Dec. 12, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



789 



thing' is right and have him stick to 

 that. 



Mr. Sleeper — How long- is a bee's 

 tongue, ordinarily ? 



Mt. Rankin- They range all the way 

 from 14-100 to 21-100 of an inch. 



Mr. Sleeper — How long would a 

 tongue have to be to be a long-tongued 

 bee ? 



Mr. Rankin — Anything- over I.SIOO 

 is above the average. IS 100 is about 

 what you will find in the best-bred 

 bees around through the States. 



Mr. Sleeper — Can bees with tongues 

 18-100 of an inch long- gather honey 

 from red clover ? 



Mr. Rankin — They can when the 

 corolla-tube fills with honey up to that 

 point. The red corolla-tube is about 

 35-100 to 50-100 of an inch long. 



Mr. Abbott— The actual fact is that 

 this year the corolla-tube of red clover 

 is not more than half as long as it us- 

 ually is, owing to the dry weather, and 

 the bees are all working on it now. 



Mr. Betsinger— How near must the 

 bee come to the honey-tube in order to 

 draw all the honey out of the tube ? 



Mr. Rankin— I don't think a bee can 

 draw honey any further than it can 

 reach. 



Mr. Betsinger— Then if the corolla- 

 tube is so full of honey that the bee 

 can insert its tongue half way down 

 into the honey, it can only draw as far 

 as its tongue is inserted, and it will 

 stop drawing from that point. I think 

 you will find from observation that if 

 the bee can touch the honey at all, it 

 draws out every mite of honey that is 

 in the corolla-tube, 



Mr. Rankin — I have done that same 

 thing, and when you take one corolla- 

 tube out of a flower and hold it up in 

 your fingers and let a bee draw honey 

 from it, it will empty the tube, but will 

 it do that when it is in a head and 

 pressed right in that ? Has the bee 

 power enough to collapse that honey- 

 tube, which it must do ? The capillary 

 attraction holds the nectar right in 

 that tube. 



Mr. Betsinger— Isn't it a fact that 

 the bee takes a tube alone and handles 

 it separate from the rest ? 



Mr. Rankin— But that tube is in the 

 head and fastened right in there. 

 After they drop down when they are 

 ripe, the bee has no more to do vrith 

 them. They will draw the nectar out 

 clear from the bottom, but I don't 

 think they will do it when the corolla- 

 tube is in the head. 



Pres. Root — I have examined a good 

 many clover-heads when the bees had 

 gone all over them. I have then drawn 

 out the corolla-tubes and found consid- 

 erable honey at the bottom of them. I 

 concluded from that the bees needed 

 longer heads. 



Mr. Sleeper— In relation to foul- 

 brood germs, I understood Mr. Rankin 

 to say that 25,000 could not be seen 

 with the naked eye. You have looked 

 through a microscope at these germs 

 many times ? 



Mr. Rankin — Yes, sir. 



Mr. Sleeper — Have you found them 

 anywhere else except in honey ? 



Mr. Rankin — Yes, sir : I have found 

 them in the tissues of the larva- that 

 were diseased, and, of course, you know 

 that when you take any material what- 

 ever, no matter what it is, and put it 

 under a high enough power microscope 

 so that you will detect the germs, you 



will get anywhere from ten to 500,000 

 species of germs. 



Mr. Sleeper — They exist independent 

 of honey ? 



Mr. Rankin — They exist in the bod- 

 ies of the larvec which are diseased. 



Mr. Sleeper — Don't they exist any- 

 where else except in the larvse and the 

 honey ? 



Mr. Rankin — I don't think there is 

 anything in the hive aside from the 

 honey and the tissues of the larvae 

 from which the germ will get suste- 

 nance. This germ will not grow in 

 acids or anything else. 



Mr. Benton — Why confine it to the 

 larva? alone? Why not say in the 

 pupa? and the adult bee ? 



Mr. Rankin — Do j'ou know that is 

 so ? I know that this is so in the larva>. 

 I don't think that you will find any 

 germs of foul brood in the adult bee 

 outside of the honey-sac I have looked 

 for it and failed to find it. 



W. L. Coggshall — How many differ- 

 ent forms of germs do you find — is 

 there more than one in foul brood? 



Mr. Rankin — No; foul brood is caused 

 by one germ — bacillus alvei — which is 

 a specific germ, twice as wide as it is 

 long. I never have examined the germ 

 of black brood under a microscope. 



RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED. 



Mr. Abbott then introduced the fol- 

 lowing resolutions: 



'•Resolveil, That the thanks of this 

 Association be extended to the Mayor; 

 to the Buffalo Society of Natural Sci- 

 ences for the use of this hall and 

 committee rooms; and to Dr. Smith, 

 President of this society, for his cordial 

 address of welcome; and to the janitor 

 for his careful attention to our wants; 

 to the local beekeepers of Buffalo for 

 the beautiful badges they have fur- 

 nished us, and for the use of a piano." 



