166 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' MnJ/-^ 



La Revue Intebnationale. — Chas. Dadant 

 commenting on Schonfeld's conclusions in 

 regard to transmitting foul brood by wax or 

 foundation, says that they pay no attention 

 to the source from which they get their wax. 

 Their own bees have free access to the wax 

 before it is melted up. In a dearth of honey 

 the bees hover over and alight on the cakes, 

 which are allowed to accumulate in two 

 compartments to the amount of over a ton 

 each before being melted ; but they have not 

 had a single foul-broody colony, nor have 

 their customers ever complained of foul 

 brood introduced by their foundation. 



A. Filet transferred a colony last year on 

 the 11th of April which had lodged in a 

 building. On account of the inconvenience 

 of the place, he did not get all the bees, but 

 secured enough to cover the worker brood, 

 which occupied six Dadant frames. He es- 

 timates that there was enough brood and 

 bees for five straw hives. They were in a 

 cavity under a wainscoted roof, between a 

 cupboard and the kitchen chimney of a 

 boarding-school, which gave a continuous 

 gentle warmth. The capacity of the cavity, 

 which was almost full, was over 9,700 cubic 

 inches. The highest combs were 4 ft. 7 

 inches deep ; the lowest 1 ft. 7 inches. They 

 were nearly a foot wide. The bees had been 

 there seven or eight years. 



Francois Coquet keeps naphthaline con- 

 stantly in his hives, and has so far escaped 

 the foul brood, though it has destroyed all 

 the bees in his neighborhood. 



According to Ulrice Gubler, Schonfeld 

 does not believe in the efficacy of any rem- 

 edy employed for the cure of foul brood, 

 and sees in the hesitation to immediately 

 destroy every infected colony the chief 

 source of its propagation. All antiseptics, 

 he says, doubtless destroy the bacilli with 

 which they come in contact, and are conse- 

 quently successful in the first stages of the 

 disease. But as soon as the nutriment of 

 ' the bacilli gives out, they develoi) spores, 

 which settle on the walls of the hive, the 

 combs, the honey and the pollen, which 

 spores cannot be destroyed without employ- 

 ing disinfectants of such strength as would 

 kill the bees. 



A number of years since Schonfeld found 

 that foul-broody wax which had been melted 

 with a low degree of heat contained living 

 spores, but when the same wax was purified 

 with salicylic acid and made into founda- 

 tion, none were found. 



An attempt to send queens from Europe to 

 Madagascar failed in the summer, but suc- 

 ceeded in October and November, after 

 more favorable conditions for their passage 

 had been secured from the postal author- 

 ities. Benton cages were used. They were 

 sent to M. de Villele, a bee-keeper of Ken- 

 nion, an island 348 miles east of Madagas- 

 car, and introduced by him to colonies of 

 native bees, which have reared brood from 

 their eggs. Crosses will be looked for with 

 interest. The native bee of Madagascar was 

 named Apis unicolor by the entomologist 

 Latreille, hence considered by him a dis- 

 tinct species from Apis mellifica, but from 

 the description the difl'erenees do not seem 

 to be essential, in spite of the geological 

 period which has elapsed since Madagascar 

 was separated from the mainland. They 

 are small, and most resemble the bees of 

 Algeria, except that the abdomen is uni- 

 formly black and not marked by a difference 

 of shade on the segments. 



Leipzigeb Bienenzeitung. — . Open - air 

 feeding has for three years been practiced 

 by Hantor Beck with success. Evidently he 

 does not regard the thinning of the food as 

 essential, as he uses honey combs saved for 

 the purpose from the previous fall. These 

 are uncapped and exposed in large quantities 

 near the hives, and when covered with bees, 

 spread all over the yard. W' hen there are 

 too many on one comb, they are shaken oft' 

 and the comb moved to another spot. By 

 never feeding out-doors before the bees are 

 in full flight, bees from other apiaries do 

 not interfere ; but stimulating feeding, he 

 says, should never be practiced in a com- 

 plete dearth of forage, before some sort of 

 natural harvesting has begun, either of pol- 

 len or honey. Only once a slight robbing of 

 one hive was setup, which he readily stopped 

 with carbolic acid. He always begins \}i to 

 two hours before sundown. As soon as it 

 begins to grow cool, an empty comb perfer- 

 ably old drone comb, is set in the place of 

 each honey comb, when the latter are cleared 

 of bees and removed. A roaring ensues in 

 the hives, as if after a day of plentiful flow. 

 Ho believes a quarter of a pound taken in 

 from outside does more good than a pound 

 fed inside. 



Another bee-keeper, Herr Prang, has had 

 experience with lysol in curing foul brood. 

 Most of his apiary of 40 colonies had the dis- 

 ease in 18!)3, and was cured with lysol, by 

 feeding. It is to be presumed he has not 



