180 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 19, 1903. 



flight and then returning them '. Some advo- 

 cate taking out in March and leaving out just 

 long enough for a flight before returning. 

 Others say take them out in April about two 

 weeks before time to take them out for good. 

 Ifyou experiment at all in the matter, don't 

 go into it in too wholesale a manner, but treat 

 at least a part of your colonies, if not the 

 greater part, in the manner you have hereto- 

 fore been in the habit of treating them. Only 

 by comparison will you be able to judge as to 

 the best way. Then keep watch as to which 

 colonies seem to be in best condition at dif- 

 ferent times, especially at the opening of the 

 harvest, and please report. 



Those Who Have Xo Foul Brood.— 



trobably not one out of ten, possibly not 

 one out of a hundred, of those bee-keepers 

 who have not personally suffered from foul 

 brood, have sufficient iaterest in the matter to 

 have read enough on the subject to give them 

 anything more than the most vague idea 

 about it. Then when the disease actually 

 appears in a colony belonging to such bee- 

 keeper, he allows the disease to progress 

 steadily, in serene unconsciousness of any 

 danger until it has spread to many or all of 

 his colonies, and has become of such virulent 

 type in some of them that he can no longer 

 be blind to it. Then he is in a panic, not 

 knowing what to do, and wasting still further 

 time in trying to flnd out. 



The wise bee-keeper, even the veriest novice 

 with a single colony, should know enough 

 about the disease to spot it on its first appear- 

 ance. He should also know enough to act at 

 once when he does spot it. He should know 

 enough not to be unduly excited when he 

 finds something unusual in a colony that is 

 not foul brood. So the advice can hardly be 

 too strongly emphasized, to read up on foul 

 brood, even if there is no expectation of ever 

 seeing a case. Have ready for immediate 

 reference whatever literature you may have 

 upon the subject, so that no time may be 

 wasted in looking it up in case it should 

 suddenly be needed. 



Formalin to Kill Foul Brood. — It will 

 be remembered that experiments over in 

 Canada seemed to show that the bacilli of 

 foul brood, and even the spores, were de- 

 stroyed by exposure to the fumes of formalin, 

 whether they were in the larva>, the dried 

 cells, or in the honey. This is a matter of 

 thousands of dollars, for if the effect of the 

 fumes are such that a comb from a foul- 

 broody hive can be entirely cleansed from all 

 traces of the disease, then all the brood-combs 

 that otherwise would be burned can be saved. 

 As a practical contribution to the subject, the 

 following from C. H. W. \Veber appears in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture : 



You may recollect that, when in Denver, I 

 was talking to you about killing the foul- 

 brood germ by fumigating it with formalin 

 gas, by Prof. Harrison's method. I mentioned 

 to you that I would experiment with this 

 fumigating cure just as soon as I arrived 

 home. With the assistance of a bee-keeper 1 

 began operations immediately. This gentle- 

 man had a hive infected with foul brood. We 

 took the infected frames from the hive and 

 placed the bees in another hive. We then 

 fumigated it with the formalin gas. and, 

 when disinfected, replaced the infected frames 

 in the old hive. We then shook the bees 

 back on to the original frames. The result 



was, that the colony cleaned up the combs 

 nicely, and a few days later the combs were 

 filled with eggs, and, later, larvte, the latter 

 being perfectly white, and no signs of foul 

 brood since in the colony. 



Later in the season I tried this method for 

 friends who had colonies atllicted in the same 

 manner. As the season became too late for 

 brood-rearing, I could not ascertain any re- 

 sults. About three weeks ago I sent two 

 frames, which had been badly infected (but 

 which I had previously fumigated, to kill the 

 spores of foal brood i, to Prof. Dr. fiuyer, of 

 the University of Cincinnati. I requested 

 him to endeavor to restore life to the foul 

 brood, which he promised to try to do. A 

 few days later I sent him another frame in- 

 fected with foul brood (this frame 1 did not 

 fumigate). To-day, two weeks after, I 

 visited the professor again, and he reported 

 that he had made about 20 trials, all told. 

 The frame not fumii/atnl, he says, flourishes 

 with foul brood'. To the other frames, which 

 were fuinignted by this process, he said it 

 was impossible to restore any signs of life. 

 He still has part of the fumigated frames, 

 which he will experiment further, and will 

 then report results. I will acquaint you 

 further with any future results we may 

 secure. 



Shaken Swarms in Australia. — The 



editor of the Australasian Bee-Keeper advises 

 against the practice of equalizingcolonies and 

 then shaking a swarm from each, regardless 

 of preparations for swarming, but favors 

 shaking each as soon as preparations for 

 swarming are found. 



Filling Syrup in Combs.— S. E. Miller 

 says in the Progressive Bee-Keeper: 



I am surprised at Editor Doolittle {page 

 1014, Gleanings for Dec. I.t). In advising how 

 to fill combs with syrup, he says: 



"To get it into the cells, pour in a fine 

 stream from a dipper or some utensil having 

 a spout which should be held a foot or more 

 from the comb,'' etc. 



