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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLRNAL. 



June 23, 1904. 



matter of statistics should be discussed, e. p.: Let the Gen- 

 eral Manag-er send out to each member return post-cards 

 with blanks to fill out, showing crop report. He could then 

 tabulate these reports and issue in bulletin form to members. 



Mr. West — Let these cards be sent out twice — at the 

 close of the white honey-flow, then at the close of the dark. 



Mr. Pettit — We should also collect reports from the 

 dealers as to the probable demand, then we have the rela- 

 tion between supply and demand, and a more even distribu- 

 tion of honey can be made. 



Mr. Holtermann — Assessors should collect these sta- 

 tistics. 



Mr. House — Inspectors should do it. 



Upon this the inspectors present immediately protested 

 that they had enough to do. 



Mr. France said that for the Manager of the National 

 to collect crop reports from the whole country would be ex- 

 pensive and unsatisfactory. For one thing, it would take 

 so much time they would be too late when published. 



Mr. N. E. France, inspector of apiaries for Wisconsin, 

 then spoke on 



DISEASES OF BEES. 



This subject is one that underlies success in New York 

 State. If the bees are diseased, pasture, etc., count for 

 nothing. The subject should be divided. We have all of 

 the inspectors of the State here now, and should be able to 

 get at comparative differences in foul brood as found in 

 various places ; also to compare it with black brood, pickled 

 brood, etc. One trouble is that not foul brood nor black 

 brood, but the conditions of the season, produce pickled 

 brood. I have not seen such a case before. Conditions 

 were so favorable here last season that 80 percent of the 

 apiaries were diseased, often as bad as foul brood. I was 

 asked to go out and look over the subject, but found less 

 foul brood and more pickled brood. 



Foul brood begins first in the food of the larva;. The 

 circulation is afi'ected. The little thing becomes restless, 

 moves in agony, then straightens out and lies on its back 

 lengthwise of the cell. It continues to grow, but the disease 

 grows faster. The head turns black, and the tongue is 

 thrown out. If the tongue of the bee strikes the side-wall 

 opposite, it never lets go. When the larva dries down the 

 tongue sticks there, and keeps the head turned up. The 

 ropiness then appears — and the odor. The cell-capping 

 dries down and cracks open. The larva draws up and dries 

 down to a brown scale about where the shoulder of the bee 

 would be. The bees can not remove this scale — it is glued 

 fast ; but they will go on and use the cell for honey, pollen, 

 or a new larva. The germs of the disease never float in the 

 air. If they did, all the cells in a diseased hive would be 

 affected in the same way, but they are not. 



Pickled brood is quite different. It will turn brown just 

 the same, but the head of the bee becomes as hard as a 

 stone, and nearly black. Instead of the lower portion of 

 the larva flattening out, it becomes like a sack or bag. The 

 bee is easily drawn out of the cell and is found to contain a 

 watery fluid which is never ropy or odorous. I do not know 

 what causes pickled brood, but it seems to be a shortage of 

 food and heat at the proper time. A rainy, cold spell at the 

 close of dandelion bloom is liable to produce it. The live 

 bees must live — they feed themselves, aad then the brood, if 

 there is any left. The brood is liable to starve and become 

 " pickled," about the opening of clover. It is not a conta- 

 gious disease, and can be prevented by feeding regularly 

 when no honey is coming in, and keeping the hives warmly 

 covered. 



Mr. France described experiments where wax from in- 

 fected combs had been made into foundation and used in 

 many different yards uniformly without any disease result- 

 ing. The treatment of the disease is easy if you carefully 

 follow instructions. Burning diseased combs is dangerous, 

 because the honey will not burn, and is liable to run out on 

 the ground and be gathered up by bees again. If you must 

 burn, dig a hole and burn in the hole, then bury the ashes. 

 The treatment is not so much as the man. The one who 

 knows too much to read and attend conventions is the one I 

 have most trouble with. N. E. France. 



