.Inly. i;»14. 



American Hee Jonrnal 



bees during their play spell, the first 

 flight. 



At one time I had a colony of 

 black bees and one of Italians in the 

 same pair of hives. One day they had 

 their play spoil at the same time, and 

 after it was over you could not tell 

 which had the black queen and which 

 the Italian by the looks of the workers 

 in the hives. From my observations it 

 is my opinion that there is a colony 

 odor, and tliat it has a great deal to do 

 with whether a bee is accepted or re- 

 jected, at times anyway. 



Brookville, Ind. 



IVery few people doubt the colony 

 odor and its recognition by the bees. — 



EuiTOR. 1 



Foulbrood Insurance in German 

 Switzerland 



BY H. SPUHLER. 



AS in almost every other country, 

 German Switzerland suffered for 

 years from foulbrood, and all the 

 efforts' of the apiarists were useless. 

 They finally decided that in order to 

 obtain satisfactory results, it would be 

 necessary to act in a methodical man- 

 ner. With this purpose in view, a foul- 

 brood insurance was devised and made 

 obligatory for all the members of the 

 German Swiss Association of Bee- 

 keepers. It is organized as follows: 



As head of the insuring department 

 is a chief selected by the association, 

 who is also a member of the Central 

 Committee. He has the duty of in- 

 structing and superintending the in- 

 spectors of the cantons, who meet 

 once a year. They are appointed and 

 remunerated by the government. They 

 direct and control the treatment of 

 colonies. They are helped in their 

 work by delegates whose duty is also 

 to respond to the call of beekeepers 

 who suspect the existence of foulbrood 

 in their apiaries. If the disease proves 

 to be present, the inspector is notified 

 and a careful examination of all the 

 colonies is made. A comb of the dis- 

 eased brood is forwarded to the Fed- 

 eral laboratory in Berne, to ascertain 

 the class of disease to which it belongs. 

 They recognize three forms of dis- 

 ease, stinking and non-stinking foul- 

 brood and pickled brood. They are all 

 treated in the same manner. After 

 treatment, the owner is indemnified up 

 to three-fourths of the estimated loss. 

 He must bear one-fourth of the loss 

 himself. In case he has used decep- 

 tion, the indemnity may be reduced or 

 even entirely cut off. In any case, the 

 inspector writes a statement and for- 

 wards it to the chief of insurance. 



The maximum of value of a colony 

 is $8.00, and the combs that are melted 

 up and the colonies that are united are 

 paid at 7.') percent of their estimated 

 value. 



They treat the colonies at the time 

 when the bees are all in the hive. The 

 bees are shaken into a specially made 

 box and put in a cool place where they 

 are kept three days. They are fed and 

 placed into a new hive or in their dis- 

 infected hive, with sheets of comb 

 foundation. In cases where the de- 

 struction of the colony is advisable, 



the bees and combs are burnt up or 

 buried at least 20 inches underground. 



The honey is extracted if there is 

 any, but it is not permitted to be sold. 

 The apiarist must destroy it or con- 

 sume it himself. The wax is not per- 

 mitted to be used for making comb 

 foundation. The frames may be saved 

 provided they are boiled enough to be 

 disinfected. The hives are purified 

 with a solution of soda, or corrosive 

 sublimate (mercury chloride), or quick- 

 lime, or by heat. Tools, clothing, e'c, 

 are thoroughly disinfected. The owner 

 of the apiary is not pei;mitted to either 

 sell or buy bees during the same year. 



The success of this method is shown 

 by the following table ; ; 



it as quickly as possible to prevent the 

 bees from filling up on the diseased 

 honey they may have deposited in the 

 comb. If no honey is coming in, we 

 feed. 



