788 



GLEANIIsGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct 15. 



laid. [I hope he is right; then we will turn 

 our attention toward getting the bee-moth ex- 

 tinct.— Ed. J 



I WAS HEADING in the French bee-journal, 

 Le Rucher, an interesting article on the an- 

 ger of bees, and something about ii, seemed 

 strangely familiar. After reading two or three 

 pages I glanced at the end, and there saw 

 *' translated from Root's A B C." 



The chief honey-pi.ant being asked for in 

 A. B. J., 14 mention white clover: 11 lin- 

 den; 3 heartsease; 2 Spanish needle; and 

 the following are each mentioned once: Poplar, 

 white sage, wild buckwheat, locust, alsike, 

 catclaw, horsemint, mesquite, fruit-bloom, and 

 goldenrod. 



Carbolic acid, painted over cracks where 

 robbers are at work, seems effective. Why 

 mightn't it be good at the entrance of a robbed 

 hive? [I've tried it. It is too much of a good 

 thing. It disconcerts the inmates of the hive 

 as well as the robbers; and after a little the 

 latter seem to take advantage of the situation. 

 —Ed.] 



To AVOID CRACKS in cakes of wax, don't let 

 the outside cool rapidly. Cover a cloth and 

 board over the dish while cooling, or let it 

 stand in a stove oven while the fire dies out 

 over night. [But what harm do cracks in large 

 cakes do, any way? We cake the wax the 

 handiest and quickest way. cracks or no cracks. 

 —Ed.] 



A BALLED QUEEN, we are told to release by 

 blowing smoke on the ball. But there's a right 

 and a wrong way. Hold the nozzle of the 

 smoker close to the ball, and blow hot smoke 

 on them, and you might about as well step on 

 the ball. Hold your smoker at a distance and 

 blow cold smoke on the bees, and all will be 

 lovely. 



Remember, when robbers are troublesome, 

 do any thing, any thing, rather than take out 

 of their way the thing they are robbing, with- 

 out leaving something in its place. Outside 

 appearances must remain unchanged. [This 

 looks like bad advice; but I am coming to be- 

 lieve it is all right, notwithstanding A. I. R. 

 thinks it is all wrong.— Ed.] 



" Fegling " is the German name for a kind 

 of artificial swarm originating with Graven- 

 horst, and indorsed by Gerstung as coming 

 nearest to a natural swarm. From a strong 

 colony, take one frame of brood, with adhering 

 bees and queen; put in empty hive on a new 

 stand; fill out with partly built combs; brush 

 into it all the bees, and trust old bees to return 

 to old stand and raise a queen. Hardly looks 

 right, does it ? But remember Gravenhorst is 

 no spring chicken. 



John Galvin, p. 765, says if the bees build 

 foundation to the bottom-bar they'll surely cut 

 it out again, and my assistant has been en- 



couraging me by the same dismal prophecy. 

 Well, the bees have cut out some, in one case 

 leaving a space of 1,^3 inches between founda- 

 tion and bottom-bar, but I don't believe they'll 

 be so naughty in a gopd season, and I don't 

 expect them to disturb it after they have pulled 

 out cells full depth. 



^^^ 



THE 



TREATMENT OF FOUL 

 DRUGS. 



BROOD WITH 



A SUCCESS IN FRANCE. 



Bij Charlrs Norman. 



It were a mistake for us to suppose that, in 

 this country of ours, there are no bee-keepers 

 who believe in the treatment of foul brood with 

 drugs, or, as the scientific expression is, the 

 antiseptic treatment. There are some, no 

 doubt, but at the present time they evidently 

 take a back seat since our leaders unanimously 

 denounce said treatment as a failure. I'rof. 

 Cook, the Roots, Mr. R. L. Taylor, Dr. Howard 

 in his work on foul brood, and others, differing 

 solely in regard to some details, practice and 

 advocate '• that sure and reliable method, trans- 

 ferring, as first announced by Mr. M. Quinby, 

 and, later, recommended by D. A. Jones.'' Not 

 so in France and Switzerland. There lie before 

 me several of the latest numbers of Revue In- 

 termttionale d'Ajnculture (International Ite- 

 view of Apiculture), edited in French by Mr. 

 Edouard Bertrand. at Nyon, Switzerland. On 

 pages I'S- 30 he relates, for the benefit of those 

 of his readers who might not have succeeded 

 by the use of disinfectants, an extract from Mr. 

 R. L. Taylor's article on foul brood, which had 

 appeared in the February number of Mr. 

 Hutchinson's i?t'iiicK'. According to Mr. Ber- 

 trand's opinion, however, the transferring plan 

 has by no means always given satisfactory re- 

 sults ; is too troublesome, is connected with 

 the destruction of the frames, and arrests the 

 development of the brood for some time. In 

 conclusion, mentioning Mr. Taylor's assertion 

 that, though trying the use of carbolic as well 

 as salicylic acid, in quite a number of cases, he 

 never saw even a sign of improvement through 

 them, "Sir. Bertrand says: "This assertion is 

 somewhat surprising to us, for, as several times 

 we had an opportunity to tell, we have person- 

 ally received a radical cure of 37 colonies by 

 the use of salicylic acid." Quite a dilemma, 

 the solution of which can be found only in the 

 fact that Mr. Bertrand must have followed a 

 method entirely different from Mr. Taylor's; 

 for it would not do to say that perhaps those 

 cases Mr. Bertrand speaks of had not been the 

 real foul brood. Every page of Mr. Bertrand"s 



