74 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 9, 



lessly queenless, the bees all die of old 

 age m from 50 to 60 days from the time 

 the last bee hatches, if in summer, and 

 as soon as the bees are gone there is no 

 restraint over the worms ; thus they 

 have full sway, and in a short time the 

 combs are ruined. 



Did the worms destroy the colony ? 

 Certainly not ; the colony was destroyed 

 by the loss of the queen, spring dwind- 

 ling, or whatever the cause was, and the 

 moths came in as an effect. Thus we 

 see that to talk of worms destroying 

 colonies of bees is nonsense. 



It frequently happens that we lose a 

 part of our bees in the spring, and wish 

 to preserve the combs till the remainder 

 of our bees increase to occupy them , for 

 such combs are well worth preserving, 

 even in these days of comb foundation. 

 To keep them from being spoiled by the 

 moth worms requires close watching, 

 and all should be looked over as often 

 as once a week, when warm weather 

 comes. As soon as many worms are 



For the American Bee Journal 



Do We Want the Truth? 



SUk Tunnel of Bee Moth Larvae. 



found, hang them in a small, close room, 

 so the fumes of burning sulphur can 

 penetrate all parts of them, and burn 

 1 pound to every 100 cubic feet con- 

 tained in the room. To burn it, get a 

 kettle, put some ashes in the bottom, 

 put in a shovel of coals, and pour on 

 your sulphur. Shut the door, and leave 

 for 2 or 3 days. If kept from the moth 

 miller it is rarely the case that they will 

 need looking afteragain ; still, we have 

 sometimes had to sulphur again in a 

 month or so. 



One more Item : Quinby gave in 

 " Bee-Keeping Explained," that a tem- 

 perature of 18° above zero, or lower, 

 would kill all life, eggs, etc., of the bee- 

 moth. Four years ago we kept some 

 combs in an out-house till February, 

 and the mercury went as low as 15° be- 

 low zero while they were there. Upon 

 taking them to a warm room and work- 

 ing at them, we found 2 or 3 moth lar- 

 va; on our bench, crawling. We re- 

 ported to that effect at the Northeastern 

 Bee-Keepers' Convention that year, but 

 the report was not credited. On the 10th 



Comb shrnving Cocoons of Moths. 



of this month, when getting our bees 

 ready to ily by clearing the entrances of 

 dead bees, etc., we chanced to move the 

 entrance blocks to a colony that stood 

 in a bleak place so no snow had lodged 

 around the hive this winter, when we 

 found several moth larva? which pos- 

 sessed as much life as ever, notwith- 

 standing their cold nap. Thus we are 

 led to conclude that the worms at a cer- 

 tain stage can stand any amount of 

 freezing, for this winter would try their 

 vitality if any would. 

 Borodino, N. Y., Feb. 25, 1881. 



[We are indebted to Prof. Cook for 

 the illustrations in the foregoing article, 

 and which will be found, together with 

 a very able treatise on the natural his- 

 tory and habits of the bee moth, in his 

 " Manual of the Apiary," chapter xix., 

 pages 262-267— Ed.] 



REV. A. SALISBURY. 



On page 29 of the Bee Journal 

 for Jan. 26, 1881, 1 find an article from 

 Mr. Boardman. I have no feeling in 

 the matter, but will ask Mr. B. to refer 

 to my article again ; he will find that it 

 opens as follows : " With the bee-keep- 

 ers of this country it is yet no doubt an 

 important question, whether we shall 

 continue to import bees from Italy." 

 Paragraph 4 reads as follows : "After 

 this subject is thoroughly investigated, 

 if found to be a step backward to drop 

 the importation of Italian queens, let it 

 be continued with great care, always to 

 get the best Italy affords." Why ? Be- 

 cause our American-Italians have been 

 bred up to a high standard of excellence, 

 and we want no " step backward," by 

 importing inferior bees from Italy. 



My sole object was to obtain good 

 reasons, if there are any, why we should 

 continue to import from Italy, and that, 

 too, with a very small profit to those who 

 bring them to this country. 



My experience with Italian bees, after 

 breeding them almost exclusively for 16 

 years, is that American-Italians are bet- 

 ter honey-gatherers, and the queens and 

 bees are more beautiful than I have 

 been able to get from the last imported 

 Italians, and I have always tried to get 

 the best, irrespective of cost, having 

 paid from $5 to $20 for them. I have 

 made it a rule, where good qualities 

 were developed by the introduction of 

 new blood, to breed from the best. 



Always demand the best, whether 

 home-bred or imported bees, so that the 

 supply dealer will not have to furnish 

 " dark Italians," " leather-colored Ital- 

 ians," and " light-colored Italians" — in 

 a word, all the shades that Italy can 

 afford. Experience teaches that it is 

 the favorable circumstances under 

 which queens are bred, that largely de- 

 velops oeauty in color ; and favorable 

 circumstances also produce good quali- 

 ties. So, we should never be alarmed 

 when we get a queen very highly-col- 

 ored, if she was bred from excellent 

 stock. 



