1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



49 



As fast as the young queens in the parent 

 colonies hatched they were caged in order to 

 hold the bees together until about all the 

 brood that would hatch had done so. Then 

 their combs were taken away, and bees treated 

 the same as the swarms. Evidently there 

 could be no trace of foul brood left; but as there 

 was no honey to speak of in the field, my bees 

 could not make any advance unless fed. I 

 had a good deal of honey yet, but full of 

 spores; so I decided, just to find out some- 

 thing further, to feed this honey back to the 

 bees. Now, don't say, " What a fool ! " until 

 I get further along. I put a large boiler on 

 the furnace. I put in water, then sugar; this 

 was done to prevent the honey afterward put 

 in from burning, and to thin it somewhat. 

 The honey and all was boiled for one hour, all 

 the while keeping the scum arising skimmed 

 off. When strained and cool it was fed to the 

 bees. Any more diseased brood? Not a par- 

 ticle. In a few weeks each colony was again 

 divided, and I had twelve strong stocks from 

 the three diseased ones I had to work from in 

 the spring. 



The advice to burn hives, frames, bees, and 

 honey is all wrong. I feel sure that, with the 

 experience I have had, this terrible malady 

 can be stamped out with but little loss to the 

 bee-keeper, if it is only undertaken in a deter- 

 mined, painstaking way. 



Your remarks, Mr. Editor, in footnotes to 

 Dr. Miller's article, page, 876, Dec. 1st, have 

 called out what I have written above. 



Holliday's Cove, W. Va. 



[On page 876 Dr. Miller, on the authority 

 of Mr. Genonceaux and Dr. W. R. Howard, 

 stated that it was not safe to feed infected hon- 

 ey that had been boiled only 15 minutes ; and 

 he further added that later experiments on a 

 more extensive scale by Bacteriologist J. J. 

 McKenzie were to the same effect. These 

 scienti6c experiments not only showed that 15 

 minutes' boiling was insufficient, but that even 

 45 might not be enough. In reply to this, I 

 strongly intimated that science was at variance 

 with practice, as many bee-keepers had had 

 honey boiled only a short time, and yet no 

 bad results followed. I then said: "This is 

 an important matter, and we can not afford to 

 make any mistakes. If there is just one bee- 

 keeper who has found that five minutes' boil- 

 ing is not enough, then we ought to advise 

 boiling for at least an hour to make sure." 



This was a challenge, for it seems to have 

 been accepted by at least one bee-keeper whose 

 testimony we can not doubt. His statements, 

 together with those of the scientists above 

 named, convince me that it is dangerous to 

 use foul-brood honey that has been boiled for 

 less than an hour. Nay, I will go further : I 

 believe one will be taking risks if he feeds 

 such honey if it has been boiled for less than 

 three hours. 



I am willing to admit that this is contrary 

 to my own teachings and recommendations in 

 the past ; but when I see myself so plainly in 

 error I am willing — yes, glad — to have to 

 " right about face." 



On the other hand, I feel just a little cha- 



grined for the part I have borne in insisting 

 that a few minutes' boiling was sufficient. 

 But I believe I was backed by the experience 

 of such men as R. L. Taylor, Thos. W. Cow- 

 an, D. A. Jones, and dozens of others. But 

 just one instance, where ten minutes' boiling 

 was found to be insufficient to prevent the 

 spread of the disease, is better than dozens of 

 instances where the ten minutes' boiling was 

 found to be attended with no bad results. 

 While one may drive safely within an inch of 

 the precipice, it is the part of wisdom to drive 

 just as far away from the edge as possible, 

 even if we have driven hundreds and perhaps 

 thousands of times along the very brink. 



This article, it seems to me, ought to be 

 scattered far and wide, for it is high time we 

 were unlearning some of our old knowledge 

 on the question of foul brood. — Ed.] 



A PLEA FOR THE COLD-BLAST SMOKER 



Hot Smoke vs. Cold ; Construction of the Ordinary 



Cold-blast Smoker Faulty ; How it should be 



Remedied ; the Modern Improved 



Shipping-cases. 



BY C. DAVENPORT. 



One of the cheapest and most effective meth- 

 ods known for subduing bees is by the use of 

 smoke ; and with but few exceptions it is the 

 means exclusively used for this purpose ; but 

 I believe smoke alone is much more effica- 

 cious for the purpose of inducing bees to fill 

 themselves with honey than smoke and hot air 

 combined are ; and while, from private cor- 

 respondence and conversations with bea-keep- 

 . ers, I know I am not wholly alone in this 

 opinion, I do not remember ever seeing any 

 thing in print to this effect ; but I have that 

 which is opposite. The effect of a blast of 

 hot air on bees is to make them appear crazed 

 or frenzied, either with rage or fear — perhaps 

 it is both — and, instead of trying to reach and 

 fill themselves with honey, many of them, if 

 it is so they can easily, are apt to take wing 

 and hover annoyingly near the operator, if 

 they do not make a frenzied attack, which 

 they are very apt to do in a short time. 



The effect of smoke and hot air combined 

 is, of course, different still. The same effect 

 can be noted, but in a much less degree. The 

 effect of smoke alone is to excite and alarm 

 them, either in a less degree or different way ; 

 for, instead of rushing and flying frantically 

 about to avoid it, their one desire seems to be 

 to fill themselves with honey. The effect of 

 smoke combined with a blast of cold air is 

 about the same. For these reasons I prefer a 

 cold blast smoker ; for, while a hot-blast one 

 is more effective for the purpose of driving 

 bees from a super or off extracting frames, es- 

 pecially if the fuel is of such a character as to 

 create a good deal of heat as well as smoke, 

 this, at least with any one who uses escapes, 

 is of much less importance than the main pur- 

 pose of inducing bees to fill themselves with 

 honey ; and experiments made, as well as the 

 use of both hot and cold blast smokers, con- 

 vince me that a cold-blast smoker is more ef- 



