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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



June 15 



It certainly appears strange, at first sight, 

 and incredible to many, that the stores al- 

 ready in the hive do not continue to cause 

 trouble; but right here let me state that 

 some scientists have been unable to discover 

 anv germs of disease in honey taken care- 

 fully from a foul hive. Cheshire discover- 

 ed only a very limited number in various 

 samples. 



It must be considered that honey is most- 

 ly a germicide; and when we realize that the 

 cure without medication is adopted only dur- 

 ing the active season, and that by my meth- 

 od of swarming I leave only the young bees 

 on the diseased combs without a fertile 

 queen, the bulk of the old store is used up 

 by these youngsters in warm weather, and 

 as soon as they get a fertile queen the combs 

 are seen to become one mass of brood. 



Next, we have to consider that the spores, 

 if existing accidentally in small numbers in 

 the honey, are destroyed as they germinate 

 during warm weather, as they must then 

 do, for the reason that the germs, having 

 nothing to thrive upon in the honey, can not 

 be reproductive; while the foul cells, being 

 already cleaned out by the queenless bees, 

 or those having no fertile queen, there is no 

 further addition of spores to the honey. 



To my own mind the matter of the stores 

 is not nearly so great a marvel as the fur- 

 ther and continued production of clean, 

 pearly-white larvae in the very cells the 

 bees have so recently cleared of the foul 

 matter. 



But even this, again, is not so remarkable 

 as the fact that certain queens can be placed 

 at the head of foul stocks, with no prelimi- 

 nary preparation, and no interval, and yet 

 soon after the bees of the new strain begin 

 to appear the whole trouble gradually and 

 surely disappears. 



No one will disagree with the editor when 

 he says that "we have demonstrated, time 

 and again, that honey from a diseased hive 

 will carry infection to another one perfectly 

 healthy." But only think for one moment 

 how this honey is removed from the diseas- 

 ed hive. Suppose the bees are robbing it, 

 rushing excitedly over every thing and pok- 

 ing their tongues into every cell, crowding 

 into dense clumps of living, writhing masses 

 like something gone mad, which, indeed, is 

 usually the case. Is it any wonder they 

 take the plague back with them, even sup- 

 posing the honey itself contained not a single 

 germ of disease? 



Then, again, if the honey should be ex- 

 tracted what is to stop diseased matter be- 

 ing added in the process, and such as never 

 was in it while it stayed quietly in the hive 

 along the margin of the diseased portions? 



Suppose you take a knife, hoping to cut 

 away the diseased brood, as many have 

 needlessly and incautiously done. Don't you 

 see that the knife cutting through some foul 

 matter aho passes through some possibly 

 hitherto untainted honey, leaving it running 

 for the bees to clean up? But leave the 

 bees (of the same hive) to do the cleaning- 

 out business and they neither mutilate the 



combs not mix up the tainted matter with 

 the stores. 



I am strongly convinced that, in many 

 cases of disease, when not far advanced, 

 neither the honey nor the frames, nor any 

 part of the hive, is affected beyond the space 

 occupied by the actual malady. 



Cheshire once told me how he took in hand 

 a stock wich its combs as bad as they could 

 be with foul brood, and that in a few weeks 

 he presented it to a committee of bee-men, 

 in a perfectly healtny condition. This ex- 

 periment was published far and wide at the 

 time, and he claimed that it was solely by 

 the feeding of phenol in the syrup that the 

 cure was effected. Others have tried and 

 failed utterly when using that agent; but 

 my late friend did not himself grasp the 

 great cause of his success. 



The stock was almost depopulated, and 

 had no queen. That was accident number 

 one, and of necessity he gave a new and 

 vigorous queen. The bees were far too mis- 

 erable, and reduced in numbers, to hope to 

 build up at ah; therefore he gave them 

 combs of healthy bees and brood, and that 

 was accident number two. He, therefore, 

 quite unconsciously, added the three most 

 valuable items that would certainly help on 

 to a successful issue— a new queen, fresh 

 clean brood, and healthy bees. If these in- 

 valuable features in the case had only been 

 realized by him, and insisted upon, many 

 others would have succeeded, just as he 

 imagined he had done when using phenol. 



Heathfield, Eng. 



[It is possible that a good deal of the hon- 

 ey in the combs of diseased colonies is not 

 affected except through some manipulation 

 of the apiarist himself. One can easily see 

 how honey could be contaminated in the or- 

 dinary process of extracting, and throwing 

 out possibly some brood with the honey. In 

 any case, the average bee-keeper had better 

 assume, in order to be on the safe side, that 

 all honey from the infected hive may be dis- 

 eased.— Ed.] 



LIGHTER GRADES OF BROOD FOUNDATION 

 CONDEMNED. 



Why it is Always Advisable to Imbed the 



Wires; Some Objections to the Shortened 



Top- bars. 



BY E. F. ATWATER. 



On page 208, Feb. 15, there is a discussion 

 on the advantages of lighter grades of foun- 

 dation. This is so contrary to my experience 

 that, in my opinion, it is full of error. Even 

 with fully wired frames the man who uses 

 full sheets of light bro d foundation is a 

 heavy loser; and the worst of it is this loss 

 continues as long as the combs are in use 

 unless they are always used above an ex- 

 cluder so no brood is ever reared in them. 

 But I want my combs all so perfect that 

 they can be used in the brood-nest and ma- 

 ture the maximum of brood in a given comb 