Again, do we not run some risk of 

 bringing foul brood from foreign shores? 

 Is not this uncalled for, unless we are 

 making advance in other directions ? 

 At home we can exchange bees with 

 responsible men, and avoid all such 

 risks. I know nothing of foul brood, 

 only what I have read, but if we read it 

 as it is, woe be to the man that gets it 

 in his apiary. As the Cyprian bee is 

 largely an untried bee in this country, 

 but thought by leading European bee- 

 keepers to be a superior bee, we will- 

 ingly take risks for the sake of getting 

 good qualities. 



Camargo, 111. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Practical Use of Foundation. 



JOHN F. COWAN. 



While I have been deeply interested 

 in the discussions on the merits of comb 

 foundation, and though many differ as 

 to the best kind to use, yet I think its 

 importance as a help in building up col- 

 onies, and in obtaining greater yields of 

 honey, must be patent to every bee- 

 keeper, providing its use can be made 

 practical — i. e., without sagging, break- 

 ing down, or killing brood by the im- 

 proper use of wire. 



For the past 2 seasons I have been ex- 

 perimenting with the various kinds in 

 use, and have invariably found the Dun- 

 ham foundation to have the advantage 

 in being the most readily accepted by 

 the bees. Concluding this ( the Dunham ) 

 foundation to be the best, my next de- 

 sire was for the best means of fastening 

 it into the frames. I tried fastening it 

 to the top-bars as recommended by Mrs. 

 Dunham and others ; I also tried wiring 

 the frames, and pressing the wires into 

 the wax by hand. In the former method 

 I was troubled to some extent with 

 sagging and falling down in the hive, 

 but mostly in the use of the extractor' 

 when the combs would break loose from 

 the top-bar of the frame and often fall 

 out. 



By using the wires as above, I often 

 found rows of empty cells, running par- 

 allel with and above the wires,and found 

 this difficulty arising from the wires not 

 being closely laid in the septum. As I 

 could see no way of obviating the objec- 

 tions in either method, I had become 

 discouraged and almost disgusted with 

 the results, and had determined to 

 abandon the use of foundation entirely, 

 until last season, when my attention was 

 called to the fact that Mr. Given had 

 taken a new departure in the manner of 

 introducing the wires, that is, pressing 

 the foundation in wired frames by the 

 use of a powerful press, which laid the 

 foundation evenly in the septum in such 

 a manner as to render the loss of brood 

 impossible. 



I purchased some of Mr. Given's wired 

 foundation, and after giving it the most 

 thorough tests, concluded that I had 

 found the ne plus ultra in foundation. 

 We have used in our apiary over 60 lbs. 

 of Given wired foundation, and have 

 yet to find the first larva either killed or 

 removed from the cells. In conclusion, 

 I will say that I consider the essential 

 requisites to a practical and successful 

 use of foundation to be a pure article, 

 made from new wax, not lighter than 5 

 feet to the pound, with heavy side-walls 

 and thin septum, secured in the frames 

 in such a manner that it will neither sag, 

 warp, nor break either in the hive or in 

 using the extractor. It has been prac- 

 tically demonstrated to my satisfaction 

 that these results can only be obtained 

 by Mr. Given's method of introducing 

 the wires : and if, by a happy combina- 

 tion, the Dunham foundation could be 

 made and wired by the Given, or a sim- 

 ilar process, the foundation controversy 

 would be virtually ended. 



Wellington, 111., Feb. 10, 1881. 



From the New York Tribune. 



Do Bees Puncture Grapes? 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Treatment of Foul Brood. 



E. W. FELTON. 



In the spring of 1879 I commenced 

 with 21 colonies, and in May, I spread 

 the brood and put in empty combs, once 

 in about two weeks, and in one case put 

 in two empty ones at one time. In Aug- 

 ust, the one I put the two combs into 

 was badly affected with foul brood, 

 and I saw a few cells of it in 4 or 5 

 others. That year they had increased 

 to 34 strong colonies. I commenced 

 last spring with 31 colonies and doubled 

 down to 26, and in May I found foul 

 brood in every hive. They commenced 

 to swarm about June 20th, when some 

 of them had not more than 2 pounds of 

 honey in the hive. I sold 5 and increased 

 to 31; and on August 7th I boiled all of 

 my empty hives, and shook 15 colonies 

 into these hives, and put them into the 

 cellar. I boiled those 15 hives, and on 

 the 4th day I shook the other 16 into the 

 clean hives and brought the others out 

 of the cellar. I took what comb they 

 had made, away from them, gave them 

 whole sheets of foundation, and the 3rd 

 day after, gave the others foundation. 

