1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



15 



own get-up. I now prefer the J. A. Golden. 

 I am cow confident that eaily spring feeding to 

 try to encourage brood reaiirg is no benefit, 

 but detrimental. If s-uch is of value at any 

 time, I think it is between fruit and white- 

 clover blcom; but I do not know. So far as my 

 experience goes, after all this time I believe 

 that, if the brood chamber is kept well sup- 

 plied with honey in the brood-combs, other 

 supplies given as by feeders are of no use. I 

 shall coniinue to experiment along this lineon 

 a small scale in the future, as I have done in 

 the past, and hope to gain more light by so 

 doing. 

 Milledgeville, III. 



BISULPHIDE OF CARBON. 



HAS ITS VALUE AS A MOTH- KILLER BEEN OVER- 

 ESTIMATED ? ITS BAD EFFECTS ON COMB 

 honey; an IMPORTANT AND VAL- 

 UABLE ARTICLE. 



By C. Davenport. 



In reading the report of the last convention 

 proceedings of the North American Bee-keep- 

 ers' Association I'notice that bisulphide of car- 

 bon is mentioned as a means'of killing moths in 

 comb honey. I should like to say a few words 

 about this; fori believe that, if it ever comes 

 into general use for this purpose, it will do more 

 to', injure bee keepers than adulteration ever 

 has or ever will, for adulteration affects ex- 

 tracted honey only. While I believe comb hon- 

 ey represents the largest interests, I do not wish 

 it to be understood that I am not aware of the 

 great harm adulteration has done and is doing 

 to the producers of honey. I most heartily ap- 

 prove of what the members of the association 

 at the last meeting, said against and are trying 

 to do to remedy the evil. 



As a means of killing moths in comb honey I 

 have experimented with a good many kinds of 

 drugs. While there are a number of kinds that 

 will kill the moths under the right conditions, 

 all that I have tried as yet, which were effect- 

 ive, injured the flavor of the honey, and bisul- 

 phide of carbon did so the worst of all. It also 

 has the peculiar property of making it thinner 

 —not only what is in unsealed cells next to the 

 edge, but that which is sealed as well. 



Sections of honey that are so well cured that 

 the honey in unsealed cells can not be shaken 

 out by hand will, soon after treatment with bi- 

 sulphide of carton, run or drip quite readily 

 from unsealed cells if the sections are turned 

 over on their sides; and the honey in some that 

 I kept a number of months after treatmentdid 

 not get thick again. But it should be under- 

 stood that the treatment was very thorough, as 

 it has to be in order to kill the moths. I hard- 

 ly think any room could be made tight enough 

 for this purpose unless it is one well plastered, 

 and strips of paper pasted over all the cracks 



around doors and windows; and the floor would 

 have to be especially good, for the gas or fumes 

 from this stuff try to go down instead of up. I 

 tried it first in a room which I thought was 

 nearly air-tight; but after eight hours, moths 

 in some old pieces of comb which had been 

 placed in the room were as lively as ever. In 

 this case the drug was placed in a large open 

 dish about seven inches in diameter, and it was 

 not all evaporated when the room was opened. 

 I then took a good sound bee-hive, nailed on a 

 tightbottom, and poured melted beeswax around 

 all cracks; in fact, I coated it all over inside 

 with wax, as I did the cover, which was one 

 that fitted very tight. Along the top edges of 

 the hive, on which the cover would rest, strips 

 of rubber were nailed so that, when the cover 

 was on and heavily weighted down, this box 

 was, I believe, perfectly air-tight; and I found 

 that in this box it took about 33^ or 4 hours to 

 kill moths that were well protected by the comb 

 and their web. Those I took from the comb 

 and placed in an open glass would die in about 

 IX to 2 hours. 



In order to kill moths in comb honey it would, 

 of course, have to be left as long as it took to 

 kill those protected by their web and the comb. 

 Moths are much harder to kill in this manner 

 than some things that are larger. A mouse in 

 a trap was put in this box, and at the end of 20 

 minutes the cover was removed and the mouse 

 was dead. It took but a few minutes to kill a 

 toad and a gopher. 



In killing moths with the fumes of sulphur it 

 is much easier to kill the small ones. With bi- 

 sulphide of carbon the big ones seem to die 

 fully as soon as the small ones. 



Moths are very bad here during warm weath- 

 er. Some one said that, with Italian bees, if 

 the honey were taken directly from the hives 

 and put in a room tight enough so that a moth- 

 miller could not enter, the honey would not be 

 troubled by moths. But I am sorry to say that, 

 in this locality, honey directly from the hives of 

 Italian bees put in such a room, if the room is 

 above ground, and kept as warm as it should 

 be, would often be nearly destroyed by moths if 

 it were not sulphured every twelve days or so 

 for a while during warm weather. 



I should like some better method of killing 

 moths than sulphur, but I do not believe it is to 

 be found in bisulphide of carbon; for, to say 

 nothing about its injuring the honey, it is fully 

 as much (if not more) work to use it. It costs 

 more, and, besides, it is a poisonous and.'danger- 

 ous drug to handle. 

 G Southern Minnesota, Dec. 1. 



[I am glad that Mr. Davenport has sounded 

 a note of warning in time, for of late bee-keep- 

 ers have been looking toward bisulphide of 

 carbon as the best solution of the moth evil in 

 comb honey; but if the remedy is as bad as or 

 worse than the disease itself, then it is high 

 time we called at least a temporary halt. It is 

 no doubt true that other bee-keepers who have 



