(Entered as second-class matter at the Post-Office at Hamiiton. 111., under Act of March ;i, I87y.) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Company, First National Bank Building 



C. p. DADANT, Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL, SEPTEMBER, 1912 



VoL LII-No. 9 



Sugar iu Kiirope 



Bee-keepers in this country are in- 

 clined to regret that sugar is so cheap, 

 as the tendency of low-priced sugar is 

 to depress the price of honey. On the 

 other side of the water the case is a 

 little different. From reading the Ger- 

 man bee-papers one gets the impres- 

 sion that if bee-culture is to flourish 

 bee-keepers must be able to get sugar 

 at a low price, and many pages have 

 been occupied with discussing the 

 matter ®f obtaining sugar free of duty. 

 One proposition is to try to secure a 

 law allowing denatured sugar to be im- 

 ported without tariff. But it is difficult 

 to put anything in sugar that will make 

 it unfit for human consumption that 

 will not at the same time make it ob- 

 jectionable to the bees. Another plan 

 which is perhaps already successful in 

 some places, is to allow sugar to the 

 amount of 1-5 pounds per colony, with- 

 out being denatured, to be obtained 

 duty-free. 



Bees Cleaning Out Combs 



On page 205 of the American Bee 

 Journal for July, Mr. Wilder tells 

 about setting out a lot of extracting- 

 combs for the bees to work on at a 

 time when they are inclined to rob, 

 and says the bees will not tear down 

 the combs, but clean them up nicely. 

 While no doubt this was true with Mr. 

 Wilder, it is only right to warn the be- 

 ginner that under certain conditions 

 there is danger that the combs may be 

 badly torn. 



The probability is that the combs 

 Mr. Wilder used were tough, old combs, 

 and such combs may be safely left to 

 the mercies of the bees. IE they are 

 new and tender it depends upon cir- 

 cumstances whether they may or may 

 not be torn to pieces. Take a new 

 comb at a time when bees are getting 

 nothing from the field, and expose if to- 



where the bees of 10 or more colonies 

 have free access to it, and you may rely 

 upon the bees to gnaw away a large 

 part of the comb. At least that is the 

 case in this locality. 



There are two ways in which bees 

 may be induced to clean the honey out 

 of tender combs without tearing them. 

 One is the B. Taylor plan. Have so 

 many combs in proportion to the nu.Ti- 

 ber of bees, that the bees will spread 

 themselves over the combs without 

 crowding in large numbers upon any 

 one spot They do not tear the combs 

 unless much crowded and struggling 

 with each other. 



The other is the Miller plan. Pile 

 up the supers of combs or of sections, 

 and allow an entrance only large 

 enough for a single bee to enter at a 

 time. One such entrance may be al- 

 lowed for every 2 or 3 supers. The 

 bees may crowd at the entrance, but 

 once inside there is no crowding, and 

 hence no gnawing of the combs. 



The Taylor plan is the better wher- 

 ever the number of combs is sufficient. 

 Perhaps one super for everj 2 or 3 col- 

 onies may be considered safe. Spread 

 the combs out as much as possible, so 

 as to give free access to all. Possibly 

 it is safer to use the Miller plan when 

 there are as many as 3 colonies to a 

 super. 



Dr. Zander on Foul Brood 



This office is in receipt of No. 1 of a 

 series of handbooks of bee-knowledge 

 by Prof. Dr. Enoch Zander, of the 

 Royal Institute for Bee-Keeping at 

 Erlangen, Germany. This number is 

 devoted to foul brood and its treat- 

 ment, and contains 30 pages with 8 

 illustrations, besides 4 tine plates rep- 

 resenting bacilli and diseased combs. 

 Under the head of foul brood he dis- 

 tinguishes 3 diseases : 



1. Pickled brood (Sauerbrut). 



2. European foul brood (Eaulbrut). 



3. .American foul brood (Brutpest). 

 The first two are called mild foul 



brood, and the third malignant. As 

 the work was written two years ago, 

 European foul brood is charged up to 

 Bacillus ali'ei, together with Slriplo- 

 coccus a/is. (We now know that ac- 

 cording to the investigations of our 

 Dr. White, the real miscreant is Bacil- 

 lus f hit on.) 



In most respects the description of 

 the diseases and their treatment is the 

 same that we are familiar with, but 

 European is called "stinking foul 

 brood," and American " non-stinking." 

 Surely, that does not describe the smells 

 as they are known on this side, for an 

 average case of European foul brood 

 may be said to be pleasantly fragrant 

 compared with a bad case of American. 

 One might think there was a confusion 

 of names, but that can hardly be, for it 

 is the ropy kind that is called "non- 

 stinking." Other German writers, at 

 least some of them, agree with Dr. 

 Zander in this. Is it possible that there 

 is such a marked difference in odors 

 there and here, or how can the matter 

 be accounted for ? 



Dr. E. F. Phillips gives the answer to 

 the puzzle. He says : 



" I think that the confusion concern- 

 ing the odor of the two types of dis- 

 ease originated with Dr. Burri. He 

 examined his material entirely from 

 laboratory samples, and in that way I 

 judge did not get the full benefit of the 

 odor of American foul-broody colonies. 

 In his paper he specifies that in order 

 to determine the odor, the dead larvx 

 should be removed on a small stick and 

 held close to the nose. If this is tried 

 European foul brood really develops a 

 stronger odor in most cases. It is un- 

 fortunate, however, that any such name 

 should be given to either disease, be- 

 cause it has only led to confusion. Our 

 descriptions of American foul brood, 

 the special emphasis which we have 

 laid on the odor, has led a consider- 

 able number of Europeans to doubt 

 whether our American foul brood is 

 the same as the .yichtstinkende foul 

 brood. I have found some European 

 foul brood cases, however, that would 

 do justice to old cheese when it came 



