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AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



Nov. 29 1900 



the worst result ; that the consequences that followed the 

 famine were of far greater concern than was the famine it- 

 self, and one of the particular reasons is this, that the fam- 

 ine produces such a weakened or enervated condition of the 

 system that diseases are likely to follow and attack the in- 

 dividual. Now, coming- more directly to our subject, Mr. 

 W. L. Hawley, of Ft. Collins, with whom Prof. Gillette is 

 well acquainted, I suppose — they are both in the same town 

 — Mr. Hawley claims to have discovered the cause of pickled 

 brood. He has a dead brood that has afflicted his bees the 

 worst of any I have known in the State, and I suppose it is 

 this same disease that we are talking about. I say I sup- 

 pose, for I don't know. Mr. Hawley said that he came to 

 the conclusion that it was a lack of pollen, and when he 

 was examining his colonies he took special pains to notice 

 whether the colonies being diseased had pollen in the hives, 

 and he found those that were the worst diseased had the 

 least amount, some having none to be found whatever. 

 Well, now, it is a fact that in our locality there is a dearth 

 of pollen, usually at all seasons of the year in my locality, 

 which is 14 miles from the Agricultural College where Prof. 

 Gillette is, and 15 miles from Mr. Hawley's apiary. In my 

 locality the bees will search for pollen at all times of the 

 year, except during a fine honey-flow, and when the honey 

 is being gathered during a flow there is no pollen whatever 

 gathered, except occasionally a bee will get a little, which 

 the bees seem to need, absolutely need, in their building 

 operations. I might incidentally mention that of course 

 that condition favors us, that we never have pollen 

 in the sections or surplus honey under all normal 

 conditions. Now, Mr. Hawley undertook a method of cur- 

 ing this disease in his bees, and he said it was so bad that 

 almost the entire brood of some colonies was dead, and the 

 procedure was this: He took combs — brood-combs, right 

 from the brood-nest, but not having brood in them — and 

 took common flour and filled the cells of from one to two 

 combs, placing those combs one on either side of the brood- 

 nest, and he assures me that just as quickly after putting 

 that in as the bees could mature what brood they had, or 

 clear out what brood was dead, that thereafter there was no 

 more of the disease, and he was so confident that he was 

 on the right track that he has practiced now for two sea- 

 sons feeding flour at that time of year. It usually gives 

 most trouble about June and July, and he says he has no 

 more trouble with it. Now, here in this room yesterday I 

 examined the comb that was badly affected, I would say 

 badly, with some disease, some dead brood, I don't know 

 what it was, but it looks just like what we have in Col- 

 orado, and I mention this matter of the lack of pollen ; and 

 on examination of this comb I find there is pollen in it ; 

 but the question will arise. Was that pollen there when the 

 disease entered and killed that brood, or has it been stored 

 in that comb since? It is evident to every one of you that 

 the presence of pollen in that comb does not in any sense 

 prove that the brood died for lack of pollen, or otherwise, 

 because, as I say, the pollen may have been placed in that 

 comb after the disease entered the brood, so we don't know. 

 This is one of the points — one of the places — in which we 

 are so liable to make a slip in our observations, and it is 

 very hard for us to say that a certain thing is so. that a dis- 

 ease is caused by certain conditions, unless we have put it 

 thru a very severe and accurate test, such as they are capa- 

 ble of doing at our agricultural colleges and experiment 

 stations. You all know how that comes about, that people 

 will tell you that they have found out for certain what will 

 accomplish this and that in our apicultural affairs, and they 

 come out in the papers with an article and tell what they 

 have discovered ; and the next year, or, may be, before the 

 next year commences, they find they have made a mistake, 

 and hear no more from them. Now, I don't want j'ou to go 

 out and say that this disease is caused by lack of pollen, 

 from what I have told you of Mr. W. L. Hawley's observa- 

 tions. It is possible, after all, he is mistaken ; that the dis- 

 ease exists all over the country more or less, east, west, 

 north and south, and in localities where they evidently 

 have pollen at all times in the hive or available in the 

 fields, seems to me to be proof that Mr. Hawley may be mis- 

 taken. The thought is worth considering, and we should 

 look into it, but we should not yet jump to the conclusion 

 that we have the cure, or the cause, of pickled brood in the 

 absence of pollen. Now, from a scientific point, and from 

 a practical point, this is all I know about the matter. I 

 have intended to follow Mr. Hawley's methods, and make 

 some closer observations. I intended to do so during the 

 past season, but a man who is as busy as I am, and has to 

 make his living from his business, can not accomplish 

 these things in definite form so that we really know, and 



can say absolutely that we do, or do not, know the cause ; 

 and it is a matter for experiment stations to take up and go 

 into the details in a thoro and scientific manner. It should 

 be the duty of every one of us who is in touch with these 

 experiment stations to aid in every way we can in getting 

 at the right in these matters. 



