the basswood honey. 



Some think natural swarms are best on ac- 

 count of this energy of the newly hived 

 swarm. Let us see, have we lost any energy 

 by making artificial swarms ? Not at all. 



