298 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ten by the most able and experienced 

 bee-iuiisteis, the spores of the fundus 

 are carried in many ways from hive 

 to hive, and also the most severe 

 freezing does not kill them, but if 

 in after-years swarms are put into the 

 old hives which once contained foul 

 brood, the germs would develop and 

 destroy the new colony. If all the 

 books and masters are in the wrong, 

 and Mr. D. is right in his method of 

 curing the real foul brood, then it fol- 

 lows that it is all nonsense to burn 

 the infected hives, and that we need 

 have but little fears of foul brood 

 that can be so easily cured. 



We have now come to a crisis. If 

 Mr. Cheshire knows foul brood, then 

 the queen-traffic must stop, or dis- 

 aster will be the result. If he is 

 handling a different disease that is 

 quite or nearly as bad as American 

 foul brood, then the queen-traffic 

 must stop, or we will soon have it in 

 America— yea, all over the world — 

 and disaster comes. Shall we rush 

 heedlessly on, or hault, and acquaint 

 ourselves with the uncertain ground 

 that lies just before us '? 



Orion, p Wis. 



[It may be well to ascertain Mr. 

 Frank Cheshire's views on this sub- 

 ject, and we will quote the following 

 article from him in answer to some 

 questions on the same subject in the 

 liritish Bee Journal for April 15, 188.5 : 



It is not more than ten mouths since 

 I started those investigations which 

 have scattered almost every previously 

 held notion respecting foul brood, to 

 the winds, and it would be unpardon- 

 able vanity to suppose that the whole 

 question has as yet been exhausted. 



That queens can and do sometimes 

 bring disease to the colonies into 

 which they are inserted, I have put 

 altogether beyond question ; and this 

 fact, although perhaps at first unwel- 

 come to dealers, is, after all, an addi- 

 tion to our knowledge, which tends 

 directly to the advantage not only of 

 the bee-keeper, but the dealer him- 

 self, since the interests of the two, 

 when clearly understood, are found to 

 be identical. No caution — because no 

 caution was considered necessary in 

 sending out queens — has, no doubt, 

 often been a fruitful cause of calamity 

 by spreading disease, and so many 

 have in disgust given up the hobby. 

 If dealers forewarned now act con- 

 scientiously, this can all be avoided, 

 and one of the occasions of disappoint- 

 ment and vexation eliminated. 



As to whether queens reared from 

 a diseased motlier would be free from 

 the disease, I can only answer with 

 reserve. From such a queen, I should 

 imagine it would be extremely un- 

 likely that any progeny would be 

 actually healthy. She was riddled by 

 the disease in every part, and since I 

 have actually witnessed the pest at 

 work in unlaid eggs, few of hers could 

 be supposed to be free. This malady, 

 although quickly killing the grubs, 

 on account of the extreme softness of 

 their tissues, which allows the bacilli 

 to travel through and through tliem, 

 does not seem to rapidly make an end 

 of the adult bees ; and I have found 



the disease confined to one, and vary 

 in three cases, and confined to the 

 spermatheca in four, indicating that 

 the queen in these cases was born 

 healthy, but had contracted disease 

 at her mating. 



Another queen was diseased in the 

 liver, and in the liver only, as far as I 

 could find. This clearly proves that 

 in the adult insect the infection may 

 be localized, and assume a chronic in- 

 stead of an acute form, reminding of 

 a bacillus disease to which our poor 

 flesh is heir ; viz : consumption, which 

 will remain in abeyance during condi- 

 tions making for health, and will 

 then, when the vitality is lowered, 

 break forth in one lung, or in the 

 mesentery, or brain ; and then more 

 or less quickly wreck the whole or- 

 ganization of the body. It is, there- 

 fore, quite possible that a queen may 

 be long diseased, and that herprogeny 

 may not be affected until her egg- 

 bearing organs are reached. If this 

 view be correct, and I only feel that 

 the evidence is not as yet sufficient in 

 amount to warrant a very positive 

 assertion, then such a question as 

 the one now in hand admits of no 

 categorical answer. The condition of 

 the queen at the time must be fully 

 known before a definite yes or no can 

 be given, but I would strongly urge 

 the desirability of breeding only from 

 queens that have given the very 

 highest results. Never, on any ac- 

 count, allow a cell from a weakling to 

 mature. 



For editorial comment on this ques- 

 tion, the reader is referred to the first 

 page of this Journal.— Ed.] 



Every Promise of a Good Season.— 

 G. W. Demaree. Christiansburg,5 

 Ky., on May 7, 1885, writes thus : 



I liave to report .severe losses of bees in 

 this part of Kentucky. Starvation was the 

 sole cause. Our bees are nearly, if not 

 quite a montli behind. Fruit-bloom is 

 going witliout much benefit to the bees. 

