2l6 



June. 1909. 



what I had read. But I was afraid of that 

 rotten stuff. I looked at the bee-books and 

 papers to see if I could find the causes of foul 

 brood, but did not get much satisfaction. So 

 there was nothing to do but destroy the combs, 

 or leave them alone. If I destroyed the combs 

 I would learn nothing. But if I left them 

 alone I would. I decided to leave tiiem alone, 

 and learn from experience. And if need be, 

 pay for my knowledge. And I paid. 



i had only 4 colonies, and I lost 3 out of the 

 4. The fourth colony was in a single-walled 

 hive, and painted wnite, and stood the heat all 

 right. When the bees tried to rear brood in 

 those combs again dead brood appeared in 

 scattered cells. Some died before being sealed, 

 others after. As the season advanced the 

 amount of dead brood increased. And the 

 strength of the colonies diminished until at 

 the beginning of winter but few bees were 

 left in either of the hives. And they died 

 the first of the winter. I have not destroyed 

 the combs yet, uut intend to do so. They 

 are where no bees can get to them. I thought 

 before destroying the combs I would try to 

 find out whether it was foul brood. And in 

 about 2 days after this letter is mailed I intend 

 to mail a sample of comb and dead brood to you 

 to see what you think about it. When you 

 receive it do anything you have a mind to with 

 it, and then let me know whether it is dead or 

 foul-brood. If it is not, it is not one whit bet- 

 ter. What's in a name, anyway ? "A rose 

 by any other name would smell as sweet." 

 Whatever it is, it was caused by the brood 

 that was killed by the heat. And that is one 

 thing about it that I am sure of. The brood 

 was perfectly healthy and all right before being 

 filled by the heat, Michigan. 



Answer. — I've had combs melt down in hives, 

 but never brood killed by the heat. It may, 

 however, be more common than I think. I am 

 also surprised that the bees did not clean out 

 the dead brood. As the brood was rotten, or 

 nearly so, by the next afternoon, it could hard- 

 ly be that this was caused by any contagious 

 disease, provided the colony was healthy before 

 the roasting, for it is not likely that any dis- 

 ease could develop so rapidly. 



The sample of dead brood sent has come to 

 hand. You ask me to let you know whether 

 or not it is dead. I am strongly of the opin- 

 ion that it is. It has the appearance of being 

 very dead. As to whether it is affected by 

 foul brood or something equally as bad, I don't 

 know. As I have repeatedly said in this de- 

 partment, I'm not an expert on bee-diseases. 

 I think I'll send it to General Manager N. E. 

 France and see what he calls it. 



But supposing it is a case of foul brood, 

 that doesn't prove that foul brood could result 

 from dead brood killed by heat. There is the 

 possibility that there was some source of con- 

 tagion within reach of your bees. It would 

 be hard for you to be positive that no dis- 

 eased colony was within a mile or two. Still 

 harder would it be for you to be certain that 

 there was no case in which some one had 

 brought honey from a diseased colony perhaps 

 a hundred miles away, some of tins honey 

 being where your bees could get it. At any 

 rate, the authorities tell us that rotten brood 

 will no more start foul brood without the 

 seeds of the disease than a field of com i;an 

 be started without any corn as seed. 



Later — I sent the sample to Mr. France, and 

 his reply is: "Any one with such combs should 

 at once write Michigan Inspector, R. L. Tay- 

 lor, of Lapeer, Mich., to call at once." So 

 I suppose there is no doubt that the brood 

 is not only dead but diseased. But, as before 

 intimated, that's no proof that killing the brood 

 made it diseased. 



Iteporfsaiill 



American ^ee Journal 



luit of tlie cellar until the vtT\' last of April. 

 It sno\:-cd almost every day the first week in 

 May. We had quite a snowstorm the 1st. The 

 bees are not so strong as when I took them 

 out of the cellar, April 1, 2, and 3. I look 

 for a heavy loss in this section. They have 

 scarcely any brood, not half as much as when 

 I took them from the cellar. The queens are 

 laying, and there are plenty of eggs, but no 

 brood to speak of — too cold for brood-rearing. 

 Geo. B. Howe. 

 Black River, N. Y.. May S. 



