Jan. 30, 1902 



AMERICAN BEE JOURiNAL 



73 



II is when thodlseaso bncomes widuly sproad that llu^ lir(^- 

 kcc|i(M-s w:il;o ii|) tii tlic fart that tlii'ii' colonlps have fcjul 

 lii-ddil. 'I'lirso III istii lies, wliicli luivn so ofti^M ciulcil In lii^' 

 kisses fi'oin brliiwiiiK (lisi'ascil ciiinbs inln aplarii's, shoiilil ln^ a 

 waniliig to b('i-l<(!(!pers not to deal miirli in oiil ciimbs. 



No b('((-l<('rpi'r woiiid lirliiK a diseased eoml) Into liis apiary 

 if ho iiiunv that it contained foul brood, and the nicMi vvlio dis- 

 |)oso of such eoinlis don't know that lliev are, diseased when 

 tliey sell them. 



1 received many letters from liee-keepors asking mc to 

 visit tlieir Idealities, and while iiispeetiiiR tliere to stop witli 

 tiiein. I was niiieli pleased witli the ^(enerons treatment 

 wliieh I received from (-very person, and in turn I felt in duty 

 bound to lielji tlio piniple all I could in every possible way be- 

 sides n'ettinjf their apiari(!S cured of fonl-lii'ood, and I did so. 



I am also pleased tii say that nearly all of the largest and 

 bost-payins apiaries in the I'rovince of Ontario are annini: the 

 very jnany tliat I got perfectly cured of the disease years ago. 



Wm. McEvoy. 



VVoodburn, Out.. Canada, Dec. :i, 1901. 



Mr. Clarke thought it would be well to have a certiiicate 

 of wliat liad been done, anil that the Inspector had visited the 

 apiaries, and the condition in whicli ho loft each apiary. 



Mr. Kmigli said that the (iovernment hired Mr. McEvoy, 

 and he ri]iorted to them. 



Mr. Iloltermaiin said that Mr. McEvoy had to give an ac- 

 count to the (Jovernnient : it is not a ciuestion of his honesty, 

 but in a business-like way he should give account, and this he 

 did. 



Mr. Evans said that tlie Ontario (iovernment looked pretty 

 closely after the finances, and when they passed a statement we 

 miglit be sure all was right. 



Mr. Gray asked to whom to apply for Mr. McEvoy's ser- 

 vices ? 



Answer — The president. 



President Newton — I think it would be well to abide more 

 closely to the rule in this report in the future. 



The Directors" report was given, and considered satisfac- 

 tory. 



WEDNESDAY — After xoo>f Session. 



The president in opening the session said he had great 

 pleasure in calling upon Mr. Mnrns, Mayor of Woodstock. 



The Mayor welcomed the Association and its members: 

 he knew but little aliout this line of business but thouglit that 

 more should understand something about bees. He paid the 

 Association a high compliment as to the intelligent appear- 

 ance of its members. He thought more could engage in the 

 business in general, and especially in the vicinity of Wood- 

 stock. He trusted that they would soon be found again con- 

 vening in the city. 



In closing, he welcomed the Association on behalf of the 

 citizens. 



I'res. Newton in reply said that the Association was very 

 much pleased to receive the welcome e.xtended, as such a wel- 

 come had a tendency to make the members feel at home. On 

 their behalf he thanked the Mayor for his presence and ad- 

 dress. 



John Fixter. of the Experimental Farm at Ottawa, then 

 gave the following: 



Experiments to Test Whether Bees Injure Sound Fruit. 



For many years the question as to whether sound fruit 

 was injured by honey bees lias been under discussion, but 

 last year special attention was drawn to this question by a 

 lawsuit between a fruit-grower and a bee-keeper, the former 

 claiming that his fruit had been seriously injured by tlie bees 

 of liis neighbor, while the bee-keeper brought evidence to show 

 that not only was this not the case, but that it was impossible. 

 The question was of so much interest to bee-keepers that tlie 

 following experiments were undertaken to determine wliether 

 bees, even when deprived of food, would attack fruit placed 

 within their reach. The results here given indicate that such 

 is not the case, which merely confirms the conclusions arrived 

 at many years ago. 



On Sept. 7, UKJl, when there was no honey to be gath- 

 ered on plants outside, ripe fruit of four different kinds, viz., 

 peaches, pears, plums and grapes were exposed in different 

 places near the Experimental Farm Apiary, wliere It was 

 easily accessible to the bees. 



A. Inside the bee-hives. 



B. On branches of trees in the apiary enclosure. 



C. On shelves in a workshop, to which the bees had access 

 through an open window. 



