48 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



saying it was two weeks after the yellow 

 ones had comparatively all disappeared 

 from No. II before those of No. 28 were 



IMPORTANCE OF WING-POWER. 



A. I. Root has asserted (and I partly 

 agree with him ) that the wings of a bee 

 are the last to develop. If this be so, 

 one can readily see how a lack of food 

 might affect the development of the most 

 important part of a bee; and I wish to 

 say right here, that if there had been as 

 much time spent examining and meas- 

 uring the wings of our bees as there has 

 in measuring their tongues, we would be 

 better off. I would rather add i-iooth 



of an inch to a bee's wing than to her 

 tongue. 



Stop and think of the wonderful influ- 

 ence the nurse-bees have on the larvae in 

 a queen cell. Instead of a short-lived 

 worker we have a large, perfectly de- 

 veloped queen, capable of living four or 

 five years, and laying thousands of eggs 

 a day during quite a part of her life. I 

 I believe the influer.ce of nurse-bees offers 

 the greatest field for investigation. From 

 experiments made this fall I am inclined 

 to think the food of the queen and work- 

 er is alike, or nearly so; but I will not 

 try to give the particulars here, as this' 

 article is already somewhat lengthy. 



EastBi^oomfield, N. Y. Dec. 21, 1901. 



FOUL BROODY HIVES. 



BY J. M. RANKIN. 



Some Reasons why Disinfecting may 



at Times be a Sensible 



Safeguard. 



I'll make assvirance doubly strre— shaki.si'icark 



BEAR Friend Hutchinson: I notice your 

 editorial in the October "Review" on 

 disinfecting hives. I know I am not 

 alone in this matter, but I wish to enter 

 a prote.st. Relying on your good judg- 

 ment, let us take this illustration — Sup- 

 posing a man had a colony o f 

 bees in a hive, and they became 

 infected wnth foul brood, their combs 

 attached to the sides of the hive in a doz- 

 en places, more or less, and he treats this 

 colony to cure the disease. In the pro- 

 cess of treatment he, of course, cuts the 

 combs loose from the sides of the hives 

 in order to shake the bees from them, and 

 must, necessarily, no matter how careful 

 he may be, leave honey daubed to a great- 

 er or less extent over the inside of the 

 hive. I claim in this case it is necessary 

 to disinfect the hive. I know that you 



will say the same as Mr. France does that 

 any man of ordinary intelligence would 

 know that in such a case it was necessary 

 to disinfect the hive. My Dear Mr 

 Hutchinson, I wish I had not had deal- 

 ings with men during the past season 

 who were less intelligent than this. 

 With the practical, up-to-date, wide- 

 awake bee-keeper it is all right to say he 

 can do so and so, but when you are talk- 

 ing to a farmer who perhaps can not read, 

 he oftimes displays little of what is term- 

 ed "horse sen.se." Wouldn't it be better 

 to say that if the operation has been care- 

 fully done, if the combs have been 

 straight, and no honey daubed around 

 the inside of the hive, it would be unnec- 

 essary to disinfect the hive? I expect to 

 do some work in the laboratory this win- 

 ter to determiuL' whether the germ of 



