February, 191 1. 



American Hee Joarnaij 



Conducted by J. L. Byer. Mt. Joy, Ontario. 



Distinguishing Names for Foul Brood 



Mr. J. L. Byer;— I have just been reading 

 your report of the Ontario convention in the 

 American Bee Journal, and feel like brinj- 

 ing up again the matter of names of bee- 

 diseases. 



I do not know exactly what motive some 

 may have had in fighting the accepted names 

 for the two contagious diseases which we 

 have in Ontario, and I do not believe it has 

 ever occurred to vou that unless we call a 

 disease "Foul Brood." we have no legisla- 

 tion against it. Our law refers to "Foul 

 Brood." " Black Brood" does not come un- 

 der that head, so whoever insists on con- 

 tinuing to use the name "Black Brood " will 

 only make trouble for us in handling the 

 disease situation in Ontario. I know you at 

 least have no desire to do that. Don't you 

 think it would be better if we dropped out 

 that word " Black Brood " entirely ?" There 

 is no use trying to give the disease a de- 

 scriptive name, because if we attempted 

 that in this case, there are a number of 

 other things we might call it which would 

 not look well in print. The term "Euro- 

 pean Foul Brood" is pretty generally ac- 

 cepted, especially by the scientists from 

 whom we have ttie best definite work. It 

 brings the disease under our present legis- 

 lation, and does not need to confuse any one, 

 if those who have the ear of the public, as 

 men like you have, will carefully stick to 

 the accepted terms. 



If I am wide of the mark in this 1 hope you 



will correct me for the good of the industry. 



Yours very truly. 



Morlev Pettit. 



After having so positively stated not so 

 long ago in this department, that all fu- 

 ture references to the disease in question 

 would be referred to as "Black Brood," 

 in so far as I was concerned, some may 

 wonder at my giving Mr. Pettit's letter to 

 the public. Quite a long time ago, I was 

 taught that a bad resolution was better 

 broken than kept, and I confess that after 

 reading very carefully what Mr. Peltit 

 has to say on the question of names of 

 brood-diseases here in Ontario, to be 

 about convinced that the resolution I made 

 on the matter belongs to the "bad" class 

 this time. 



Our laws in Ontario certainly refer to 

 "the disease called Foul Brood," and 

 clearly we have no power under our pres- 

 ent Act to handle anything that is not 

 known by that name. In other words 

 suppose I was sent to an apiary and an 

 examination should show the disease un- 

 der discussion to be present. If I said 

 the bees had "Black Brood," and the man 

 was a crank, and acquainted with the 

 Foul Brood Act, he might tell me that I 

 had no power to order him to destroy or 

 attend to the bees in some other way, 

 whereas the name of "European Foul 

 Brood," as adopted by the scientists, would 

 leave no such loop-hole for evading the 

 law. 



My only object for using the term 

 "Black Brood," was because of a desire 

 to avoid confusion, and also for the sake 

 of brevity. Dear me, the inspectors cer- 

 tai-nly have difficulties enough already to 

 contend with, without having some more 

 added to them, so I now pass my word 

 that this scribbler shall not knowingly 

 be a party towards stirring up more 

 trouble, 



Honey On Breakfast Foods 



Some time ago, I believe it was in the 

 November issue, the Editor said some- 

 thing about using honey on breakfast food? 



instead of sugar. I might say that in our 

 home honey is used regularly, and the 

 writer must prove guilty to setting the 

 example for the other members of the 

 family ! 



But, say, honey is good with almost any 

 kind of food, if you once form a taste 

 for such compounds. Some weeks ago I 

 happened to be taking dinjier with a good 

 friend of mine, Mr. Arthur Quantz, and 

 after some rather fat pork had been 

 served out, I was surprised to see him 

 cover his slice with honey about a quar- 

 ter of an inch thick. I laughingly asked 

 him if he made a practise of using honey 

 in that way, and he answered that he 

 always uses honey on meat, especially if 

 it is fat. He further said that it was real 

 good, and insisted on me trying some, 

 too. 



Not to be "bluffed," I tried •the mix- 

 ture, and while I could eat it all right, I 

 had to confess that it would take "prac- 

 tise" to teach me to prefer the mixture 

 instead of taking each article of food 

 separately. However, many use molasses 

 with their meat, I am told, and for tastes 

 of that nature I see no reason why honey 

 would not do as well as, or better than, 

 the molasses. 



I might say that in the case of honey 

 with cereals, we are very liberal with the 

 honey, and believe it to be more health- 

 ful than sugar. Just a few mornings ago, 

 I recall having heard "Edwin" remark to 

 one of his sisters, that he noticed sh« 

 was having a little porridge with her 

 honey, and I am afraid the same remark 

 could quite often be applied with justice 

 towards the writer of these notes, as 

 well. 



