272 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW^ 



The principal use of a seat is the tool box 

 it may contain for queen cages, escapes, cell 

 protectors, register cards, etc. As a honey 

 producer, four-fifths of my time is devoted 

 to rearing queens. I do not want to run into 

 the shop for every little trinket. Nor leave 

 cages scattered about the apiary lying on 

 hive covers. They not only get lost but they 

 soon rust. To transfer larvae by the batch, 

 and cage fifteen hatching virgin queens, and 

 not slight the job, requires ease and shade. 

 To get the best, cells are to be sorted before 

 hatching and queens must be sorted before 

 and after fertilization. Watch the manuiu- 

 vres of every new queen for a month or two 

 and know how to distinguish a business 

 queen. Queens which start out poorly al- 

 most invariably prove to be poor. Bee-keep- 

 ing may be compared to poultry keeping. 

 It requires some dexterity to make hens lay 

 but any ignoramus can gather up the eggs. 



In my last year's location there was much 

 bother with hornets meddling with honey, 

 fruit, meat and even killing hive bees and 

 carrying them away. This year, only twelve 

 miles away, I have not seen a hornet. Last 

 year I did not see a mosquito. This season 

 they have existed in clouds. Kingbirds are 

 very numerous and until last spring I did 

 not know that there were any in the State. 

 With so much variation in the visible insects 

 in so short a distance may it not explain why 

 bees would not be so necessary for the fer- 

 tilization of fruit blossoms on the islands in 

 Lake Erie as far out on the dry mainland ? 



My experience with bee paralysis runs 

 thus : In the spring of 1893, as the colonies 

 began to get strong, I noticed the disease — 

 the stronger became the colonies the more 

 disease — the larger the heaps of dead bees 

 before the entrances. When it had attained 

 fair headway, four or five colonies were re- 

 queened. In ten to twenty days the symp- 

 toms were gone. In about two months later 

 four or five more colonies were requeened 

 with like effect. Then late in the season, 

 too late to rear queens, I bought six queens 

 and introduced them to as many diseased 

 colonies and that ended the disease there. 

 Several, some five or six, remained diseased 

 through the winter. Three of these I kept, 

 and a party to whom I sold twenty-five col- 

 onies insisted on his own choosing, picked 

 out two of these paralytic ones. Those I 

 kept were re-queened early and have been 

 among the best in the apiary this season. 

 Those sold, still have their old queens, one 



dwindled out entirely ; while the others have 

 been the cause of vexation and worry all 

 summer. I told him how to cure it but he 

 knows nothing about queen rearing or intro - 

 duction. 



Last season (189.3) two diseased colonies 

 did their own re-queening, in one of which 

 I found both the old and young queens lay- 

 ing eggs in the same comb. Finally the old 

 queen disappeared. The colony containing 

 this young queen is the best, in IGO, this sea- 

 son — casting a swarm which stored 140 

 pounds of honey in one-pound sections. 

 Fifty daughters show no disease so far. 



Last year I knew the disease to be present 

 in numerous valley apiaries while a number 

 of mountain apiaries only a few miles away 

 had none of the disease. In the valley, dif- 

 ferent from the mountains, there was a con- 

 tinuous supply of honey yielding flowers to 

 keep up constant breeding from February to 

 October. So I say stay out of such localities 

 or else re queen. For my part, I would not 

 vary my course any to avoid the disease. In 

 every case I have seen, the queen was an un- 

 usually prolific layer. 



Flokenoe, Calif. 



Oct. 15, 1894. 



Bee-Keepers' Review. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



W. I. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



Terms : — $1.00 a year in advance. Two copies 

 $1.90 ; three for $2.70 ; five for $4.00 ; ten or more, 

 70 cents each. If it is desired to have the Reviiw 

 stopped at the expiration of the time paid for, 

 please say so when subscribing, otherwise, it 

 will be continued 



FLINT, MICHIGAN OCT. 10. 1894. 



If a Man has a thousand friends, he has 

 not one too many. 



A Special Bulletin, "A Year With the 

 Bees." is now out and gives the results of 

 the first year's work at the Michigan Experi- 

 mental Apiary. It is now being sent out to 

 1,200 Michigan bee-keepers the names and 

 addresses being furnished by the Review. 

 Others outside of Michigan should write for 

 it, addressing the Secretary of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, Agricultural College, 

 Mich. 



