August, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



497 



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M 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



them to secure well-finished sections. The 

 patclied-up appearance is caused by the bees 

 beginning to seal the honey before the 

 combs are fully built out, in which case the 

 unsealed cells are elongated beyond the 

 sealed portion of the comb when the feeding 

 is begun. The loss of honey during the pro- 

 cess of feeding back was excessive in this 

 case. No doubt much better results would 

 have been secured if the unfinished sections 

 used for feeding had been extracted and the 

 lioney given to the bees in a feeder. When 

 this is done, a little water should be added 

 to thin the honey so the bees will handle it 

 more rapidly. The faster the honey is fed, 

 the less the loss should be during the pro- 

 cess of feeding. — Editor.] 



CLEANING QUEEN-EXCLUDERS 



A Simple Method which Does Not Injure Wood- 

 Wire Excluders 



I have for years cleaned the wax and 

 bee glue from queen-excluders by using 

 the Root hive-tool. Lately I took home 

 from the outyards 150 wood and wire 

 excluders well covered with burr combs. I 

 placed 25 on end in my wax boiler with 

 wood slats below and put in one pail of 

 water. In a few moments I had good steam, 

 and, as the excluders had spaces between 

 with the wires up and down, the steam in a 

 few moments cleaned them like new. I took 

 them out and put in another lot, and so on. 

 All were cleaned much better than by any 

 other way I had used. The wood was not in 

 the water, and I cannot see that they are in- 

 jured iu the least. Never more will I clean 

 excluders by scraping. Steam does it much 

 better and faster. N. E. France. 



Platteville, Wisconsin. 



=io^w= 



AMERICAN FOUL BROOD 



Should Diseased Colonies be Permitted to Store 

 Surplus Honey Before Treatment ? 



The article on page 426, Gleanings for 

 July, by A. C. Ames, gives one side of the 

 effect of handling American foul brood in 

 the manner which he describes. It seems 

 but fair that the other side should also be 

 presented, and I can best do this by giving 

 my experience. 



I live within the zone of Camp Dix; and 

 when the camp was opened a Philadelphia 

 company secured possession of an aban- 

 doned tomato-canning house here and bot- 

 tled a beverage known as "Quake," which 

 was sold principally in camp. Eventually 

 the sugar shortage came on and the Quako 

 Bottling Co. was unable to secure enough 

 sugar for their concoction, and honey by tlie 



barrel was purchased to be used in sweeten- 

 ing the product. When the honey barrels 

 were emptied they were rolled upon the 

 freight-house platform with bunghole open, 

 the outside sticky with honey. 



I have maintained an apiary of 40 to 60 

 colonies of bees within a stone's throw of 

 the freight-house platform. During the nec- 

 tar dearth, whhich always occurs here from 

 about July 10 to Aug. 25, the bees partook 

 freely of what they could get (and they got 

 plenty) from the sticky barrels, much to 

 the disgust of the freight handlers. Ameri- 

 can foul brood promptly appeared in the 

 apiary (not having been there previously) ; 

 and the yard has gone down to 15 colonies 

 and no crop has been secured in three years 

 because of the disease, entailing a financial 

 loss of well nigh $1000, besides the great 

 amount of labor. 



Mr. Ames does not say he destroyed the 

 foul broody honey nor boiled it to render it 

 free from infectious germs, and I assume 

 he puts it on the general market. It might 

 be well for any who have thought of 

 adopting some such plan to remember that 

 this honey may come back to their apiary, 

 and to have a thought for their own wel- 

 fare if they do not have much for the wel- 

 fare of others. Elmer G. Carr. 



New Egypt, N. J. 



THE THREE MEDINAS 



Three Centers which Have Greatly Influenced 

 Beekeeping 



The oldest Medina (the Arabic term for 

 town) is known all over the Mohammedan 

 world as the ' ' town of the prophet, ' ' or 

 Medina-t-in-Nabi. It was from Medina that 

 the princii^les of Islam were first announced 

 to Arabia. Altho Mohammed was born in 

 Mecca, iu the year 578 of our era, he passed 

 his childhood days in Medina, where he died 

 at the age of 63, and was buried in his be- 

 loved city in 691. He dictated the sixteenth 

 Sura of the Koran there, entitled ' ' The 

 Bees." Like every Arab, the prophet was 

 very fond of honey; and whenever any suf- 

 ferer approached him to ask him for help 

 for his ailments the prophet always recom- 

 mended honey. In later years honey was 

 ordained even for moral sufferings. ' ' Hon- 

 ey, " he said, "will alone cure you if it is 

 Allah's will." 



A man suffering came seven times, as 

 honey had not calmed his pains. Every time 

 the prophet repeated, ' ' Take honey. ' ' On 

 his seventh visit the prophet said, "Drop 

 into your honey seven pebbles taken from 

 the hot oven." (The Arabs use a clean 

 pebble to spread the dough on the oven in 

 preparing the bread of life, which is sac- 

 red. ' ' Doing this, ' ' continued the prophet, 

 "you must be cured," and thus it was. 



