1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



83 



or not. One day an intellisent druggist wanted some honey 

 from me, so he could be sure it was pure ; I told him there was 

 some comb honey right across the way at the grocery that I 

 would warrant all right, but it didn't satisfy him. I'm not 

 saying a word against buying to sell again — that's all right; 

 but I think the fact remains that people would a little rather 

 have honey produced by the one from whom they buy, provid- 

 ing he is one in whom they have confidence. — [All right; we've 

 had our "say." — Ed.1 



A Correction. — On page 54, in reply to a question I say, 

 "at that rate it would require a fraction more than 71 colo- 

 nies to allow an expectation of $50 annually. There are the 

 figures for you, and I've confidence enough in your abilities as 

 an accountant to see that they're all straight." But they 

 weren't "straight," by any means, for that-SSO ought to have 

 been $500. Some one in a certain printing-office ought to 

 have a whack over the head for dropping out that cipher. 

 Or is the whack due some 66 miles further west ? — ['Tis our 

 fault. Doctor ; and we are ready for that " whack." — Ed.J 



Sweet Clover. — Will M. M. Miller please tell us about 

 that sweet clover he mentions on page 62 ? Where it grows 

 along the wayside is it of any value as a forage-plant? Did 

 those neighbors who mowed it three times make any use of 

 the hay ? At what stage of growth was the first mowing? 



Unfinished Sections. — Mr. Miller also says, " honey 

 stored in the combs once used, with me, was never first-class 

 the next season." If the honey is extracted from such sec- 

 tions, and without having anything more done with them they 

 are again used the next season, you may count on the honey 

 being affected by the granulations from the little honey that 

 the extractor doesn't get out. But if, immediately after being 

 extracted, the sections are placed out where the bees have free 

 access to them for a number of days, honey put in them the 

 next season will be all right. Marengo, 111. 



Hives from Foul-Broody Colonies. 



Br G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



In a letter lying before me I find these words : " Foul 

 brood visited my apiary last season and I had a struggle with 

 it, and I think I haye it in subjection, having used the Jones' 

 plan to eradicate it from my apiary. All colonies are now in 

 new hives, but I have the old ones on hand. Is there any way 

 I can cleanse these old hives so I can use them again ? If so, 

 will you tell us about it in the American Bee Journal, as I feel 

 too poor to buy all new hives for another season." 



I had foul brood in ray apiary in the early 70's, and suc- 

 ceeded in eradicating it by the Qiiinby plan, which is the same 

 as the Jones' plan. This left me in a similar condition to what 

 our correspondent is in, and as I thought I could not afford to 

 throw the hives away I proceeded as follows, and have never 

 seen any trace of the disease since: 



The hives were scalded by plunging them into boiling water, 

 the water being in a large caldron-kettle which was used on 

 the farm for cooking food for the hogs, heating water for 

 butchering, etc. The hives were put in first and scalded, and 

 afterward the frames and combs, thus scalding the frames 

 and making the combs into wax at the same time. As I made 

 all of my frames with saw and plane then, I thought I must 

 save them, but in these days of machinery I do not think it 

 would pay to bother with the frames, for this scalding process 

 makes them untrue and in poor shape for use again, so that 

 new frames are much cheaper in the long run. 



Later on, a bee-keeper several miles away called me to his 

 apiary to see his bees who had foul brood. I found it in sev- 

 eral of his hives, and told him how to treat it. After he had 

 cured his colonies he scalded the hives by pouring water from 

 a tea-kettle onto the inside of the infected hives, and no foul 

 brood was the result, afterward. If you are sure that the hot 

 water hits every nook and corner of the hive, I do not know 

 why this plan would not answer where nothing holding boiling 

 water is at hand, large enough to put the whole hive in. The 

 first would be the safest, however. 



Some claim that the hives do not need scalding, or doing 

 anything else with them, if they are allowed to stand outside 

 exposed to the weather one winter, in a locality where the 

 mercury sinks to zero or below during the winter. They claim 

 that the freezing and thawing of one winter is amply sufficient 

 to destroy all the spores or germs of foul brood about any hive. 

 I should be inclined to go slow on this, trying only one or two 

 till I had proved for myself that there was no danger from 

 such hives. 



don't mail SAMPLES OP FOUL* BROOD. 