 They appeared to be fair sized colonies 

 when I shook them off; the day after I 

 gave them the first foundation the 

 apiary was as still as a grave-yard; there 

 did not appear to be a dozen bees in 

 sight at a time; 3 or 4 came out and 

 clustered on the outside of the hives, 

 and remained there from morning until 

 night, and not a bee stirred, so I thought 

 I would try feeding. I boiled some 

 honey and made a tray \% by 3 feet, put 

 in it 6 lbs. and put on a float, and when 

 the bees found that, it was interesting 

 to see them take it. They would take 

 the 6 lbs. in 30 minutes. I fed them 80 

 lbs. and then stopped feeding, and never 

 saw bees try harder to work after that, 

 but they dwindled down to i of what 

 they were when I shook them off. By 

 the time the brood began to hatch they 

 had increased to fair sized colonies. On 

 October 12th I examined them for the 

 last time. I now have them in the cel- 

 lar and they seem to be wintering well. 



I put the old hives and combs in the 

 cellar and extracted the honey. 



I think I made a mistake in not leav- 

 ing a few bees in each hive to hatch the 

 brood. I could have put them with the 

 others and kept them from dwindling so 

 much. If I get rid of this foul brood I 

 shall not spread any brood after this. 



Hastings, Minn., Feb. 19, 1881. 



PROF. A. J. COOK. 



Not long since I received a letter from 

 Professor F. W. Lustin, of the Univer- 

 sity of Lewisburg, Penn., stating that 

 the question of "•destruction of grapes 

 by bees " was exciting attention in their 

 Natural History Society. 



More recently Mr. Gustavius Schoen- 

 field, a fruit grower and apiarist of 

 Brockton, N. Y., wrote: "At the last 

 meeting of the Chautauqua County 

 Horticultural Society, war was waged 

 against the industrious bees. My ob- 

 servation leads me to think that the 

 wasps are at the root of the mischief. 

 These latter puncture the fruit, and the 

 aroma from the oozing juice attracts 

 the worker bees, which sip, lap, and 

 suck until nothing remains but the skin 

 and seeds of the grapes. Is it possible 

 for the weak jaws of our bees to tear 

 open the skin of any fruit? This ques- 

 tion is a serious one for this section. I 

 lost two tons of Delaware grapes last 

 season. I should say that there were 

 500 bees to one wasp, but the wasps 

 were always leaders." 



Mr. A. G. Gulley informs me that the 

 grapes, especially the Delawares, are 

 greatly injured at South Haven, Michi- 

 gan. He is not sure but the birds and 

 the wasps are the prime aggressors, but 

 surely the bees are not slow to join in 

 the attack. Whole clusters of fine 

 grapes are utterly ruined, often not a 

 grape left that is not sucked dry. This 

 is really becoming a most interesting 

 and no less important matter. 



At Huron, Ohio, Mr. H. J. Krock is 

 accused by a bee-keeper, Mr. Peter 

 Klasen, of poisoning his bees by use of 

 Paris green because the bees have be- 

 come a great nuisance, as claimed by 

 Mr. Krock, in that they annually de j 

 stroy his grapes, upon which he depends 

 for a livelihood. This has not only led 

 to a serious quarrel but fire-arms have 

 been drawn and expensive litigation 

 began. 



I have many letters and inquiries like 

 the above. Surely our fruit-growing 

 friends feel, and with no small show of 

 reason, that they are great sufferers. 

 And reason and justice both demand 

 that we as bee-keepers give their com- 

 plaints a most attentive and respectful 

 hearing, and if these complaints are 

 founded in fact, it lies with us not only 

 to make amends but to secure against 

 future injury. 



I have no personal knowledge that 

 bees do tear open grapes, though I have 

 sought it carefully and long, both in 

 Michigan and California. That bees 

 will visit punctured grapes to sip the 

 juice, just as they will frequent cider- 

 mills in quest of similar liquids, there 

 can be no doubt. Two or three persons 

 have told me that they have seen bees 

 actually tear open grapes. Two of these 

 are extensive grape growers, and were 

 urged by me, two years since, to inform 

 me when they next witnessed such ac- 

 tion on the part of bees. Yet I have 

 not been notified up to date. Several 

 persons have called my attention to 

 such depredations, only to become con- 

 vinced upon closer examination that the 

 bees merely sipped from such fruit as 

 had been previously wounded. 



I have placed punctured grapes be- 

 fore bees, and when the latter got fairly 

 to work sipping the juice, I would re- 

 place the wounded fruit by that which 

 was wholly sound, when the bees would 

 at once leave the fruit. So from my ob- 

 servations and experiments I have been 

 led to believe that this habit, if ever 

 true of bees, was exceptional. This 

 opinion was sustained by the well known 

 habit of bees to search out and lap up, 

 not sealed liquids, but such as were ex- 

 posed and which were found by the 

 bees, only because of the volatile parti- 

 cles which escaped from them. We do 

 know that wild bees pierce the bases of 

 long tubular flowers, that they may 

 reach the nectar which would else be 

 beyond their reach. I have noticed here 

 for years past that the flowers of the 

 wild Bergamot, Monarda flstulosa, are 

 thus perferated; and more, that the 

 honey bees procure nectar from these 

 openings. It we knew that the honey 

 bees made these openings — I have 

 looked long, but in vain, to find them 



