296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



Honey-gathering stopped with white clover, 

 and brood-rearing stopped very early also, as 

 no feeding was done until late for winter 

 stores, to such colonies as needed it, and out 

 of 244 colonies I lost only three. 



Now, during the fall of 1894 there was a fall 

 flow, and broud-rearing was kept up very late; 

 but I met with a very heavy loss that winter 

 and following spring, but it was owing mostly, 

 I think, to the poor quality of the fall flow. 



Some time ago I noticed in Gleanings that 

 foul brood was spreading in some parts of the 

 country. While I have never had a case of 

 foul brood, I have always had a great dread of 

 it; for, although it can be cured, it is a great 

 expense, and involves a great amount of work. 

 Some time ago, in the A. B. J.,\ gave it as 

 my opinion that the fumes of bisulphide of 

 carbon would kill the germs and spores of foul 

 brood. I described how I subjected a piece 

 of foul-brood comb containing dead and rot- 

 ten larvae, as well as cells of sealed honey, to 

 these fumes for about ten hours, in an air- 

 tight box. This piece of comb was then plac- 

 ed on top of the brood-frames of a colony. 

 The cover was then pressed down, and the 

 front of the hive raised so that none of it 

 could escape or get out of the hive unless car- 

 ried out by the bees. This was three years 

 ago last summer, and no signs of the disease 

 have appeared in that colony yet. There is no 

 mistake about that comb being foul broody. 

 It was genuine foul brood in an advanced 

 stage of rottenness. Of course, one trial is 

 not sufficient to test the matter for certain; 

 but from numerous experiments I have made 

 with these fumes I believe they will kill the 

 spores of foul brood or any thing else if they 

 are subjected to them for ten hours in an air- 

 tight box. Perhaps much less time would suf- 

 fice. I see from experiments made at some of 

 the State experiment stations that these fumes 

 will also kill or impair the vitality or germi- 

 nating power of grain and seeds. Now, if 

 these fumes vrill kill the spores of foul brood 

 by their use, the disease can be cured with less 

 than half the work and expense of the most 

 approved methods practiced at present; for, 

 as I explained in the article referred to, a tank 

 could be made large enough to hold a number 

 of hives at once. If there were many colonies 

 affected, only a few extra hives with frames 

 would be necessary, as the infected hives and 

 combs could, after treatment, be used for the 

 second change. These fumes do not injure 

 the combs or frames at all; and to disinfect 

 combs or hives by this method, all that is nec- 

 essary is to place them in an air-tight box, or 

 one as nearly so as possible, with some of the 

 carbon in an open dish so it can evaporate. 

 The amount to use would not matter, so there 

 is enough, as any that did not evaporate would 

 be just as strong or good to use the next time. 



Perhaps if their attention were called to the 

 matter by this, some of the scientists among 

 us who are able to handle, cultivate, and prop- 

 agate the germs and spores of foul brood will 

 subject some of them to these fumes for ten 

 hours or so, and let us know whether it kills 

 their vitality or germinating power or not. 



Southern Minn. 



[I wish some of our friends who are troubled 

 with foul brood, and who are "given to an 

 experimental turn of mind," would test the 

 bisulphide treatment of friend Davenport. 

 The only item I think it would save would be 

 the comb. The bees, of course, during the 

 interim of fumigation, would have to be in 

 some other quarters. By the McEvoy treat- 

 ment there are no acids, no fumigation, and 

 no scalding of hives; indeed, the bees are put 

 right back into the same hives; but the frames, 

 combs, and brood are destroyed. By Mr. 

 Davenport's fumigation method, the brood 

 will be destroyed, but the comb and frames 

 will be saved. — Ed.] 



BEE-PARALYSIS A LA WALKER. 



Going without Breakfasts Beneficial; theA\erage 

 Weight of Combs. 



BY O. O. POPPLETON. 



On p. 625, Sept. 1, 1897, Mr. Walker tells of 

 curing bee-paralysis by running swarms from 

 his diseased colonies into hives from which 

 healthy swarms had issued. His bees must 

 have a peculiar form of the disease. I have 

 never had a diseased colony cast a swarm. 

 Again, many colonies seem to get well of 

 themselves late enough in the season for 

 swarming to take place, especially those that 

 are affected so lightly as to be anywhere near 

 in swarming condition. I hope to see the 

 Monnier cure prove successful; but Mr. Walk- 

 er's method of mixing swarms is very little 

 proof of that fact. What I want is a cure that 

 will work earlier in the season than swarming- 

 time. 



On p. 823 are some comments on the health- 

 fulness of going without breakfast. While 

 living in Cuba we had to adopt Cuban ways in 

 living — that is, breakfast at 9 or 10 o'clock; 

 dinner at 3. This was so satisfactory to us in 

 point of health that we continued doing so for 

 years after returning to the States, and gave it 

 up only because of the inconvenience of hav- 

 ing our meals at different times from our 

 neighbors. Our experience was much similar 

 to that of your Australian correspondent. 



I was glad to see Dr. Miller (p. 876) catch 

 you up on that " 10 lbs. of honey in a frame " 

 statement of yours. We see a great many 

 loose or careless statements of weight of honey 

 in hives and supers; and while 1 have never 

 weighed full supers I have weighed hundreds 

 of full combs, and doubt whether any super 

 holding 10 Langstroth frames ever contains 

 over 50 lbs. of honey. Your estimate of 75 

 lbs. as the weight of a full super, including 

 hive-body, frames, and combs, is probably too 

 high. 



On p. 124, both Dr. Miller and yourself seem 

 to have had no trouble with the heads of 

 spacing-nails catching in the wire cloth in ex- 

 tractors. I have used spacing-nails for over 

 25 years, and, with the old style of extractor, 

 had no trouble either; but I do have trouble 

 with the reversible extractor. The narrow 

 baskets give less space for handling the combs, 

 and the nails very frequently catch and both- 



