662 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 18, 1900. 



Mrs. Acklin — I think sulphuring bees is a cruel thing- to 

 do. I don't think people ought to rear any more bees than 

 they want. 



Pres. Root — I think the question refers more to sulphur- 

 ing of combs and killing worms. 



Dr, Mason — I would not sulphur bees ; they are worth 

 too much. 



Mr. Taylor — There is another question with reference 

 to combs : What would be the best method of keeping 

 combs until swarming-time next season ? 



Mr. Taylor — In this climate, wherever it freezes hard, 

 you can keep the combs safely during the winter in a place 

 where the Isemperature is low. Moths don't stand the low 

 temperature. In the spring the combs will be entirely free 

 of them. If you still keep them closed tightly they will be 

 perfectly safe; or if you can't do that, if you keep them in 

 a cold cellar they will keep all right, so far as moths are 

 concerned : if they are hung an inch apart in the light 

 where the air circulate^ they will be comparatively safe for 

 a year or two ; but insects soon infest them in that way. 



Mr. Benton — It seems to me that we want something to 

 protect combs that will operate all the while. Objection 

 was made to bisulphide of carbon ; that can be used with a 

 little care if you have a big room or shed where the hives 

 may be packt up there on top of each other. Have a shal- 

 low tin on top with a little of that, and it will operate for 

 weeks and save a great deal of trouble. You simply have 

 to lift off the top cover and put in a little more bisulphide 

 when evaporated. It is only dangerous if you bring fire 

 near it. If set away in that fashion combs ought to be kept 

 all summer. 



Mr. Kretchmer — Why not pile the hives in the apiary, 

 five or six high ; then there is no more danger about it than 

 to have matches in the house, not one particle of danger, 

 using proper care. I admit the fumes are readily ignited if 

 confined in a place ; so is gasoline, but bisulphide of car- 

 bon can be used safely if used with proper cire. 



Mr. Abbott — I will give you the benefit of a little ex- 

 perience I got in the patent-medicine business. You can 

 stack your hives up out in the yard and put the empty 

 hives at the bottom, instead of on top, just as Mr. Kretch- 

 mer said. You need not use bisulphide of carbon ; you can 

 use the preparation I will give you. You can't set your hive 

 a-fire with it. Here is the recipe : Take two parts of sul- 

 phur: nitrate of soda one part ; black oxide of manganese 

 one part, and mix them together, and have your prepara- 

 tion ready when j-ou want to fumigate. I don't care if 

 there are 20 hives, put about a big spoonful of tliat into a 

 wooden dish if you want to, and you can't set the dish a-fire. 

 The fumes generated by burning will put it out. That will 

 burn readily by putting a match to it. It will burn quick. 

 The nitrate of soda is very inflammable, and the black 

 oxide of manganese generates oxygen sufficient to feed the 

 fire ; the sulphur fumes consume the ox3'gen. A spoonful 

 of that put into an empty hive below 20 hives will not only 

 make fumes that will kill the worms, but will stay two 

 or three weeks if the hives are air-tight, and you don't 

 have to do it two or three times in the season. While I am 

 on m^' feet I want to say, if you people who keep poultry 

 will put a pound of that in your poultry-house during the 

 summer, and get your poultry-house thoroly sprinkled be- 

 fore you do it so the water will permeate the cracks and 

 crevices, which will enable the water to absorb the fumes 

 readily, you will kill every louse without anj' trouble. 



Dr. Mason— I would like to ask. What is the object of 

 putting the empty hives at the bottom ? 



Mr. Abbott — Because the fumes go up better than they 

 go down. 



QuES. — Do you make the colonies queenless 48 hours 

 before introducing the new queen ? 



Mr. Taylor — Well, that depends ; if honey is coming in 

 during the honey season, you can introduce the queen al- 

 most any time, almost immediately. I have introduced a 

 good many this year — just threw them in. When honey 

 comes in rapidly the bees will take any queen ; there is no 

 trouble about it. I remember one time when I handled the 

 bees a good deal more than I do now during the honey sea- 

 son, I was taking off some combs to extract, and I had the 

 bees out on the ground in front of the hive, and they were 

 scattered around ; when I got thru and the bees got back, I 

 saw they were greatly agitated. I surmised the queen was 

 gone, and I lookt around and found I had stept on her. I 

 happened to have an extra one, and I put her down among 

 the bees, and they crowded around her and were just as 

 pleased to see her as tho she was their own ; it didn't make a 

 bit of difference. In the spring you can do the same thing. 

