388 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 24, 



had described or by putting It ia a tight room and burning 

 sulphur. 



After moths get to be one-third of an inch long, and as 

 large around say as a small knitting-needle, it is impossible to 

 kill them with the fumes of sulphur without coloring the 

 honey, either in a room or box. When, and for a short time 

 after, moth-worms first hatch, they are very small, and can 

 then be very easily killed by the fumes of sulphur without col- 

 oring the honey in the least; and if filled sections, after they 

 are removed from the hives, are neglected until moth-worms 

 of the size mentioned have developt in some of them, I believe 

 the best thing that can be done is to carefully look them over 

 and put those infested in supers by themselves, and then put 

 these supers on hives containing strong colonies of Italian 

 bees, and they will soon clear them of moths. If at the time 

 this is done no honey is being gathered, care should be used to 

 select colonies that have plenty of stores in the brood-cham- 

 bers. 



Last summer I practiced a somewhat different method of 

 sulphuring honey. I got the idea from an article in the 

 American Bee Journal. Instead of burning the sulphur by 

 means of a lamp and iron plate, I used pieces of cloth dipt in 

 melted sulphur. The cloth was prepared by melting sulphur 

 in an iron kettle, and when it was nearly boiling, long strips 

 of thin cotton-cloth were dipt into it, and then laid on a board 

 to cool. In sulphuring the honey I used a box, and set the 

 supers on top, as before described. 



The advantazp nf tiiis cloth over a lamp and iron plate is, 

 that it is much quicker and easier to use, for when a piece is 

 set on fire by a lighted match, it burns steadily with a dull 

 flame until the sulphur is all consumed. That is, it will if the 

 sulphur was hot enough when the cloth was dipt into it. With 

 a lamp it takes some time to heat the plate hot enough to set 

 fire to the sulphur, as it has to melt before it will burn. 



As it takes but a small piece of this cloth for a hundred 

 pounds or more of honey, one can prepare enough of it in a 

 short time to sulphur tons of honey. It will be just as good 

 months, and probably years, after it is made, if kept dry. It 

 is immaterial whether sulphur or brimstone is used, as brim- 

 stone is melted sulphur. vSouthern Minnesota. 



Foul Brood Treatment — Further Information. 



BY WM. m'EVOY. 

 Official Fold Brood Inspector for Ontario, Canada. 



In my last article (see page 3T0) I said the dross from the 

 wax-extractor mui<t he Iniricd. Since then Mr. Gemmill has 

 written me, saying that I should have said the dross from a 

 snliir wax-extractor. He says the dross from foul-broody 

 combs that were hoUcd would be all right, which is very true, 

 and I am very thankful to Mr. Gemmill for noticing that I had 

 not explained what I meant. I meant the dross from all steam 

 wax-extractors, but forgot to say so, and explain why the dross 

 from them tnust be buried. 



If foul-broody combs are put in a steam wax-extractor, the 

 honey will run out into the wax-pan, just as soon as the steam 

 warms the honey in the combs, then as fast as the steam melts 

 the combs the wax will run into the wax-pan. 



The common practice with the most bee-keepers and their 

 wives, alter lifting out the wax to heat over and run into 

 cakes, is to throw out the dross and honey that was in the bot- 

 tom of the pans ; if the bees get at such honey, and take it to 

 the larvic, if will xlnrl J'otii hrond iil aucc witli <i vcnijcance, be- 

 cause the honey got but very little heat that ran Into the wax- 

 pan. 



I want to give a little advice to the farmers that have foul 

 brood in their bee-yards. 



If you have lO or 15 colonics alllicted with foul brood, I 

 want you to prepare things in good shape through the day, by 

 pultluK the comb foundation starlcrs In the frames, thus get- 

 ting all things ready. Then go, about sundown, with a uoud 

 smoker, well 'jobuj, and blow smoke Into the entrance of every 

 hive near the ones you are going to remove the combs from 

 and fix up. Then stand to one side, or the back of the hive, 

 so the bees can see the entrance of their hive, and as soon as 



you have smoked the colony well, remove the combs and shake 

 the bees right back into the .sy(?»ic liivc, and give them comb 

 foundation starters, which you will remove the fourth evening, 

 and give full sheets of comb foundation. 



