776 



TMM m'mmmi^mm mmm jo-ukhmi,. 



with bees and brood, so that thej' can 

 take possession of the sections at once, 

 and if cold nights do come, the bees 

 will crowd down into the hive below, 

 so as to protect the brood. 



Again, there is no use of putting on 

 sections until the bees are getting 

 honey, for the_v not only tend to dis- 

 courage brood-rearing, but the bees, 

 having nothing else to do, will often 

 cut down the foundation starters, and 

 plaster propolis or bee-glue over them 

 so as to make the labor of the apiarist 

 much more than it otherwise would be. 



The proper time to put on sections 

 is when the hive is filled with bees and 

 brood, and the bees are getting honey 

 enough so that little bits of comb are 

 being built about the tops of the 

 frames. At such times the cells of 

 comb will be lengthened along the 

 tops of .the frames, which is so pleas- 

 ing to the ejes of the e.Kperienced bee- 

 keeper, thus showing that the bees are 

 getting honey, and are ready for the 

 surplus department. 



Symptoms and Cure of Foul Brood. 



Another subscriber wislies to know 

 the symptoms and cure of foul brood. 

 When a colony has this dreaded dis- 

 ease, a few of the larva; die soon after 

 the bees seal the cells containing them. 

 The cappings to the cells soon have a 

 sunken appearance, with a pin-hole in 

 the centre of each. Upon opening the 

 cells the larva; is found stretched at 

 full length in the cells, and have a 

 brown appearance, while all healthy 

 hirvse or pup:e are white. If touched, 

 this dead In-ood is of a salvy, ropj' na- 

 ture, and gives off an offensive smell. 



From the first few cells the disease 

 spreads rapidly until the coniljs become 

 a putrifying mass, generally during 

 the first season, and nearly always 

 during the second, whicli stench at 

 this stage, if allowed to get so far, can 

 be smelled a rod or two from the hive. 

 A few of the larva' mature into bees, 

 the population of the hive decreases 

 until it becomes an easy prej' to rob- 

 bers, when the honej- is taken off by 

 these robber bees, only to carry tlie 

 seeds of the maladj' to the robbers' 

 hive, for the disease to spread through 

 the honey, and all else coming in con- 

 tact with it. 



The cure is to drive out all of the 

 bees from the affected hive, and keep 

 them shut up in an empty bo.K until 

 they are nearly starved, so that they 

 will have digested all of the diseased 

 honey. They should then be hived 

 and fed in a new, clean hive, when 

 they are clear from the disease. If in 

 the honey season, a swarm issues from 

 a foul-broody hive, it is not necessary 

 to put them through tlie starving pro- 

 cess ; simply hive them in an entirely 

 empty hive, the same as you would a 



healthy swarm, and as far as my ex- 

 perience goes, they will always be 

 health)' thereafter, unless they con- 

 tract it again bj' getting diseased honey 

 from some other hive. 



Great care should be taken that no 

 bees get at the contents of tlie old hive 

 before the combs are rendered into 

 wax, and the honey and hive scalded. 

 Other cures have been recommended, 

 but most of them are ineffectual, ex- 

 cept in the h.ands of an expert. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



ODOR OR COLOR. 



Wliieli is it liiat Attracts 

 Bees to the Flower i 



the 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY MRS. MAHALA B. CHADDOCK. 



Prof. Cook asks how 1 know that 

 color is no guide to bees. I answer, I 

 know it because I am a reasoning 

 being. If I were an insect I should 

 know it by instinct. I knoto that bees 

 are guided bj' odor, and I think that I 

 can prove it, even to Prof. Cook's 

 scientific mind. 



Most of the nectai'-bearing plants 

 that I am acquainted with are incon- 

 spicuous in color, but strong in odor. 

 Is there anything bright or showy in 

 a held of white clower ? Anybodj' 

 with eyes in his head must answer 

 "No." Do not the bees always find 

 the white clover blossoms ? A thou- 

 sand voices answer "Yes." Well, then, 

 color does not attract bees to white 

 clover, but odor does. It seems to me 

 that this is incontrovertiljle. 