Mr. Holtermann described an experiment where he 

 melted wax at the lowest possible temperature, stirred in 

 large quantities of foul brood " culture," and then made 

 the wax into foundation. This foundation was used in 

 healthy colonies, and no foul brood resulted. 



Mr. Hershiser — Where an apiary is diseased is there 

 danger of having the disase spread by extracting from 

 super-combs where no brood has been reared 7 



Mr. France — For safety's sake, all extracting-combs 

 should be treated with formalin. 



Mr. Holtermann — There is danger of the diseased honey 

 being carried up into the super. 



Mr. France — Some say there is no use fighting the dis- 

 ease because the forest-trees are full of it. Now we find very 

 little disease in the trees, for two reasons. A swarm may 

 carry some diseased honey, but before there is any brood it 

 is all consumed. Again, if they contract the disease by 

 robbing, they soon die, and squirrels and moths make short 

 work of the combs. 



Mr. Betsinger thought that one diseased colony in a 

 cellar would give the disease to the whole lot. 



Speaking of formalin gas, Mr. France said he had 

 found that it would not act through cappings or honey. 

 Where the cells had been opened before fumigating, the 

 bees would afterward clean out the dry scale, but not when 

 in the ropy stage. There may be a difference in the drug. 

 Hives thoroughly scraped and cleaned of honey-stains need 

 not be disinfected. 



(Continued next week.) 



[ Our Bee-Heepin§ Sisters ] 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



A Bit of Honey. 



.Tust a bit of honey on the daily bread. 



Just a waft of perfume on the path we tread. 



Just a taste of sweetness in the bitter brew. 

 That is dashed too deeply with the poignant rue. 



Just a winning patience when the day is long, 

 Just a cheery lifting of the pilgrim's song. 



Just a thought of heaven ; earth will soon be o'er, 

 Oh, the fadeless flowers on that other shore I 



Just a bit of honey, in the cup we take. 

 Just a little sweetness in the bread we break. 



Margaret E. Sangstkr. 



Results of Wintering'— Loafing- Bees, Etc. 



Dear Sisters : — I want to make a " call," and say that 

 I have found both pleasure and profit in reading the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal — the Sisters' column, especially. I do not 

 know another lady bee-keeper in this county, so, of course, 

 I feel lonely. 



I put into winter quarters 4 colonies — 3 strong ones and 

 1 after-swarm of not more than a quart of bees. Such a 

 winter I We put the hives in a shed and covered them with 

 carpet, as they were in single-walled hives. I got uneasy, 

 examined them in January, and found 2 colonies out of 

 honey, and what to do I did not know, so I bought "ABC 

 of Bee-Culture ;" it told me what I desired to know about 

 feeding. I made the entrances smaller, wrapped the hives 

 in woolen bed-comforts (after fixing a small vessel in each), 

 and made the old cat's bed in a super on top. They actually 

 carried the honey into the cells when the weather was 

 almost zero. On opening the hive in March I found brood 

 in the weakest colony ; I fed sugar syrup as soon as they 

 could fly, and now they are a roaring colony, filling a 9- 

 frame Langstroth hive. 



One of my colonies came through the winter queenless, 

 which I united with a strong one. I have increased to 6 

 colonies by division and feeding, but liave had no swarms 

 yet. I expect to make better preparations for winter next 

 fall. Our spring has been backward and cold, but raspber- 

 ries and white clover are blooming now, so I expect to stop 

 feeding. 



Reading " A B C of Bee-Culture " gave me a worse case 

 of bee-fever, and made me ashamed of my ignorance. I 

 sent for a sample copy of the American Bee Journal. The 

 next day after the sample copy arrived my subscription 

 went in for a year. I also got "Bees and Honey," which I 

 found very helpful. 



One of my neighbors sent for me last week to come and 

 transfer a colony of bees out of an old pine box into an 



