120 



THE 

 BELGIUM. 



AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



May, 



Foul-Brood. 



The Institute of Dahlem-Berlin has 

 published a report concerning the 

 study made there of foul-brood. 



One hundred and nineteen samples 

 of diseased brood have been received. 

 Of these 112 were really affected. 

 Out of the 112 samples, only 13 con- 

 tained bacillus alvei. The question 

 then came up: Is the said bacillus 

 the cause of the disease or is it there 

 only accidentally? To solve it, large 

 quantities of bacilli were added to the 

 feed given to colonies raising brood 

 heavily, but no disease resulted. 

 Then the bacilli were introduced in 

 the cells containing larvae and sealed 

 brood. No disease. In all the cases, 

 another bacillus was also found, but 

 similar attempts to introduce the dis- 

 ease with it failed as well as those 

 made With the bacillus alvei. 



Eventually another microbe was 

 found, in all the samples. This is 

 not a bacillus, it is of a cork-screw 

 shape and has been named "spiro- 

 chacte apis maassen." It was found 

 not only in the dead or diseased 

 brood, but also in the dried up re- 

 mains even when quite old. It is not 

 known yet whether the introduction 

 of that organism into healthy colonies 

 will develop the disease. The ex- 

 periments will be continued next 

 year. — Le Rucher Beige. 



microbe, the aspergillus flavus. The 

 microbe is found in considerable quan- 

 tities in the brood and on the hair of 

 the adult bees. Cultures of it ino- 

 culated to hens and rabbits gave them 

 also the disease which in all cases 

 terminated fatally. It is not known 

 yet how the disease gets into the 

 hives. Some localities are badly in- 

 fected, others, in fact the majority 

 (in Germany) not at all. — Le Rucher 

 Beige. 



Rendering Wax. 



When melting combs, especially old 

 combs, add plenty of salt to the wa- 

 ter. That will help considerably in 

 separating the wax from the impuri- 

 ties. A second melting is usually ne- 

 cessary. This time, instead of salt, 

 add a little gelatine, stir it in well, 

 and arrange so that the wax will 

 cool down as slowly as possible. In 

 cooling, the gelatine will coagulate 

 and draw from the wax all the im- 

 purities into the water below. — Le 

 Rucher Beige. 



A Good Trick. 



Many bee-keepers have sometimes 

 observed that one or perhaps a few of 

 their colonies were gathering honey 

 rapidly while the others were doing 

 nothing. The plain reason of it is 

 that the working bees had found 

 something to gather that the others 

 had failed to discover. Perhaps mere- 

 ly a single field of buckwiheat at a dis- 

 tance of two or three miles. That 

 kind of situation often occurred in the 



locality were Gravenhorst was liv- 



Mummified Brood. ing. In such cases he exchanged 



Another report of the same insti- combs with adhering bees between the 

 tute relates to a study of what is now working and the non-working col- 

 called mummified brood. The brood onies. The working bees taught the 

 turns hard and brittle, but keeps its others in the sam'e home were to find 

 color. The adult bees are also at- the place and in a day or two all the 

 tacked by the disease. It is not due colonies were at work. — Le Rucher 

 to a bacillus but to another class of Beige. 



