902 



careful to entirely exclude. The disease known as &quot;foul brood&quot; is the most fatal of all to 

 bees, and is very contagious, the infection frequently remaining in the hives* comb, and 

 honey for a long time after the bees are exterminated. Dysentery is a disease confined to 

 the perfectly grown insects, but foul brood is confined to the larvae, which, when grown near to 

 maturity, die and putrefy after being sealed over by the bees. The brood become brown, 

 and give off an offensive odor that can easily be detected in any hive, while the working 

 bees seem wholly unable to remove this foul mass that remains to spread contagion to other 

 broods and other hives. This disease is supposed to be caused by the presence of spores of 

 a microscopical fungus (niicrococcus), and when it once gets into an apiary, is very apt to 

 carry destruction with it, since the young brood, dying off at such a rate, will soon cause a. 

 general decline in the colonies. The spores get into the honey, and the bees, eating it and 

 feeding it to the larvae, infect them generally. The following remedy is said to be successful 

 in eradicating this disease: eight grains salicylic acid, eight grains soda borax, one ounce of 

 soft water; mix thoroughly, uncap all the brood, and throw a solution over the comb with a 

 spraying machine. 



Keeping and Making Honey. Some cap honey will not crystalize under any condi 

 tions, while again, honey that seems to be of equally good quality will crystalize in a short time. 

 The best means of preventing crystalization is to keep it in a dark, dry and warm room, 

 especially the latter. A honey room for storing honey should be had in connection with 

 every large apiary. Mr. G. M. Doolittle of Borodino, N. Y., an extensive apiarist of many 

 years experience, gives the following directions respecting the storing of honey and prepar 

 ing for market: 



&quot; If possible, we want our honey room in the warmest part of the building occupied, so 

 as to evaporate the honey that is in the few unsealed cells around the edges of the boxes next 

 to the wood, in order that when we come to glass it, or get it ready for market, the honey 

 will not run out and soil the combs or boxes. To this end we painted our shop a dark 

 color, and located our honey room in the southwest corner, so that the rays of the afternoon 

 sun would make it very warm. When we get a ton or so of honey in it, the temperature 

 stands at nearly 90 day and night, as the honey holds the heat generated during the day, 

 through the night. By leaving it thus for a month, we have our honey so we can tip it over 

 just as we wish without leakage, and if after it gets to market it happens to be kept in a 

 damp, cool room, it will be some time before it will take on moisture enough to affect the 

 looks of the comb to any extent. 



We are often asked the cause of honey oozing out of the cells. The cause is dampness. 

 While in a large market in New York, not long since, we saw honey that had been kept in a 

 damp, underground room so long that the sealing of the cells had burst, the honey had 

 soured, and was leaking from the comb badly, while the odor from it was offensive. While 

 speaking to the parties about it, they said they believed a cellar the best place to keep honey, 

 but it needed little argument to convince them that they were wrong. Of course this high 

 temperature will cause the moths to hatch soon, but they may be easily disposed of. In pre 

 paring the honey for market, which we commence to do by the middle of August, it imist be 

 glassed and crated. Have your crate by your side and the glass near you. First get the 

 propolis out of the corners of the box, if there is any where the glass is to come; then bend 

 up the little tins put in to hold the glass, drop in your glass, and bend down the tins. Now 

 you can scratch off the propolis on the edges of the box without getting it on the honey. 

 Scrape off clean so the box will look nice and tidy, and set in the crate. 



In crating honey it is always proper to put the best side of the honey out, the same as 

 wool is done up. We once knew a man to do up his wool with the dark or outside ends out, 

 and he could hardly sell it at any price. Why ? Not because the wool was not just as good, 

 but because it did not look so well. Just so with a crate of honey. Market men want the 

 best side out, but do not mistake and fill up the center of the crate with dark honey. Grade 

 your honey and then put the best side of each lot out, but let your white honey be all No. 1 

 white. 



When the crate is full put on the cover with bright, round-headed screws. This gives 

 the crate a nice appearance, does not tend to break the honey like driving nails, and the cost 

 is but a trifle. When crated, sand-paper off the sharp corners and top of the crate, and pack 

 nicely away till ready to ship to market. 



We have had much trouble in getting glass cut accurate enough to suit us, as they do 

 not expect to cut very close at the factories, and if a glass is a little large it springs the box 

 from the honey and sets it to leaking. For the past few years we have bought our glass cut 



