GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aliglitiug-board of colony afflicted with Isle-of- 

 Wight disease, showing the bees gathered together in 

 knots. 



name in the Staffordshire Chronicle of Auii". 

 2, 1913 : 



It is cause for congratulation that the Bee-disease 

 Bill has been dropped this session. 



Then to shoAv how inconsistent he is, com- 

 pare the following paragraph from the same 

 pajiier with the article written in Glean- 

 ings : 



To show the fallacy of hastening such legislation, 

 it is now candidly admitted that in many cases of 

 Isle-of- Wight disease, the hees will overcome the pest 

 if given time; and I have also proved this with mj' 

 many experiments. Had legislation been in existence, 

 \nany excellent colonies would have been destroyed. 



In two or three counties in England there has been 

 such a wholesale destroying of colonies that it is not 

 possible to raise a honey show this year and War 

 wickshire is one of them. One can not help but 

 think that too much has been made of the disease, 

 and that many stocks have been destroyed that had 

 no Isle-of-Wight disease at all. 



Now, any one with the slightest experi- 

 ence of Isle-of-Wight disease knows that, 

 once a stock is attacked, it is doomed. 



His statement that Italian bees are not 

 affected is as inaccurate as the rest of his 

 remarks. There are not many Italian bees 

 kejDt in Great Britain, so that it is difficult 

 to make a comparison. The disease is no 

 lespecter of the race of bees, and I have 

 had a number of specimens of Italian and 

 Carniolan bees sent me which were badly 

 affected. 



He mentions one county where 500 colo- 

 nies perished. I can tell him the number in 

 that county is thousands and not hundreds, 

 and also that his informant wrote in a con- 

 temporary in July, 1911, " I shall be able 

 to go on and keep my bees and not let them 

 die of disease as was the case at Swanley." 

 That boast has not been fulfilled, as his 

 a])iary is among those wiped out in the 

 county mentioned. It is the gross ignorance 

 of people of this description which is the 

 means of spreading disease in this country. 



Then with regard to the queen he states 

 that "it is a peculiarity of the disease she 

 is the last to die," but gives no reason for 

 this. Surely if he had studied the disease 

 he sliould know. Neither c|ueen nor brood 

 is affected, because their food is given al- 

 ready digested, therefore it does not contain 

 the germs of microsporidiosis which undi- 

 gested food often does. 



London, Eng. 



LIQUEFYING GRANULATED HONEY 



The Tops of the Cans Should Not be Submerged 

 in Water 



BY T. P. KOBINSON 



Entrance of a hive containing a colony afflicted with 



the Isle-of-Wight disease. Note the staining of 



the front of the hive. 



The writer's attention was called to Mr. 

 Louis H. SchoU's article on heating granu- 

 lated honey to reliquefy it, in the Nov. 15th 

 issue; and having had much experience in 

 this work I have decided to offer a few re- 

 marks. 



Mr. Seholl is right in his statement that 

 honey should be heated slowly for best re- 

 sults, but painfully wrong when he tells us 

 to submerge the cans in hot water and cover 

 the top of the vat entirely. One great drn- 

 iier of inundation is that water is liable to 

 creep in through the caps of the cans. The 

 otiier is that of overheating the honey. 1 

 liave heated something like 20,000 pounds 

 of honey since August, and I think ihe 

 matter of reliquefying honey a part of bee- 

 keeiDing, just the same as any other part of 

 the work, which is an absolute requisite in 

 Hiis part of the State with our cotton and 

 horsemint honey. 



My cauldrons or vats hold 12 five-gallon 

 cans each, and I usually heat about 2000 

 pounds at one time. The cans are made 



