508 



GbKAMXUS JN BKK ( ll/nHK 



Aug. 15 



honey-llow is light or when there is no How 

 at all. I don't want a heavy yield of nec- 

 tar for cell-biiilding. I should, in fact, very 

 much prefer to have no honey come in 

 at all, because then I can ref/ulate the sup- 

 l)ly of food just fast enough, and no more, 

 to keep cell-building at its best." 



SOME EXPERIENCKS OF THE EDITOR IN 

 FOULBROOD-IN.SI'ECTION WORK. 



I>URiNG the last few days we have been 

 getting some real experience in helping out 

 the Ohio foul-brood insi)ectors. We have 

 driven from -10 to 75 miles in a day with a 

 machine, carrying the inspectors about 

 from bee-keeper to bee-keeper. If there is 

 any one fact that was impressed on us it is 

 this: That foul brood finds an easy lodging- 

 l)lace among the old-fashioned bee-keepers, 

 who eilher have box hives or old hives of an 

 antiquated pattern — so old, in fact, that 

 there are cracks all over them. Of course, 

 some of these farmers do not take any bee- 

 pai)er, and they probably do not even read 

 the apiarian department in their agricultu- 

 ral pai)ers. if they read any paper at all. 



At two or three yards we found where the 

 bees had died the previous winter. P]xami- 

 nation showed the characteristic scales of 

 foul brood on the comljs. The bees had, no 

 doubt, been so weakened by the ravages of 

 this disease during the previous summer 

 and fall that they were unable to withstand 

 the winter's cold. The result was, there 

 were several hives in the spring containing 

 honey in the combs, with no live bees in. 

 Neighboring bees found these hives, of 

 course, and robbed them out and thus scat- 

 tered foul brood right and left. We ran in- 

 to one section where fully 99 per cent of the 

 farmers had foul brood among their bees; 

 and we found not a few of them having 

 empty hives with foul-brood combs in them, 

 all of which gave evidence of having been 

 robbed out the previous spring. No wonder 

 their cry was, "Bees don't pay like they 

 used to." In every case the farmers were 

 willing to be shown what to do, and to com- 

 ply with the provisions of the Ohio law, and 

 scarcely one of them knew he had the dis- 

 ease. 



THE GRADUAL, ELIMINATION OF THE OLD- 

 FASHIONED FARMER BEE-KEEPER. 



We have about come to the conclusion 

 that American and F.uropean foul brood 

 will eliminate the don't-read-the-paper class 

 of farmer bee-keeper. It may take several 

 years before it is accomplished; and while 

 we are sorry to have these i)eople suffer loss, 

 the result will be very salutary to the spe- 

 cialist and progressive farmer bee-keei)er 

 who read the papers. American foul brood 

 has no terrors for the specialist bee-keeper; 

 but the ignorant and haphazard farmer bee- 

 keeper must either burn up or otherwise de- 

 stroy all his old hives and fixtures. Europe- 

 an foul brood is much more difficult to erad- 

 icate; V)ut we feel confident that, when we 

 come to know more about it, the expert will 

 handle one as well as the other. 



A PRACTICAL SCHEME FOR KEEPING DOWN 

 SWARMING AT AN EXTRACTING-YARD; DO 

 BROOD-COMBS AFFECT THE COLOR OF HON- 

 EY TAKEN FROM THEM? 



As a general rule, it is not difficult to 

 handle swarms at extracting-yards; but un- 

 der some conditions, at least, there will be 

 some swarming, especially if moderate-sized 

 hives are used. In helping (?) Mr. Fowls 

 to extract, as mentioned on page 474 in last 

 issue, we noticed a good many of his combs 

 that had brood reared in them to a greater 

 or less extent. AVe asked him if these did 

 not have a tendency to darken his honey. 

 "No," he replied, "not nearly so much as 

 I had expected. In reading over recent ar- 

 ticles in some of the bee-pajiers, I noticed 

 that one or two writers said they had been 

 very successful in keeping down swarming 

 at the extracting-yards by letting the queen 

 have access to the extracting-supers during 

 the fore part oi the honey-flow; then, as the 

 season advanced, putting on honey-boards 

 to confine the queen to the lower chamber. 

 In the mean time brood hatches in the ex- 

 tracting-supers, when the cells are immedi- 

 ately filled wdth honey. This," continued 

 Mr. Fowls, "practically eliminates all 

 swarming. I have been testing this the 

 past season or two, and I find it works ad- 

 mirably. I have not been able to find that 

 brood-combs affect the color of the honey if 

 they are not too old and black. What is 

 more, the cocoons in the cells stilTen the 

 combs, and this is quite an advantage while 

 extracting and uncapi)ing. These reinforc- 

 ed cells during the process of uncapping 

 make it easy, as you see, to slice o(T the cap- 

 pings." 



Mr. Fowis went on to explain that most 

 of the swarming takes place at the fore part 

 of the season. If the queen has unlimited 

 room at that period of the flow there is not 

 likely to be any swarming. This has been 

 our experience at Medina, at least. "Now, 

 then," .said Mr. P^'owls, "if the honey-boards 

 are put on when the honey-flow is at its 

 height, the brood hatches out, the cells are 

 filled with honey, and at the close of the 

 season we have nothing but solid combs 

 well capped." 



It should be remembered that Mr. Fowls 

 is a bottler of fine honey, and takes pride in 

 having his goods look clean and bright. It 

 would be apparent that he could not tolerate 

 any plan of extracted-honey production that 

 would darken his honey. As we have been 

 "helping" him to extract a number of times, 

 we can bear testimony to the fine quality of 

 his honey. 



THE ADVISABILITY OF PUBLISHING NEW 



METHODS OF CURE FOR THE 



BROOD DISEASES. 



One of our best correspondents, and also 

 a foul-brood insjjector, seriously questions 

 the advisability of publishing these new 

 methods of cure for brood diseases. He re- 

 fers ])articularly to the articles by Henry 

 Stewart, given on i)p. 415, 445. He says that 