 When they are anxious to build up, they are anxious for a 



queen, and they will frequently take a queen at once. But 

 a person needs some experience to do that. A person who 

 has tried to introduce queens can tell at once whether the 

 bees will accept a queen. Without that experience you 

 sometimes make a mistake. 



Mr. Hershiser — I would like to refer to the first ques- 

 tion — Are best American Italians superior to imported Ital- 

 ians ? What was the answer to that '! 



Mr. Taylor — I don't think it reads so. The question is, 

 " Are the best American-Italian bees superior to imported 

 stock?" I think I said no, but I didn't comprehend the 

 question fully. I don't think there is any difference. 



Mr. Hershiser — I didn't think you comprehended it. 

 What is the difl'erence between imported Italians and 

 American Italians ? 



Mr. Taylor — I don't know as there is any difference, ex- 

 cept we select them to get color, and perhaps they are a 

 little lighter. 



Mr. Hershiser — If the imported ones were better I think 

 that would be the best way of improving stock. I think 

 American breeders are doing more towards improving stock 

 than foreigners are. 



Mr. Rankin — I would like to say a word with reference 

 to this bisulphide of carbon ; it is a deadly poison. It will 

 kill woodchucks and men, and it is well to handle it with a 

 great deal of care. 



Mr. Taylor — It won't kill a woodchuck unless it is shut 

 up with him pretty tight — same way with men. 



OuES. — I would like to know what is the matter with 

 the frame of brood on the platform ? 



Mr. Taylor — I think it is pickled brood, but I may be 

 wrong. It seems to be that according to the opinion of 

 many in the room. If any of you want to know what 

 pickled brood is, look at this comb. 



The convention then adjourned to 1:30 p.m. 

 (Continued next week.) 



Contributed Articles. | 



Water for Bees and Brood-Rearing—A Reply. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



IT is always pleasant to have Mr. G. M. Doolittle as a 

 critic. He is always candid, and never flippant. He 

 has had a wide observation, and does a good deal of 

 thinking. Therefore, any opinion that he may have is 

 never to be dismist without full consideration. 



I have carefully reread my article, page 482, and should 

 wish to change very little were I to rewrite it. In one or 

 two places I should be a little more explicit were I to write 

 the article again. 



Mr. Doolittle claims, and with much show of reason, 

 that the main use served by water in the economy of the 

 hive is to form a part of the food fed to the brood. His two 

 reasons for this opinion areas follows ; First, water is gath- 

 ered very rapidly when the bees are rapidly building up, 

 and this irrespective of activity in the field ; secondly, the 

 weight of the brood can only be accounted for in that water 

 is given abundantly to the brood. I am not at all certain 

 that Mr. Doolittle's first proposition is true, tho I am sure 

 it would generally be so. I feel very certain that the latter 

 is not true. Mr. Doolittle and all bee-keepers know that 

 bees frequenly continue breeding for days without gather- 

 ing any water at all. Certainly, then, water can not be 

 directly requisite for the production of brood. 



As I stated in my previous article on this subject, water 

 serves the animal in three ways, as follows : First, it helps 

 form the tissues themselves ; second, it aids the processes, 

 as, for instance, the keeping of substances in solution so 

 that they can be used in the body ; thirdly, it serves in cool- 

 ing oft" the animal bodj'. This last is mechanical, as the 

 cooling comes from the act of evaporation. We see, then, 

 that bees take water as they do all other food, to help build 

 up their tissues, and also to aid the processes. Secretions, 

 then, could not be formed except as water is taken as part 

 of the food. I believe that it may be shown, some day, that 

 the so-called chyle is largely digested pollen to which, very 

 likely, honey may be added. The precise origin and nature 

 of the food fed to the drones, queens,andlarva; by the nurse- 

 bees is not yet fully determined. That some honey may 