Pres. Root — I would say that in mj' private correspon- 

 dence I run across quite a number of letters wherein the 

 suggestion is made of the lack of pollen as the cause of 

 this disease. I did not know that Mr. Hawley had ever 

 thought that the lack of pollen had ever been instrumental 

 in starting pickled brood, and I know that quite a number 

 have said something to that effect, and there may be some- 

 thing in it. 



Mr. Hatch — I am not anxious to prolong this discussion, 

 but I am loth to have the convention go on record as assign- 

 ing the lack of pollen as the cause of pickled brood, because 

 I am quite positive there are cases in Wisconsin that are 

 not due to lack of pollen, as there is no lack of pollen from 

 the time willows bloom until the honey season closes. I 

 am sure that all the cases that have come under my obser- 

 vation in Wisconsin are not from lack of pollen. I think 

 the case stated by Mr. Aikin doesn't necessarily prove the 

 lack of pollen. It would seem to indicate to my mind that 

 it cams from the pollen, and not from the lack of pollen. 



Pres. Root — Of course that is a matter to be determined 

 by the experiment stations. I hope the one at Ft. Collins 

 may be able in time to take hold of that, as it is in that im- 

 mediate vicinity. We must not spend too much time on it. 

 I thought some of the convention would like to know some 

 of the symptoms from the bee-keepers' standpoint, of pic- 

 kled brood, foul brood and black brood. I haven't a micro- 

 scope ; you will have to depend upon what I can see with 

 my naked eye. Foul brood has for its principal symptom 

 the ropiness of the dead matter ; it has a sort of coffee 

 color, or yellow color, and it also has a foul odor, something 

 like an ordinary glue-pot, such as we see at the cabinet- 

 maker's shop with poor glue in it. Pickled brood some- 

 times has a sour smell. Black brood will not have that 

 sour smell. Pickled brood and black brood look very much 

 alike, and I think in many cases, and perhaps a majority of 

 them, it would take a microscope to determine the differ- 

 ence; but pickled brood, after it has advanced to a certain 

 stage, if taken away from the bees and left for a week or 

 ten days, will be apt to show a kind of white mold, some- 

 thing as tho cotton-batting had been drawn over the surface 

 of it. Black brood never has that. Pickled brood some- 

 times will have a sour pickle .smell to it. Black brood 

 always has it so far as I know, very strongly. The color of 

 pickled brood and black brood I describe together, because 

 they are alike ; the color of the dead larva? is generally 

 white at the first stage of the disease, and sometimes the 

 pupa itself is white. In the more advanced stages we find 

 it turning to a cofl'ee color like foul brood, and then we will 

 find, if it is black brood, a cell — perhaps a very few of them 

 — that will " rope " very slightly, perhaps 's to V inch, but 

 you will find, I should think, only three or four of such cells 

 in a good comb. In the case of foul brood, if you find one 

 cell that is ropy, you will be likely to find other cells ropy ; 

 but that isn't true of black brood. In pickled brood I think 

 we never find a ropy cell. From a laj'man's standpoint — 

 for any one who is not a scientific bee-keeper, and does not 

 have at his command a microscope — I think these are the 

 only symptoms which we can give by which we can diag- 

 nose these various diseases. 



Pres. Root — We will now listen to the paper by Mr. 

 Thomas Wm. Cowan, editor of the British Bee Journal. 

 Mr. Cowan is now living in California. Dr. Mason will 

 read the paper. 



CHEMISTRY OF HONEY, AND HOW TO DETECT ITS 

 ADULTERATION. 



It is not at all unusual to hear people speak about bees 

 gathering honey from flowers, or mentioning various 

 plants as " honey-producing plants." Even in botanical 

 text-books we read about " nectaries " or " honey-glands " 

 in flowers. These terms are certainly not correct, because 

 honey is essentially a product of the bee, and not of the 

 flower which the insect visits. The sweet secretion which 

 the bee gathers from the flower is called nectar, and con- 

 sists almost entirely of cane-sugar. But after it has been 

 collected by the bee, and before it is stored in the cells of 

 the comb, it undergoes a change, and the cane-sugar is 

 transformed into two other sugars called respectively grape- 

 sugar and fruit-sugar. This transformation is brought 

 about thru the action of a secretion produced by glands 



