DECEMBER 15, 1914 



975 



tion of bichloride of mercury. Other dis- 

 infectants are sometimes recommended. A 

 favorite one is kerosene; but until I hear of 

 surgeons using kerosene to sterilize their 

 instruments I should prefer to use what is 

 universally recognized as the best thing for 

 such purposes. 



STERILIZING FOUL-BROOD HONEY ; A WARNING. 



The recent publication of experiments 

 showing the degree of heat necessary to kill 

 foul-brood germs, showing that boiling for 

 a short time would do this, and the follow- 

 ing discussions, some of which at least 

 would convey to the inexperienced the im- 

 pression that this would be a safe practice 

 to follow, are, in my opinion, liable to work 

 great harm. Undoubtedly honey from dis- 

 eased colonies may be so disinfected that it 

 may be fed without conveying disease. I 

 have myself fed considerable such honey 

 without bad results. But the practice is ex- 

 ceedingly risky, and of this I have also had 

 ample experience. The last lot of such 

 honey that I fed was handled with every 

 precaution that experience and reasoning 

 had taught me was necessary and desirable ; 

 yet a number of cases of foul brood could 

 be distinctly traced to the feeding of this 

 lot of honey. I will now tell you just what 

 precautions I used, and I want to say to 

 you that nothing less thorough should be 

 even considered. First, the honey was 

 considerably diluted before boiling. I con- 

 sider this desirable for various reasons, of 

 which I will mention only the one, that this 

 makes it possible to boil a long time without 

 making the honey too thick to handle. Sec- 

 ond, the honey was boiled a long time, not 

 simply brought to a boil, but kept boiling 

 for over an hour. Third, the honey was 

 removed from the kettle in which it had 

 been boiled, and the kettle thoroughly 

 washed out. This is necessary, because 



some of the honey, in boiling and stirring, 

 may have been left around the upper part 

 of the kettle, where it would not get the 

 necessary amount of heat. The next day 

 the honey was again placed in the kettle, 

 and again thoroughly boiled and stirred. 

 This is in line with the practice of the 

 canners of many articles of food, and the 

 experience of bacteriologists, who have 

 found that many spores and bacterial germs 

 are much more certainly destroyed by two 

 boilings, with a cooling period between, 

 than by a single boiling, even if longer con- 

 tinued. Now, can you suggest any thing 

 more that I ought to have done to this 

 honey to make it safe? I believe that I 

 am more careful in doing such work than 

 the average beekeeper — much more so than 

 some I know — yet I know that the feeding 

 of this honey caused several cases of foul 

 brood — just how many I do not know; but 

 I feel sure that this experience cost me 

 more than I ever saved by attempting to 

 feed such honSy. Never again for me ! In 

 my experience as bee-inspector I have come 

 across cases where the feeding of honey 

 from diseased colonies has had much worse 

 results than it did with me. I do not know 

 just why I failed on this occasion; but if 

 I with my long experience with foul brood, 

 dating back to twenty-five years ago, when 

 I had a long siege of foul brood in Illinois, 

 and exterminated it completely, could make 

 such a failure as that, then I say to you 

 that I believe it is a colossal mistake even to 

 suggest to the inexperienced that it is ever 

 advisable to feed such honey back to the 

 bees, or, what amounts to the same thing, 

 to feed any honey to bees that you are not 

 absolutely sure is free from any chance of 

 contagion; and that cannot be said of any 

 honey bought in the open market. 

 Grand Junction, Colo. 



COLONY ODOM OF BEE« 



TRACEABLE TO 

 ONLY 



BY JAY SMITH 



I have read with a great deal of interest 

 the discussion concerning the odor of bees, 

 and it seems the matter is far from being 

 settled. That there is much concerning the 

 odor theory that is unknown to us all, can 

 not be doubted. Many of us have a thread 

 of the truth, and we think we have the 

 whole rope. I also have a thread, and I 

 propose to hang on to it till some one else 

 breaks it or gives me a stronger one to hang 

 on to. 



My theory on the scent question is this: 



The queen gives the colony its individual 

 odor. There may be other means which 

 enable bees to recognize bees from another 

 colony; but I believe the queen is the main 

 factor. No one who has had experience 

 with bees can for a moment doubt that the 

 queen had a strong odor that is easily rec- 

 ognized by the bees. Many have, after 

 handling the queen, while the swarm was in 

 the air, had bees alight upon their hands 

 and give the call to their comrades by fan- 

 ning, indicating that they had found their 