Every care was taken that all the fruit used in this experi- 

 ment should be perfectly sound. 



A. Inside bee-hives : The fruit was exposed in three dif- 



ferent conditions, (I) whole fruit without any truatnienl ; (2» 

 whole fruit tliat has been dipped in honny ; CJ) fruit which 

 had been jjunetured In s("vcral places with the blade of a pen- 

 knife. 



Four colonies were sidected for this experiment, all of 

 about equal strength. Each of these colonies was In a hive 

 upon wliich was placed a supi^r divided In the middle by a 

 partition. I'roni two of the hives all the honey had been re- 

 moved ; in the two remainln(f hives five frames were left, eacli 

 liaviiig conslderatiie brood lioiiey around it. Tlie former two 

 weighed, on an average, 27 pounds, the latter ■>i'/^ pounds. 

 In each one of the four hives the whole specimens of fruit 

 not dipped in honey were hung within three empty frames 

 tied together as a rack. The whole specimens of fruit dipped 

 ill honey were placed in one ('ompartment of a super, and the 

 [lunctured specimens were placed in the other. 



The bees began to work at once both iijion the dipped and 

 the punctured fruit. The former was cleaned thoroughly of 

 honey during the first night; upon the punctured fruit the 

 bees clustered, thereby sucking the juice through the punc- 

 tures as long as they could obtain any liijuid. 



At the end of seven days all the fruit was carefully 

 examined. The sound fruit was still uninjured in any way, 

 but had the surface polisliod and shining as if the bees liad 

 been travelins it. trying to find some opening through the 

 skin. The dipped fruit was in a like condition, ijuite sound, 

 but every vestige of honey had disajipeared. The punctured 

 fruit was badly mutilated and worthless, and beneath each 

 puncture was a cavity, and in some instances decay had set in. 



The experiment was continued the following week, the 

 undipued, sound fruit being left in the brood-cliamber. The 

 dipped fruit was given a new coating of honey and replaced In 

 the super, and a fresh supply of punctured fruit was substi- 

 tuted for that which ha^ been destroyed. 



At the end of the second week, the condition of this fruit 

 was entirely similar to that of the first lot. 



For the third week fresh samples of fruit of all the above 

 kinds were used, because some of the sound fruit had begun to 

 decay : this fruit, however, had the skin unbroken, and in no 

 case had the bees done any damage. The result was the same 

 as before. 



After the third week the bees belonging to the two hives 

 which had been deprived of the honey appeared to be sluggish, 

 and there were many dead bees about the entrances of the 

 liives. These colonies had lived for the first week on the 

 punctured fruit, and on the honey of the fruit which had been 

 dipped. 



As there were at that season few plants in flower from 

 which they could gather nectar, these bees had died of starva- 

 tion, notwithstanding the proximity of the ripe, juicy fruit. 

 This supply of food, which they were urgently in need of. was 

 separated from th(>m only by the thin skin of the fruit, which, 

 however, this evidence seems to prove they could not puncture, 

 as they did not do so, although tliey kept crawling over it 

 continually. 



The mean weight of each of these two hives Sept. 7. when 

 the experiment was begun, was 27 pounds. At the end of the 

 experiment, four weeks later, each had lost 3}^ pounds. 



The mean weight of the two hives in each of which were 

 left five frames with brood and honey, was, at the beginning 

 of the experiment, 3-1: >^ pounds. The mean loss of each of 

 these hives was 2K pounds. 



B. Fruit exposed in the open air hung from the branches 

 of a spruce tree in the apiary enclosure : In this experiment 

 two sets of whole fruit were used, one being dipped in honey, 

 the other punctured as before. The bees worked' exactly as in 

 the hives and with the same result. 



C. Fruit exposed on shelves in a work-shop adjoining the 

 honey-house : This, like the preceding experiment, consisted 

 of dipped fruit and punctured fruit, although the bees did not 

 work so freely inside the building as they did on the fruit 

 hung outside on tlie trees and that in the hives; still, the re- 

 sults were practically the same in every case. 



He had conducted experiments with the different sizes of 

 hives, foundation and putting out bees. 



In the matter of experimenting with fruit, Mr. Darling felt 

 sure this experiment, and similar experiments conducted on 

 the other side of the International line, would be of interest to 

 bee-keepers and the public. As to Prof. Shiitt's work he was 

 surprised, yet not surprised, that thefe was the difticulty in 

 detecting the percentage of water. He hoped Mr. Shutt 

 would keep on and make a thorough investigation of the mat- 

 ter. As to practical experience in the apiary, he had no doubt 

 all noticed that the grass becomes discolored at the entrance 

 of the hive, no doubt from the fumes of formic acid from the 