"Resolved. That we extend to the 

 Texas Bee Keepers' Association our 

 thanks for the interest they have shown 

 in the prosperity of the National Asso- 

 ciation by sending two delegates to 

 attend this meeting. 



The resolutions were adopted. 



BOILING FOUL-BROODY HONEY. 



"I have read of boiling honey from 

 foul-broody combs and feeding back. 

 How much water should be added, and 

 how long should it be boiled?" 



Mr. McEvoy — I don't like to answer 

 that question, from the fact that I 

 never advised the feeding — the public 

 is too careless. They will give the 

 disease through it. They merely heat 

 it, and they might just as well give it 

 raw; but where I have added nearly a 

 third water, and sometimes nearly half, 

 and brought it to a sharp, bubbling 

 boil, I never noticed any bad effects 

 from it. 



Mr. Rankin — If you could be certain 

 that the honey would be boiled it 

 might be all right. Prof. Harrison, of 

 Guelph, Ont., has within the past year 

 published a bulletin on foul brood. He 

 has demonstrated to us that you can 

 boil the spores of foul brood for some- 

 thing like two hours and still produce 

 a growth. The question is here. Do 

 we have any spores in the honey? I 

 have never seen any foul-broody honey 

 fed back that did not produce the 

 disease, but I have not had the experi- 

 ence that Mr. McEvoy has had. I 

 have been in this business only a short 

 time, and I havn't tested it thoroughly. 



but I do not think it is safe to recom- 

 mend the feeding back of foul-broody 

 honey in any instance whatever. 



Mr. McEvoy — I told a farmer, who 

 would insist on feeding back foul- 

 broody honey instead of buying sugar 

 — I told him how to do it. I went back 

 to examine that apiary and every one 

 of the colonies had foul brood. I said, 

 "Did you boil the honey?" He replied 

 "Yes, it was boiled." "Who boiled 

 it?" "The girls." I said to the girl, 

 "Did you boil it?" She Said, "Yes, it 

 was that hot that I could hardly put 

 my finger in it." 



Mr. Sleeper — This gentleman speaks 

 of spores. Now I understand that they 

 are seeds, are they not? I would like 

 to kno%v whether these are animal, or 

 vegetable. 



Mr. Rankin — They are the same as 

 other germs. Some authorities say 

 they are vegetable and some animal. 



Mr, Benton — I think that they are 

 vegetable and not animal. 



Dr. Mason — Is there anything in the 

 foul-brood line in honey that will not 

 be killed by being boiled? 



Mr. Rankin — We have the statement 

 of Prof. Harrison that the spores may 

 be boiled, I think 2>> hours, before 

 they are killed. 



Mr. McEvoy — I was going to say if 

 they would add about half water and 

 bring it to a sharp, bubbling boil it 

 would kill them. 



Dr. Mason — Science is a fine thing, 

 but good, practical experience is a good 

 thing. I had at one time about 80 col- 

 onies with foul brood, and the honey 

 when extracted was so thick that when 

 you would start to pour it out it would 

 go in a chunk; and I boiled that honey 

 and fed it back to the bees and didn't 

 spread any foul brood. I don't think 

 there is any living thing in honey that 

 boiling won't kill. 



Mr. Sleeper — How long do you boil it? 



Dr. Mason — I make sure it is all 

 boiled. I boiled it in awash-boiler and 

 I dipped up boiling honey and poured 

 it on the sides so as to rinse down the 

 unboiled honey, and made sure that it 

 was all boiled; but you want to know it 

 is all boiled, every particle of it. 



Mr. Benton — All of these bacilli 

 have their certain temperatures to 

 which they have to be heated to be 

 killed. Now the whole thing is this, 

 that the absolute temperature for kill- 

 ing these is not known. All it needs 

 is to determine the lowest temperature 

 and use a thermometer and be sure 

 that the whole mass reaches that tem- 

 perature. Water boils at 212 degrees, 

 and this mass being much thicker was 

 probably raised to 230 degrees before 

 it boiled, and that is about the temper- 

 ature that would kill it. Mr. Cheshire 

 asserted that the bacilli did not exist 

 in great numbers in the honey, except 

 as an accidental impurity, and that 

 they would not thrive or live there. 



R. B. Rians — My experience agrees 

 with that of Dr. Mason. I have taken 

 foul-broody honey and reduced it very 

 little with water and boiled it until it 

 would almost boil over, and fed it back 

 to my bees without any bad results. 



Mr. McEvoy — You take an old, dry 

 comb that has had foul brood in it, 

 that has stood for ten years, and it will 

 give foul brood. 



BREEDING KOR DESIRABLE TRAITS. 



"In breeding for desirable traits, 