In disinfecting a hive I paint it with 

 kerosene inside and on the edges, and 

 the hive-bodies I pile one on top of the 

 other five high. Then I spray a little 

 kerosene into the pile and light a piece 

 of paper and drop it in. The result is 

 an instant blaze. I have a pail of 

 water and a dipper at hand, and after 

 the inside of the bodies have charred 

 sufticiently, which occurs in a minute 

 or two, I dash a dipper of water in and 

 the steam puts the fire out on the in- 

 stant. When I first began to burn out 



Foulbrood Colonies Expenses Indemnity Per 



Near Members Colonies apiaries diseased francs francs colony 



igoa 7035 «8.7Jt Il8 Ml 7.500 5.581 1(1,00 



1012 8740 115.206 III 282 4.100 2,7*8 'J.80 



This shows that, in spite of the great 

 increase in the membership, the num- 

 ber of diseased apiaries and colonies 

 has much diminished. The cases have 

 also been less dangerous, for the in- 

 demnity has been reduced over 'id. 

 Our beekeepers have faith in this in- 

 surance, knowing that with its help the 

 disease will soon be vanquished after 

 it appears. They watch their colonies 

 with more care, and therefore discover 

 the disease sooner. They gladly pay 

 the small tax of one cent (.5 centimes) 

 per colony, which not only protects 

 their unlucky brothers, but helps to 

 protect their own apiaries. 



Zurich, Switzerland. 



American Foulbrood— Disin- 

 fecting Hives and Frames 



BY JOHN T. GREENE. 



IN the March issue of the American 

 Bee Journal a picture of Mr. Oliver 

 B. Finn, of Silt, Colo., is shown in 

 the act of disinfecting a hive-body with 

 a blow torch. This method of disin- 

 fecting is so primitive, and there is one 

 so much better and quicker that I will 

 give it ; not that I am the originator of 

 the method, but because I am using it 

 with great success and also saving 

 time. 



I have, during the past four years, 

 had occasion to disinfect hundreds of 

 hives and hive-bodies because of the 

 prevalence of both European and 

 American foulbrood. 



When treating ICuropean foulbrood I 

 no longer shake the bees or disinfect 

 the hives. I simply requeen with un- 

 tested Italian queens, and if a colony is 

 weak I give it a comb or two of capped 

 brood with the adhering young bees. 

 This does the business, and after a few 

 weeks the disease has disappeared 

 from the hive. 



But in the treatment of American 

 foulbrood the utmost care is used, and 

 the hives and supers are burned out 

 after the bees are shaken. I shake the 

 first time into a hive where there are 

 three or four empty frames and one 

 dry comb. If there is no honey flow, 

 we shake in the evening, and next 

 evening shake again onto full sheets, 

 beginning with the comb and shaking 



hives, I made the mistake of thinking 

 I could smother the fire with a hive 

 cover or blanket, but at my first at- 

 tempt I succeeded in getting a close 

 shave and a partial hair-cut, and just 

 saved myself from inhaling the flame. 



I save the best of the frames, taken 

 from the diseased colonies, after they 

 have been boiled to remove the wax, 

 and pile them up in the cellar of the 

 shop where we try-out the wax. When 

 a thousand or two have accumulated, 

 we clean out the cooker and the Her- 

 shiser wax press and fill them with 

 clean water, and when the water begins 

 to boil I put in a can of concentrated 

 lye and several pounds of washing 

 soda, and I am ready for the frames. 

 The cooker is filled with frames. They 

 are boiled 10 minutes, then removed 

 one by one with a stove poker, so as 

 to save our hands, and are dipped into 

 the water in the wax press. After be- 

 ing exposed to the air for several days 

 they are rewired and used. 



My purpose is not merely to keep the 

 disease down, but to eliminate it. 



Interlaken, N. Y. 



Canadian Beekeepers— "George 

 R. Chapman " 



BY CH.\S. E. HOPPER. 



EVERY little while I receive a letter 

 which runs something like this: 

 " I see by the daily paper that your 

 association is having splendid meet- 

 ings. I am the secretary of the local 

 association here, and since we can 

 scarcely get our members out to a 

 meeting, I am writing you to learn 

 how you do it. Our members are mostly 

 drones," etc. 



In reply I shall try to tell how we 

 proceed to have a " full house " at every 

 meeting. Just three things are needed 

 to make an association a success. 

 First, a first-class president. Second, 

 a real live executive, and last, but by 

 no means least, good papers and dis- 

 cussions. 



The Toronto Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion is singularly fortunate in having 

 at its head a man who is not only an 

 enthusiastic beekeeper, a thorough 

 student and a close observer, but a 

 good executive ofiicer. He is our pub- 



