1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



165 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Washington, Jan., 1871. 



■/IS^ When this number of the Journal went to 

 press, no account of the National Bee-keepers' Con- 

 vention, held at Indianapolis, on the 21st and 22d 

 ult., had reached us. We shall probably receive its 

 proceedings in time for our Februarj' issue. 



iVuother National Convention of Bee-keepers is 

 called to meet at Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 8th and 

 9th of Februarj' nest; and of its transactions, also, 

 we expect to receive an account in due season. We 

 trust that it will be composed mainly of true hearted, 

 intelligent, and experienced apiarians, impressed with 

 tlie conviction that the prime object of such Con- 

 ventions is to promote bee culture, and not to 

 foster kintjcraft. 



j^ Stimulative feeding, for the production of 

 early brood, should not be resorted to by any who 

 have not resolution, energy and perseverance enough 

 to continue the process regularly, till the object 

 aimed at is fully attained, and the bees are able to 

 supply themselves from natural sources. To stop 

 feeding after much brood has been hatched under 

 stimulation, may easily lead to the destruction of a 

 colony, by the exhaustion of the stores on hand, 

 which, in other circumstances, would have enabled 

 the colony to reach tlie opening spring iu safety. 



The Poiilbroocl Cure. 

 We were gratified in receiving from Dr. Abbe the 

 subjoined letter, giving an account of a quite recent 

 experiment for tlie cure of foulbrood ; also the piece 

 of comb referred to, taken from one of his hives. 

 The comb appears to have been thoroughly cleansed 

 by the bees, and prepared for renewed service. We 

 shall carefully preserve it, and after spraying it 

 again in tlie spring with the solution of chloride of 

 soda, insert it in a healthy hive and report tlie re- 

 sult. — To cure the disease and save the combs in a 

 safe condition for future use, is the great desidera- 

 tum, and we hope that another season will suffice to 

 demonstrate that tliis has been attained. 



New Bedfo d, Dec. 14, 1870. 

 Dear Sik : — I send you to-day a piece of comb, 

 with the foUowiug history : In looking over my bees 

 for the last time, about the middle of November, I 

 found one sheet of comb badly affected with foul- 

 brood, in a hive which I had supposed entirely pure 

 until then. As I was in some hurry, I used the 

 atomizer, with the solution of chloride of soda, with 

 the bees clustering on the comb, and as it was rather 

 cool, they did not move out of the way as readily as 

 usual. In a few days it grew warmer, when I again 

 removed the frame, with the intention of shaking off 

 the bees, to give it a more thorough examination, as 

 I feared that there were some cells containing foul- 

 brood, which had escaped observation in my former 

 haste ; but with the first shake the whole comb, 

 which was very heavy, broke from its fastenings. I 



removed the empty part, intending to put it in a nu- 

 cleus hive next summer, with a fertile queen and pure 

 houey, to test whether foulbrood would re-appear in 

 it ; but on the whole have concluded to send it to 

 you. It was nearly filled on both sides with the dis- 

 ease, but I found (as I thought I should) a few cells 

 which I had not medicated, and which now remain 

 as they were at that time — one of them capped and 

 the others witli the dead larvas dried up. All the 

 rest the bees have thorouglily cleansed, so that not 

 even a suspicion of foulbrood is left behind. A 

 second medication would have made it perfect. 



You are perfectly aware of the great reluctance of 

 bees for cleansing cells which are tilled with this d s- 

 ease; but after spraying the couib with the soda, 

 tliey have no hesitation in making a thorough house- 

 cleauing. 



I have stored my sixteen swarms in my Novice 

 bee-house, which, by the way, works like a charm ; 

 and although six of them have been diseasr-d, some 

 of them badly, I think that no person can find a trace 

 of the disease left ; all the combs being as clean as 

 the clean part of the specimen I send you. Whether 

 or no the disease is locked up in the capped honey 

 cells, to re-appear in the spring, time alone will 

 show. 



If this disease, which has raged with me, is a mild 

 form of foulbrood, I pity those who have it more 

 malignantly. Yours, very truly, E. P. Abbe. 



Many practical bee-keepers are of opinion 'that pol- 

 len is not indispensably necessary for bees during 

 the wiuter, and experiments have shown that all the 

 essential operations of a colony may proceed from 

 October to May, or fully six months, though the hive 

 contains not a particle of pollen. It seems certain, 

 nevertheless, that ordinarily bees do consume pollen 

 during all the winter months, except, perhaps, in 

 November; at least Dr. D6nhoff, examining the in- 

 testines of bees, found traces of pollen therein at all 

 times, except in that month. He communicated this 

 fact to Prof. Leuckart, who confirmed it by his own 

 independent observations, but shortly after discovered 

 that the mucous tissue, lining the intestines, under- 

 goes decomposition and renewal annually — the slough- 

 ing off, or moulting, as it might be called, commenc- 

 ing at the eud of October and terminating about the 

 beginning of December ; thus coinciding in the main 

 with the period in which Dr. Douhoff could detect no 

 evidence of pollen in the intestines. Hence the pre- 

 sumed non-consumption of pollen in the interval may 

 have some connection with the abnormal condition of 

 the insect at that time. 



It is somewhat surprising that professed entomolo- 

 gists, who can tell us precisely how many joints there 

 arc in the antennae of queens, drones and workers, 

 and describe minutely how the nervures of their 

 wings arc arranged, and how the various sub-divis- 

 ions are named, have so imperfect a knowledge of 

 the natural history and habits of these familiar in- 

 sects, which they have almost daily opportunities for 

 studying. Thus, in one of the latest and most elabo- 

 rate treatises on British Bees, speaking of the queen 

 of the honey bee, the author tells us — " the number 

 of eggs she will lay in a day is about two hundred.^' 

 Again, referring to the queen's ovipositor, he says — 



