992 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



agree with my experience that I felt, as 

 have many others, that they must have a 

 milder form of the disease there. Various 

 forms of cure by medication were heralded 

 as successful, which proved to be utterly 

 without avail here. It is true there was 

 considerable looseness of expression indulged 

 in. One writer, for instance, closed a long 

 dissertation on foul brood by saying, "Of 

 course by foul brood I mean all forms of 

 diseased brood, such as chilled brood, starv- 

 ed brood, pickled brood, etc." I quote 

 from memory, but I think I have his words. 

 Nowhere in the article, except in this clos- 

 ing sentence, was there anything to indi- 

 cate that he had any thing in mind except 

 the genuine foul brood. But even among 

 those who had the reputation of being care- 

 ful and conservative, there was a difference 

 between their claims and our experience 

 that was not easily explained. The claims, 

 for instance, that combs that have been 

 thoroughly infected with foul brood may be 

 cleaned out by the bees so that the disease 

 will not reappear, and that Italians are 

 more resistant to foul brood than other 

 races, were not in accordance with the ex- 

 perience of practical men here. 



The mystery seems to be in a fair way to 

 be cleared up now. Our ideas in regard to 

 foul brood have been based on Cheshire's 

 theory that it was caused by a bacillus, Ba- 

 cillus alvei, and we have retained this theo- 

 ry, although we have been compelled to dis- 

 card his ideas in regard to cure. Now in 

 the researches of the bacteriologists of the 

 Department of Agriculture they have utter- 

 ly failed to find Bacillus alvei in any case of 

 foul brood, while they have found it in ev- 

 ery case of what we know as black brood. 

 It appears, then, that there are two brood 

 diseases, and it is very probable that the 

 English bee-keepers have either confounded 

 the two or they have had no experience 

 with the real virulent foul brood which has 

 done so much damage here. I have before 

 this called attention to the fact that the 

 Cheshire theories did not correspond with 

 observed facts, and the recent developments 

 make it more than ever necessary for those 

 whose apiaries are infected with foul brood 

 to look with suspicion on all methods of cure 

 by means of drugs or any treatment short 

 of what has come to be known as the 

 McEvoy method. This, which is really only 

 a modification of the D. A. Jones method of 

 cure, is based on the theory that the disease 

 is usually conveyed through the medium of 

 the honey, and that by compelling the bees 

 of a diseased colony to consume all the 

 honey they may carry with them from the 

 diseased hive before any brood is reared 

 they will be freed from the disease. No 

 other cure has ever proven practical and 

 effective. 



EMPTYING SUPERS. 



It has got now to the time of the year 

 when some of us will be fort\mate enough 

 to have some supers to empty. Several have 



told us how they go about this, but I do not 

 remember that any one has given my method 

 yet. It is very important that good methods 

 be used, not only that time be not wasted, 

 but that the honey be not damaged. I have 

 seen even old bee-keepers remove the honey 

 from the top of the super just as it came 

 from the hive by prying out one or two the 

 best way they could, then taking each sec- 

 tion by the top and pulling it loose from the 

 fastenings below by main strength. Small 

 wonder that the sections pulled apart and 

 that the honey leaked! A section is a frail 

 affair, and it takes but very little to spring 

 the sides of it enough to crack the comb and 

 allow the honey to leak. The crack may not 

 be perceptible to the eye, but the mischief 

 has been done, and the salability and keep- 

 ing qualities of the honey badly damaged. 

 A section should never be pulled loose fiom 

 its fastenings, but always carefully pried 

 loose. Lay on the floor a cleated board with 

 a smooth flat upper surface at least as large 

 as the super. A hive-cover or floor-board 

 may be all right for this. Scrape off all 

 burr-combs from both top and bottom of the 

 super, and lay it on this board, bottom up. 

 Now lay on the super another cleated board 

 of such size that it will just pass readily 

 through the super shell, or outside. We 

 will call this the follower. For the ordinary 

 section- holder super or the T super with 

 loose tins, a plain board, strongly cleated on 

 one side, perfectly flat on the other, is all 

 that is needed. For the T super with tins 

 nailed fast, or any similar arrangement, you 

 will have to bulla a follower that will allow 

 the tins to pass through. 



Now having your super upside down on the 

 bearing-board, as I call the first cleated 

 board 1 mentioned, with the follower on the 

 super, flat side down, put your foot on the 

 follower and push the whole inside of the 

 super down on the bearing- board. If it does 

 not start readily, put both feet on. Your 

 whole weight will not hurt a section-holder 

 super, though if you are a "heavy weight" 

 it might be best not to get on a T super this 

 way. After you get it started, lift off the 

 super- shell, leaving the inside of the super 

 on the bearing- board. Pick this up and put 

 it on a bench at a convenient height to work 

 at. Pry apart the section-holders. Pry off 

 the separators, if they are loose, or pry 

 them loose from the sections if they are 

 nailed to the holders. Pry the bottom of 

 the holder loose from the sections, and you 

 can then remove the sections easily without 

 danger of damaging them. In this work 

 you should use a knife with a thin edge, and 

 always insert it where the corners of the 

 sections come together. It will not take as 

 long to get the honey out of a super in this 

 way as by the plan of tearing each section 

 loose separately; and if you are careful, 

 your honey is in far better condition than it 

 often is by the rough-and-ready methods so 

 often used; and if the honey is not broken 

 in shipment there is none of the leakage that 

 is so discouraging and disgusting to the re- 

 tailer and consumer. 



