1 Entered as second-class matter July 30. 1907. at the Post-Offlee at Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Company, 146 West Superior Street, 



GKORGE W YORK. Editor 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JULY, 1910 



Vol. L -No. 7 



Editorial Notes and Comments 



Names ol Uee-Disea.se.s 



When foul brood is spoken of, it is 

 uncertain which of two different dis- 

 eases is meant, and there is constant 

 danger of confusion. To prevent con- 

 fusion, the lull name must be used each 

 time, " American foul brood " or Euro- 

 pean foul brood,'' as the case may be. 

 But the constant tendency is to shorten 

 by leaving off the first part of so long 

 a name, simply saying " foul brood," 

 and then there is trouble. 



If we use the old name " black 

 brood " instead of '" European foul 

 brood," there is less danger of confu- 

 sion. But the blackness of the brood 

 is not what distinguishes the disease. 

 The other disease has just as black 

 brood. The color of the brood, how- 

 ever, is a prominent characteristic, and 

 when one is looking through a colony 

 to see signs of the disease, the one 

 thing he specially looks for is the color 

 of the larva, as it lies coiled up in the 

 bottom of its cell, is seen to be yellow- 

 ish or yellow, the scourge is present. 

 As yellow brood is the thing looked 

 for, no more appropriate name could 

 be given the disease than "yellow 

 brood." Then if the name " foul brood " 

 be used for the other disease there 

 ought to be little chance for confu- 

 sion. Is there any objection to the 

 names "yellow brood" and "foul 

 brood " for the two diseases ? 



One Super and Frequent Extract- 

 ing 



The practice of leaving extracting- 

 supers on till the close of the season 

 and then extracting all at one time 

 seems to be on the increase, and there 

 are good arguments in its favor. Cir- 

 cumstances alter cases, and G. C. 

 Greiner gives reasons in Gleanings for 

 going to the other extreme. Instead of 

 piling up supers as they are filled, he 

 gives only one super to each colony, 

 using Jumbo frames of the same size in 



both super and brood-chamber; and 

 instead of waiting till the close of the 

 season to extract, he begins to extract 

 as soon as the first frames are three- 

 fourths sealed. He gives several rea- 

 sons for this, a chief one being that 

 his customers want the honey as soon 

 as the first of it is ready to extract, 

 and he would lose trade if he were not 

 ready to cater to it. Another reason 

 is that, not being very strong physi- 

 cally, he handles only one frame at a 

 a time, never doing a very heavy day's 

 work in any one day, but going over 

 his apiary in order, taking part of it at 

 each extracting, and in the rush of the 

 season extracting daily, doing the work 

 in the warm part of the day. 



His management during the first part 

 of the season is interesting. He says: 



As soon as the season is far enough ad- 

 vanced to show signs of incoming honey, all 

 better swarms are supplied with their su- 

 pers. This generally takes place during 

 fruit-bloom, about the 20th or 25tli of May. 

 When the white-clover flow begins, or a lit- 

 tle before, all the rest that promise fairly 

 well are also supplied to make sure that all 

 have room for storage. As the flow advances, 

 and the strong and best-working colonies 

 are tilling up. I take from 2 to 4 of their heav- 

 iest combs and exchange for empty ones 

 from the weaker colonies that have not 

 started yet. The bees that adhere to these 

 full combs I try to shake in front of their 

 hives; but I am not very particular if a few 

 bees are left on the combs. 



Two or three days after the first exchange 

 was made, the inserted combs in those 

 strong colonies are probably full again, and 

 need exchanging the second time. When 

 this is done, all the bees are left on the 

 combs taken from colonies that are overly 

 strong, and exchanged for empty ones of the 

 weakest colonies. In this way I hit two birds 

 with one stone— I control swarming with one 

 lot and build up another to proper working 

 condition. 



Then he begins extracting, as already 



mentioned. 



Sealed Honey vs. Feeders 



The writer is the inventor of one of 

 the most popular feeders in use, but if 

 he could always have things to his lik- 



ing he would never use a feeder. 

 Frames of sealed honey have the pref- 

 erence, every time. Nor is the writer 

 lacking in good company. Editor 

 Hutchinson says: " If I always had an 

 abundance of sealed stores, I would 

 iifver «sc feeders." 



" But," says one, " feeding syrup is 

 important for stimulation." To this 

 Mr. Hutchinson replies : 



' I suppose that the regular feeding of a 

 syrup is more stimulating than the presence 

 of sealed stores in the hive, but I doubt if it 

 is much greater than would be the uncap- 

 ping of some of the sealed stores already in 

 the hive." 



Is it any greater? Is it as great? 

 The uncapping will certainly make the 

 bees handle some of the honey. Could 

 there be any possible advantage in get- 

 ting them to take the same amount of 

 honey from a feeder ? The only ques- 

 tion is whether there is anything more 

 stimulating in sugar syrup than there 

 is in honey ? It is not very hard to 

 believe that honey is the more stimu- 

 lating of the two, for it contains ele- 

 ments that are not in sugar. 



So far, then, as the matter of stimula- 

 tion is concerned, it is not hard to be- 

 lieve that uncapping sealed honey is 

 better than feeding sugar syrup. Please 

 understand, however, that this is not 

 saying that either is necessary or ad- 

 visable at all times, or indeed often. If 

 the hive contains abundance of stores, 

 and the bees have all the brood they 

 can cover, what can possibly be gained 

 by anything further in the way of 

 stimulation f Only in times and places 

 where there is so long a dearth that 

 there is danger that laying may cease 

 altogether, or that the bees will not 

 care for the eggs that are laid, does it 

 seem that stimulation of any kind can 

 do much good. 



But there is another item of serious 

 importance to be considered in com- 

 paring sealed stores and sugar syrup. 

 Excellent authorities tell us that young 

 bees reared upon sugar syrup have not 

 the stamina that comes from honey. In 

 Switzerland — and you may go a long 

 way before you will find safer guides 

 than Swiss bee-keepers — they say. prac- 

 tically, " Feed sugar, if you must, for 

 winter stores, but only for winter 

 stores. When it comes time to rear 

 young bees in spring, honey must be 



