Sept. 21, 19CS 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURiMAL 



665 



the President have just tlie wisdom he ought to have to" 

 direct aright the proceedings of this convention. We pray 

 that Thou wilt bless all the members. Lead us in all we do. 

 Lead us, we pray Thee, through life; lead us up to the t:me 

 when we shall leave all the things of this world, and may 

 we unitedly come up to enjoy the life beyond through all 

 eternity. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 



REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF APIARIES. 



We will call upon Mr. Smith, the State Inspector of Illi- 

 nois, to open this subject, and tell us about his work. 



Mr. Smith — Really, I do not believe that I can add to 

 what has already been so often told the bee-keepers by Mr. 

 France, and by Mr. Moore here in his remarks yesterday. 

 However, I will give an outline of what I have done the past 

 year. The way I do my work is by going to places from 

 which I get invitations to come. I don't go out and hunt 

 up foul brood, only in the- neighborhood where I find foul 

 brood; we as a rule go around to the adjoining neighbors 

 that have bees and inspect them. During the last season I 

 visited thirty-two counties in this State, just about one-third 

 of the counties, probably — it would be a good one-third with 

 Mr. Moore's work in Cook County. I find that tlie bee- 

 keepers are very anxious to know all about foul brood, and 

 how to treat it, and they are very apt to learn also. They are 

 very anxious to inform other bee-keepers how to treat it. 

 Of course there is only one way that I treat foul brood and 

 that is to destroy the comb. I don't try formaldehyde or r.ny 

 other disinfectant; I remove the bees and destroy llie 

 comb — that is, the brood-combs. I cleanse the hives 

 out and re-hive the bees again on foundation or empty 

 frames. I think that the work is in fair progress, 

 and another year or two will show that the work 

 that has been commenced will bear good fruit. The diseased 

 locations are found mostly in the north part of the State 

 and along the Mississippi River in the north and south parts 

 of the State, also along the Indiana line. I found foul brood 

 in only one county in the central part of the State. Of 

 course there may be foul brood in every county in the State 

 so far as I know, but I think the bee-keepers, as a rule, are 

 reading up, and that is one way we ought to work — through 

 the press, and the mail, and educate the bee-keepers so that 

 they can take care of their own bees. The bee-keepers as a 

 rule, are very anxious to have the Inspector come, and they 

 are very pleasant people to be with. In fact, I believe that 

 the bee-keepers are intelligent and progressive, and are very 

 friendly. There doesn't seem to be any jealousy existing 

 among them, that one is afraid that his neighbor will proriuce 

 more honey than he does, or that his bees will do better than 

 his neighbors', but they seem to be anxious to work to- 

 gether. I think that is a very good idea, also. Now if there are 

 any questions that any of the members wish to ask T will 

 be glad to tell them anything they want to know, that tliey 

 do not know. 



Dr. Miller — You say that you destroy the comli and put 

 the bees upon foundation or empty frames. Is that alP Do 

 you let them stay? 



Mr. Smith — No, in about two weeks or ten days rc'iiove 

 them and put them on full sheets of foundation, after tliey 

 have exhausted the honey they carried with them from in- 

 fected colonies. 



Dr. Miller — Isn't two weeks longer than has been the 

 custom? 



Mr. Smith — That is long enough. Some I have given as 

 short a time as four or five days, but I think the best |)l.in is 

 to be sure that the honey is all exhausted; and if it is in 

 a time when there is no honey-flow the bees want to be ftd 



Mr. Kinmiey — How about the young that have Incn 

 started in two weeks, or would they start? 



Mr. Smith — "^'ou cut that comb out and melt it up into 

 wax. 



Mr. Kimmey — Suppose that the disease is carried Iv. the 

 honey that the bees have at the time they make tin- first 

 change, won't the disease go on with the next brood ? 



Mr. Smith — You will find very little brood in tlu- n-w 

 comb. Of course it would be in the very young larval -' ge. 

 The disease never attacks the young bees until they u ; in 

 the state called the grub state. After the bees beco:i' in 

 the nymph state the disease never attacks them. I liave 

 never found any that were killed after taking the fnrn; of 

 the nymph, with legs and wings. 



Mr. Kimmey — Before that time won't the bees thai Ii'ive 

 become infected with the honey carry that infection to the 

 brood that is started in two weeks? 



