Apri 



American Vee Jonrnal 



cause he "starved" them too close, and 

 to overcome this desertion he gave them 

 sections of honey from DISEASED col- 

 onies (italics mine), then he left them 

 a comb of honey from their OJf'.Y dis- 

 eased hive ; and finally he took to the 

 Alexander plan, and left them all their 

 diseased honey, but kept them queen- 

 less for a certain length of time, when 

 all went well, and the disease disap- 

 peared in all alike. And that Doo-little 

 man, has been sitting right down and 

 hiding his" light under a bushel," be- 

 cause a few have said that it is not best 

 that the truth be known; which light, if 

 it had been let shine, would have saved 

 the good Doctor all of his trouble of 

 "shaking like sixty" during his weari- 

 ness each EVE.\'I.\'G. for fear robber- 

 bees would get the honey, if he did it 

 while he was rested in the morning. 



Xow about how colonies become dis- 

 eased : .\s I have lent Mr. Simmins' 

 book, so I do not have access to it, I 

 must quote from memory. If I am cor- 

 rect, both he, and my old teacher in 

 apiculture, J. Burtis, claim that "bacillus 

 alvei, like many of the germ diseases 

 of the human family, are always 'floating 

 in the air,' and when conditions are right, 

 they take possession, and the patient be- 

 comes sick, or dies from the disease, 

 which they cause." 



One thing has been very noticeable : 

 When we have what we term "a poor 

 year for bees," the disease has been at 

 its worst ; as soon as it changes to a 

 good time for bees, those colonies hav- 

 ing the disease, but still strong in num- 

 bers, begin to pick up, clean out the 

 dead brood, and by the close of the 

 white honey harvest, the disease has 

 mostly, if not entirely disappeared ; 

 while a really good year, from begin- 

 ning to end, the whole apiary presents 

 the usual appearance that it does when 

 no European foul brood disease is pres- 

 ent. But, with the old American foul 

 brood, there is no let up. It is always 

 aggressive, and, as Dr. Miller well says, 

 "the Alexander plan" (nor any other, 

 short of ridding a colony of all the foul 

 broody honey,) will not cure it. 



Mr. Cheshire tells us on those pages 

 away back in the American Bee Journal 

 for 1884, that phenol or pure carbolic 

 acid, zcill cure black brood (bacillus 

 alvei). I have never tried it. If any 

 have, they will benefit the readers of the 

 American Bee Journal by telling us 

 about the matter. I am well aware that 

 carbolic acid has been tried on American 

 foul brood (bacillus larvae) and failed; 

 but has it been tried with European 

 foul brood (bacillus alvei) in the United 

 States? 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Methods of Treatment of Eu- 

 ropean Foul Brood Compared 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



In treating European foul brood by 

 the Alexander plan — and it should be 

 kept in mind that only European and not 

 American foul brood can be cured by 

 that plan — a virgin queen is given 20 

 days after the removal of the old queen. 

 If the cure is just as certain by giving 



the virgin 10 days sooner, the shorter 

 period is better. Even if there are some 

 failures by the shorter plan, provided 

 there be not too many, it will still be 

 better to use the short cut if the gain 

 in the successful cases be enough to 

 overbalance the loss in the cases of fail- 

 ure. So it may be worth while to at- 

 tempt some comparison between the two 

 ways, so as to form at least a little es- 

 timate as to the gain. 



Suppose we have on the 31st day of 

 May 2 colonies affected by European 

 foul brood, the two colonies being exact- 

 Iv alike in every particular. Suppose 

 each queen for the past six weeks has 

 been laying at such a rate that the out- 

 put of healthy bees amounts to 1000 

 daily. (As a matter of fact that sort of 

 regular work does not take place, but it 

 makes the problem easier, and for the 

 sake of illustration it may serve just 

 as well.) 



.^n important part of the treatment 

 is to have the colonies strong, or rather 

 to make them so, for a colony affected 

 by foul brood is not likely to be strong ; 

 so on the 31st day of May w-e will give 

 to each colony enough brood in all 

 stages so that 1000 young bees will hatch 

 out of it daily in each colony. At the 

 same time we will remove the queens. 

 Counting 42 days as the life of a bee, 

 there will be in each hive 42.000 bees. 

 As there will be 1,000 bees dying daily, 

 and 1,000 daily increase from the brood 

 of the removed queen, and also another 

 1,000 from the added brood, there will 

 be a net increase of 1,000 bees. So June 

 I there will be 43.000 in each hive, and 

 63,000 June 21. On that date the last 

 of the brood will have hatched out, so 

 there will be no more increase. But the 

 daily death-rate will continue, so there 

 will be a loss of 1,000 daily, after June 

 21. 



