206 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



gathered on bees and honey and 

 made several excellent posters on the 

 subject: This co-operation was 

 greatly appreciated by the librarian, 

 Miss Mary V. Wynii, and did much 

 to arouse local interest in the litera- 

 ture which she had gathered in bur 

 library. 



It is most earnestly hoped that 

 those interested in this important 



subject will make an effort within 

 the near future to get in touch with 

 their local librarian and manifest by 

 this interest an appreciation of the 

 librarian's effort, and willingness to 

 co-operate with the librarian in ad- 

 vertising this literature. 



GEO A. DEVENEAU, 

 Library Publicity Director, 



Urbana, 111. 



LEGAL SERVICE 

 * DEPARTMENT 1 



Are Bees Taxable? 



I am writing to enquire whether 

 bees are taxable. They tell me they 

 can tax my bees, as they are personal 

 property. " LOUISIANA. 



In most States bees are taxable, the 

 same as any other personal property. 

 The exceptions are States where a 

 specific provision of law exempts 

 them. In Iowa the law exempts ten 

 colonies from taxation. The Iowa 

 Beekeepers' Association has asked 

 that this provision be repealed, since 

 the specialist must pay taxes on his 

 bees while the careless man with 

 only ten colonies does not pay any 

 taxes. There is no apparent reason 

 why the man wdio invests his money 

 in bees should not pay taxes on the 

 same basis as though he owned cat- 

 tle instead. The same rule applies 

 generally. 



Forcing Move of Bees 



One of my neighbors has com- 

 plained to the county attorney about 

 one of my bees stinging her. They 

 are trying to force me to move my 

 bees. Only two swarms have clus- 

 tered outside my yard in the three 

 years 1 have kept them in the present 

 on. There is no other con- 

 venient location to which 1 can move 

 them. Can you tell me what to do 

 about it? MINNESOTA. 



A man has the same right to keep 



bees that he has with any other 

 property. However, the public has 

 some rights which he is bound to re- 

 spect. If the bees are so situated 

 that they are a source of danger and 

 annoyance to the neighbors, they 

 should be moved, otherwise not. The 

 fact that one of the neighbors re- 

 ceived a chance sting would probably 

 not be sufficient cause to compel you 

 to move, for it is very possible that 

 there are other bees in the neighbor- 

 hood, and one might get a sting even 

 though your bees were moved away. 

 You should build a high fence or 

 other protection to turn the line of 

 flight away from the highway so as 

 to endanger those passing by as little 

 as possible. 



An occasional gift of honey to near 

 neighbors will do much to insure the 

 friendship of those near by and in- 

 sure friends who will support you in 

 case complaint is filed. 



The beekeeper who lives in a city 

 or town should take every possible 

 precaution to so place his bees that 

 they are as far as possible from 

 walks and streets and so placed that 

 the line of flight is above the beads 

 of passersby. 



This subject is fully discussed in 

 chapter 10 of Productive Beekeeping. 



Dr. Millers 



Answers- 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



I>k. C. C. Miller, Marengo, Il\. 



He doei not answer bee-keeoing auestioni by mall. 



European Foulbrood 



I am running for extracted honey. Have 

 been keeping bees for twenty odd yeai 

 irer bad any trouble with bee 



pean type ol foulbrood, and have about 60 



colonies diseased. Last fall (September) I 



es for this season, leaving ap- 



ach hive, 



so now there is much honey with the bei W< 



have some nectar coming in, but our flow will 



tie until later. Now, Doctor, I have 



heard that you know how to handle this type 



of brood disease, and save the combs. Will 



you please write me how it can be done, and 

 at the same time not spread the- disease. There 

 iv of stores in the brood-chambers. I 

 do not know what to do with these combs of 

 honey and dead brood. CALIFORNIA. 



Answer. — It is quite possible to save the 

 combs affected by European foulbrood, but ii 

 in foulbrood. Ihe combs 

 cannot be saved. The first thing in the treat- 

 ment is one of very great importance, and 

 that is i" see that the colonies to be treated 

 are strong. Generally they are weak, and must 



be made strong by the addition of brood or 

 bees, or both, even if it requires doubling up 

 several colonies to make one strong one. 



The next step is to stop the laying of eggs 

 for a period of ten days. If the case is a se- 

 vere one, the queen is practically certain to be 

 poor, and should be killed. Even if the case 

 is a mild one, and the queen is poor, kill her, 

 and plan to have another queen laying in her 

 place ten days later. You can do this by 

 giving a ripe queen-cell or a virgin just 

 hatched, giving it at the time you kill the 

 queen; or you may give a young laying queen 

 ten days after killing the old one. 



In any case, the cell, virgin, or laying queen 

 should be of best Italian stock, for it is gen- 

 erally agreed that such stock is better to com- 

 bat the disease than blacks or hybrids. 



If the case is a mild one, with a good queen, 

 merely cage her in the hive for ten days, and 

 then free her. 



The old combs of honey and brood are to be 

 used just as if they were not affected, for the 

 chances are not great that the disease will re- 

 appear, but J should not want to use such 

 combs in perfectly healthy colonies, for there 

 is a chance they might introduce the disease. 



To sum up, make your colonies strong, stop 

 egg-laying for ten days, and see that at the 

 end of the ten days each colony has a laying 

 queen of best Italian stock. You may count 

 pretty safely on the success of such treatment, 

 simply treat it over again. 



Swarm Prevention 



How will the following do for swarming 

 colonies? I am working for comb honey. 



Set a hive filled with sheets of foundation 

 and one comb of brood on the old stand, shake 

 most of the bees and the queen into this, leave 

 only enough bees to care for the brood in the 

 old hive. Now put the comb-honey supers on 

 the new hive, on top of the supers put a 

 frame with mosquito netting, in the centei oi 

 which is a Porter bee-escape; on top of this 

 the old hive with brood and bees, the cells 

 being cut out as fast as the brood hatches. 

 The bees trying to get out cannot go back, so 

 the swarm will get all the young bees, and it 

 will be in almost as good a condition as if it 

 had not swarmed, except the building of 

 combs, I don't know if it has been tried; 

 most Iikelv so, but I never saw it in the pa- 

 pers. INDIANA. 



ANSWER. — The bees will make short work of 

 tearing out the netting, and even if they 

 didn't they would carry down black bits of 

 comb from above to darken the cappings of 

 the sections. 



Foulbrood 



From what I read, thi foulbi I is nol i 



the new nectar coming in, so it must lie bi 

 tween the queen and the nurses, presumabl 

 the queen. 



Now, Doctor, is thi-. disease caused by it 



breeding? If so, would it not be a g 1 pla 



to requeen every two years with Italia 

 queens? 



ick or native bees seem to have the 

 disease the worst, so I have about convinced 

 myself that it is caused by too close breeding. 

 CALIFORNIA. 

 Answer. — No, the disease is not in the nec- 

 tar. If you should change the queen of a dis- 

 eased colony without for a minute stopping the 

 egg-laying, the disease would continue. So 

 you can hardly lay it to the queen. If you 

 give a comb of diseased brood to a set of the 

 bi i nurse-bees in the world, you may confi- 

 dently expect the disease to Spread itself 

 cheerfully through the hive. So it would 

 hardly be just to say that the fault was due 

 to Mm wrong kind of nurses. No, the real cul- 

 prit is a measly Little beast of a microbe that 

 is fed to the larva?. 



The worst case of inbreeding in the world 

 will not result in foulbrood, unless that fatal 

 ,. be fed to the babies; so changing the 



