Tulv, IQIO. 



American Vae Journal 



cussion regarding honey-dew took 

 place. Some held that honey-dew was 

 the excretion of plant-lice, and some 

 that it was a secretion directly from 

 the plants. 



"Mr. Cowan, in summinti up the discus- 

 sion, said that bothsides were riglit. because 

 there was honey-dew produced by plant-lice 

 and honeydew produced by exudation of 

 tile leaves. You will always find a strong 

 flow of honey-dew after hot and dry davs. 

 followed by cold and damp nights. If the 

 night is dry. you do not iret honey-dew; if it 

 is a damp night, you are sure to have honey- 

 dew. There are two causes which produce 

 honey-dew. Kirst. insects, which attack the 

 leaves, and digest only part of the liquid 

 they suck up. discharging the greater part in 

 sticky drops, which we all know. Then, in 

 the absence of insects, there was the exuda- 

 tion of the leaves. The exudation forms in 

 small drops on the underside of the leaves. 

 and drops from one leaf to another. 



"The tn'o honey-dews differed in many re- 

 spects, that produced by the leaves being 

 formed at night— just the reverse to the 

 other: that produced by insects being 

 formed during the day. and the hotter the 

 weather the more of it was produced, the 

 greatest production being in the middle of 

 the day; that was because the aphides were 

 feeding during the day. During the night 

 they do not feed on the leaves, so that the 

 production ceases. On the other hand, the 

 leaves exude honey-dew during the night, 

 when the atmosphere is moist. There was 

 also a distinction in their composition. We 

 all know that Hower nectar is composed of 

 saccharose and glucose, but the composi- 

 tion of honey-dew produced by insects con- 

 tains a large quantity of dextrine, gums, and 

 other sugars, such as mannite. Mannite is 

 abundant in the ash. and is found in white 

 scales on the leaves. 



"Now, the honey-dew that is produced by 

 the exudation of the leaves is identical 

 with the nectar that is collected from the 

 flowers. We know that the polariscope 

 helps us very much in discovering these 

 things. .^11 flower-honey polarizes to the 

 left, and honey-dew. on the other hand, 

 polarises to the right, like glucose, and it 

 was supposed at one time thatall honey that 

 did not polarize to the left was adulterated. 

 It is now- known that some of this honey that 

 polarizes to the right is not adulterated at 

 all. but is due to honey-dew. There is an- 

 other important matter. The exudation of 

 the leaves also polarizes to the right, and we 

 have to find out how to differentiate the one 

 from the other, and devise a method of diag- 

 nosing it. 



" He haddemonstratedsome years agothat 

 insect honey-dew polarized to the right; but 

 as the honey-dew produced by the exudation 

 of the leaves polarized to the right also, 

 after dialyzing it for 24 hours, according to 

 Dr. Haenle's method, it would go back to 

 zero, whereas the other would not do so. It 

 therefore showed that there was a difference 

 between the insect honey-dew and the exu- 

 dation of the leaves. This was a very im- 

 portant point to bear in mind." 



Our Froiit-Page Pictures 



Brief descriptions of the pictures on 

 the front page this month are as fol- 

 lows : 



No. 1 — Apiary of I. D. Nixon 



I am sending a picture of my bee-yard 

 taken last year. The person to the right is 

 myself. I took about 60 pounds of clover 

 honey per colony last year. The hives at 

 the right contained 50 2-frame nuclei which 

 I got from Ohio. They were put in the yard 

 May27. loog: I built them up with plenty of 

 honey to winter on. and extracted 2iou 

 pounds of honey from them during the sea- 

 son. 



I have at present 103 colonies. This has 

 been a very hard spring on bees. It was so 

 cold, and the frost killed all the bloom. 

 White clover will bloom about June i. 



Lafarge. Wis.. May 11. I. D. N'lxON. 



No. 2. — Larva of the Greater Bee-Moth 



This picture is taken from the Sec- 

 ond Annual Report of the Indiana State 

 Entomologist. George S. Demuth, the 

 Indiana Bee-Inspector, savs this about 

 it: 



The eggs of this bee-moth are usually 

 pushed into the crevices between boards or 

 under hives or about the entrance. The 

 caterpillars are of a dirty gray color, with 

 brown heads. They seek the comb during 

 the feeding period, and tunnel through it, 

 1 o better protect themselves from the bees 

 they line this tunnel with a silken tube 

 which they have power to spin. In ^ or 4 

 weeks they are full grown, being about an 

 inch in length. They now spin their cocoons 

 and in about 2 weeks appear as moths. The 

 moths have a protective coloring mimicking 

 that of old boards, and are thus not readilv 

 observed. 



No. 3. — Apiary of Jesse Jones 



This picture represents the home api- 

 ary of Jesse Jones and his three daugh- 

 ters, located at Parma, Mo. 



No. 4. — A Japanese Apiary 



This is a picture of the Nonogaki 

 .\piary, a queen-breeding yard at 

 Okucho, Owari, Japan, We had hoped 

 to have a description of it, but failed to 

 get it. There is much in it that indi- 

 cates up-to-dateness. 



No. 5 — Advanced Stage of American Foul 

 Brood 

 Another picture from the Second 

 .Annual Report of the Indiana State 

 Entomologist. Mr. Demuth says this 

 of American Foul Brood : 



The American Foul Brood is that which 

 has been known simply as Foul Brood. From 

 investigations conducted by the Bureau of 

 Entomology of the United States Govern- 

 ment, the cause of American Foul Brood 

 was found to be a species of bacteria. Bacil- 

 lus Larvae. 