If no honey is being gathered by the bees at the time, yoit 

 must feed, ijlenty of suijar syrup in Uic evenings oryour bees ivlll 

 swaiin out and mix in wllli your soimd colonics and ruin tiiem. 

 If you have no feeders, use small bread pans, or anything of 

 the kind. Pack them full of straw, then fill them full of sugar 

 syrup, and put them on the frames in tltc cveninris ; by doing 

 that the bees will rush into the feed, soon work out the start- 

 ers, and store the foul honey in them that they took from the 

 foul-broody combs when you removed them. 



The fourth evening, when you go to remove these nice 

 white combs (and see what a lot of combs the bees made in 

 such a short time in the honey-flow, or by booming them with 

 sugar syrup), don't leave them in, thinking it all right because 

 they look so pretty. You must remove these new combs that 

 were built in the four days because they will have the deadly 

 honey in them, and you must melt them into wax. 



When you remove the old, foul combs, if they are very 

 bad, make wax of them at once; but if your colonies have 

 only a little foul brood in them, and a large quantity of good 

 brood, you can make it pay to save it, if you are a careful 

 man, by following the directions I gave in my last article. 



Some of you will say, "I have no sugar. Can't I feed the 

 honey from the foul combs if I heat it ?" Yes, you can, if you 

 will mind me ; but I do hate to trust you, because I know how 

 careless you are. If you are determined to feed that honey 

 from the foul-broody combs, put about half water in it, and 

 bring it to a aliarp boil before you feed it. 1 never advise the 

 feeding of foul honey, heated by men of no experience, be- 

 cause it is too deadly a thing for greenhorns to tamper with. 

 In localities where little or no honey is being gathered by 

 the bees when they are put on foundation starters, they will 

 in some cases swarm out if the queens are not caged. Cage 

 all the queens, and keep them caged while on the starters, 

 and for two days after they are put on the full sheets of 

 foundation, to prevent swarming out ; and feed an abundance 

 in the evening ; by doing that, all will work like clock-work. 



Now, farmers, I beg of you to mind me, and do not put off 

 this work until some morning when your crops are so wet that 

 you can't do anything else, and then go and stand with your 

 two feet right in front of the entrance to the hives, and then 

 commence removing the combs and shaking part of the bees in 

 the hive and the rest on the ground, thus causing the bees to 

 mix into every colony in your bee-yard, to ruin all. 



If you have the disease in 10 or 12 colonies, don't tinker 

 with them and lose all by doing one or two in a week, and then 

 in a week after doing two more, and then scatter the bees 

 about so that they rush into the cured ones that you did the 

 week before, and thus get the disease back into them again. 

 Do the whole 10 or 12 in one evening. If you can't do that, 

 don't be more than two evenings at a small lot like that. 



Burn all.frames as soon as you cut the combs out of them, 

 because it won't pay you to waste valuable time in scalding 

 and fussing with old, daubed frames, when nice new once are 

 so cheap. Make wax of the combs just as soon as you cut 

 them out of the frames. 



If your apiary is badly diseased, don't, under any consid- 

 eration, save even one comb either in or out of your hives. 

 Remember if you do, it will start the disease again. 



Don't waste your time in boiling, scalding, disinfecting 

 any empty hive that had foul brood in it ; the empty hives are 

 perfectly safe to use in any way you wish without doing any- 

 thing with them. I saved many wood-piles, and the people 

 from a world of labor, ty forbidding the boiling and the disin- 

 fecting of empty hives that foul brood had been in. 



While on my rounds through Ontario the first summer, I 

 found the bee-keepers everywhere ready, and very anxious, to 

 boil and disinfect all empty hives that foul brood had been In. I 

 could have very easily traded upon the ignorance of the people, 

 by advising them to do so, which would have been a very unjust 

 thing for me to do — to cause the bee-koepers a terrible lot more 

 work, and waste their valuable time and wood-piles in boiling 

 empty hives that foul brood had been in. I had not the heart 

 to do It, and lookton it as little short of crime on my part, If 

 I did not forbid it. I forbade it everywhere, and the people 

 are loud in my praise for saving them from a lot of useless 

 work. I always told the bee-keepers that there was no more 

 reason for scalding empty hives than their was for scalding 

 the bees that were full of the deadly honey when they were 

 put into the hives after the rotten combs were removed. 



Ontario, Canada. 

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