So far we have the same figures for 

 each colony. Now let us see about the 

 difference in treatment. One colony, 

 which we will call A, is to have the 

 regular Alexander treatment, queen- 

 cells being destroyed June 9. and a vir- 

 gin given June 20. The other, which we 

 will call M, is to have the modified treat- 

 ment, queen-cells being destroyed June 

 10 and a virgin given at the same time. 



In each case the virgin is supposed to 

 be just hatched. As each will begin lay- 

 ing when about 10 days old, the one in 

 A will begin laying June 30, and the first 

 young bee from her eggs will hatch out 

 21 days later, or July 21. Let us see how 

 many bees there are in A on this latter 

 date. 



We found there were 63.000 bees 

 June 21, and a daily loss of i.ooo bees 

 after that. From June 21 to July 21 is 

 30 days, during which time the total loss 

 will be 30,000. Take 30,000 from 63,000, 

 and we have left 33,000 as the number 

 of bees in A, July 21. 



In M there will be the same figures 

 except for the difference made by giving 

 the virgin on a different date. She was 

 given June 10, and may be expected to 

 begin laying June 20. The daily output 

 of eggs depends on the strength of the 

 colony, and more especially on the num- 

 ber of the nurse-bees, or bees not more 

 than 16 days old. As 2,000 young bees 

 have been hatched out daily in the past 



16 days, the nurse-bees will number 16 

 times 2,000 or 32,000. That is just twice 

 as many as there were in the hive during 

 the reign of the old queen, for as 1,000 

 young bees were hatched out daily there 

 would be 16 times that number, or 16,000 

 nurse-bees. With twice the nurse-bees, 

 the queen ought to lay twice as many 

 eggs, so long as the number does not go 

 beyond her capacity. With 16,000 nurse- 

 bees the queen laid 1,000 eggs daily for 

 the 1,000 bees that hatched out, and an 

 additional number of eggs for the brood 

 that died. But let us call it 1,000, to be 

 on the safe side. Then the young queen 

 in M, with double the number of nurse- 

 bees, would lay 2,000 eggs daily. The 

 first of these eggs being laid June 20, 

 the first young bees would hatch out 21 

 days later, or July 11. July 21, or 10 

 days later, 10 times 2,000, or 20,000 

 would be the number of young bees 

 from the new queen in M. 



So we have 20,000 more bees in M 

 than in A July 21. That is, there are 

 33.000 bees in A. and 53,000 in M. Just 

 what difference that would make in sur- 

 plus would depend on the season. In 

 some seasons it would mean empty 

 supers for A, and a fair yield from M. 

 At any rate it would pay for a large per- 

 centage of failures by the shorter plan. 

 My present opinion is that there will be 

 no more failures than by the longer plan. 



Marengo, 111. 



No. 2.--Making Honey-Vinegar 



By C. p. DADANT. 



While the alcoholic fermentation is 

 going on, it is necessary to keep the 

 liquid at a fairly high temperature. 

 Should you let it fall below 70 degrees, 

 it might be difficult to start it again. 

 But the liquid in fermenting will create 

 a certain amount of heat which will 

 help its work. Within a week, if all 

 goes well, the change is such that there 

 is next to no saccharine matter left. If 

 the air has been excluded, the acetic 

 fermentation has probably also begun, 

 and you may readily detect it by the 

 smell. If, however, this should fail to 

 be produced, add a little good vinegar, 

 or what is called "vinegar-mother," 

 taken from the old vinegar barrel. Let 

 it be free from musty smell, or you 

 might perpetuate this smell. Keep the 

 barrel in a warm place in the shade, if 

 possible, while this is going on. Many 

 persons keep their vinegar barrel out- 

 of-doors in the sun. I do not like this 

 because it warps the upper staves and 

 spoils the barrel in short order. Be- 

 sides, it evaporates too much of the 

 liquid. 



After the acetic fermentation has be- 

 gun, all it needs is plenty of air and 

 sufficient warmth. Practical vinegar- 

 makers succeed in making good vin- 

 egar in 48 hours after the alcoholic 

 fermentation, by letting it drip slowly 

 in a warm atmosphere through a bar- 

 rel containing oak or beech shavings, 

 which have been previously dipped into 

 good vinegar. The barrel is bored at 

 both ends, and the liquid that has gone 

 through the alcoholic fermentation 

 goes in sweet at the top and comes out 

 sour at the bottom. But you could not 

 succeed in doing this withunfermented 

 honey-water. 



