344 



to hive the bees. The ease with which 

 a swarm is secured is astonishing. 

 When the hive is ready we carefully 

 carry the swarm catcher to it, turn the 

 large end, where the bees have clustered, 

 to the mouth of the hive ; remove the 

 door, and shake the bees out on to a 

 board in front of the hive, and proceed 

 as usual. Mrs. Aaron Bailey. 



Liberty ville, Mo., June 10, 1880. 



The enclosed specimen of a plant 

 grows here ; about 15 inches high, 4 or 

 5 stalks from one root. What is it? 

 Bees are averaging well. What becomes 

 of the poison from bee stings, when 

 once in the blood V If it does not re- 

 main there, what counteracts it V 



G. B. Dines. 



[The specimen of plant inclosed is 

 Ceanothus Americanus (Jersey tea, red 

 root), a shrub very common in drv 

 woods and on poor land. I have received? 

 it before as a bee plant.— W. J. Beal. 



Poisons taken up by the blood from 

 the alimentary canal, or those injected 

 directly into the blood, are either de- 

 composed and eliminated, or directly 

 eliminated, by the excretory organs— 

 the lungs, kidneys and skin— or they 

 pass into the secretions, as the milk, the 

 perspiration, etc.— A. J. Cook.] 



Honey Creek, Ky., June 16, 1880. 

 To makers of comb foundation I 

 would suggest that the easiest and by far 

 the most preferable way to work sheet 

 wax is dry, with flour or starch rubbed 

 over it, just enough to take off the 

 stickiness. The sheets roll through the 

 machine like pie-crust, and the bees 

 seem to appreciate the change from 

 soap to biscuit very highly, judging 

 from the readiness with which they go 

 to work on it. I give Mr. Heddon no- 

 tice that I think of applying for a pat- 

 ent on this. My plan will be to roll in 

 enough biscuit with the foundation so 

 that when put in the sections and filled 

 out with sweets, it will be both bread 

 and honey. It will come within the 

 scope of my invention to furnish honey 

 cake of all styles and qualities from 

 cornpone to pound cake, all done up by 

 the bees in prize boxes, pound sections, 

 or any size to suit the market. The 

 floured foundation needs no paper be- 

 tween sheets, and is better without 

 washing, though, if preferred for any 

 reason, the flour can readily be washed 

 off with a soft brush. Makers of foun- 

 dation who have not yet " got used to " 

 the muss of starch, soap and slippery 

 elm will appreciate this suggestion, no 



doubt. To those who think the old way 

 the best I offer no sympathy. W.C.P. 



[Our correspondent feels very merry 

 over his "biscuit foundation." After 

 the "pound cake," perhaps the bees- 

 will try their skill at making " bride's- 

 cake " for the " Iwney moon," and per- 

 haps may be induced to store honey- 

 wine, metheglin and mead in their cells, 

 all ready for parties and picnics. Thi» 

 is an age of wonders. — Ed.] 



Wagon Works, O., June 18, 1880. 

 While transferring some colonies of 

 bees from box to frame hives, for a 

 neighbor, a short time since, I came 

 across what I suppose is foul-brood. At 

 the time I thought the worms were the 

 cause of the caps of the cells being per- 

 forated ; there being many worms in 

 the hives. I transferred the last one on 

 Friday, and upon going on Monday to 

 remove the wires that held the comb& 

 in the frames, I saw a large number of 

 open cells with the putrid remains of 

 brood that had never been capped over T 

 and in attempting to remove it found it 

 to be tough and tenacious, and of all 

 shades of color from a nearly white, 

 ropy mass, to black, and in either 

 color looked very much like ordinary 

 pus, or matter of the same color from a 

 wound or sore on a person, and very 

 offensive ; so much so, that I have 

 smelled it when standing by one of the 

 hives when closed up tight. I went 

 immediately and read all I could find 

 about it in my bee books, and in the 

 American Bee Journal for the past 

 9 years. But I did not find any rule 

 that tells me how I may know every 

 cell that has foul-brood in it. Mr. 

 Muth, in November Journal, 1879, 

 says : " We recognize those capped 

 cells afterwards, by their flat appear- 

 ance and a little perforation in the 

 middle." I find that all the flat cells, 

 whether perforated or not, and a great 

 many others that look as though they 

 contained healthy brood, are foul- 

 broody. I have not tried any remedy 

 for it yet, but shall follow Mr. Muth's 

 directions, with salicylic acid and soda 

 borax in one hive, and Dr. Abbe's, or 

 Mr. Whiting's method with the hypo- 

 sulphite of soda in another ; and I will 

 then have five more to try other reme- 

 dies on. Will not the fumes of burning 

 sulphur destroy the fungus that is said 

 to be the cause of the disease ? If, as 

 Dr. Prenso says, "a single cell may 

 contain forty billions of the fungi," I 

 do not see how I shall ever be able to 

 spray each one in all the multitude of 

 cells in a hive. A. B. Mason. 



