THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



305 



drifted three months, that has uot become 

 uneasy, gone to breeding, contracted the 

 diarrhoea, and exhausted its vitality to an ex- 

 tent sufficient to cause a bad case of spring 

 dwindling, or a loss of the colony altogether. 

 After a process of time the bees seem to be- 

 come too warm, break the cluster, com- 

 mence brood rearing to replace the bees 

 dying of exhausted vitality, run to the en- 

 trance, and fan there as in summer, the com- 

 motion thawing the snow all about the hive 

 till a cat or small dog could run all around 

 the lower part of the hive, thus causing them 

 to consume their stores of honey and pollen 

 very rapidly, which consumption brings on 

 diarrhoea and death, unless the bees have a 

 chance to fly about the time brood rearing 

 commences, and even then the colony is so 

 weakened that it is of little use the following 

 season. Where the snow stays about the 

 hives only a few weeks at a time, it will do 

 no particular harm ; but otherwise I would 

 advise carrying the bees to some higher 

 ground, where the snow does not drift, or 

 else fix an underground cellar to winter in." 



Larg^e Colonies ; Dark and Light Bees ; Bee 



Paralysis ; Foul-Broody Foundation. 



Among the bright correspondents gather- 

 ed together by the Progressive, none are 

 brighter than one that signs himself " Ob- 

 server." His contributions are in the shape 

 of short, independent paragraphs, of which 

 the following, culled from the last batch, 

 are a fair sample : 



" Now comes Ernest Root, and says he 

 cannot shut his eyes to the fact that large 

 colonies give best results. Are you paving 

 the way to launch a new hive on us poor 

 d — s benighted bee-keepers. Friend Ernest ? 

 Mav fate forefend. 



The St. Joe convention ' sat down ' on the 

 five-banders. Say, didn't we tell you so, 

 long ago ? But the craze is not over yet 

 awhile. 



Gleanings editorially contends that yellow 

 five-banded bees have Cyprian blood in 

 them. Nonsense ! Just watch Doolittle rise 

 up and annihilate the suggestion. 



I (or you) can take as pure an Italian 

 queen as you can find, pnd from her in due 

 course of time, by careful selection and 

 breeding, secure dark, leather-colored or 

 yellow, five-banded bees. Scores of bee- 

 keepers can corroborate this, if it is dis- 

 puted. 



Bee paralysis is being extensively dis- 

 cussed lately, and is attracting attention 

 throughout the bee-keeping fraternity. Is 

 it really more prevalent than formerly ? It 

 may be, but I doubt it, and think in a year 

 or two we will hear no more of it — that it 

 will gradually disappear of itself. So mote 

 it be. 



The last Review (October) takes up the 

 cudgel in Heddon's behalf in a manly way 

 that does credit to the editor's head and 



heart, and proves himself a friend that 

 ' sticketh closer than a brother.' Would 

 that there were more such. 



Friend Heddon is going through the ex- 

 perience all original thinkers have under- 

 gone since the world began, and he will come 

 around all right in the end. ' The world does 

 move.' 



In Experimenter Taylor's trial of foul- 

 broody wax used in making foundation, a 

 few cells appeared— at least it appeared to 

 be such— and he attributed it to insufficient 

 heat used in rendering the wax and in mak- 

 ing the foundation. He is a very careful 

 man, but is it not more likely that the brood 

 was infected from the colonies that had foul 

 brood in them ? I understand Friend Tay- 

 lor has such in his apiary. For my part, I 

 doubt if there ever originated a case of foul 

 brood from the use of foundation." 



Five-Banded Bees, They Can be Produced 

 From Imported Stock, Are Good Honey 



Gatherers— Give Satan His Dues, Etc. 

 The bright yellow bees have been boomed 

 and boomed and praised extravagantly until 

 a reaction is setting in, and now they will 

 have to take it. As a foretaste of what we 

 may expect for the next few months let me 

 copy from the Progressive a *' round " be- 

 tween those old veterans, Mrs. Atchley and 

 E. F. Quigley. It is very enjoyable and 

 furnishes some food for thought. Mrs. 

 Atchley assumes the aggressive as follows : — 

 " Bro. Quigley seems to be away off {Pro- 

 gressive Bee- Keeper, October number) where 

 he states that yellow queens and bees cannot 

 be produced from imported stock. I thought 

 any well posted bee-keeper knew that Italian 

 bees kept pure would soon become almost 

 solid yellow, especially if the yellowest 

 queens are selected as the generations ap- 

 pear, etc. I have not seen a Cyprian since 

 1884, that I know of, till this year, when I 

 ordered some for a customer, and I have 

 some as yellow bees and queens as I ever 

 saw, and no Cyprian blood about them. I 

 import my queens every year ; besides I got 

 two from A. I. Root last and this year, and I 

 received one a few days ago from Root. 

 This is done to get a stock to breed from 

 that is no kin, as far as possible, as Root's 

 queens and mine were from different breed- 

 ers in Italy. 



Now, Bro. Quigley, I must see that you 

 ' tote fair ' while you deal with five-banded 

 bees. Where did you get those queens you 

 speak of coming from the south ? I wish to 

 be understood that I have no axe to grind, 

 as I can and do raise just the kind of queens 

 customers want, i. e., three or five-banded. 

 But, dear me, I have reports on the five- 

 banded bees this year that would knock out 

 all other bees. 



Some honey raisers buy five-banded queens 

 by the hundred, and in the hands of bee-keep- 

 ers they have gone away beyond the three. 