Now, Friend Doolittle, you have likely filled 

 many more combs than I, but I can tell you a 

 better way. Take a fruit-can, about a 3-pound 

 can — one that has been used and cast aside is 

 good enough — punch the bottom full of small 

 holes, about such as a three-penny nail will 

 make. If the holes are punched from the in- 

 side the syrup will flow more freely than if 

 punched from the outside. An old file, with 

 the point intended for inserting in the handle, 

 shaped to the proper form and size, makes a 

 puncher for the purpose. 



Having your perforated-bottom can pre- 

 pared, lay the comb on its side in the bottom 

 of a tub. Hold the can about a foot above 

 the comb with the left hand, and with the 

 right hand lake a dipper and fill the comb 

 with syrup. Pass the can over all parts of 

 the comb until one side of the comb is filled, 

 when the other side can be turned up and the 

 operation repeated. If there is about half an 

 inch of syrup in the bottom of the tub, it is 

 all the better, as it will prevent the syrup 

 from running out of the side first filled. You 

 see, by this means, we have 100 or more 

 streams of small size instead of only one. 



Very likely Mr. Miller will be thankful for 

 suggestion as to still further improvement, 

 even though the improvement refers to minor 

 matters. Instead of the can being held a foot 

 above the comb, let it be at least three feet 

 above it. If the syrup be allowed to fall from 

 a height of an inch, in spite of its being in a 

 fine stream, very little of it will find its way 

 to the bottom of the cells, and in a little 

 while there will be a liiycr of syrup all over 

 the comb, leaving the colls still filled with air, 

 and any syrup poured on top after that will 

 simply run off. When held a foot above the 

 comb, the result will be better, but still it 

 will not work so well as when the syrup falls 

 from a greater distance. The momentum 



gained by falling from a greater height is the 

 same in effect as making each drop heavier, 

 making it go with a rush to the bottom of the 

 cell. For, although the syrup may leave the 

 can in a fine stream, it goes a very short dis- 

 tance before separating into drops. 



It is important that the syrup be hot — just 

 as hot as it is possible to have it without 

 melting the comb. The hotter the syrup the 

 smaller the drops. 



Holding the can three feet above the comb 

 is tiresome. Easier and better work can be 

 done in this way : 



Punch three holes at equal distances in the 

 upper edge of the can ; tie the.end of a string 

 in each hole, and tie the other end of each 

 string to a nail in the ceiling, letting the 

 three nails be perhaps three feet apart. Then 

 no weight comes on the hand, and all you 

 have to do is to steady the can and move it 

 about where you want it. 



The Dealer's Rights — Do they Include 

 that of Erasing the Producer's Name and Put- 

 ing on His Own ? is the heading of an article 

 in the Bee-Keepers' Review, in which the 

 writer, J. E. Hand, says : 



" How is a honey-producer going to adver- 

 tise his business, and work up a trade for his 

 product if he is not allowed to place his name 

 on his honey J It has taken me years to learn 

 how to produce a real fancy article of comb 

 honey, and I would be very foolish to give to 

 Mr. York, or any one else, the benefit of my 

 experience, simplj' because he happens to buy 

 my honey. He has a right to place his name 

 on the package as the seller of it, but not as 

 the producer, as this would simply be lying, 

 and an injustice to the producer. I would 

 not sell a pound of honey to any man who 

 would object to my name and address some- 

 where either outside or inside of every ease, 

 and always outside of every crate. Any one 

 who is smart enough to produce a fancy arti- 

 cle of comb honey should be smart enough to 

 sell it himself without giving his dearly 

 bought experience to some one who could not 

 produce a pound of honey to save his life." 



In a footnote Editor Hutchinson says there 

 are two sides to the question. It is entirely 

 proper for a producer to desire to establish a 

 reputation for his honey, and to have his 

 name on the package, and such a producer 

 should sell to some one who is making no 

 effort to build up a special trade; but with 

 regard to those who are making such effort, 

 he says : 



" If I were at work building up a trade here 

 for honey, I should wish to have my name on 

 every package, and not that of the producer. 

 That would be a natural feeling. If I spent 

 time, and money, and thought, and energy, 

 building up a market for honey, I should wish 

 to reap the reward. I should not advertise 

 that I was the producer of the honey that I 

 sold. I should impre.'is upon my customers 

 the idea that I was an expert judge of honey, 

 and took great pains to secure that which was 

 of excellent quality and absolutely pure. I 

 should take great pains to live up to my pro- 

 fessions, and always furnish an excellent 

 article, and thus lead my customers to believe 

 that when they bought a bottle of honey, or a 

 section of honey with my name on it, they 

 could rest assured that it had my guarantee, 

 and that it was all right. If I should send out 

 honey having upon the packages only the 

 names of the different producers of whom I 

 bought honey, I would never succeed in 

 building up a demand for the honey that I 

 sold. One day I might be selling Smith's 

 honey, the next day Brown's, and so on. 



A Mild IVinter is the term that must be 

 applied to the one just closing, unless March 

 does some savage work in the way of cold 

 weather in the next few days. 



