48 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



known of any one's making that state- 

 ment until you did so. From Cyprus I went 

 first to vSyria and Palestine ; thence I proceed- 

 ed by way of Egypt and Arabia to Ceylon, ex- 

 amining and collecting the bees peculiar to 

 each region visited. From Ceylon the jour- 

 ney was continued to Farther India, Sumatra, 

 and Java, that having been the original inten- 

 tion when I started from Cyprus. On the 

 large island of Java, 600 miles long, I made 

 journeys in search of Apis dorsata, east, west, 

 north, and south — in fact, everywhere — by 

 rail, by coach, and on foot, over plains, plan- 

 tations, rivers, wooded hills, into the wildest 

 jungles, and up the most rugged mountains 

 and active volcanoes, even to a height of 

 10,000 feet; but neither secured nor even saw 

 any of the giant bees, although they had been 

 supposed to be plentiful on that island — so 

 plentiful, in fact, that certain German publica- 

 tions had, whenever referring to them, always 

 called them "the large bee of the Island of 

 Java." On my return I again visited Farther 

 India and Ceylon, and in the interior jungles 

 of this island secured four colonies of Apis 

 dorsata which I brought with me alive 

 eighteen days' journey by fast steamer to 

 Syria. These giant East-Indian bees showed 

 not only great vitality under very trying con- 

 ditions, but also gave indications of qualities 

 which I think it worth while for the intelli- 

 gent bee-keepers of America to investigate 

 further and without prejudice. 



Frank Benton. 



Washington, D. C, Dec. 31, 1898. 



[While the mistakes may have been rather 

 provoking to friend Benton, I really feel that 

 they did him no injustice. I meant more to 

 mention the places he visited than the exact 

 order in which he reached them. The blun- 

 der I sought to correct was that he went to 

 the Philippines to get Apis dorsata, instead 

 of to Ceylon and Java. .So far as the distances 

 are concerned, I referred to air-line or straight 

 distances, while Mr. Benton evidently refers 

 to the distance one must travel to reach the 

 several places mentioned, which is quite a 

 different thing. When blunders result in 

 bringing out so interesting a letter as the 

 above from one who has traveled further than 

 any other man ever did for knowledge regard- 

 ing bees, I feel pretty well reconciled, and 

 hope friend Benton will pardon any discrep- 

 ancy between my statement and his. — W.P.R.] 



BATTLING WITH FOUL BROOD. 



Ten Minutes' Boiling of Diseased Honey not Suf- 

 ficient to Kill the Germs; a Valuable Article. 



BY J. A. BUCHANAN. 



Four years ago foul brood made its appear- 

 ance in my home apiary. This was expected 

 to occur at any time, as we buy honey from 

 bee-keepers in nearly every State in the LTnion. 

 Each colony becoming affectel was destroyed, 

 the honey extracted, and, if good, was sold, 

 the combs made into wax, frames boiled, and 

 stored for future use. This apiary of 80 colo- 

 nies was wiped out within three years after the 

 first appearance of the disease. 



By way of experiment, twelve colonies re- 

 maining were taken from their combs and 

 given new clean hives, there being small start- 

 ers put in the frames, and after the bees had 

 built combs three days these were removed, 

 and full frames of foundation given. This 

 was in July, at which time but little honey 

 was to be gathered. In order to have the hives 

 filled with comb, brood, and stores for winter, 

 the bees were fed syrup with enough honey 

 added, which was taken from out-apiaries free 

 from disease, to insure against granulation. 



The time arriving when larvse and sealed 

 brood would be found in abundance, it was 

 with no small degree of interest that exami- 

 nation was made of the brood-nest. Beauti- 

 ful sheets of perfectly healthy larvse greeted 

 my eye as comb after comb was lifted from 

 the hives ; and as the thousands of young 

 bees left their cells not a trace of foul brood 

 could be found. 



About this time I read in some paper — may 

 have been Gleanings — an article stating that 

 the spores contained in foul-brood honey 

 could be destroyed by boiling for a few min- 

 utes, after which it could be given to the bees 

 again with perfect safety. To me this appear- 

 ed logical and reasonable. As I had a few 60- 

 lb. cans of diseased honey that was too dark 

 to sell I was glad to utilize it in giving it back 

 to the bees. Fifty pounds of granulated sugar 

 and twenty pounds of water were brought to 

 a boil; then two hundred pounds of this dis- 

 eased honey was poured in, and all brought to 

 a boiling-point, and kept at this for not less 

 than ten minutes. 



The greatest care was taken that not a bee 

 could get access to any honey until it had been 

 boiled. This honey was now safe for bees, 

 and each colony was fed on this until well 

 supplied for the winter. Of course, brood- 

 rearing was stimulated by this liberal feeding; 

 but there was something else stimulated, and 

 every colony was again soon rotten with fcul 

 brood; and you may know I was stimulated 

 up to a point where I could have taken that 

 fellow who told " all about " how to kill foul- 

 brood spores by boiling honey five minutes, 

 outside the camp and stoned him off the earth. 



As further evidence that this honey so treat- 

 ed was the sole cause of the trouble I had 

 three late swarms, six miles away, in an out- 

 apiary, that were light in stores. A quantity 

 of this honey was taken out there and fed to 

 them. All three soon had the disease. These 

 were at once brought home ; but as it was late 

 in the fall, and having plenty of bees, these 

 three came through the winter in fair shape ; 

 and, notwithstanding their diseased condition, 

 they were ready to divide by the middle of 

 May. 



They also furnished me with material for 

 further experiment, with a view to learn how 

 to stamp out the disease with the least possi- 

 ble loss to the bee-keeper. 



By stimulative feeding, aud the best of care, 

 these three colonies had all cast swarms by 

 the 20th of May. The swarms, were allowed 

 to build combs two or three days, when these 

 were taken away and full sheets of foundation 

 given. 



