240 



July, 1915. 



American l^ee Journal 



or by pillage when the barbarians 

 passed through here.' 



" We knew already before the war 

 that the Germans are great lovers of 

 bees. But they appear to have demol- 

 ished the apiaries in the invading 

 country, either for the pleasure of de- 

 struction or to take possession of the 

 honey which is so strengthening an 

 aliment much appreciated by the com- 

 batants and by all those who are over- 

 worked physically or intellectually. It 

 is probable, however, that the bees 

 have often taken revenge against the 

 invaders and have given them to un- 

 derstand that the theft was not ap- 

 proved. 



" When I wrote of honey, in the 

 American Bee Journal, it was my in- 

 tention to speak of its alimentary 

 properties. 1 have had occasion to 



Devastated Scene and Group of 



French Army Officers-Mr Caillas 



ON the Extreme Right 



appreciate these qualities during the 

 campaign, not only as food but as a 

 remedy. The camp life, the meat food 

 of the bivouac, the almost complete 

 absence of vegetable sustenance, to 

 which ill-conditions are added the 

 fatigue of marches and intensive over- 

 exertions had sickened a number of 

 the men under me. Almost all of them 

 were suffering of colics and excessive 

 diarrhea or dysentery. We were not 

 then provided as we are now with a 

 good physician. During war, an officer 

 must be not only a soldier but also 

 somewhat of a doctor, as occasion 

 demands. 1 did not have with me the 

 necessary remedies. The supply of 

 bismuth, opium, paregoric, etc., in my 

 canteen was soon exhausted. 



"The idea then came to me to try 

 honey. I found, in the Meuse region, a 

 beekeeper having nearly 300 kilograms 

 of excellent honey in stock. Our sick 

 soldiers were then treated by doing 

 away with meat, allowing only vegeta- 

 ble bouillon and 2.')0 to 300 grams (8 to 

 10 ounci->) of honey per day, with a 

 complete rest. 



"At the end of five or six days the 

 diarrhea disappeared as well as the 

 colics. This may seem extraordinary 

 to some people, since honey is consid- 



ered as a laxative. But it had the 

 property of strengthening the inert in- 

 testines and putting them in working 

 condition, owing to its assimilability 

 and the I'tn-er/t/i which it contains. 



"My sick men would have been glad 

 to remain sick longer, as the treatment 

 was very much to their taste. I am 

 satisfied that I have won a number of 

 men to the use of honev, someof whom 

 hardly knew of the existence of that 

 article of food. When the war is over 

 they will remember that it caused them 

 great bodily relief. 



" But I must close this letter. I see 

 over the snow-covered hill top, beyond 

 the ruins of a number of houses, the 

 smoke of canonade e.xplosions. I must 

 go back to the reality and to the call 

 of duty. 



" I have received from your readers 

 a number of letters, which I have an- 

 swered as regularly as possible. I pre- 

 fer to have all my correspondence for- 

 warded to Paris, 75, Avenue Mozart, 

 from whence letters will reach me at 

 the front. 



" Accept my heirtiest good wishes 

 for you and all your readers." 



Alin Caillas, Lieutenant. 



Fumigating Combs With 

 Sulphur 



BY FRANIC F. FRANCE 



IN securing a large honey crop in a 

 go d year, it is very necessary to 

 be ready to secure it just at the 

 proper time. The best banks of de- 

 posit when the honey gathering season 

 opens, are plenty of storage room, 

 plenty of good foundation in frames, 

 and (if you have them) lots of drawn 

 combs. 



If a beekeeper has on hand two and 

 three sets of drawn comb for each 

 colony, it becomes a problem to keep 

 the combs free from the bee moth, 

 especially where there are combs for 

 several hundred colonies. I don't care 

 how careful a beekeeper is, moths will 

 get into combs, especially where t 'ere 

 are several thousand to look after dur- 

 ing the warm weather. 



It is my plan to have all my combs 



sorted in threeor four groups; worker, 

 drone, and combs with honey. It is 

 also my plan to go over these combs 

 on an inspection tour every two or 

 three weeks during the warm weather 

 (before and after they are put on the 

 hives) to see if the moth-worm is pres- 

 ent. If I find the moth-worm in the 

 combs here and there over the hun- 

 dreds of combs, I have the entire lot 

 fumigated. 



For several years past I have fumi- 

 gated the combs with carbon bisulphid, 

 but even though it did the work most 

 satisfactorily, it became considerable 

 of an expense, so I made the fumigat- 

 ing box, as shown in the illustration, 

 and used sulphur for fumigating. 



The bo.x is made long enough to 

 support four tiers of hives (five 

 supers of nine combs each to the tier), 

 with a 2-inch space between each hive 

 (a cleat nailed on) to allow for han- 

 dles. Each box is about a foot square. 

 In the center of the bottom is a <3-inch 

 hole mnde to fit t e top of a 3 inch 

 screw-top round honey can. Over the 

 hole inside the bo.x are placed some 

 wires in an arched form with a little 

 piece of asbestos so as to keep all pos- 

 sible excess heat, if any, from the 

 combs. 



The box is set on two hive-bodies 

 and leveled both ways. The round can 

 is then fitted and leveled below. The 

 can has a small door cut out on the 

 side near the bottom to allow the plac- 

 ing of special sulphur burners. The 

 sulphur burnei s are made as follows: 

 Make three wire standards like illus- 

 tration ; cut three pieces of coarse 

 cheese cloth about 3 by 6 inches; lay 

 on a flat surface and pour on this a 

 good layer of powdered sulphur; fold 

 up the bottom of the cloth about one 

 inch and lay your wire standard on 

 one end of the cloth and wind it 

 around it and then tie with a piece of 

 frame wire. 



Light each burner from the top and 

 place in the bottom of the can (after 

 the supers of combs have been placed 

 and cover on each pile) The burners 

 will burn from 15 minutes to half an 

 hour or longer, according to the 

 amount of sulphur placed in burners. 

 The fumes will last from one to two 





i^iLsi^*:u 







FOUR COMPARTMENr BOX USED 



COMBS 



BY FRANK FR ^NCE IN FUMIGATING SUPER | 

 WITH SULPHUR 



