GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



you know;" whereas tons and tons of ex- 

 actly the same honey are being sold every 

 year in Sydney; but you can not get them 

 to believe it. 



No ! take my advice ; don't mix honey and 

 syrups up in the public mind or you will 

 never cease to regi'et it. 



Moreo, N. S. Wales. 



[We do not understand Mr. Peirce as ad- 

 vocating the selling of a mixture of honey 

 and glucose; we think he would agree with 

 our correspondent that such a plan would 

 prove disastrous in more ways than one. 

 His suggestion, if we understand him cor- 

 rectly, was to publish a recipe or formula, 

 to be used by the consumer only. 



Personally we do not like the taste of 

 corn syrup, or glucose, as it should be 

 called, when mixed with honey in any pro- 

 portion. — Ed.] 



AMERICAN FOUL BROOD 



A Plan for Simplifying the Second Shakingjby Giv- 

 ing the Bees Two Drawn Combs in Addition 

 to Full Sheets of Foundation when 

 They are Shaken the First Time 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND 



As foul brood exists in 52 of the 72 

 counties of Lower Michigan, it behooves us 

 as beekeepers of this State to keep well 

 posted along the line of fighting disease or 

 we may wake up some morning and find 

 it too late. No one can make a success 

 of bees in a diseased location unless he 

 learns the characteristics of American and 

 European foul brood, knows how to treat 

 the two diseases successfully, to keep it in 

 check, and to produce a paying crop of 

 honey. 



This is my first attempt to write on the 

 subject of American foul brood, although 

 we have had the disease in one of our 

 yards for the past twelve years. Aside 

 from this experience I have helped my 

 neighbors to some extent. Some may won- 

 der why we did not get rid of the trouble 

 before it ran so long. In the first place, 

 we had neighbors close by who had disease 

 am.ong their bees, and there probably was 

 disease among the wild bees in the woods. 

 Then it is easier to talk about eradicating 

 disease than to go ahead and actually do 

 it. It is likely to crop out in the most 

 unexpected places. 



It is a question with many whether the 

 spores of American foul brood live long 

 outside of old brood combs or sealed honey. 

 My experience indicates that these spores 



soon lose their vitality when adhering to 

 hive sides and fixtures, and I have often 

 thought that the thin coating of honey 

 adhering to new combs after extracting is 

 not sufficient protection to the spores, and 

 that they, too, soon succumb and become 

 harmless, esjoecially after being exposed 

 to the cold temperature of our northern 

 winters. 



FOUL BROOD IN EXTRACTING SUPERS. 



Some writers think that very few of the 

 bacteria find their way into the supers dur- 

 ing the honey-flow ; and for that reason 

 not many, if any, adhere to the extractor 

 reel after extracting comb from a diseased 

 colony. I take no stock in this belief, for 

 I am positive that millions of bacteria 

 are carried above by the bees in the pro- 

 cess of ripening honey. I will give just 

 one instance to illustrate this point. 



One of my neighbors had ten colonies 

 of bees; and as he had secured no surplus 

 he wanted me to work them for him. 

 More as an accommodation than for what 

 I expected to get out of the bees, I con- 

 sented. The result was that we got a 

 thousand pounds of honey and lost the 

 extracting combs we took there, for Ave 

 found American foul brood in them later. 

 The amount of honey that we secured shows 

 that the colonies were strong, and that they 

 did not have the disease very bad. As 

 was our practice we used no cjueen-ex- 

 cluders. The upper stories were put on 

 about June I, and about August 1 we 

 found many of the combs in the ujaper 

 stories rotten with disease, for the queen 

 had taken possession of many of the first 

 stories given. After this experience it would 

 take considerable to convince me that few 

 bacteria of American foul brood are car- 

 ried above into the extracting-combs dur- 

 ing the honey-flow. We know that the 

 s})ores of American foul brood may live 

 twenty years under favorable conditions. 

 Now, wliat the honey-producers want to 

 know is how soon these spores lose their 

 \itality under unfavorable conditions. 



In handling American foul brood it is 

 absolutely .necessary that the apiarist pro- 

 vide himself with a bee-proof honey-house. 

 Robbing must be j revented; and the care- 

 less handling of bees, causing them to mix 

 fi'om a diseased colony with a neighboring 

 lieallhy one, must be avoided. 



HOW TO INSPECT QUICKLY. 



Our working plan is about as follows: 

 Just before the oj^ening of the clover flow, 

 which is usually about June 1 in this local- 

 ity, we go all o\er the yard and take from 

 each brood-nest two combs containing the 

 oldest brood. These two are examined very 



