1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



19 



testing, that there are not some air-bubbles sticking to the piece 

 tested, as this would cause it to float even when pure. 



The taste, the smell and the touch, are all good tests. 

 Even pure beeswax, if it does not smell of bees, will not be so 

 readily accepted as that which smells " sui generis." That is 

 why we much prefer sun-melted wax to all other kinds ; and 

 that is why we object to the now too popular method of cleans- 

 ing wax with acids. This destroys entirely the bee-smell, and 

 makes the wax really inferior. 



The Europeans, perhaps, have a better chance to adulter- 

 ate beeswax without suffering for it, because their climate is 

 much milder than ours. In this country whoever has tried to 

 adulterate beeswax with other substances, has killed, or will 

 kill, his trade in a very short time ; for the combs will not stand 

 in our hot climate. Even good, pure beeswax will occasionally 

 break down, even when all built naturally by the bees, and the 

 least adulteration will show itself in a hot season, by a general 

 breaking down of all the combs so made. 



PREVENTION OF HONEY-THIEVES. 



Our Canadian friend, on page 779 of the Bee Journal for 

 1895, criticizes the '-Questionable propriety " of the answers 

 given to the query on catching honey-thieves in a previous 

 number, and gives us a method which he calls best — a house- 

 apiary, properly locked. I, for one, cannot be convinced. The 

 American farmer believes in his neighbor's honesty, he locks 

 neither his door, nor his barn, and he surely will not think it 

 will pay to lock his bee-hives. We have had from 300 to 500 

 hives of bees scattered through the country for years, and we 

 do not think our total losses from thieves amount to §5.00. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Two Laying Queens in One Hive. 



BY GEO. W. WILLIAMS. 



On page 776 (1895), Mr. Abbott gives an extract of a 

 letter I wrote him some time since, and in that letter I referred 

 to the fact of having two laying queens in one hive. He 

 requests that I give further particulars of these two queens. 



About the last of May, 1895, I found that the bees in No. 

 5 was not doing as well as they should, and, in looking through 

 I found the old queen (a black one) in an enfeebled conditon, 

 and decided atonce to supersede her with an Italian. At the 

 same time I found hive No. 6 very strong, and as I wanted 

 increase, I divided them, taking out five frames and put them 

 into hive No. 9. filling up both hives with frames filled with 

 comb foundation. (I use the 10-frame Langstroth hive). I 

 was very particular to see that the queen was left in No. 6, 

 and no queen was put into No. 9. 



I then ordered two untested Italian queens, when I hunt- 

 ed through hive No 5 and found the old enfeebled queen, 

 pinched her head, and introduced the yellow one. I went to 

 hive No. 9, and found a number of queen-cells with young lar- 

 VcB, and, cut them all out, as I thought, introduced the queen, 

 and on the third day I looked into both hives and found the 

 bees had released and accepted the queens all right. 



I paid but little attention to them until the 23rd day, when 

 I again looked and found hundreds of young, bright golden 

 Italian bees. I thought, " Now is a splendid opportunity to 

 note the life of the worker ;" and I anxiously watched both 

 hives to see when the blacks would disappear. In hive No. 5 

 they had nearly all disappeared Aug. 22, and by Aug. 31 were 

 all gone. 



But in hive No. 9, up to that time, I could see no diminu- 

 tion of blacks, although the beautifully-marked Italians were 

 working in great numbers. About this time I noticed the 

 young bees of this hive having a nice play, and, upon getting 

 up close, I noted that they were about half young blacks. My 

 suspicions were at once aroused that there were two queens 

 doing service in that colony. I at once determined to see, and 

 upon looking I soon found the yellow queen, but made quite a 

 search before I found the black one, though finally succeeded 

 in finding her. She looked as if she felt out of place, but I 

 assured her, as best I could, that she was welcome to stay 

 there for the season, at least, as I found her cell away down 

 in the corner of a frame where I had overlooked it when I in- 

 troduced the Italian on June 6. 



There has been — as near as I could guess — all summer 

 about as many of one kind of bees in the hive as the other; 

 and to-day (Dec. 8) it is nice and warm, and the bees are 

 having a good flight, and that colony seems to be about 

 equally divided between the blacks and yellows. 