In diseased colonies the bees are usually 

 not very active. Much of the brood fails to 

 hatch. The cappings of the cells are usually 

 sunken and discolored, and often have rag- 

 ged perforations. In American Foul Brood 

 most of the cells containing diseased larvae 

 are or have been capped and the larva; seem 

 to die soon after the time of capping. If one 

 of these diseased cells be opened the larvae 

 may be seen lying on the lower side not bot- 

 tom) of the cell. Later It sinks down into a 

 jelly-like mass of brownish color. The odor 

 of this decaying material is characteristic, 

 and can frequently be detected before open- 

 ing the hive, even when but few diseased 

 cells are present. If a pin or a small stick 

 be inserted in a dead larva and withdrawn 

 the material stretches out in a fine thread or 

 is "ropy." This characteristic is usually 

 the final clinical test in the diagnosis of this 

 disease. In the earlier stages the color of 

 the dead material is best described as that 

 of coffee diluted with milk, but later the 

 color is dark brown, and finally the dead 

 larva dries down to a mere dark scale which 

 adheres firmly to the lower side of the cell. 



The bees are seemingly unable to remove 

 these scales. They may be seen in any 

 comb that has contained American Foul 

 Brood by letting a strong light strike the 

 lower side of the cells and looking into them 

 at such an angle that the line of sight strikes 

 the lower side of the cell about one-third of 

 its depth. Each of these scales contains 

 innumerable spores, each of which is capa- 

 ble of producing the disease in a healthy- 

 bee-larva. 



Treatment. 



The underlying principle of any treatment 

 of either of brood-diseases is the complete 

 separation of bees and the infected mate- 

 rial. The plan usually followed is the so- 

 called McEvoy treatment, which, given in 

 Mr. Evoy's own words, is as follows; 



"In the honey season, when the bees are 

 gathering freely, remove the combs in the 

 c-'vt'/nfrj^ and shake the bees into their own 

 hive; give them frames with comb founda- 

 tion starters on and let them build comb for 

 4 days. The bees will make the starters 

 itito comb during the 4 days and store the 

 diseased honey in them which they took 

 with them from the old comb. Then in the 

 evening of the fourth day take out the new- 

 combs and give them comb foundation to 

 work out. and then the cure will be com- 

 plete. ' 



While Mr. McEvoy does not advise disin- 

 fecting the hives, it is always advisable to 

 do so. as many cases of reinfection have 

 been reported when the bees were shaken 

 into the same hive. 



Hives may be rendered entirely safe for 

 use again by charring the inside by means 

 of a paint torch or by burning out with kero- 

 sene. ■ 



No. 6. — Apiary of Andrew M. Pultz 



This is a picture of the apiary of An- 

 drew M. Pultz, of Lake Prestoii, S. Dak. 

 Mr. Pultz reports a very bad spring for 

 the bees, which seemed to be the style 

 practically all over the country this 

 year. Frost killed all the fruit-bloom, 

 and up to May 18 dandelion was all 

 there was for the bees to work on. 



Iiidiaua Fair Apiarian Lii.st 



The -jTth annual State Fair of Indi- 

 ana will be held at Indianapolis, Sept. 

 12 to 16, I'JIO. In the apiarian depart- 

 ment $2.30 in cash premiums is offered. 

 Mr. Geo. W. Williams, of Redkey, Ind., 

 is to be the judge. l"or further infor- 

 mation, also a copy of the premium 

 list, address, Charles Downing, Secre- 

 tary Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis, 

 Ind. 



•* 



Wi.sconsiu Inspector'.s Report 



Mr. N. E. France, who for 13 years 

 has been the inspector of apiaries for 

 the State of Wisconsin, has issued a 

 neat pamphlet report for 1910, covering 

 24 pages. Besides his 13th annual re- 

 port as inspector, it contains Secretary 

 Dittmer's report of the last meeting of 

 the Wisconsin State Bee-Keepers' .As- 

 sociation. Every Wisconsin bee-keeper 

 should have a copy of this report. Send 

 to N. E. France, Platteville, VVis., for it, 

 if you haven't already received a copy. 



Back Volumes of the Anierioan 

 Bee Journal 



We frequently have calls for back 

 volumes of the American Bee Journal 

 beginning from Vol. I, 1861. Occa- 

 sionally we receive notice that one of 

 our old subscribers has passed away, 

 and in one or two instances the rela- 

 tives have been kind enough to write 

 us that all the copies of the Bee Jour- 

 nal have been saved, and they would be 

 pleased to send them to us. We appre- 

 ciate such oiTers very much indeed, 

 and wish to say now that we would like 

 to hear from any one who has been 

 careful enough to preserve the back 

 volumes of the American Bee Journal, 

 as quite often we have calls for such 

 volumes, and would be glad to supply 

 them. We hope that no one would 

 think of destroying the copies of the 

 American Bee Journal, as they cer- 

 ainly are rally valuable, having a his- 

 toric interest that increases as the 

 years pass. There are institutions, such 

 as agricultural colleges, etc., that often 

 wish to have a complete set of volumes 

 of the American Bee Journal, and, of 

 course, they apply to us first, to find out 

 whether we can furnish them. So, 

 hereafter, we will appreciate it very 

 much if the relatives of the deceased 

 subscribers who have taken the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for a half century or 

 less, would be sure to preserve such 

 back volumes and write us about them. 



" What kind of a career have you mapped 

 out for your boy Josh?" "I'm goin' to 

 make a lawyer of him." answered Farmer 

 Corntossel. " He's got an unconquerable 

 fancy for tendin' to other folks' business, 

 an' he might as well git paid for it. '— Ho..//- 

 iitgton Star. 