The blossoms of the linden are yel- 

 low, but there is a sort of white mem- 

 brane near the clusters of Howers that 

 makes many people think that the 

 blossoms are white. A silver-leafed 

 maple appears, when the wind is stir- 

 ring, as much like a flowering tree as 

 the linden does when full of bloom. 

 Can the bees see the blossoms on the 

 linden q,nd pick them out from other 

 forest trees ? No, they cannot ! They 

 smell them, and go for tliein. Can any 

 bod}- doubt this ? Can Prof. Cook 

 doubt it ? 



Then there are the raspberries, the 

 catnip, the sweet clover, and ground- 

 ivj-, all inconspicuous flowers, but 

 flowers that are never neglected by the 

 bees when they contain nectar. And 

 is there on all the earth a more insig- 

 nificant flower than the smart-weed ? 

 It grows mostly in corn-flelds,^ and 

 never reaches to the tops of the stalks ; 

 the flowers are a pale pink in color, 

 and so small that at any con.siderable 

 distance up in the air thej' must be 

 practicallj' invisible. Are the smart- 

 weeds ever neglected by the bees ? 

 Never. Why, if it were possible to 



stretch a curtain over the entire field, 

 and nail it to the fence all around, the 

 bees would go in through the rails and 

 gather the nectar all the same. Can 

 Prof. Cook doubt this ? 



I think that I have proved my state- 

 ment, but I will prove it in another 

 wa3'. When you feed bees • out-of- 

 doors, put some honey in a plate of 

 rye flower, for instance. Is it a yellow 

 color, or any color, that attracts the 

 bees to it ? The rj'e flower is a whitish 

 gra3' — one of the most inconspicuous 

 colors — but Prof. Cook knows that the 

 bees will go to it. How can they find 

 it except bj' the odor ? 



When old bee-hunters go out to 

 "line " bees, what do they take to at- 

 tract tlie bees — some bright-colored 

 yellow flowers fastened in a bouquet 

 on a pole ? Not at all ; they take some 

 foul smelling stutt' in a vessel, and the 

 bees come to it because they smell it. 

 Can any one dispute this point? I 

 think not. 



If the slops from the bed-rooms are 

 emptied on the grass at certain seasons 

 of the year, the bees will work on that 

 spot. There are no flowers of any 

 kind, only green grass and odor. Can 

 this be disputed ? When bees go to 

 cess-pools, do they go for bright col- 

 ors ? Everybody knows better — they 

 go because they smell something that 

 they want. There can be no question 

 of color about it. 



I think that I have covered everj- 

 point, so far. Prof. Cook says : " It 

 is almost the universal opinion of 

 scientists, that the color of flowers was 

 developed especially to attract insects : 

 this of course for the flowers' good." 

 If tills is so, then it only goes to show 

 that scientists are almost universally 

 wrong. Bees visit flowers for the 

 honey and pollen they contain, not for 

 the good of the flowers. To believe 

 otherwise, is witclicraft. A bee can 

 know no more of what is good for 

 flowers, than a liog knows of the prices 

 of pork in a daily newspaper. 



If color is given to flowers to attract 

 insects, why do not bees work on 

 flowers that have no nectar or pollen ? 

 Why do not bees work on zinnias and 

 dahlias, and peonys ? Nothing could 

 be much brighter, but thej- contain no 

 lioney ov pollen, and the bees pass 

 them' by. So if Nature gave color to 

 flowers to insure their fertilization, she 

 made a big mistake. She would bet- 

 ter have endowed all her flowers with 

 nectar or pollen. If insects do by 

 chance aliglit on a brilliantly colored 

 flower containing no honey or pollen, 

 they do not stay ; they do not go in 

 and out, and handle the stamens, as it 

 is necessary they should do, in order 

 to fertilize the flowers. 



The Professor asks how I know that 

 insects do not reason. I know it in 



