90 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



good beekeeping. There are many 

 individuals in this class that are just 

 as good beekeepers as the profes- 

 sionals, but the average of knowledge 

 is not so good as the average among 

 the professional beekeepers. Bee- 

 keeping has charms, financial, social 

 and intellectual — sufllcient to chal- 

 lenge the attention and admiration of 

 our best men. A strong arm and a 

 weak mind are the poorest possible 

 combination in the bee-yard. 



The last two columns are of partic- 

 ular interest. As one looks down the 

 column headed "Returns per colony," 

 one can picture in the mind's eye the 

 gradual development of a beekeeper 

 from the nervous, fearful, self-con- 

 scious amateur, making but a meager 

 return per colony, to the extensive, 

 successful and too often self-confi- 

 dent professional. 



The only moral in this table is by 

 comparison. Size up your business 

 and see whether you are an average 

 beekeeper. But don't be satisfied 

 with being an average. If your terri- 

 tory is at fault, move. If your meth- 

 ods are at fault, change them. If you 

 are not informed, get informed. The 

 most successful men give their busi- 

 ness their constant thought and at- 

 tention. 



Michigan. 



To the Rescue of Dr. Miller 



By W. S. Pangburn 



ON page 417 of the American Bee 

 Journal for December, under 

 "Criticisms," by C. E. Fowler, 

 Dr. Miller calls for help on the ques- 

 tion as to whether carbon disulphide 

 will kill the egg of the moth. Mr. 

 Fowler claims that it would not. 



I am writing this article in behalf 

 of Dr. Miller, for whom I have pro- 

 found respect, and hope it may be of 

 some interest to other beekeepers as 

 well; but if I might say some little 

 thing that would be of any help to 

 Dr. Miller, I would only be too glad 



to do it for what I have gleaned from 

 the many helpful articles from his 

 pen. 



From my own experience with car- 

 bon disulphide, which has been the 

 past 10 years, and in that time fumi- 

 gating thousands of combs, I do not 

 think Dr. Miller made any mistake 

 when he said that only one treatment 

 was necessary to kill both moth and 

 egg. . I add. if done thoroughly. 



In all the time we have used it, and 

 never having had to give any set of 

 combs the second treatment, seems 

 to me at least to prove Dr. Miller 

 was not wrong. 



In the past year or two a number 

 of articles have appeared in the bee 

 journals on the subject of treating 

 combs with carbon disulphide. and 

 without exception the claim has been 

 made that two treatments were 

 necessary to do the business, and get 

 both moth and egg, and nearly all the 

 instructions were to pile the bodies 

 to be treated on top of one another 

 several stories high, and place the 

 carbon in a dish on top of the pile, 

 and cover tight. A mighty indefinite 

 set of instructions I would say, espe- 

 cially for a beekeeper who had not 

 used the drug before, and knew little 

 of its action. I do not know that I 

 have seen in any of these articles a 

 definite amount of the drug to be 

 used given, for a certain number of 

 supers or bodies. 



In reading the different articles I 

 have often wondered why so many 

 found the second treatment neces- 

 sary, and we never treated but once, 

 and never a failure in 10 years. 



There is only one good reason that 

 we can think of as to why this sec- 

 ond treatment has been found neces- 

 sary, and that is, the job has not been 

 done thoroughly enough, and the dose 

 in most cases has been guessed at. 



We will °'ive the method we use in 

 treating out combs; it is different 

 from any I have ever seen given. 



First scrape all propolis from top 

 and bottom edges of supers or bodies 



in order to get a good fit between 

 bodies and retain the deadly gases. 



Do not be satisfied with this, but 

 put two thicknesses of newspaper be- 

 tween each set of combs to be treat- 

 ed, which will insure a good tight 

 joint, if your hives are made a.i they 

 should be. 



On top of each set of combs place a 

 cloth about 10 inches square 

 (doubled), and pour a tablespoonful 

 of carbon disulphide on the cloth 

 and cover with newspapers. Then 

 place another body on top, and so on 

 as high as you wish to go. 



We believe the success of the treat- 

 ment lies in confining the gases as 

 long as possible, and giving each set 

 of combs the same strength dose, 

 which cannot be done in piling up 

 bodies 6, 8, or 10 high, with perhaps 

 open joints at each body, as is the 

 case if the edges are not scraped of 

 propolis and made to fit and the car- 

 bon disulphide on top of these piles. 



The fumes of the drug are very, 

 heavy, and will settle to the bottom 

 of the pile quickly, which gives the 

 upper stories a poor chance of being 

 treated as thoroughly as they should, 

 while the bottom ones may, or may 

 not, be treated sufficiently. 



In treating combs by this method 

 for 10 years, combs that developed 

 millers could be seen, along with 

 worms from the size that could 

 scarcely be seen with the naked eye, 

 to those almost ready to spin cocoons, 

 also combs wet from the extractor 

 that had as yet shown no signs of 

 moths, that it would hardly be possi- 

 ble that "all eggs were hatched be- 

 fore treatment." 



We never think of looking at a set 

 of combs after treating until we wish 

 to use them, if it is not in a year or 

 two, and we have never seen the 

 works of moths in any combs treated. 

 Of course we keep them covered tight 

 after treatment, which is necessary 

 that more millers do not get in and 

 start up another crop. 



We took down a pile of combs this 

 season that were drawn in 1913, 

 which were never used or treated 

 since they were piled up, and they 

 were in perfect condition. 



Sometimes, some little thing is the 

 turning point to success, or failure. 



Iowa. 



(Our columns are open for more in- 

 formation on this matter. — Editor.) 



(Before.) 



Apiary in box hives in British Columbia. — Photo by F. Dundas Todd. 



Excerpt From the Review of Ap- 

 plied Entomology, Nov., 1919, 

 Agric. — Paratyphus in Honey- 

 Bees. 



Skandinavisk Veterinar-Tidsskraft, 

 ix, 1919, pp. 25-40-45-60. 



"An acute enteritis of bees in the 

 vicinity of Copenhagen has been 

 found to be due to Bacillus paraty- 

 phi-alvei, the bees showing symptoms 

 of debility, inability to fly and some- 

 times diarrhoea, and dying in from 

 24 hours to a few days. The disease 

 was introduced with purchased in- 

 fected bees, and in eight beehives, 50 

 per cent of the bees succumbed in a 

 fortnight. Bacillus, paratyphi-alvei 