No, Mr. Abbott, there is "no mistake;" there are two 

 queens in that hive, and both are young, layiyig queens. I 

 have them tucked up nice and snug for winter, and if the 



readers of the Bee Journal wish to hear any more from these 

 " twin sisters " — yet no kin, as one is black and the other 

 yellow — I will, in the spring, tell how they wintered. 



Humansville, Mo. 



[By all means, Mr. Williams, let us hear further about 

 your interesting case, next spring. It is not every bee-keeper 

 who can boast of an Italian and an " African " family of bees 

 living and working peaceably together. — Editors.] 



The Drug Treatment of Foul Brood. 



BY WM. m'EVOY. 



In the American Bee Journal for Dec. 11, 1895, Dr. 

 Miller asked Dr. Howard and myself to answer the following 

 question : 



"A bee-keeper raises the question, whether there may not 

 be danger of attempting the cure of foul brood as given on 

 page 591, in view of the fact that the instruction is to feed 

 the diseased colony at a time when the bees have no other 

 sources; and that this is one of the conditions absolutely es- 

 sential to success." 



If the reader will turn to page 591, he will see the old 

 drug-method trotted to the front again. When foul brood 

 matter in diseased colonies dries down, it settles on the lower 

 side and bottom of the cells, and sticks there like glue. And 

 when the bees gather honey they store it in the cells where the 

 foul-brood matter dried down, just the same as they do in 

 sound cells. When the disease Increases, and the colony be- 

 comes weaker, the bees store more honey right in the brood- 

 nest. Then just as soon as the sound larvte is fed any honey 

 that has been stored in the diseased cells, it will die of foul 

 brood. And when larvae is fed in cells where foul matter 

 dried down, it will also die of foul brood. 



Medicated syrup, to be of any use for curing foul brood, 

 would have to be strong enough with drugs to kill every germ 

 in both the diseased cells and honey. And any medicated 

 syrup made strong enough with drugs to do that, would kill 

 all the sound larvae, and every bee in the colony. 



Cheshire's drug treatment for curing foul brood was found 

 to be a complete failure when thoroughly tried with foul- 

 broody colonies in Mr. D. A. Jones' apiaries at Beeton, Ont. 

 Mr. Henry Couse — who was, for years, foreman in Jones' bee- 

 yards — told me that they had sprayed the diseased combs with 

 acids so strong that the combs fairly smoked ; and then it 

 failed to cure them of foul brood. 



Dr. Duncan, of Embro, Ont., is a good bee-keeper as well 

 as a medical man, and he told me that when his colonies had 

 foul brood, he found the drug treatment of no use ; and he 

 also said that his experience was that the foul-broody combs 

 and diseased honey had both to be gotten away from the bees 

 before a cure could be made. 



Mr. Vankleek, of Listowel, Ont., did his best with the 

 drug treatment, and failed to cure his colonies by it. 



Mr. James Frith, of Princeton, Ont., stuck right to the 

 Cheshire drug treatment in the hope of saving his bees, and 

 lost the whole of his 120 colonies with foul brood. We all 

 felt very sorry for Mr. Frith, as he was depending a good deal 

 upon his bees. I asked Mr. Frith why he didn't try my 

 method of curing foul brood, and he said that he had not heard 

 of my plan at that time. 



Mr. A. I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, tried the Cheshire drug 

 treatment with his colonies when they had foul brood, and 

 failed to cure them of the disease with It, and, when following 

 that treatment, had the disease spread worse. 



Would any bee-keeper, with a large apiary in good condi- 

 tion, be willing to see a neighbor keep colonies with combs in 

 them rotten with foul brood, and then feed them at a time 

 when bees would rob, without first destroying all the foul- 

 broody combs ? To advise the feeding of medicated syrup to 

 colonies that have combs rotten with foul brood, and at a time 

 when the weather is warm, and no honey for the bees to 

 gather, is, without exception, the greatest humbug and most 

 dangerous advice ever given. 



No cure can be made by feeding medicated syrup, and to 

 feed in warm days, when there is no honey for the bees to 

 gather, would set the bees to robbing the foul-broody colonies, 

 and then the disease would be spread with a vengeance. 



Would it be right for a man to live in a city, and when 

 any of his children died of small-pox, to leave them lie in bed, 

 and keep them there; then throw a lot of medicated syrup 

 over them, and at the same time put a lot of phenolated syrup 

 in all the food for the rest of the family to use— then call it a 



