Nov. 3, im. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



745 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



What Has the Season Been, Sisters ? 



Now that the season is over, it would be nice to compare 

 notes and learn what success the sisters have had during 

 the past season. Tell us, dear sisters, just how you have 

 succeeded, whether you got from each colony an average of 

 100 pounds, SO, or nothing at all. Tell us about any special 

 item of interest. Let's bring our sewing, knitting, or fancy 

 work, and sit down for a good, social chat. 



Honey from Foul-Broody Colonies. 



1. A short time ago I read in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal that a colony of bees might be lightly affected with 

 foul brood for some time before detecting it. If honey from 

 such a colony had been extracted and used for food, would 

 it injure any one who had eaten it ? 



2. I see by a late paper that the bacteria in honey from 

 an infected colony would not be killed if boiled for one 

 hour. (I suppose this would be from a bad case.) And 

 would give the disease to bees if fed back to them. What 

 use could be made of such honey ? Mrs. Russell. 



Monroe Co., N. Y. 



1. Foul brood, as you probably know, is caused by a 

 microscopic plant — Bacillus alvei. If a single one of these 

 plants, or one of its seeds (spores), be contained in honey, it 

 will convey the disease just as truly as would a larger 

 number ; just as a single seed of a weed would foul a field 

 of ground, although a larger number of seeds would more 

 rapidly fill the ground with weeds. So you see it is not best 

 to count too much on mild cases. 



Now as to whether it is safe to eat such honey. Plants 

 do not grow except in the right kind of soil. The soil that 

 suits Bacillus alvei is found in the larva; of bees. In the 

 human stomach they will not grow ; you need have no fear 

 of it any more than you would be afraid if you should swal- 

 low an apple seed that an apple- tree would grow out of your 

 mouth. Surplus honey stored by a foul-broody colony is 

 just as nice and wholesome as that from healthy colonies, 

 although it might be death to bees. 



2. Foul brood might be given by honey from a very 

 mild case after two hours boiling. Three hours is safer, 



and it is hardly advisable to use such honey at all for feed- 

 ing bees. It isn't so much that it needs such a long time, 

 as that there is danger that all parts of the honey have not 

 been subjected to the same heat, and if a single spore 

 should escape it could do the mischief. If the honey is 

 clean there is no reason it should not betaken for table use. 

 It could also be used for making vinegar. If extracted 

 from foul-broody combs so as to be unfit for table use, it 

 could be boiled long enough to make it safe, and then fed at 

 a time of year when it would be all used in brood-rearing. 

 Of course, it might do to boil it for two or three hours, but 

 rather than take any sort of risk in such a serious matter, 

 it would do no harm to boil it for four hours, reducing it 

 with boiling water and keeping it boiling all the'Jinie. 



Sisters Helping- the Brethren. 



C. W. Barnum says in Gleanings in^Bee-Culture : 



" My wife was induced to come out and help me in the 

 apiary, partly for want of health and partly for her help ; 

 and the outdoor exercise has built her up so that she out- 

 weighs her husband at present." 



If more of the sisters were to help the brethren it would 

 be for their good in more ways than one, and probably for 

 the happiness of their families, although some might not 

 relish the thought of becoming the heftier member of the 

 combination. 



^ I — ^ 



A Furniture Polish. 



Many of the sisters polish their own furniture. Q Here is 

 a recipe taken from the Chicago Record-Herald, by which 

 you can make your own polish : 



"To make a cheap and excellent furniture polish, take 

 one ounce of white wax, one ounce of castile soap, half a 

 pint of turpentine, two ounces of beeswax, half a pint of 

 soft water. Dissolve the white wax and soap (which must 

 both previously be cut in fine shavings) in the water on the 

 stove, and dissolve the beeswax in the turpentine. When 

 nearly cold mix these ingredients together and the polish 

 will be ready for use." 



>J= 



Htr. :^asty's aftertI?ouc3l?ts 



The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



HONEY AND SUGAR CHEMICALLY CONSIDERED. 



It's a worthy chemical article that Adrian Getaz gives 

 us on honey and sugar — but I'm afraid it also needs a few 

 shots fired at it. For one thing he says, " Levulose does not 

 crystallize at all ". Then it would follow that such honey 

 as they market in paper bags hasn't any levulose in it. 

 That will hardly do. Less certainly wrong — but still it 

 looks doubtful — if granulation sets in because, at the low 

 temperature, water can not hold so much of the other in- 

 gredients. If that's correct, one would think that the heav- 

 iest, thickest honey would be the first to granulate — and it's 

 the other way, I believe. 



On the dextrose and levulose matter let me illustrate 

 what I think. Here is beeswax— certainly looks like a sim- 

 ple, straight chemical ; but it is now known to be a varying 

 mixture of three different waxes. ^ I prophesy with a good 



deal of confidence that the dextrose of honey will eventually 

 be found to be a varying mixture of several different 

 sugars— and the same of the levulose. I think the recogni- 

 tion of this fact will help us some in our puzzles, but prob- 

 ably not get us out of all of them. 



He says the glucose of commerce, if pure, would be the 

 same as the levulose of honey. Isn't " levulose" there a 

 slip for dextrose ? My memory may easily be at fault, 

 but, if not, glucose is one of the dextroses. You see, if 

 there were a thousand different sugars they would all have 

 to be dextroses or levuloses, or neutrals. Dextrose means 

 right, and levulose means left, referring to the way a beam 

 of polarized light is twisted when it passes through. Nat- 

 urally this test makes the list of sugars pretty short— and 

 may range together things which are wide apart in quality. 



We'll thank him for explaining how poison gets into 

 glucose— and thence into the grocer's syrup. ^Made with 