Cxpcrtenc^S^ 



^IS^ 



^iuj^ikl 



:±£i2I 



Bees Doing Fine. 



Bees in this vicinity are doing fine, and I 

 have already made 50 percent increase. The 

 indications are favorable for another excep- 

 tionally good honey-year. 



Leo E. Gateley. 



Fort Smith, Ark., May 10. 



Cold and Backward Spring. 



This has been the most backward season I 

 ever saw. One bee-keeper did not take bees 



Disinfecting Combs. 



We are told that to keep cunibs free from 

 the wax-worms we should use bisulphide of 

 carbon; and once is a plenty. March 30. 1906, 

 I had 29 colonies living. Fine weather, and 

 soft maple and elm came out in blossom, 

 and the bees worked well until the eve- 

 ning. March 31, at sundown, the wind 

 turned northwest and it was cold all through 

 April. When it became warm in May so 

 that bees could fly, I had just 9 colonies liv- 

 ing, so I was pretty nearly cleaned out. 

 There was brood in every hive — from 2 to 3 

 frames. Not any was smaller than a man's 

 hand in size, with 10 to 30 pounds of honey 

 in the hives, so I had a mess to clean up. I 

 set the hives back of the hives with bees. 

 They cleaned them out well, all but one hive. 

 They cut the combs badly, but did not spoil 

 them. 



After the bees had cleaned up all and left, 

 I soon found that the wax- worms began to 

 work. So I got one pound of bisulphide of 

 carbon, then cut a lath as long as the hive, 

 16 inches, wrapped newspaper around the lath 

 and nailed at each end. This closed the 

 front tight. Then I took 2 pieces of paper 

 that covered the top well. Then I. turned 

 into the hive 2 tablespoonfuls of bisulphide 

 of carbon and put the papers and then the 

 honey-board on. I used a brick for a weight. 

 I found it to be necessary to do this once 

 in a week or 10 days, or the worms would get 

 the start of the bee-keeper. They spoiled 2 

 sets of combs for me after using the first 

 time. Since then I have kept the combs free 

 from the worms, for 2 years. 



I have 23 hives with full sets of combs, 

 and it costs me my time and 2 pounds of 

 bisulphate of carbon, and the combs are good. 

 "Once a week, and keep dry." 



E. Tucker. 



Bergen, N. Y., May 12. 



Expects Honey Later. 



Bees have got down to business here at 

 last. My bees are swarming, and swarms are 

 being caught in the woods every day. Al- 

 most all are being put into box-hives. I 

 can't get the farmer in the bee-business in- 

 terested in the movable-frame hive. The 

 poplar is in bloom, and we will have some 

 flowers from this time on. I am looking for 

 some honey after a while. 



^ , ,, ^ R- V. Perry. 



Greenfield, Tenn., May 13. 



Drinking Milk with Honey. 



In the April issue I notice "Honey gives 

 him stomach-ache." I hesitate to correct Dr. 

 Miller's answer, but as it will aid the con- 

 sumption of honey, perhaps he will forgive 

 me. Advise them to drink milk when they 

 eat honey, and it will stop fermentation. It 

 seems the casein neutralizes the acid pro- 

 duced in fermentation just as cheese does 

 in pastry, and in cases where fermentation be- 

 comes chronic the albumen of eggs. This con- 

 dition is often found where people are troubled 

 with uric acid. Then if milk or albumen do 

 not accomplish the trick, take ^ teaspoonful 

 of bicarbonate of soda and ^ teaspoonful of 

 bismuth subnitrate from J^ to 2 hours after 

 eating honey. Fermentation, if long continued 

 and unchecked, will produce ulceration of the 

 stomach and perhaps cancer. 



\'alhalla. N. Y. A. Richter. 



Caucasian Bees. 



On page 151, F. W. Blakely refers to an 

 Iowa writer on page 313, for October, 1908, 

 in which he draws attention to what I said in 

 regard to Caucasian bees as not being desir- 

 able to keep. I wish to say that I am not 

 accustomed to write for the public, and that 

 ii I failed to make myself understood, he 

 must excuse me. The queen referred to was 

 an Italian I introduced tn supersede a Cau- 

 casian queen. In 1907 I sent for 3 Cau- 

 casian queens, and got them safely introduced. 