 Dandelion is helping the bees along now, 

 and soon the famous black locust will give 

 the bees a busv harvest. Contrary to my, 

 fears, the wliite clover is uninjured by the 

 eokl, dry winter. We have every promise 

 now o( a good lioney-season ; but our colo- 

 nies are not strong enough to make the best 

 of the situation. 



!. K. Schwing, 

 May 5, 1885, 



What Ails the Bees?— ( 



Baton ilouge,© La., on 

 writes thus : 



My bees seem to he sick ; they swell up 

 and crawl about on the ground m front of 

 their hives until they die. I tiiid a yellow 

 mass in their abdomens, and it smells sour. 

 Wliat is the matter with them? They 

 liave tlieir hives full of new honey, and 

 we have had good weather all spring. 



[It is evidently diarrliea, but with " good 

 honey in the hives," and " fine weather all 

 the spring," it seems strange for bees iu 

 Louisiana to be afflicted with dianhea.— 

 Ed.] 



Piirifyinff and Testing Beeswax, etc. 



—7— Paul Scheuring,(75— 68), Nicollet, 

 o»Wis., on May 1, 1885, writes as fol- 

 lows : 



As near as I can find out, about 14 of 

 the bees are dead in this secticm. I com- 

 menceil t lie season of 1884 with SB coloiues, 

 iucieasi'd tlicin to 7.5, by uatural swarm- 

 ing, and obtained 3,200 pounds of comb 

 honey in sections, and nearly 2,800 pounds 

 of extracted. 1 fed one barrel of granu- 

 lated sugar for winter stores. I lo'-t 7 

 colonies during the past winter— 2 from 

 diarrhea, 1 suflfooated, and -1 became 

 (lueeiiless in the winter, so I united tln-in 

 with other colonies this spring. I may 

 lose 1 or 2 more by spring dwindling. I 

 bad .5 colonies in tiie cellar and 70 outsiile 

 packed with sawdust. I packed them on 

 Oct. 1. and as the sawdust was green this 

 gave it time to dry before witUer, at least 

 tliat next to the "hive. I bad a cake of 

 beeswax which bad tallow orgrease mixed 

 with it. Is there any way of separating 

 it? A druggist told me how to tell when 

 there is grease mixed with wax. It is as 

 follows : scrape a smooth surface on the 

 cake of wax ; if it is pure one can write 

 on it with a pen and ink ; if it has grease 

 in it, it will act the same as if trying to 

 write on greasy paper. This is a simple 

 test, and may save some other bee-keeper 

 from being swindled the way I was. 



[By request, Messrs. Dadant & Son re- 

 ply as follows : " We do not know of any 

 way to remove or separate tallow from 

 wax, and do not think that there is any. 

 Such wax is only fit to be used for graft- 

 ing-wax or candles. Tliere is a very sim- 

 ple and prompt way to detect tallow in 

 wax at ordinary temperature ; by scratch- 

 ing wax with the finger-nail. If pure, the 

 wax will shine ; but mixed with tallow, it 

 will have a dull-looking color. Besides, it 

 has a greasy touch at all times. In break- 

 ing a cake of tallow wax, the smell of lard 

 or grease can readily be detected in a fresh 

 break."— Ed.] 



Brood Chilled — Cold Weather.— J. 



C. Mishler, (9), Ligonier, rf Iiid., on 

 May 4th, 1885, writes us the follow- 

 ing: 



There is a frost nearly every morning, 

 on May 3 ice formed nearly X, of a" '""u 

 thick, and it was so cool that tlie bees flew 

 only about two hours in the middle of the 

 day. Bees were dwindling away very fast, 

 so that colonies that were jiretty strong in 

 the middle of April, and that had brood 

 started in 3 to 4 frames, are all dwindled 

 away now, or are not strong enough to 

 cover the brood during these cool nights. 

 To-day I found some chilled brood in some 

 of the hives. The past was the hardest 

 winter on bees that I ever' experienced. 

 The way I had my bees prei)ared tor win- 

 ter was as follows : They were on the 

 summer stands on from 5 to 8 frames, and 

 holes through the combs or small sticks of 

 wood on top of the frames for passage- 

 ways. I used division -boards on both 

 sides of brood-chambers, cotton cushions 

 on top of the frames, and then I filled the 

 upper story with clover chaff, and also on 

 the .sides of the (livision-bcKirds, and yet I 

 lost heavily. I think that the cause was 

 long confinemeut and the poor 



.„..„ .„ - ^ honey 



which they gathered during last August 

 and September. The lioney-dew, or " bug- 

 juice" as some call it, which they also 

 gathered last fall, together with long con- 

 finement, I think gave them the diarrhea, 

 and thus they ili<'ci with lots of honey in 

 the hive. Unprotected colonies are all 

 dead. There are about 50 colonies left out 

 of 450 in one township. 



