«'vV{'^- > r^^^ ^':-':-=^":i;/;^^-J^4»^i 



118 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



tioned as having failed. I think so 

 far no one has reported that the sul- 

 phur treatment has failed ; but it is 

 not original up in this part of the coun- 

 try. Mr. Poppleton, of Florida, is the 

 one who has used the sulphur cure, and 

 really I have a great deal of faith in 

 it. I think so far no one has reported 

 who has faithfully tried the sulphur 

 cure and it has failed; and until some 

 one tries that faithfully and says it is 

 a failure I shall have some faith in the 

 sulphur cure. I do not know anything 

 else that has been reported but what 

 has been a failure. A number have re- 

 ported the change of queens and a cure 

 resulting, but a number of others say 

 that they changed queens and it did not 

 cure. 



Mr. Taylor — I had a colony that was 

 very badly affected with paralysis. It 

 was early in the season, and I got a 

 queen from another colony and took out 

 the queen that belonged to the affected 

 colony and put in the new one. I put 

 her in a cage, and soon after I did the 

 exchanging a bee-keeper from the neigh- 

 borhood called on me and wanted to 

 know if I could not let him have a queen. 

 1 told him that I hadn't any queens 

 to spare, but I had just taken one out 

 of a hive that I did not consider of 

 any value, and if he wanted to take her 

 and try her he might. Accordingly he 

 took her. In 3 or 4 weeks he was back 

 again, and I inquired how the queen had 

 done, and he said that the young bees 

 were shaking terribly, while mine were 

 steady and all right. I thought that 

 was pretty good proof, at least in that 

 case, that the changing of the queen 

 had completed a cure, and that the dif- 

 ficulty was with the queen. 



Mr. Wilcox — Transferred the disease, 

 you mean? 



Mr. Taylor — Transferred the disease 

 to another colony. 



Mr. Whitney — Doesn't that prove that 

 the sulphur remedy is of value? 



Mr. Taylor — I do not think it has any 

 bearing on it. 



Mr. Whitney — I did not change 

 queens, but I gave them a dose of sul- 

 phur. 



Mr. Taylor — I don't know what else 

 happens in the hive. We guess too much 

 about these things. 



Mr. Hobble — I have one or two col- 

 onies every year that have what I sup- 

 pose to be paralysis, and when I had 

 the first one I knew nothing about treat- 



ing them in any way, and I gave them 

 a good dose of salty water. They got 

 well all right. I have continued that 

 from that time to this, and I have n^ver 

 lost a colony, and they have always come 

 out all, right. 



Mr. Kimmey — How do you administer 

 the dose? 



Mr. Hobble — I put the salty water in 

 a little pepper-box ; take the hive cover 

 off, and then shake it all over the hive, 

 letting it run right down- over the 

 frames. 



Pres. York — You sprinkle or spray it 

 on the frames and bees. 



Mr. Hobble — I have never lost a col- 

 ony yet, and they always got well in 

 the course of about a week. 



Election of Officers. 



After an intermission, election of of- 

 ficers was taken up, and resulted as 

 follows : President, George W. York ; 

 Vice-President, Miss Emma M. Wilson; 

 of Marengo, 111.; and Secretary-Treas- 

 urer, Herman F. Moore, of Park Ridge, 

 111. 



Pres. York — I hope every person who 

 is here now will remain for the evening 

 session. We have invited some singers, 

 and expect to have quite a little musical 

 program to begin with, both instrumen- 

 tal and vocal. 



In accordance with what had been the 

 custom for several year, Secretary 

 Moore was allowed $20 for the past year 

 for his services. 



Age of Larvae for Queen-Rearing. 



"What is the age of larvae chosen by 

 a queenless colony from which to rear 

 queens?" 



Mr. Taylor — My answei: probably 

 would not be agreeable to all. My ex- 

 perience is that they use larvae from 

 2 to 5 days old. I used sometimes to 

 experiment in rearing queens, and of 

 course in those days I was very curious, 

 and observed closely with regard to 

 what they did choose — ^^what sort of 

 larvae they did use for rearing the 

 queens — and I found that they chose 

 larvae of different sizes, so much so that 

 I was in the habit, when I wanted 

 queens from those reared in that fash- 

 ion, of looking through the hives in 

 the course of 5 or 6 days after the col- 

 ony was made queenless, and examin- 

 ing the cells and removing from the 

 cells those larvae which appeared to be 

 too large. I found proof of that fact 



. ^^"-Jr^h .^_ 



: '_il^i«vJV.. 'wjv r-ti_i_ je*.".^ i-^i Si^.". 



._i.«*,Sfc«/i, 



r'JajsiBdL'^] 



