306 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



September 



In some other countries, also, the 

 wholesale mortality of bees has been 

 charged to the nosema, of which it is 

 difficult to give an explanation, be- 

 cause this parasite is not always 

 present in the dead bees. On the 

 other hand, its propagation in 

 healthy swarms has damaged its 

 fame as a dangerous germ. I do not 

 believe that the nosema deserves the 

 interest of those who occupy them- 

 selves with bee diseases. 



If it becomes established that the 

 cause of the disease is not a resist- 

 ent micro-organism, but a definite 

 chemical substance, similar to phenic 

 acid, there will be, already, a great 

 possibility of obtaining, at least in 

 light cases, an improvement and a 

 cure through an antidote adminis- 

 tered under shape of liquid remedy. 

 The work of Turesson opens, there- 

 fore, a favorable field for observa- 

 tion and experiment. 



However, the best prophylaxis, 

 against diseases, must not be sought, 

 in one case or the other, among 

 chemical substances, but in a well- 

 managed hygiene of the bee hive, 

 making it a salubrious home for the 

 bee, by rational management. 

 (Translated from L'Apicoltore Mo- 

 demo, of Turin, May, 1919.) 



Boys and Bees 



IN all my experience of high 

 school teaching, I have never 

 found a m re ideal combination 

 of work and play than in my course 

 in Bee Culture, which I am conduct- 

 ing in the Montezuma Mountain 

 School since the summer of 1918. 



The enthusiasm and thoroughness 

 with which my students work in the 

 shop and laboratory, as well as 

 around the bees, is evidence enough 

 that such a course is a desirable fea- 

 ture in high schools of the Monte- 

 zuma type. Such a course can easily 

 be made a subject of highly scien- 

 tific merit as well as of practical 



value, as it keeps our boys busy and 

 interested all the time and brings 

 them closer to nature by our fre- 

 quent afternoon excursions to my 

 different outapiaraes, which are lo- 

 cated in the neighborhood of the 

 school. 



WILL C. STEINBRL'XV 

 Los Gatos, Calii 



Introduction of Virgin Queen 



By Elvin M. Cole 



IN Dr. Miller's Answers, page 19, 

 of the May Journal. "Wisconsin'' 

 asks what to do with pollen- 

 clogged combs. 



I suggest this plan : With the end 

 of a knife or hive tool, scrape the 

 pollen-filled part of the comb down 

 nearly to the mid rib on both sides 

 if necessary. With combs that are 

 slightly brittle there is little danger 

 of making a hole in the mid rib, and 

 both sides can be scraped in about a 

 minute. Give them back to the bees 

 during a honey-flow. 



Tough, leathery old combs may be 

 easily cleaned on one side in the 

 same way, but it requires care when 

 cleaning the opposite side; however, 

 most combs will be badly loaded 

 with pollen on one side only. 



After starting tough combs with 

 the knife, the cells may be peeled from 

 the base with the fingers. 



I have had but little experience in 

 introducing virgin queens as dis- 

 cussed by Dr. Miller, page 17, Janu- 

 ary, and Wm. Atchley, page 170, 

 May, American Bee Journal. But G. 

 M. Doolittle goes quite deeply into 

 the subject in Scientific Queen- 

 rearing, and gives the law that gov- 

 erns the action of bees toward a vir- 

 gin queen. It is in scattered para- 

 graphs on several pages and two 

 chapters, and requires careful read- 

 ing to get it. 



The "basic law" is the same as in 

 Mr. Atchley's plan, and the plan used 



by Mr. Alexander for introducing 

 two or more queens to a colony. I 

 believe it is the only method of in- 

 troduction which Mr. Doolittle 

 claimed to have originated. He shook 

 bees into a box and left them for 3 

 or 4 hours, or until they realized that 

 they were hopelessly queenless, then 

 dropped in a virgin queen of any age. 

 In hiving them in the nucleus box, 

 he says, page 61 : "Do not give them 

 any unsealed brood, for if you do 

 ihey will sometimes kill the queen 

 and rear cells from the brood given. 

 It is not natural for a colony to have 

 an oldish virgin queen when they 

 have eggs and larva;, for in nature 

 all brood would be sealed before the 

 young queens were three days old." 



In introducing to a nucleus from 

 which a laying queen had just been 

 taken, he took away all brood and 

 gave her a cage which allowed the 

 bees to release her in 8 to 12 hours, 

 by which time they would realize 

 they were hopelessly queenless with- 

 out her. 



,On page 87 Doolittle says: "For in 

 nothing are bees so determined as 

 they are not to accept a virgin 5 or 

 more days old after having their 

 mother taken from them. I have 

 never lost a queen in this way, no 

 matter if she were 12 days old when 

 placed in the cage, and I consider it 

 an absolutely safe plan for intro- 

 ducing a virgin queen." 



Mr. Doolittle considered this plan 

 of introducing laying queens to 

 hopelessly queenless bees to be in- 

 fallible, and says, page 80: "I have 

 used this plan with all valuable 

 queens for several years, and have 

 not lost a single queen, nor do I be- 

 lieve that I ever shall lose one." 



It would be a great help to young 

 beekeepers if you would "lift out'' 

 the different paragraphs giving this 

 "hopelessly queenless" method of in- 

 troduction and print them in con- 

 secutive order. 



I consider Scientific Queen-rearing 

 the most interesting and helpful bee 

 book. I ever read, and I have read 

 most of the modern ones, even 

 though I never expected to rear a 

 queen by that method. 



About every so often you may 

 count on seeing some of Mr. Doolit- 

 tle's ideas yanked out of this book, 

 a few unnecessary frills added, and 

 given to the beekeeping world as 

 something new; as witness: Alex- 

 ander's plan for introducing plural 

 queens (which is this hopelessly 

 queenless method). A. C. Miller's 

 smoke method, Baldwin's dipping the 

 queen in honey, Atchley's introduc- 

 tion of virgin queens, etc. Verily 

 great was G. M. Doolittle. 



Audubon, Iowa. 



A students' apiary at Monte 



a Mountain School, under Prof. Will C. Steinbrun 

 at Los Gatos, Calif. 



A Little Pioneer History 



A WAR song, famous in its day 

 in Marion County, has been 

 revived and will be sung in the 

 celebration of the 100th anniversary 

 of Marion County's birth, in Palmyra 

 this month bj- the sons and daugh- 

 ters of soldiers who left Palmyra in 

 1839 to begin the first civil war in 

 the west between Missourians and 

 Iowans. It was called the "Honey 



