ixti-j 



(II.KAMXIJS IN KKI-: (, LJI/rilUK. 



l'.>r, 



fore shown at. tliat cxliihiiicin. 'riuTc wcif live 

 inventions com pctiiij;. \l. I". lioi.TKiniANN. 

 linmtfoni, Ontario, tan. 



|Tlu' iMit and description above does not 

 niai<e tiie ])riiu'iple of tiie extiactor entirely 

 plain. Keversinjj is caused l)y a positive lever 

 motion. 'I'liese level's ladiatinjr fioni the cen- 

 ter sliaft worU in a slot in the botioin of the 

 comh-pocl\(>ts. Ueversinf; the ciaiiU reverses 

 the center sllaf^ wiiich in Inin revolves tlie 

 k'vers a little way. ami this causes the pocki'ts 

 to be swunfi around. I'eriiaps the iilea will lie 

 understood a little better by the enf?raving 

 which we made some monllis afro, of their tiist 



machine, only that the levers, in that case, 

 were placed above the baskets, whereas they 

 are now put under so as to be out of the 

 way of the combs. The peculiar feature 

 claimed for this extractor is. that the comb- 

 pockets when at rest are out of the way of any 

 supporting arms for putting in and removing 

 combs: and although our friend Mr. HolK-rmann 

 does not say so. we presume the manufai-lurei- 

 also dispenses with the chains. 



We U'Sted one of their extractors; Init. for 

 some reason, we were not able to maki- it work 

 satisfactorily — at least, not as well as the Stan- 

 ley in actual service in extracting. We have 

 since been informed that the manufacturers, 

 E. L. Goold it Co.. Brantford. f)nt.. have over- 

 come some of the defects encountered in their 

 first machines.] 



FOUL BROOD AND THE SALT CURE. 



W. I.. COGGSHAI.I, KXIM..\1.\S III.MSi;i,F. 



f)n page 84 Mr. M. M. Haldridge asks for my 

 metluKl of administering salt for foul' brood. 

 Mr. JJaldridge need not have said that he was 

 no novice, as I have always recocni/.ed him as 

 an able and practical bee-keeper. :for there is 

 but little printed in the journals that has not 

 been read by me in the last 25 y(>ars. although 

 1 am not quite 40 years old yet. I notice the 

 <'ditf)r threw cold water on the tlieorv that salt 



or brine would cun; foul brood; l)ut I thought 

 that the editor and I'lof. Cook had tried it sci- 

 entilii-ally. so 1 said no more about it. 1 had 

 tried it only in an experimental way four or 

 live times with as many colonies, and it was ef- 

 fectual every time. 1 used it only twice, at 

 intervals of ten days or two weeks, and each 

 colony i-ame out all right no more brood died. 

 Let me say riirht lieie that it might not have 

 been foul brood. \>'ell. if it was not, then 1 am 

 out of the race. 



What is the cause of foul brood or diseased 

 brood? A great many say chilled brood is the 

 lirst cause. Well, a man can not be a bee-keiq)- 

 er without being a little theoretical. My theory 

 is, starvation, the bees not IxMug able to get out 

 in the spring and get what honev the young 

 bees require to live on. This will cause dis- 

 eased brood every time, and I have cured it 

 ircnj time, and it has never done me any harm. 



Now for the cure (with me at least). Take a 

 pail of soft lukewarm water, and dissolve what 

 salt you can in it by stirring it ten minutes. It 

 will not do any harm if it is strong enough to 

 k(>ep pork in. Take the combs out of the hives 

 that are atfected (I use the hrushl)ioom that I 

 us(> to brush the bees off when I extract, made 

 of tine broom corn). I sprinkle the combs, bees, 

 brood, and all. lightly. It will not hurt the 

 brood at all. Once a week is often enough in 

 extreme cases. In the meantime leave a chunk 

 of salt as large as a hen's egg in fiont of each 

 hive in the apiary. Be sure to put it right up 

 close to the eniiance, where it will dissolve, and 

 the bees will get it. I usually keep a nail-keg 

 or a barrel tilled with sawdust, under the eaves 

 of the bee-house. Put on a wide board, with 

 salt in the top. It acts as a leach, and the dust 

 holds the moisture. If it does not rain often, 

 thiow in a pailful of water, and you will have 

 less trouble with the bees bothering your 

 neighbors. 



Now. brother bee-keepers, do not forget the 

 above, and you will have less trouble. The 

 easiest way to get along with trouble is not to 

 get in. 



I will tell you how I get rid of or cure another 

 trouble that some of the bee- k(iepers have had 

 ni removing the queen. They attribute the trou- 

 ble to the (jueen, when it is not she at all. I 

 refer to the brood not being capped up, and 

 they sometimes hatch out without being cap- 

 ped. The cause is, that there are not enough 

 young bees to cap over the brood. Remove two 

 frames of brooil, and rejjlace them with two 

 fi'ames of hatching brood from another colony. 

 I will admit, that removing the queen will ac- 

 complish it: therefore by the time you get an- 

 other queen in there will be enough young bees 

 hatched to ca|) over the remainder. If you 

 should i)ut the old queen into a strong colony 

 you would generally lind her a hustler; hence 

 you condemn the old (lueen when it is not she 

 at all — or, at least, that is inv experience. 



West Croton. N. Y. 



\\ . L. CoGGSHAI.r,. 



Feb. 1.5. 



[We can not believe, friend C. that you had 

 real foul brood. If it will not yield to strong 

 antiseptics, as we have tried repeatedly, it is 

 unlikely that it would to a mild antiseptic like 

 salt. We have seen many forms of chilled 

 brood that resembled, in every particular, foul 

 brood, and yet this would always go off at the 

 approach of warm weather. Now. if we had 

 salted these; combs we might have supposed 

 that we had foul brood, and that salt cured it. 

 In dealing with foul brood it is dangerous to 

 experiment with unknown or partially tested 

 remedies. As we have before exijlained. chilled 

 biood or dead brood may be a favorabh; medi- 

 um for the lodfjment (if the germs already 