Just a word here as to the relative 

 value of comb and extracted honey for 

 table use. As I have often intimated in 

 the past, we have produced very little 

 comb honey. Last season, however, we 

 hud some very nice comb honey, and 

 enough was saved for home use whenever 

 it would be wanted. I am rather sur- 

 prised to say that in our family the comb 

 honey is not wanted at all, and a section 

 will stand on the table while at least 2 

 pounds of the extracted will be used. We 

 happen to be using something extra in the 

 way of extracted honey, so perhaps that 

 will explain the difference in choice. How- 

 ever, I can not help wondering whether 

 many families who never try extracted 

 honey, might, after all, be much like our 

 family in the matter of taste, if they once 

 get started to use real, good, well-ripened 

 extracted honey. 



Temperature for Bees in Winter 



On page 20, "Subscriber," who h^as his 

 bees under a barn, need not alarm him- 

 self if I understand the situation correctly. 

 Even if there are a lot of dead bees on 

 the floor, that is but natural in a fall 

 like the last one, when no flight was pos- 

 sible for a month before the bees went 

 in the cellar. He says the cellar is dry. 

 and that the bees are quiet. That's good 

 enough, so don't bother trying to put on 

 supers of chaff, or in any other way dis- 

 turb the bees, and I have an idea that 

 they will come out all right. 



As to 37 degrees being too low by 7, 

 for good wintering, I am not so sure 

 about that. If any one wishes, I could 



take him to a cellar about 4 miles away 

 from here, where the constant aim is to 

 keep the thermometer at as near 35 de- 

 grees as possible. 



Just a few moments ago, I called up 

 Mr. Davison, the bee-keeper in question, 

 over the phone, and asked him what his 

 cellar was registering today. He replied 

 "35." stating that in order to keep it as 

 low as that it was necessary to have a 

 window open all the time. Of course, to- 

 wards spring it is impossible to keep the 

 temperature that low, but during th« cold 

 weather it is always kept there. Mr. Da- 

 vison is one of our most successful bee- 

 winterers, and every spring it is my privi- 

 lege to see his bees — both those wintered 

 in the cellar and those left on the sum- 

 mer stands — 150 colonies in all. One year 

 with another, I doubt if bees are brought 

 through in better condition by any other 

 man in America, and when asked what he 

 thinks about the orthodox figure of 45 

 degrees for cellar wintering, he invariably 

 .answers, "All bosh." I do not profess to 

 know much about the question, but facts 

 certainly have a loud voice, and in this 

 case there is no disputing the figures. The 

 cellar is under the living room, and from 

 all appearances it seems to be real dry ; 

 more than that, I can give no particu- 

 lars, except to say that aside from the 

 open window there is no attempt at ven- 

 tilation in any way. 



Wild Mustard or Charlock 



If I am not mistaken in the matter, 

 "Illinois" refers to the wild mustard, or 

 charlock, on page 20, where he is answered 

 by Dr. Miller. If that is the plant he 

 refers to, I can tell him that it is quite 

 a heavy yieJder in hot, sultry weather, and 

 that the honey is slightly araber, with a 

 pungent taste, especially when first gath- 

 ered. With u« it always goes with the 

 clover honey and usually does little harm. 

 Some years, though, when it yields extra 

 well, or for some reason the clover is not 

 yielding, it then imparts to our honey a 

 slightly sharp flavor, said honey having a 

 tendency to smart in the throat after eat- 

 ing, especially if much is partaken of. As 

 a rule, it comes in about a week ahead of 

 the clover, and in such cases has a very 

 beneficent effect on the colonies. 



If the mustard is late in blooming, and 

 the alsike is full of honey, as a rule the 

 mustard is not visited much by the bees. 



Putting Bees Into tlie Cellar 



In my last batch of notes, we said some- 

 thing about getting "stung" in tlie matter 

 of putting bees into the cellar last fall. 

 I had almost decided to say nothing more 

 about the matter, when on page 22 I hap- 

 pened to notice what Mr. Doolittle says 

 about taking the hives into the cellar cov- 

 ered with snow. That settled it, for now 

 I would be free from all reproach on 

 my part for, couldn't I say, "Well, Doo- 

 little was just .IS bad ?" 



The 65 colonies to be wintered in a cel- 

 lar were taken away from the home yard 

 about the last of October and .never a 

 chance of flight had they far a long time 

 — in fact, I begin to despair of them get- 

 ting a flight at all. Now half of those 

 colonies were nuclei formed late in 

 August, and fed steadily till the middle 

 of October, and I know there was a lot 

 of young bees that had never had a 

 flight. Well, they were left out in the 

 hope of having a flight before going in 

 the cellar, and by mere chance, on No- 

 vember 26th, the sun came out so that 

 they had a nice flight. They were ia a 

 very sheltered position with high ever- 

 greens nearly all around them, and while 

 ihey had a nice flight, yet bees in packed 