Mr. Smith— I think not. I don't think that the disease 



can be developed in two weeks. At least I have never found 

 any disease. I have had some parties that didn't change their 

 bees back into the second frames until they had capped brood, 

 and I found no disease there. 



Mr. Knnmey — Won't it then be better to put them on 

 empty frames the first time? 



Mr. Smith — ( think it would, because it lias a tendency 

 for them to exhaust their honey in building new comb. 



Mr. Kimmey — And afterwards destroy them and put them 

 on full foundation. 



Mr. Smith— Put them on full foundation the second 

 change. 



Pres. York — I would like to ask in how inany apiaries 

 Mr. Smith found disease, and what percent he visited? 



Mr. Smith — The percent I visited was probably 90. 



Pres. York — Do you know how many apiaries you 

 visited? 



Mr. Smith — I have a record of that, but I didn't bring 

 it with me. 



Pres, York — How many colonies did you examine ? 



Mr. Smith— Over 2,000. 



Mr. Swift — Is the disease exterminated by melting the 

 wax? Does heat destroy it? 



Mr. Smith— Yes. Mr. Dadant can tell that. He gets 

 thousands of pounds of wax sent in, extracted from diseased 

 colonies, and he has never had any complaint against it. 



Mr. Pease — Will you give us a plan by which the per- 

 son who never saw foul brood will recognize it? 



Mr. Smith — Did you ever smell a carpenter's glue-pot? 

 It outs me in mind of the young man who went to the medical 

 college. When he returned home they wanted to know al! 

 about it. He says, "Now I will tell you, If you had seen 

 what I have seen, and felt what I have felt, and smelt what 

 I have smelt, you would know all about it." [Laughter.l If 

 you smell that foul brood once you will never forget it It 

 smells as nearly like ?, carpenter's glue-pot as anything 

 you can get. ' 



Mr, Wilcox — Don't you find foul brood sometimes with- 

 out smell? 



Mr. Smith— Where it is not fully developed all over the 

 hive and it is just the first inoculation, you may sometimes 

 find a comb of beautifully sealed brood and just tnree or four 

 cell.s that are affected, but it doesn't take long for it to spread. 



Mr, Wheeler— I would like to go bad; a little bit. In 

 regard to this treatment that you speak of, the bees are first 

 shaken out at the beginning of the honev-flow, or "shook 

 out," and they are put on empty frames. Our bees gathered 

 the whole year's crop in two weeks' time. Now. there is a 

 very tender point right there, v.'hether you leave those bees 

 in the hive two weeks and then take them ofif those combs 

 they have built in those two weeks and melt those combs up. 

 If it is not necessary to do that it would be a great loss of 

 money to the bee-keeper. If two days or 48 hours would do, 

 that would be a great deal better than two weeks. 



Mr. Sinith — Two days or 48 hours would not suffice — four 

 days at least. I wouldn't make the change under that time. 

 While it is a fact that they do not always carry the disease 

 with them — I have known swarms to come out of the in- 

 fected hives, and I have hived them on foundation and they 

 didn't carry the disease with them at all. It seems they 

 exhaust the honey before the young brood gets large enough 

 to take the disease: especially if it is a second swarm and 

 the young queen doesn't get to laying for a few days, the 

 brood is later than the laying queen would be. 



Mr. Wheeler— Some of the money that is used ought to 

 be used to experiment along that line. It makes a great 

 difference to us bee-keepers, if we know just how much time 

 there should be, I have had a little experience, and I have 

 shaken them out on combs, that is, just one comb with a 

 little brood in and fresh-laid eggs, and those bees showed no 

 signs of the disease for a year or two, no more than bees 

 shaken out on empty frames ; why that was I can't tell. They 

 were no more affected than bees that were shaken out on 

 empty combs and given new comb. The object was to save 

 all the bees possible. 



Mr. Smith— In making my trips I cannot go back to every 

 man's yards in four or five days afterward and change his 

 bees, I only leave my orders with him. I have gone back on 

 several occasions where my trip was near there, and found 

 some of them had not transferred them at all. They got 

 busy, it was haying time, and the oats had to be hauled in. 

 and with one thing and another they didn't have time, and 

 they didn't like to bother with them; they were afraid of 

 being slung, .-md they didn't nan-fer thcni back at aK. 

 (Coatlauetl uext weelc.) 



