1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



653 



The colonel hitched around on his seat as 

 though he didn't sit quite comfortably, as he 

 remarked, " I believe, deacon, you are a regu- 

 lar prohibition crank. If you would come 

 out of your hole and unite with the rest of us 

 we might have union, and be strong enough 

 to do something for temperance worth while. 

 I am just as good a temperance man as you." 



" Come out of my hole ! " said the deacon. 

 " You make me think of a story I have heard 

 somewhere. There was a cat, a very good cat 

 as cats go, that attended to all its feline duties 

 aithfully ; but there was a little mouse it 

 could not get hold of. It would just run in 

 its hole a little beyond the reach of her paw. 

 One afternoon she sat beside that hole a long 

 time, looking very amiable, and then said, 

 ' Come out of your hole, little mou.sie ; let's 

 be friends. I am just as good an animal as 

 5'ou are. Come out of your hole, little mousie; 

 let's be united ; let's have union.' And that 

 mouse was a goodie-goodie little moUvSe, and 

 it came out of its hole, and they were united, 

 and there was union ; but it was all cat." 



"You beat the Devil," said Col. Wickham, 

 as he drew up his reins, and said " go " to his 

 horses. 



" That is what I intend to do," said Deacon 

 Strong. 



SULPHURING COMB HONEY. 



"Say, Mr. Doolittle, I came over this morn- 

 ing to have a little talk with you about moth- 

 worms in comb honey. A bee-keeping friend 

 lent me some of his old bee-papers, and in 

 them I see that there is sometimes danger of 

 the larva of the wax-moth injuring comb hon- 

 ey by eating the cappings to the cells. What 

 do you know of this matter?" 



" Well, Mr. Jones, I have yet to see the pile 

 of 2500 lbs. of comb honey which does not 

 have more or less of these worms or larvae 

 upon it, after it has been stored in a warm 

 room for three to four weeks, though these 

 pests are not nearly so bad as they used to be 

 25 or 30 years ago, owing mostly to Italian 

 bees being kept now instead of the blacks." 



" What has the Italian bee eot to do in the 

 matter, I should like to know? " 



" Italian bees are much better in protecting 

 their combs from the wax-moth than are the 

 German or black bees, and this one point alone 

 would almost lead me to change from blacks 

 to Italians, were they not superior to the blacks 

 in other respects." 



" How do the worms get on the comb hon- 

 ey ? I read that the bees would not allow the 

 female miller to enter the hives to deposit her 

 eggs on the combs." 



"This is a somewhat disputed point. Some 

 think because they have seen the bees chasing 

 the millers away from the entrance of the 

 hive that the bees never allow them to enter, 



and so account for the eggs getting on the 

 combs through being carried thereon the bees' 

 feet, or in some such way. I am not sure my- 

 self how the eggs get on the combs, but I have 

 seen the millers dart into the hive many times; 

 and, though I have watched patiently for near- 

 ly an hour at times, I have not seen them come 

 out again. At other times the bees will rush 

 them out as soon as they go into the hive." 



" How do you know when the worms first 

 begin to work ? " 



" After the honey has been away from the 

 bees for about ten days, if we inspect the cap- 

 pings of the honey closely we can detect little 

 places of fine white dust, resembling flour, 

 upon the surface of the comb, and usually the 

 most abundant near the bottom of the combs, 

 and especially about any open cells contain- 

 ing pollen, should we happen to have any sec- 

 tions having pollen in them. Although this 

 little speck of dust may not be larger than 

 the eye of a very fine needle, still it tells us 

 for certain that a tiny worm of the wax-moth 

 is there, and that, unless it is destroyed, it 

 will destroy more or less of the nice white 

 comb which encases our honey." 



" Did you ever see any thus destroyed? " 



"Yes. I have had, in former years, combs 

 of honey entirely denuded of the cappings to 

 the cells, with the honey running all about on 

 the floor under the ;ile, but never after I was 

 fully aware what was the trouble. Then 

 while in different cities, some years ago, look- 

 ing after the honey market, I saw boxes of 

 honey which had worms in them nearly as 

 large around as a slate pencil, and an inch or 

 more long ; and the strange part of it was 

 that, although they had nearly denuded the 

 honey of the cappings to the cells, I could 

 not make the grocer believe that the worms 

 lived on the wax, they calling them honey- 

 worms. ' ' 



" If I find these flour-like places on my 

 comb honey, what should I do? " 



" The next thing is to sulphur your honey, 

 as this is the only practical known remedy for 

 these pests." 



" How is this done ? " 



" To do this I take an old iron kettle and 

 put an inch or two of ashes in the bottom so 

 there will be no danger of fire resulting from 

 the heat from the coals which are to be placed 

 therein." 



" A kettle, some ashes in the bottom, and 

 live coals put on the ashes ? " 



" Yes ; and when I have the kettle thus pre- 

 pared I take it to the honey room and pour 

 sulphur, which has been previously weighed, 

 on the coals, to the amount of 4 ounces to 

 every 75 cubic feet contained in the room, 

 when the kettle is quickly pushed under the 

 pile of honey, which is purposely piled loose- 

 ly and up a little from the floor. The room is 

 now closed as tightly as possible, and you will 

 have to V^e a little spry in what you do after 

 you pour on the sulphur if you have weak 

 lungs, or you may sufTer from the fumes your- 

 self." 



"How do you tell when it is sulphured 

 enough ? " 



As soon as the room is closed I go to the 



