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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 4, 



THOMAS C. NEWMAN. 



Editor and Proprietor. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 4, 1881. 



Using Combs in which Brood has Died. 



Please tell us whether decaying brood 

 found in the combs of those colonies that 

 recently perished, has any tendency to 

 create foul brood or anything similar in 

 its nature, if left to take its own course 

 until used next summer? A few days 

 ago we were cleaning hives and combs 

 from colonies that had lately died, and 

 among the general contents of such 

 hives we found more or less dead brood 

 in different stages of putrefaction. On 

 examination, we noticed in some of 

 these cells a brownish substance, in ap- 

 pearance some like that found in foul 

 brood (we imagined), but withoutscent. 

 It seemed like a waste to cut out of the 

 center of almost perfect combs pieces 

 as large as one's hand, or larger, for the 

 sake of disposing of a few such scat- 

 tered cells as mentioned , providing there 

 is no danger or risk in leaving them in. 

 Greiner Bros. 



Naples, N. Y., April 18, 1881. 



It is not foul brood. The brood was 

 deserted by the bees for some cause, and 

 died ; perhaps bad been spread, or were 

 not bees enough to properly care for and 

 keep it warm — or for some other cause. 

 We wonld not, however, leave it in the 

 hive, nor cut or mutilate it ; but uncap 

 those cells in which brood has died, then 

 put them away in some dry place till the 

 dead brood has dried and shrunken. 

 When wanted for use, put them one or 

 two at a time in the stronger colonies, 

 where they will be speedily and thor- 

 oughly prepared for use. In order to 

 make them desirable for brood combs, 

 it is necessary that the cells be ready 

 for the queen's occupancy as soon as she 

 reaches the comb, or she will either pass 

 over the comb entirely or deposit her 

 eggs here and there wherever she finds 

 unobjectionable spots. Every close ob- 

 server has noticed that the queen inva- 

 riably makes a close inspection of the 

 cell she proposes using, and unless per- 

 fectly clean she will not deposit an egg 

 in it. With a cell here and there occu- 

 pied with deadVlarva, it is easy to imag- 

 ine how the living larva adjoining may 

 be more or less liable to become chilled, 

 as inanimate bodies are not possessed 

 of the natural heat which pertains to 

 those living. It is undoubtedly this 

 natural law which instinctively impels 

 a " good " queen to deposit her eggs 

 compactly in an oval space in the comb, 

 thus economizing to the greatest extent 

 the heatof each individual larva to help 

 keep its neighbor warm. To what ex- 

 tent the presence of dead brood in the 

 combs (which has died from natural 

 causes) may have caused the death of 

 contiguous brood we cannot say, but 

 certainly it has contributed largely to 

 many of the theories regarding " foul 

 brood" and its tendencies, and perhaps 

 in rare instances has had a tendency to 

 enfeeble many of those bees which sur- 

 vived to maturity. 



It may not be out of place, in this 

 connection, to advise that the stronger 

 colonies be selected to do all the drudge 

 work of the apiary, such as cleansing 

 befouled combs, removing mold from 

 combs, and pulling out such dead bees 

 from the cells as will not shake out when 

 dried arid shrunken. If your strong 



colonies have their hives already filled 

 with frames of brood, then remove suf- 

 ficient to accomplish the purpose ; but 

 where a colony is already feeble, and it 

 is desirable to build it up rapidly, no 

 disagreeable work should be imposed 

 upon the bees to perform, for it will tax 

 their energies sufficiently to provide 

 pollen, water, and do the feeding and 

 nursing necessary for successful brood- 

 rearing. A strong colony will accom- 

 plish in a few hours that which would 

 embarrass a weak colony for nearly a 

 whole season. 



Perfection Honey Box.— Mr. J. E. 



Moore, of Byron, N. Y., sent us a nice 

 box of honey enclosed in his Perfection 

 Caps, of which the following is a correct 

 representation : 



All will see that it makes a neat pack- 

 age, very attractive and enticing, and 

 free from leakage, when glass is used. 

 These caps are a rapid and beautiful 

 method of glassing. 



®" This issue of the Bee Journal, 

 the first in the month, goes to all the 

 subscribers of the Weekly, Monthly 

 and Semi-Monthly. Should any of the 

 latter wish to change to the Weekly, 

 they can do so at any time, by paying 

 the difference. 



^TN. Langers, Belgium, Wis., has 

 wintered without loss 70 colonies, in a 

 bee house, constructed with double 

 walls filled, like ice-houses, having an 

 underground tunnel 50 feet long, for 

 ventilation ; it is also provided with up 

 ward ventilation. 



