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the spring than of those having 

 younger queens ; and as I'e-queening 

 can be done so much cheaper and bet- 

 ter in the fall than in the spring, I 

 prefer to do it then, even if half the 

 queens I destroy would be good for 

 yet another year. 



Many of our best apiarists — Doolit- 

 tle, Hutchinson, and others, recom- 

 mend the contraction system during 

 swarming ; but all seem to agree that 

 swarms having old queens seem much 

 more inclined to build drone comb 

 than do others. 



In speaking of old queens, I mean 

 those that have done duty for three 

 seasons, including the one in which 

 they were reared. In rare cases I 

 have known queens to do duty the 

 fifth season ; but a very large propor- 

 tion will not do satisfactory work dur- 

 ing their fourth season, a much larger 

 proportion than many suppose is the 

 case, unless they have specially ob- 

 served this point for a number of 

 years. 



As already said, the question is one 

 of relative profit and loss. On one 

 hand we have the expense of the 

 young queens, and the value of the 

 few good queens that will be de- 

 stroyed ; on the other, we have the 

 very material shrinkage of the honey 

 crop, the probable loss of some colo- 

 nies, etc., and there is no question in 

 my mind that the last items exceed 

 the first ones many times over. 



Apartado 278, Havana, Cuba. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



A Report of Some Experiments 

 in Apiculture. 



Report to the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 BY N. w. m'lain. 



The study of some forms of disease 

 to which bees are subject, including 

 an inquiry into the causes of disease, 

 and the discovery and application of 

 suitable remedies, has occupied much 

 time, and the results from this line of 

 investigation have been in a good de- 

 gree successful and satisfactory. 



The excellent classification and com- 

 plete history which have been given of 

 the micro-parasitical forms which af- 

 fect the life and health of bees simplify 

 diagnosis and facilitate the discovery 

 and application of preventives and 

 cures. Modern science has shown 

 that it is often necessary to unlearn 

 much of what was supposed to have 

 passed beyond the region of doubt. 

 The subject in hand furnishes no ex- 

 ception. It is not strange that there 

 should be confusion and error in deal- 

 ing with the origin and habits of these 

 micro-organisms which bafBe tlie skill 



of the investigator. We are now col- 

 lecting and tabulating data and testing 

 theories in the crucible of experience, 

 and while our investigations are in- 

 complete, and many seemingly de- 

 termined facts lack full confirmation, 

 and while significant manifestations 

 await interpretation, we must be slow 

 in reaching conclusions. We may in- 

 deed be in the region of the knowl- 

 edge we seek after, but we must hold 

 the evidence under survey until many- 

 sided experience fully determines its 

 value. 



Bacillus Alvel (Cheshire). 



This disease, commonly but inap- 

 propriately called foul brood, is in- 

 digenous in all parts of the United 

 States, and is infectious and virulent 

 to the last degree. Concerning the 

 origin of Bacillus and other allied or- 

 ganisms, but little is certainly known, 

 but that the organism classified as 

 Bacillus alvei is the active agent in the 

 destruction of both bees and brood is 

 certain, for this agent is always pres- 

 ent, and although its action in the 

 living organism is exceedingly compli- 

 cated it is also well defined. 



The symptoms of this disease may 

 be more clearly described by con- 

 trasting the appearance of bees' brood 

 and combs in a healthy colony with 

 the diagnostic symptoms attending 

 Bacillus alvei. The bees act as if dis- 

 contented and discouraged ; (»he combs 

 commonly present a dingj', neglected, 

 and untidy appearance, and a charac- 

 teristic odor is present, sometimes not 

 noticeable until the hive-cover is re- 

 moved, at other times oft'ensive at 

 some distance from the hive. This 

 odor is very like that emitted from 

 glue which has been prepared for use, 

 then put aside and allowed to ferment. 

 Instead of the plump, white, smooth 

 appearance common to healthy un- 

 capped larva3, the membranes more or 

 less wrinkled and shrunken, are 

 streaked with yellow, which with the 

 succeeding stages of the disease 

 changes into a dingy, gray brown ; 

 then as putrefaction, follows, the color 

 becomes a dirty red brown. As evapor- 

 ation progresses the mass settles to the 

 lower side of the cell, and if the head 

 of a pin be drawn through the mass, 

 that which adheres apjiears quite 

 stringy and elastic, the tracheas and 

 tougher tissues resisting decay adher- 

 ing to the cell. Later nothing remains 

 but a black, flat scale on the lower side 

 near the bottom of the cell. If the 

 disease does not assume the acute form 

 before the pupa stage the brood is 

 capped over, but the cell cap, com- 

 monly of a darker color than that 

 covering a healthy brood, settles, leav- 

 ing the cover concave instead of flat 

 or convex, and shortly small holes ap- 

 apear, as if inquiry had been instituted 



to learn the condition of the occupant, 

 or to liberate the gases and odor and 

 facilitate evaporation. Torn and rag- 

 ged cell caps are frequent, and some 

 cells may be empty and cleansed ; and 

 in the midst of ragged and sunken 

 caps a live bee may occasionally 

 emerge. 



The means by which these deadly 

 agents are commonly introduced into 

 the hive and into the bodies of their 

 victims has not been certainly de- 

 termined. Prof. Frank R. Cheshire, 

 F.L.S., F.R.M.S., to whom we are in- 

 debted for the classification of this 

 species of Bacillus, and also for much 

 that is valuable concerning its life 

 history and pathogenic character, 

 speaking of the means of propagating 

 this disease, sajs (see Bees and Bee- 

 Keeping, vol. 2, pp. 157, 158, London. 

 1888) : 



" My strong opinion is, that com- 

 monly neither honey nor pollen carry 

 the disease, but that the feet and an- 

 tennae of the bees usually do." " It is 

 also extremelj' likely that spores are 

 carried in the air and taken in by the 

 indraft set up by the fanners. There 

 will be no ditficulty in this supposition 

 when it is remembered that the or- 

 ganisms are so minute that a cubic 

 inch of material would form a quad- 

 ruple line of them from London to 

 New York." 



My own experience and observation 

 is in agreement with this last proposi- 

 tion, as witness the following para- 

 graph from my report of last year (see 

 Report of U. S. Entomologist, 1886, 

 p. 587) : 



" That the contagion may sometimes 

 be borne from hi\e to hive by the 

 wind appears to be true, as it was ob- 

 served in one of the apiaries which I 

 treated for tliis disease during the past 

 summer, that of a large number of 

 diseased colonies in the apiary, with 

 the exception of 2 colonies, all were 

 located to the northeast of the colony 

 in which the disease first appeared. 

 The prevailing wind had been from 

 the southwest." 



Mr. Cheshire says further, page as 

 above : " The bee-keeper is unfortu- 

 nately almost compelled to become 

 himself a probable cause of infection. 

 His hands, made adhesive by propolis, 

 carry the spores or bacilli, and so may 

 transfer them, even hours later, to 

 healthy hives. The clothes should be 

 kept as far as practicable from con- 

 tact with suftering colonies, and the 

 hands after manipulating them should 

 be disinfected by washing with a weak 

 solution of mercuric chloride (corrosive 

 sublimate), J of an ounce in 1 gallon 

 of water being quite strong enough." 



The concluding paragraph under 

 this heading in my report for 1886 is 

 as follows : 



