610 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



tenna? of several bees with flour, aiul noted the re- 

 sults. The movements of the bees were so quick 

 that I could uot determine exactly how it was done. 

 Whenever the antenna\ or feelers, were dusted, 

 they were quickly cleaned; but how ? With a mag- 

 nifying-glass, after the antenna' were thus cleaned, 

 I examined closely the little notch at C. It did not 

 take long- to discover there the wheat flour, which 

 evidently had been scraped off the feelers. After 

 repeated watchings, a bee finally moved his leg- so 

 slowly that I saw exactly how it was done. I fur- 

 ther tested the matter by besmearing the antenufe 

 with honey. The same result followed as before. 

 As the power of delicate touch, and, by some au- 

 thorities, hearing and smelling as well, is supposed 

 to reside in the antenna', it is highly important 

 that these organs be kept perfectly clean by some 

 such contrivance as that shown at C. 



These, I believe, are all the important changes as 

 made iu the latest edition. It is to be regretted 

 that the new matter has been set in a slightly dif- 

 ferent-faced type, rather marring the appearance 

 of the page where the two kinds of type (though 

 both are supposed to be "long primer") come to- 

 gether in contrast. This is Brought about, I sup- 

 pose, by the fact that the book has been printed at 

 two different oflices, each of which had its own 

 kind of long primer type. However, to anj- one 

 not a printer, nor interested in ])rinting-, I suppose 

 this difiTerence in type would not be apparent. 



E UN EST. 



TROUBLE AT THE HOME OF THE 

 HOWEY-BEEa 



For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon 

 me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. 

 -Job 3: 25. 



J7^ EAR FRIENDS, when I told you in 

 illl ^"^' ^'^^^ issue that we had Canada 

 w^ thistles on our plantation, I had no 

 ■*-' idea that I should be obliged to chron- 

 icle, in a few days more, that we had 

 foul brood in our own apiary. 1 have for 

 many years feared that, sooner or later, 

 something of the kind would happen, and I 

 once told our good friend 1). A. Jones that I 

 could tliink of no calamity so dire as this. 

 lie told me not to worry, but that, if we 

 ever got it, to write to him and he would 

 come down and cure it for us for nothing. 

 You know that is just like liim for all tlie 

 world. Well, we have not tjilten up this kind 

 offer, for the reason that the disease as yet 

 has made its appearance in only ten colonies 

 out of over 400; besides, according to his de- 

 scription in liis little book, " Foul Brood, its 

 Management and Cure," it is not the real 

 virulent foul brood, but what he dehnes as 

 " ' dead ' brood." The larvK die at different 

 stages, and either become soft and pasty, or 

 dry up in the lower side of the cell. The 

 sealed brood has usually pinholes through 

 the cap, but tlie cap is not sunken. The 

 well-known disagreeable smell accompanies 

 it, and this alone tells when it has got a foot- 

 hold in a hive. Do you want to know what 

 we have done? Just this : Every comb in 

 every hive containing even a trace of it has 

 been burned up by throwing them all in tlie 

 furnace under the boiler of the engine. We 

 are going to starve the bees until the con- 

 tents of their honey-sacks are nearly or quite 



exhausted, then put them on good new 

 combs. The hives will be thoroughly scald- 

 ed by a jet of steam from a rubber hose. 

 Meanwhile we will lill no orders for bees, 

 queens, or brood, from our apiary, unless 

 our customer has seen this sheet, and ex- 

 pressed himself willing to have his orders 

 tilled from our apiary from colonies that 

 have never shown a trace of it. Orders as 

 they come will be iilled promptly, as usual, 

 from the apiary of Neighbor II. 



Now, then, how^ did it come about? I can 

 not tell, unless it was from honey we had 

 purchased — possibly from a leaky barrel ; 

 and this has decidetl us never more to pur- 

 chase honey in barrels. It must be in tin 

 cans ; and sliould any leakage occur from 

 these they are to be mended and washed be- 

 fore the bees can have a chance to gain ac- 

 cess by any possible means to the outside of 

 the cans. It may have been brought to us 

 in another way. " We are pttrchasing wax 

 constantly, and it comes from almost every 

 quarter of the globe. The wax cakes ofteii 

 contain more or less honey daubed on their 

 surfaces, and sometimes abee or two gets 

 into the wax-room and goes to work on these 

 wax cakes, ily the additional room given 

 us by the building of our new factory, we 

 are going to have all wax taken in the orig- 

 inal packages at once to a darkened room. 

 The wax is to be so thoroughly protected, 

 both by doors and wiiulows with wire cloth, 

 that no bee gets outside or inside alive. 

 .Some may ask why we should uot cure the 

 foul brood, instead of resorting to such de- 

 struction of valuable property. If I had 

 only a few hives, and could give them my 

 constant supervision, some such plan might 

 answer; but as it is, I prefer to burn up 

 every thing it has touched until no further 

 trace of it can be found. We are going to 

 treat it as we did the Canada thistles ; and 

 may God help us to conquer, for yfmr sakes 

 as well as our own. 



I feel quite certain that there will be no 

 possible danger of the disease being trans- 

 mitted by selling queens, or even pounds of 

 bees. It is, however, everybody's privilege 

 to decline buying from an apiary where foul 

 brood has existed, if you wish. In regard 

 to the chances of contagion, even by taking 

 queens from diseased colonies, we make the 

 following extract from D. A. Jones's little 

 book referred to above: 



1 have never yet known the disease to be 

 contracted by either queens or drones, although I 

 have experimented largely in that direction, taking- 

 queens from foul-broody colonies and placing them 

 in healthy colonies. I was once informed by one of 

 the best bee-keepers in the United States that he 

 had tried the experiment scores of times; that is, 

 selling the queens out of healthy colonies, and re- 

 placing- them with those from the worst affected 

 foul-broody colonies, and in no instance did the dis- 

 ease appear in these hives, the apiary being three 

 miles from the one in which the diseased colonies 

 were. The gentleman had several bee-farms. I do 

 not mean to assert that the disease never hax heen 

 carried by queens or drones, but I honestly believe 

 that if it )(((» ere/- /»een. the case, that the honey tak- 

 en with them had sotnethiuci to do with it. 



Please remember, friends, there is not a 

 cell of foul brood now in our apiary — at least, 

 none that we can discover ; and every comb 

 of our over 40t> hives has been carefully scru- 

 tinized. 