 They did fairly well, and came through the 



winter all right; they received the same treat- 

 ment my other bees did; they did fairly 

 well, but my Italians and hybrids did better. 

 I find that they are much -given to drone- 

 rearing. I hived one swarm on full sheets 

 of foundation and in due time they had a 

 fine lot of combs filled with brood and honey; 

 but what took me by surprise was, that 1 

 found one comb near the center of the hive 

 about one-third full of drone-brood in worker- 

 cells, and the drones seemed to be nearly as 

 larce as those reared in drone-cells. I find 

 also that they will rear a large number of 

 queens when they swarm. Most of the combs 

 from which the swarm came had from 2 to a 

 dozen or more queen-cells on each, and I am 

 led to believe that the queens are not quite 

 as large as queens from other bees. At least, 

 I found that a larger percentage would go 

 through queen-excluding zinc. Those bees 

 would carry in no more propolis than other 

 bees during the summer, but it was only at 

 the close of the season that they would plug 

 up the entrance. 



In color they are very much like black 

 bees, but of a more greyish appearance, par- 

 ticularly when young. When out in the field, 

 I could not tell them from black bees with 

 any certainty. I find them very gentle at al- 

 most any time when other bees are inclined 

 to be cross. My bees are mostly what are 

 called the golden Italians, not the long- 

 tongued red clover bees, yet I find that bees 

 will work on red clover for a day or two 

 every year if the conditions are right — not 

 alone the Italians, but hybrids and blacks as 

 well. 



Now, Mr. Blakely, if you find that I have 

 made further misrepresentations, please point 

 them out, and I will try to correct them. 

 Fred Bechly. 



Searsboro. Iowa, April 10. 



Good Prospect for Honey Crop. 



The outlook for a good crop of honey is 

 good here at this time. My bees wintered 

 fine. I had not a single loss out of 26 col- 

 onies; all came through in fine shape, but 

 one, which is, I believe, queenless. I win- 

 ter them on the summer stands in single- 

 walled hives, and never lose a colony, except 

 from carelessly letting the entrance get sealed 

 up with ice when it sleets. A 3-frame nu- 

 cleus ordered last season, has done well. I 

 have 2 full colonies now ready to swarm, 

 and got about 30 pounds of fine comb honey 

 from them last fall. I have had no swarm, 

 but am expecting it every day, as the bees 

 are lying out some. 



Fruit-bloom was good. Everything was 

 full, and bees made good use of it. Dan- 

 delion followed, and now wild cherry and 

 some little clover are in bloom. The pros- 

 pect for a good white clover honey-flow is ex- 

 cellent, all the talk to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. I sold my last year's crop here 

 at home in the local market, for 12J^ cents 

 a pound. 1 could have gotten 15 cents if I 

 had held onto it a little longer. All together 

 the prospect "looks good" to us, and we hope 

 for a good year for all engaged in the busi- 

 ness, for business or pleasure. I am in it 

 for both, and get both out of it. There are 

 but few bee-keepers here, and very few in- 

 deed who understand the business and run 

 it on business principles. 



H. S. Carroll. 



Lentner, Mo., May 24. 



Flouring Queens Before Intro- 

 ducing. 



On May 3 I received 3 tested queens which 

 I wanted to introduce. Having just read in 

 Gleanings that queens could be introduced 

 by sprinkling the queen as well as the other 

 bees with flour after placing the queen on the 

 frame I thought I would try to experiment. 



I went to the apiary and selected a colony 

 whose queen had been winter-killed. I took 

 out the frame, sprinkled the queen with flour 

 while in her cage together with her atten- 

 dants, opened the door of the cage and let 

 her crawl on the frame. As soon as she 

 was on the frame I sprinkled all the bees on 

 the frame. I also took out a few of the 

 other frames and sprinkled them. To my 

 surprise both the queen and her attendants 

 walked unmolested. I put the frame back, 

 and on the 12th I examined the hive again 

 and found the queen all right and laying. 



Encouraged with my success I tried to in- 

 troduce another queen to another colony that 

 had been given brood a few days before, but 

 it was not a success. The queen had no 

 sooner come on the frame than the bees went 

 after her, and before I could rescue her she 



