696 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. S, 1905 



Some one has recently advised usin;^ one ounce of bisul- 

 phide of carbon to every cubic foot. I have never bought this 

 drug by the barrel ; but in small quantities it has cost me 35 

 cents per pound bottle. At the rate of one ounce per cubic 

 foot, 1 would have had to buy about six bottles, at a cost of 

 about $2.00, to fumigate once. Ten cents' worth of sulphur 

 made a sure thing of the job, and the risk of fire is no more 

 than in the case of bisulphide of carbon. To use the latter is 

 very handy, and I began to think I would use it more exten- 

 sively on that account, but when I found that 1^ ounces of 

 it was not sufficient to kill the moth-larv;f in a stack of five 

 sots of combs, I made up my mind that sulphur was enough 

 cheaper, and better, to pay for the extra trouble. 



In reality, the trouble with the sulphur is not so verx 

 reat, either. It is not at all necessary — es Mr. Fiace 

 thought it was — to place the combs oi-er the burning sulpuur. 

 It has always been my practice to burn the sulphur on top of 

 the stacks of combs or comb honey. It is surprising how 

 quickly the sulphur fumes will drop clean down to the bottom 

 of the stack, no matter how high this is, and force themselves 

 through all the cracks and crevices. Neither the combs nor 

 the comb honey has to be moved. All that is necessary is to 

 place an empty hive-body on top of a stack, and inside of this 

 put a suitable dish with live coals of fire ; upon this is thrown 

 a handful of sulphur, when the whole is covered up tight with 

 a hive-cover. This has been my way ever since 1 Kept bees. 



The quantity of sulphur necessary will soon be found out 

 by practice. Two and one-half ounces is sulficient for five 

 sets of combs — perhaps less would do. In fact, for fumigating 

 comb honey this is too much, and would leave a green deposit 

 on the surface of the comb as well as the wood of the section. 

 One and one-half ounces is about what I use with 10 comb- 

 honey supers, each of 2\ sections. 



The green discoloration of section honey by a too liberal 

 use of sulphur must be avoided, as it impairs the looks of the 

 product. Honey left on the hives till September needs no 

 fumigating. It is the early honey removed from the hives in 

 .luly which suffers, if any. This should be treated even where 

 Italian bees predominate. It is safer. I have seen fine comb 

 honey exhibited at Fairs with perforated cappings because 

 this matter had not been attended to. Ontario Co., N. Y. 



Quality in Honey, then Quantity 



BY GRANT STANLEY 



THE production of honey of good quality is a feature of 

 bee-keeping that requires considerable thought. In read- 

 ing the various bee-papers from tiaie to time, as well as 

 having had personal conversations with several bee-keepers, I 

 am about led to believe that the bee-keeper himself needs con- 

 siderable educating on this subject as well as the public. If 

 we can get bee-keepers as much interested in the matter 

 of quality as they seem to be in quantity, we will in all prob- 

 ability hear less about inferior honey. 



Now, while it is true that we are trying to induce, or 

 rather educate, the public to know more about honey, endeav- 

 oring to make it a staple article rather than a mere luxury, it 

 is equally true that we must place before the public an article 

 even above suspicion, an article of as uniform quality as is 

 possible to got. We must do this if we expect to create the 

 demand our product warrants. It is certainly all wrong to 

 try to educate the public to use an article of inferior quality. 

 Now let us look at the producers of any commodity, for in" 

 stance. They simply exhaust every effort in the matter of 

 quality, knowing very well that if they can place an article 

 on the market of the highest quality, that the demand will 

 rapidly increase, and eventually a great deal more be con- 

 sumed. In exactly this manner many small undertakings 

 have grown to very large proportions. 



I am afraid that too many bee-keepers are too anxious to 

 run the extractor, and as a result much honev is being ex- 

 tracted before it is sealed by the bees. Yes, and possibly 

 some of it scarcely has been in the combs more than a few 

 hours. The Hasty Afterthinker has recently said in these 

 columns that, "One of the worst things in connection with 

 our craft is the widespread disposition to stretch terms and 

 provisoes, and extract honey in "a dreadfully unfit condition." 