While on this subject of foul brood, I wish to call atten- 

 tion to what I consider as something having the elements of 

 danger in it, and that is the promiscuous sending of samples 

 of what is supposed as foul brood through the mails, to differ- 

 ent persons for their opinion in the matter. One day last 

 summer I received a package of what was once a thread-box. 

 all broken and mashed, with the paper which was around it 

 torn and soiled, the whole being saturated in places with 

 thin honey and mashed brood, while much of the mail in the 

 same bag with it was more or less sticky and besmeared, the 

 package giving off a sickening scent, which told me at once 

 what it was. As good luck would have it, the day was a cool 

 one, and I was there to get the mail when it came, which is 

 not often the case, as I generally go for my mail at night, else 

 this careless sending of that package might have done much 

 harm, as there are two apiaries within 75 rods of the post- 

 office, and in warm weather the doors and windows are all left 

 open. Had it been warm, and one single bee taken a load of 

 that honey (the package came in a time of scarcity of honey 

 when bees were ready to rob), the colony to which the load 

 was taken would have contracted the disease, and had many 

 bees been attracted to it a whole apiary or two might have 

 been ruined, or the owner put to much trouble and worry to 

 have eradicated what a careless hand had strewn. I put the 

 package immediately into the fire and helped wash and clean 

 the mail as best we could, so none of the disease need be car- 

 ried farther, if possible. 



HOW TO DETECT FOUL BROOD. 



Now I wish to say to all who read this. Don't do such a 

 thing as to send foul brood in the mails as samples, for by so 

 doing you are liable to expose others to the same ills which 

 you are so anxious to be rid of yourself. The books of the 

 present day are sufficiently explicit in describing this disease, 

 so you should be able to tell yourselves, without a reasonable 

 doubt, with this additional test : Whenever you find some- 

 thing which you think is wrong about the brood in any hive in 

 your yard, the first thing you are to do is to close that hive as 

 quickly as possible, so that there will be no chance for other 

 bees to get at the honey, and then wash your hands and all 

 else which you have used about the hive. This examination 

 will tell you whether the bees are strong enough to repel rob- 

 bers ; and if so, the entrance should be contracted so you are 

 sure no robbing can occur. 



Now leave the hive entirely alone till near night some day, 

 about two weeks from that time, and after the other bees are 

 done flying, open it and examine it closely, washing your 

 hands, etc., as before. If you still think there is a chance of 

 its being foul brood, leave the hive closed again for two or 

 three weeks (providing it has plenty of bees to resist robbers), 

 when you are to examine it again. Now bear in mind that 

 genuine foul brood is aggressive, and never retrograding, so 

 that if you find more of it than at first, and still later more 

 yet, together with the symptoms which the books describe, 

 that colony should be burned up at once, and gotten out of 

 the way, before any of the rest have a .;hance to carry off any 

 of the honey. If, on the contrary, it does not perceptibly 

 progress, or there is not as much as before, keep watch of it 

 till you are assured there is no harm iu it. In no case change 

 combs with any other hive, or expose any of this honey till 

 you are sure it is not foul brood. 



Unless at least four or five colonies in the apiary have 

 foul brood, I should not attempt to cure it save by burning, 

 for I do not think it would pay any one to run the risk he 

 would have to, in trying to cure the disease for less than that 

 number. Borodino, N. Y. 



A Half-Dozen Apiarian Comments. 



BY BEE-MASTER. 



Wearing Veils. — Mr. Doolittle's remarks some time ago, 

 about the wearing of bee-veils, are very sensible, but I doubt 

 the wisdom of wearing them all the time when at work in the 

 bee-yard. There are many operations in performing which 

 there is little or no danger of getting stung, and as the veil is 

 rather a hindrance to the fresh circulation of air, I do not 

 think it is good for the lungs to wear it for any lengthened 

 period of time. I keep mine rolled up on the rim of my hat, 

 where it can be pulled down in a moment when I am menaced 

 with a sting. The chip-hat suggestion is a good one. It gets 

 twisted into all manner of shapes, but it is light, porous, and 

 cheap. We are not all of us as particular as Mr. Hutchinson, 

 to be dressed up in Sunday-go-to-meeting style when we are 

 working in the bee-yard. When his picture with a bee-veil 



