310 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the boos but vory little ; you aro uot 

 troubled by stray l)oos ooniing out at the 

 top of the hive; ueither do you admit 

 the cold air into the cluster to chill the 

 brood : and yet you have the feed Just 

 where you waut it for comfort and ease 

 of access for the bees. 

 Londonderry, Ohio. 



1mm Bees— ReiileriiiE fax. 



Written for the Amo^lcan Bee Journal 



BY I.»W. BECKWITH. 



Mr. C. H. Coleman, on page 24:9, does 

 not tell us what trouble he anticipates 

 in moving his bees, but I presume he 

 wants to know how he can hold the 

 combs rigid. 



Take ^i-inch wire-nails (those with 

 large heads are best), and drive one into 

 each corner of the frame so as to come 

 between this and the adjoining frame, 

 letting the heads project far enough to 

 hold the combs apart the required dis- 

 tance. 



Now close the hive-entrance secui'ely, 

 take off the cover, and tack on one of 

 wire-cloth, and if you do not have 

 springs to haul on, fill the wagon bed 

 nearly full of straw, place the hives on 

 this, and drive ahead ; and should the 

 weather be warm or cold, your bees will 

 carry all right. 



BEESWAX RENDERING. 



I expected to find Chas. Dadanfs 

 method of rendering wax in the last 

 issue of the Bee Journal,, but as it was 

 not there, I will tell how I do it, and get 

 yellow wax every time. 



I heat the comb in any vessel except 

 iron or rusty tin, with plenty of water ; 

 stir frequently, and see that the comb 

 does not burn on the bottom of the 

 kettle. 



When the wax is all melted, and while 

 quite hot, I put the pumice into a strong 

 cloth strainer and press as hard as the 

 strainer will bear. As each cocoon cup 

 is likely to be filled with wax, a consid- 

 erable pressure is necessary. A hand 

 cider-press would be just the thing for 

 this work. 



I then return the wax to the heating 

 vessel with plenty of water, and when it 

 is all melted I keep it hot a considerable 

 time without boiling, and what impuri- 

 ties there were in the wax which gave it 

 the dark color, will settle into the water 

 or form a layer on the under side of the 

 wax, which may be shaved off when 

 cold. 



If I should burn the comb on the bot- 

 tom of the kettle, it would give the 

 wax a stain, which I could not wash out. 



Any dark wax may be cleansed in this 

 way if it has not been scorched, or 

 stained in an iron kettle. 



Fort Lupton, Colo. 



Foul Brood— lis Syiimlouis aiil Cure. 



/i'lsiilts of Expcriineutti at the J/ic/u)jaii Apiary. 

 BY. R. L. TAYLOR, APIARIST. 



During the season I have given con- 

 siderable attention to the disease known 

 among bee-keepers as foul brood, wtich 

 from its insidious, highly contagious 

 and deadly character, is the one disease 

 of the hive to be greatly dreaded by the 

 apiarist. It no doubt attacks^nd great- 

 ly curtails the life of the mature bee, 

 but it is in the case of the bee in the 

 larval state that its destructive effects 

 are most evident. 



Like many of the diseases to which 

 the human family is subject, it is in- 

 duced by bacteria, to which in this par- 

 ticular case the name " bacillus alvei " 

 is given, and such is its malignity that 

 when once present, unless proper meas- 

 ures are taken to keep it in check, in 

 the course of three or four years whole 

 apiaries are swept away. I am inclined 

 to think that it is often present where 

 not suspected, and that often the de- 

 struction ascribed to the severity of the 

 winter should be assigned to it. 



How to detect the presence of the dis- 

 ease and how to effect its cure are the 

 practical points to which my attention 

 has been chiefly directed. 



My experience with it is not confined to 

 the past season, but runs back over the 

 past seven years during which I have 

 cured more than 100 cases largely dur- 

 ing the first two years of the period, 

 but I became so interested in the study 

 of the disease and so certain that I 

 could control it that I was not anxious 

 to be entirely rid of it, preferring rather 

 at some risk to get as thorough and prac- 

 tical acquaintance as possible with its pe- 

 culiarities and with the best methods of 

 dealing with it. 



HOW FOUL BROOD IS CONVEYED. 



It would be important to know, if pos- 

 sible, all the ways in which the disease 

 is conveyed from one colony to another. 

 Whether the bacteria may be carried in 

 the air to a new hive, or whether a bee 

 from a diseased colony may carry them 

 out on its feet or body, and in gathering 



