THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



207 



conglomeration will also be honey— some 

 unsealed and some sealed, and through it 

 all will pass the honey knife when the 

 combs are to be put through the ex- 

 tractor. Now, I haven't painted the 

 picture one bit too black, as I have seen 

 the exact condition described in supers 

 where ignorant bee keepers had hoisted 

 brood combs from foul broody colonies. 



The nastiness does not end with the 

 uncapping, though, as a certain bee 

 keeper with whom I am well acquainted 

 told me of his experience in trying to 

 extract a lot of combs from foul broody 

 colonies, right in the honey flow, after 

 the bees had been treated by the shaking 

 plan. He stated that the ropy, rotten 

 larvae would actually fly out in the 

 extractor, and although the honey was 

 intended for manufacturing purposes, he 

 was simply disgusted with the whole 

 business, and one experience was enough 

 for him. Of course, the proper method 

 in cases of this kind is to first cut out all 

 portions of comb having brood in them — 

 with friend Bartlett's plan this is im- 

 possible. In all sincerity, if anybody was 

 to offer me honey to eat, taken from foul 

 combs in the way described, I certainly 

 would take it as a gross insult, and I am 

 afraid that my stomach would act much 

 in the same way as I once observed in a 

 man who was sucking eggs, and, in the 

 course of his operations, he happened to 

 swallow one that was awfully rotten. 

 Needless to say he did not need to take 

 an emetic to bring it up again. Of 

 course, what the eyes do not see, the 

 heart does not grieve over, and, obvious- 

 ly, honey extracted from rotten combs 

 would not have its chances of sale im- 

 proved upon, by telling of its origin. 



Now please do not think that I am one 

 of those who are "over nice," as such is 

 not the case, and I cannot do better to 

 explain my position in these matters, 

 than to speak of an eccentric old gentle- 

 man, who formerly lived near us, who 

 sized tha question up nicely by always 

 saying "that he did not object to clean 

 dirt, but he did hate nastiness." 



The Baldridge plan, which you rightly 

 commend, works just the opposite to the 

 Bartlett plan, in so far as the storing of 

 honey is concerned, for instead of honey 

 being stored among the foul cells, from 

 the moment the stock is moved no more 

 storing is done in that hive, and the bees, 

 as they emerge from the cells till the age 

 that they fiy out of the hive, are con- 

 stantly drawing on the honey in the hive. 

 The result is that, at the end of the 2 1 

 days, the brood nest is entirely empty of 

 honey, what is left being in the outside 

 combs and in the tops of the others. 

 Then it is a very easy matter to cut out 

 all the brood area before extracting the 

 honey, if extracting is to be done. 



You ask why the plan has not come 

 into more general use. Just because a 

 plan like that cannot be intrusted to the 

 majority of bee keepers who have foul 

 brood, that the inspectors have to deal 

 with. The danger-point with careless 

 men, is the getting rid of the old combs, 

 and the shaking-on-to-foundation plan, 

 gives the best excuse for quick work in 

 disposing of the diseased combs. 



In glancing over what I have hastily 

 written, I fear I have been too severe in 

 my language, and I am sorry that I do 

 not enjoy a personal acquaintance with 

 Mr. Bartlett, for fear he may misjudge 

 my motives. However, Mr. Editor, you 

 will have to explain that, after all, the 

 writer is not to be taken too seriously in 

 anything he says, and personally, if I 

 have over-stepped the proprieties of 

 journalism, I hasten to beg his pardon, 

 even before being asked to do so. 1 

 cannot think for a moment that the 

 apiary that Mr. Bartlett cured, could 

 have been very bad with foul brood, for 

 certainly the repulsiveness of the method 

 would have been noticed by him if such 

 had been the case. When we have other 

 plans that involve no more or less work, 

 that offer the minimum chance in the 

 way of distributing disease germs in the 

 extractor and other places, and that are 

 so much more to be desired from other 

 standpoints, by all means use them. 



