558 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAj_. 



in a second time, and all the swarm is 

 stirred up and rattled. Since the second 

 round the bad boy has been out of his 

 head and swollen. He is very fat, and 

 dreams that he is his sister's pin-cushion." 



Mr. H. E. Wilder, of Eiverside, Calif., 

 has secured 22,000 pounds of honey 

 this year from 110 colonies. A few 

 years ago Mr. Wilder, who is a young 

 and energetic young man, was a book 

 agent. Verily, sitting down and letting 

 the bees work for you is better than 

 tramping over the country trying to sell 

 books, to say nothing of putting up with 

 the taunts of impolite persons. Good 

 boy. Wilder; may your shadow never 

 grow less. 



On page 738 of Gleanings Rambler 

 has let his fertile imagination run off 

 and produce an electric bee that will 

 gather honey by night as well as by day. 

 It is a cross between a common Italian 

 bee and the American lightning-bug. 

 But, lo ! the editor of that paper throws 

 a wet blanket on Rambler, and says, 

 "The idea of crossing lightning-bugs 

 with bees is older than the hills." 



CONDUCTED BY 



Beeville. Texas. 



Dead Brood Don't Produce Foul Brood 



I notice on page 434 that Mr. McEvoy 

 gives me a going over about what I have 

 said regarding foul brood heretofore. 

 What I have said, I have said, and yet 

 stick to it, that common dead brood will 

 not, cannot, never did, and never will, 

 produce /owl brood. How do I know? 

 Because I have tried it. I will here 

 mention a case that last spring came 

 under my own observation. The party 

 did not wish me to mention it publicly, 

 but in this connection I will do so to 

 make my point. 



Last spring, after warm weather had 

 begun, a man brought me a carload of 



bees, and they were put up for ship- 

 ment just as they were beginning to 

 swarm, and were very heavy with brood 

 in all stages. The bees were on the road 

 four days, and TO of the strongest colo- 

 nies smothered, and such a mess I had 

 never seen before. The dead and rotten 

 brood was given to new swarms and 

 other colonies at once, and no bad re- 

 sults. This, together with the other 

 experience I have had along this line, 

 proves conclusively to me that there is 

 no such thing as real, old, malignant 

 {Bacillus alvei) germs in dead or rotten 

 brood. There must be a germ to start 

 foul brood, or else it must not exist. 

 You may ask me where it started; this I 

 am unable to answer — just the same as 

 I am unable to say where yellow fever 

 starts. There are a great many things 

 in this world that I suppose never wil 

 come to light, and where, or how, foul 

 brood started may be one of them. 



Friend McEvoy, I fear you started out 

 wrong in suggesting that dead or rotten 

 brood produces foul brood, for it will 

 not do it in this country. 



Now, again : You have laughed at 

 me, but I can see (or think I can) that 

 your laugh was only a forced grin, as 

 any of our little folks know that water 

 is given us to cleanse with, and cleanli- 

 ness is one of Heaven''s first laws. There- 

 fore, I said that to scald the hive where 

 a foul-broody colony had been, would 

 kill the germs, and to put a new colouy 

 of bees into such a hive, they would not 

 take foul brood. I did not mean that 

 scalding the hive would cure foul brood, 

 or placing the foul-broody colony back 

 into a scalded hive would effect a cure. 

 No, no ; it would do no good at all. 



Now, Friend McEvoy, you say that 

 you and some one else (I don't remem- 

 ber now who it was, as I am writing 

 from memory to-night, and I have not 

 your article before me) know as much 

 as Mrs. Atchley about these things. 

 Well, now these things I must admit, for 

 if I did know more I would hardly bo 

 allowed the honors, as I am only a 

 woman. Then, I would not like to say 

 that I knew more than other people, as 

 it would not be ladylike to do so ; but I 

 must acknowledge that I know but little, 

 and learn every day of my life. But 

 there is one fact that presents itself to 

 mo concerning foul brood, and that is 

 dead brood will not cause foul brood in 

 this country. 



Friend McEvoy, I have never said a 

 word against your way of curing foul 

 brood, as I think you are doing a won- 

 derful work in getting the bees in your 

 country cleaned up, and curing foul 



