54 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



heat such neglected matter, which they, 

 in a deteriorated state, are unable to 

 remove." Again he says "We have to 

 admit that every colony carries within 

 itself the primary seeds of disease 

 which lie dormant while a natural 

 vitality is maintained, and sanitary 

 condition is maintained." To me 

 there is an apparent inconsistency in 

 Mr. Simmins' views, as he admits that 

 the disease is contagious and it can be 

 communicated by robbing, carelessness 

 on the part of the bee-keeper in work- 

 ing from an infected to a clean hive, 

 mixing diseased combs and appliances 

 with those of clean stock, and the feed- 

 ing of diseased honey. In fact, all of 

 the rest of his argument and chapter 

 on foul brood seem to rest upon the 

 germ theory. He calls attention to 

 what is probably a fact, viz., that foul 

 brood spores may be destroyed by 

 causing them to germinate where such 

 germs find no congenial soil, or where 

 a suitable antiseptic immediately acts 

 upon them. In the McEvoy treatment, 

 when bees are shaken from the combs 

 and left a few days to build comb, 

 then the comb cut out, he does not think 

 that the efficiency in curing, or getting 

 rid of the disease, is in the fact that 

 the bees have consumed the diseased 

 honey, but that the germs have in the 

 meantime germinated without the 

 means of reproduction. 



He says that a colony with young 

 bees, left without a queen for three 

 weeks, will clean out the combs so 

 completely that brood may then be 

 reared in them with no danger of in- 

 fection. Bees with a queen will not do 

 this. Any spores left in the hive are 

 bound to germinate where there is no 

 soil to support them, therefore their 

 existence is terminated. I am giving 

 these views, not because I can endorse 

 them, nor because I am prepared to 

 prove to the contrary, but that my 

 readers may have the benetit of know- 

 ing what this man thinks. In the 

 meantime, there is much comfort in 



knowing that we know methods of com- 

 bating the disease. 



THE SIMMINS i-JON-SWARMING SYSTEM. 



Mr. simmins says that swarming is 

 the result of completion and over- 

 crowding in the brood nest. His 

 method of preventing swarming is that 

 of furnishing an empty space beneath 

 the brood nest; he asserting that no 

 colony in a normal condition attempts 

 to swarm unless it has all of its brood 

 combs completed. He says that there 

 might be swarming if the empt^' space 

 is at the back side of the brood nest, 

 but if the open space is beneath and at 

 the front, next to the entrance, there 

 will be no swarming. Mr. Simmins 

 keeps the bees busy building comb in 

 this empty space, this comb being re- 

 moved and used in the supers above the 

 brood nest. 



AN UNCAPPING MACHINE PREDICTED. 



Mr. Simmins predicts that the time is 

 surely coming when the uncapping of 

 combs for extracting will not be done 

 by hand, that hand work will be super- 

 seded by some simple mechanical pro- 

 cess. For this reason he urges the 

 adoption of a plain, simple, % frame. 



THE SECRETION AND UTILIZATION OF 

 WAX. 



Mr. Simmins made some quite elab- 

 orate experiments to determine the 

 number of pounds of honey consumed 

 in the secretion of one pound of wax. 

 He went so far as to build a house 50 

 feet long, by ten feet wide, and covered 

 it with calico so that the bees might 

 fly in the enclosure, yet could not 

 escape. They had access to pollen 

 and water, but no brood was allowed. 

 The temperature was rather low, which 

 was against the experiment, but he 

 found that not more than 6)^ pounds 

 of honey were required in the produc- 

 tion of one pound of wax. 



Mr. Simmins believes, and I agree 

 with him, that, during the working 

 season, the secretion of wax is continu- 

 ally going on, and if there is no way of 



