198 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



September, 



Third, supply every tolony ^Yitb 

 enoujih combs to contain all the stores 

 the liees can possibly need before next 

 season's "surplus flow."" by which I 

 mean to emphasize giving much moi"e 

 than enough to carry them merely to 

 the time when they can get a l)are liv- 

 ing if the weather is favorable — whicli 

 it often is not. 



Foui'th, giving sufficient store.s to 

 fill those combs and doing it at such 

 a time as will enable the bees to prop- 

 erly prepare an<l place it, matters 

 Avhich the bees can accomplish far bet- 

 ter than we. 



Some localities enable the bees to 

 sui)i)ly their larder from natural 

 sources early in August; others get 

 their supply in September, and in other 

 places the apiarist must either give 

 combs that were filled early in the sea- 

 son or feed sugar syrup. 



It has fre(piently been advised to 

 delay feeding the bees as long as pos- 

 sible in the hope that they may 

 secure more or less from fall flowers 

 and so need less food. Simultaneously 

 advice is given to add honey or acid 

 to the syrup to prevent granulation, 

 to feed the syruji as thick as possible 

 and to feed quickly. 



It Avill be found much better to, 

 early in September, feed each colony 

 all the food you think they will need 

 and to give the food thin and be sev- 

 eral days about it. But here is an 

 im]»oi-tant feature: — feed each colony 

 all it can possibly take from the feed- 

 er in twenty-four hours, and l)y thus 

 doing you will so supply every empty 

 cell with thin syrup that there will 

 be little chance for the queen to extend 

 the brood nest even should she be 

 so inclined. If the weather is warm 

 the bees will have in another day, con- 

 verted this syrup into thick and good 

 food. i. e.. will have "inverted" it. 

 Such stores are virtually proof against 

 granulation, and ai-e ready for use at 

 any time without the labor of diges- 

 tion, a matter of much conse(iuence 

 in th(> eai'Iy s]iring when the old bees' 

 race is most run and young bees are 

 still scarce. 



As soon as the bees have got the 

 first lot of syrup well disposed of. 

 give them another dose. If the colo- 

 nies ai'e properly strong, three doses 

 Avill be sufficient and may be given at 

 intervals of twenty-four hours. If a 

 heavy floAV of nectar is now yielded 

 by fiill flowers let the bees pack every 



coi-ner and then let them put the sur- 

 plus in extracting supers. 



This sounds like doing things baciv 

 end first, I know, but I have proved 

 it to be the safest and most profitable 

 way. for the fall crop is so often a 

 failure. 



The fifth item, and an important one, 

 is to make your final inspection of the 

 bees as early as you can (here seldom 

 later than September 2r)th) and let the 

 bees seal all tight to remain undis- 

 turbed and unopened imtil next 

 spi'ing. 



Providence. R. I., Aug. G, 1003. 



GLEANED FROM THE FRENCH. 



Interesting Topics Selected and Commented on 

 by Our Staff Reviewer. 



(Adrian Getaz.) 



FOUL BROOD. 



MR. L. DELAY (Revue Interna- 

 tionale) gives an account of 

 how he cured foul brood not 

 only in his own apiary but in several 

 others of the neighborhood. 



He fed the essence of eucalyptus, 

 mdxing one part of it with ten parts of 

 alcohol, and r»"tting a teaspoonful of 

 the mixture in every quart of syrup 

 fed. Every time the hive is opened a 

 few drops of pure essence are put in 

 on the bottom or elsewhere so as to get 

 the l)enefit of the evaporation of it. 

 The vajiors will penetrate everywhere 

 in the hive. 



An essential point is to remove all 

 the honey. As long as there is infected 

 honey the malady will reappear when- 

 e^er the bees use it. 



In reading the above it ocurred to 

 me that the cause of failure, when 

 using drugs to cure foul brood, may 

 have been the neglect of the above pre- 

 caution. 



In the course of his experiments he 

 uK't some failures even then. It oc- 

 curred to him that the pollen might be 

 infected also. And sure enough, after 

 the combs of pollen were removed the 

 colonies wei'e easily cured. 



To be fully satisfied he put two of 

 these combs of pollen in a healthy col- 

 ony and had the satisfaction (?) of 

 seeing them contract the disease. He 

 did not experiment any fm-ther in that 

 dii'ection. 



One advantage in using eucalyptus 

 es.sence is that the bees take it readily. 