^"Dr. N.P.Allen, Smith's Grove, 

 Ky., President of the National Society, 

 desires the Bee Associations and Vice- 

 Presidents for the different States, to 

 send him statistical information con- 

 cernining bees and honey in time for 

 use at the National Convention at Lex- 

 ington next fall. 



gg* We have received the following 

 late Catalogues of apiarian supplies : 



: pages 



A. B. Weed, Detroit, Mich 

 — Bees and supplies. 



II. II. Brown, Light Street, Pa.— 12 

 pages — Bees and apiarian supplies. 



Win. Ballentine & Son, Sago, O.— 1 

 page— Queens and bees. 



J. T. Scott & Bro.. Crawfish Springs, 

 Ga. — Italian bees, queens, hives, etc. 



HiT Bev. A. Salisbury, Camargo, 111., 

 desires to have the following correction 

 made : 



I see you have accredited the article 

 I wrote Cor and which was read at 

 the North Eastern Convention, to L. 

 M. Wainwrigbt, Noblesville, Ind. or 

 course it was through mistake and not 

 intentional. Nevertheless, I regret 

 having been the cause of laying so much 

 imperfection to the charge of another. 



The essay was printed just as it came 

 from the Secretary. The Bee Jour- 

 nal is in no way responsible for the 

 credit. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Bee-Culture in Kansas. — The Quar- 

 terly Report of the Kansas State Board 

 of Agriculture, for the quarter ending 

 March 31. 1881, is received, and under 

 the heading, " Condition of Bees," we 

 find the following item : 



Correspondents from only about half 

 the counties in the State report at all on 

 bees, in their quarterly reports. Reports 

 from 15 counties are very favorable, 

 the bees having come out of winter 

 quarters well, and seem to be in a fair 

 condition : Chautauqua, Cherokee, Elk, 

 Franklin, Harvey, Jackson, Labette, 

 Lincoln, Montgomery, Nemaha, Raw r - 

 lins, Riley, Saline, Sedgwick and Shaw- 

 nee. In the following counties they are 

 reported to have done poorly, in many 

 cases from 25 to 50 per cent, having died 

 from the long cold winter and neglect : 

 Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, 

 Brown, Butler, Cloud, Cowley, Craw- 

 ford, Doniphan, Greenwood, Jewell, 

 Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Lyon, 

 Marshall, Miami, Mitchell, Phillips, 

 Pottawatomie, Republic. Wabaunsee. 

 Washington, Wilson, Woodson, and 

 Wyandotte. Those who have made a 

 success in this industry speak encour- 

 agingly, and say that it'is a want of at- 

 tention that produced a failure. 



Bees Without Stings.— The Bienen- 

 Zuechter, the organ of the " Societe 

 D'Apiculteur d'Alsace-Loraine," re- 

 marks as follow r s concerning the sting- 

 less bees of South America, and their 

 introduction into the United States : 



" The discovery has been made in 

 South America of yellow bees, without 

 stings, and some bee-keepers of the Uni- 

 ted States have taken the preliminary 

 steps to import this bee into that coun- 

 try. We have informed our readers that 

 Mr. Benton, a bee-keeper of the United 

 States, went to the Island of Cyprus and 

 from there to the Island of Java, to 

 study the Apis Dorsata, and would 

 try to import some specimens of these 

 into America. It is said that this bee 

 is much larger than our handsomest 

 queens. Let us hope that Mr. Newman. 

 after what he said in the Convention at 

 Cincinnati about the improvement in 

 the race of bees, will be able to cross 

 this bee with the one without sting, then 

 we will have the bee of the future — a very 

 precious bee, which nobody will fear, 

 and having a longer tongue and larger 

 body, will be able to feed on our im- 

 mense red clover fields, the nectar of 

 which is not very accessible to the ordi- 

 nary bees." 



Honey Dew.— The Patrons' Guide gives 

 the following on this subject : 



"Honey dew" is a name commonly 

 applied to a sticky substance often seen, 

 during hot, dry weather in the summer, 

 on the leaves of hickory and other for- 

 est trees. It is not, as many suppose, a 

 natural deposit from the atmosphere, 

 given for the especial benefit of bees, 

 but is exuded from the leaves direct. 