 If we will exhaust our best efforts in catering to the people's 

 wants in connection with an article of undoubtful quality, I 

 see no reason whatever that honey would not become, as it 

 should be, a staple article of the world. 



Don't forget qualily, and you will find it will pav, and 

 pay well. Lycoming Co., Pa. 



^ 



Procccbtngs 



J 



Report of the Chlcago-Northwesteru Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Coaventlou, held at Chicago, 111., 

 Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 1904 



(Continued from page 681 J 

 REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF APIARIES. 



Mr. Abbott — This whole question hinges on how the dis- 

 ease gets into the animal. We lose sight of that sometimes. 

 Take for instance some germ diseases that are communicated 

 to human beings, such as tuberculosis in which the germ 

 that produces that must find a lesion some place. If there 

 is a lesion on the outside of the body in some of the glands 

 and it lodges there it will take root and produce the disease, 

 so that you have tuberculosis of the different organs. It is 

 not always in the lungs. A great many people die of con- 

 sumption that never had anything the matter with their lungs ; 

 that is, from tuberculosis. As I understand, the develop- 

 ment of the germ of foul brood is only in the larva. In 

 what way does the germ get into the larva? Does it get 

 into it by contact and communicate itself by coming in 

 contact with the larva, or is it taken in by the alimentary 

 canal? There are some diseases that the human family get 

 that are taken in by the water they drink, such as typhoid 

 fever, and must be taken in in that way ; they cannot be 

 communicated by coming in contact with a gland, but they 

 must come in contact with the inside of the human body 

 somewhere along the alimentary canal, mostly in the lower 

 bowels in typhoid fever. Now, then, if foul brood is a de- 

 velopment in the larva, in the alimentary canal, and it can 

 only be communicated by passing in in that way and coming 

 in contact with certain portions of the larva, then it must 

 be something that the larva will eat, to have the disease 

 communicated. The larva does not eat anything but honey, 

 or the thing that might be mixed in the honey. Now, what- 

 ever does not mi.x with the food of the larva cannot carry 

 the disease, as I understand it. So that the question is. 

 What condition of things must exist in order that this 

 germ be in the stufif that is fed to the larva? Because the 

 germ is harmless in honey, is harmless every place so far 

 as the disease is concerned, except it is in the alimentary canal 

 of the larva ; and if there is not some way by whicli it 

 gets in there, it is as harmless as a chunk of sand, as I 

 understand it. It only gets in through the feed, and they 

 only feed bees honey, and the hive may be covered with the 

 germs and not affect it in the least. 



Mr. Dadant — I think Mr. Abbott was asking me the 

 question. I think he is very correct in that matter, and 

 the fact is, I was about to rise to make the same sugges- 

 tion, with this addition, that it is stated by authorities that 

 formic acid, which is the constituent of the poison of the 

 bees, is an antidote for foul brood, and that would explain 

 why the bees never have foul brood and never suffer from it. 

 The bee carries its necessary antidote with it. It is quite 

 likely that the disease could only be transferred to the larva 

 by or through the honey, or through other larvae which, of 

 course, would pass it to the bee, and the bee pass it back 

 to the larva in feeding. It seems to me that is very con- 

 clusive'. At the same time, if there are any germs at all 

 in the hive, and they can be passed at all so as to be fed 

 to the larvae, it will promote it. 



Mr. Wheeler — You know if you put a clean super on 

 a hive of old combs and the bees go to work there, they will 

 drag from those old combs out onto the new comb and 

 will color them. Now isn't it possible for the bees to travel 

 from the bottom-board around this bad brood and drop those 

 bad spores? Such questions as that are of vital importance, 

 and I think a little of the money that is raised ought to 

 be used for investigation, not entirely for going around and 

 doing this business. While I think you know all these points, 

 some man ought to be hired and paid for his time. It is 

 either yes or no : they either give that disease in that way 

 or they don't, and some man ought to be able to find it out. 



Mr. .Swift — I think the bee-keepers will find the treat- 

 ment of foul brood is something like the practice of medicine. 