 Hence " honey dew" may be correctly 

 termed a partially dried-up sap. Liebig. 

 in his excellent work, "Agricultural 

 Chemistry," says : "Certain diseases of 

 trees, for example that called ' honey 

 dew.' evidently depend on the want of 

 the due proportion between the quantity 

 of the azotized and that of the unazo- 

 tized substances which are applied to 

 them as nutriment." 



The Manufacture of (Jlucose. — Mr. 



Win. Lynch, Maysville, Ky., has sent 

 us the following from the Cincinnati 

 Star Times : 



A recent lawsuit tried before Judge 

 Haight. of the Supreme Court of New 

 York, has revealed to the public the ex- 

 tent of a new manufacture of general 

 interest. The production of glucose, 

 or " grape sugar," from corn is of very 

 recent date but of great proportions. It 

 is estimated that from 12,000,000 to 16,- 

 000,000 bushels of corn were consumed 

 the past year in the manufacture of 

 this comparatively new article of com- 

 merce ; several establishments consum- 

 ing from 4,000 to 5,000 bushels each per 

 day. The first use this so-called grape 

 sugar was put to was in the adultera- 

 tion of ale, beer, porter and liquors. 

 The consumption was necessarily' lim- 

 ited in this direction, but when it was 

 found that it could be successfully used 

 in the adulteration of syrups and sugar 

 the production has increased with start- 

 ling rapidity. It was proven in the 

 case above referred to— Alberger vs. 

 Hamlin and the Buffalo Grape Sugar 

 Company — that the profits of one firm 

 amounted to one-half a million dollars 

 during the year, and that the profits on 

 the amount of capital invested were 

 simply fabulous. A glucose factory is 

 better than a field of diamonds or a 

 gold mine. Of course rivers of this 

 fraudulent sweetness will soon How 

 through the land, and permeate every 

 article of food or drink to which it can 

 be made to assimilate in any form. 



The means for detecting the adulter- 

 ation are very easy. Glucose being 

 less soluble than sugar, settles to the 

 bottom of the cup and, when left to 

 dry, forms a hard film, similar to gela- 

 tine. On the surface of syrup thus 

 adulterated a film or skin forms on ex- 

 posure to the air, which becomes corru- 

 gated as the exposure is prolonged. 

 These tests are capable of detecting a 

 very small percentage of the foreign el- 

 ement in sugar or syrup. 



(JIucosc. — In the London Journal of 

 Horticulture, Mr. Frank Cheshire, while 

 commenting upon the discussions on 

 adulteration in the American Bee 

 Journal, says : 



Adulteration with glucose is a base 

 fraud which all good men must repro- 

 bate. . . .Its use as an adulterant is most 

 disgraceful, and all should join hands 

 in fearlessly doing our level best to get 

 the right ticket put upon any man (and 

 his wares) who descends to a practice 

 which, if it does not lower him, wrongs 

 all those who are striving to do hon- 

 estly. Glucose, although chemically 

 like a portion of honey, is altogether 

 wanting in that which makes honey 

 what it is. Its aroma, the delicate dis- 

 tillment from a thousand Bowers inim- 

 itable and incommunicable alike, is not 

 there, and he who gives the one for the 

 other is as truly criminal as he who 

 tenders knowingly a base coin. 



l^ The Palaski, N. Y., Democrat re- 

 marks as follows, concerning Professor 

 Cook's " Manual of the Apiary :" 



This excellent work has reached its 

 seventh thousand. This shows the ap- 

 preciation of that book by that portion 

 of the public interested in bee-culture. 

 We advise all to buy the book who are 

 interested in rearing bees; if von are 

 interested in the entomology of the bee; 

 if you want to be posted in bee-botany ; 

 if you would learn of bee-enemies ; and 

 even if you are only in pursuit of in- 

 structive reading, told in an interesting 

 manner, by one who thoroughly under- 

 stands his subject. 



^rThe man who will purchase a 

 number of colonies of bees, set them up 

 in some out-of-the-way place, and give 

 the matter no further attention, should 

 keep out of the business altogether.— 

 Grange Bulletin. 



8S" An exchange gives the following 

 " phuimy-dote :" 



" Did any of you ever see a bee's 

 sting ? " inquired a teacher of a class. 



" I have," exclaimed one. 



" Where V" asked the teacher. 



■'Stuck in the nose of a fellow that 

 caught a tiee and tried to smell it," said 

 the boy, laughing. 



4g"The Wisconsin Farmer fully ap- 

 proves the articles on " Planting for 

 Honey," which have from time to time 

 appeared in the Bee Journal, and 

 copied a portion of one of them, with a 

 a very warm indorsement. 



