THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



601 



and I now believe that it is not nec- 

 essary to ever have a failure. The 

 trouble is not in the queen, as has 

 been so much reported; she may be 

 fertilized at any time within an hour 

 after she crawls out of the cell, or 

 ■when she is 20 days old. 

 Clarksville,ot Mo. 



For tlie Amerlcau Boe JoumaL 



Cliief Cause of Foul Brooil, 



GEO. H. HOYLE. 



The following are some of the facts 

 I intend to prove ; and I hope I state 

 them plain enough, that those who 

 ■wish to argue the question, can see 

 exactly the position 1 take : 



1. Tliat the disease is not conta- 

 gious, in the manner generally sup- 

 posed. 



2. That it cannot be cured by drugs 

 or starvation. 



3. That it does not appear (of any 

 moment) in a good honey season. 



4. That most cases can be cured by 

 extracting and boiling the honey and 

 feeding it back ; and that any case 

 can be cured by feeding good honey 

 or sugar syrup ; except In a very few 

 rare cases where the fault lies with a 

 puny, no-account queen. 



I claim that the chief cause of this 

 disease is bad honey or honey-dew. 

 Whether some of the inferior honey- 

 dew gathered by the bees is poisonous 

 to the larvae, or whether it lacks the 

 necessary essentials for the larvae's 

 healthy development, I am unable to 

 say. it is certainly one way or the 

 other. 



A little over a year ago, when I was 

 trying to cure my bees of foul brood, 

 I was as firm a believer in the germ 

 theory as any of my readers can pos- 

 sibly be ; but since having a great 

 deal of experience with the disease, 

 and having read every thing on the 

 subject in the bee-papers, I am tirmly 

 convinced that bacteria never attacks 

 the larvae of the lioney-bee except 

 ■when the larvae are weakened, or ill 

 from some other cause ; and, that 

 there is no remedy known that will 

 benefit a colony of bees afflicted with 

 the disease, unless it is accompanied 

 by good healthy food. In fact the 

 food is all that is necessary. 



It has been a puzzle to a great many 

 bee-keepers, why bees would carry 

 the disease in the honey and not on 

 their bodies. Considering how small 

 the spores are said to be, and regard- 

 ing the disease from the germ-theory 

 stand-point, that they do not carry 

 the disease on their bodies is a won- 

 der indeed. That " the disease is 

 carried in the honey," is admitted by 

 nearly every writer on the subjer-t ; 

 although the germs in the honey have 

 yet to be discovered by tlie micro- 

 scopist. I say it is in tlie honey too, 

 but not the spores of the bacteria, 

 but that the honey is from some other 

 cause unlit for the use of bees in 

 brood-rearing. As to the bees carry- 

 ing the disease in the honey, why, 

 certainly if the honey is unfit for the 

 larvae in one hive it is unfit for those 

 in another. 



To those whose bees have the dis- 

 ease, I wish to say that if they were 

 to burn everything connected with 

 their apiary, and commence again, 

 their bees would be just as apt to 

 have it next year as they will be if 

 they keep the same combs they have 

 now. The advocates of the different 

 cures have suflieient reasons for their 

 beliefs, and I respect them as much as 

 I ever did ; for I do not believe (as 

 some writers seem to) that in order 

 to gain popularity in my belief, I must 

 depreciate the works and good under- 

 standing of those who happen to 

 differ from me. 



Mobile, 9 Ala. 



For the Amerlcaa Bee Journal. 



Tlie Seasoiu[1886, etc. 



ASA PINKERTON. 



When the honey season commenced 

 I had 106 colonies, the most of them 

 in pretty good condition, but I was 

 behind with sections ; yet I thought I 

 was all right, as I bad the best kind 

 of a hired man, and ■we had the 

 garden and field work all in good 

 shape. But just when the honey sea- 

 son commenced my man was taken 

 sick, and continued so for a month, 

 so that left too much work for myself, 

 and I was depending upon a neighbor 

 to furnish me with sections, and he 

 got behind and let me get clear out 

 of sections twice before the honey 

 season was over. 



But after all the trouble, I got a 

 little honey, and increased my bees to 

 170 colonies. I have taken off .5,164 

 pounds of comb honey, and I tliink I 

 have 100 or 200 pounds to take off yet. 

 and I will have over 6,000 pounds of 

 extracted honey. I feel that I have 

 been paid tor my trouble, if I did 

 work hard, and you can guess whether 

 I had to work or not, as for quite 

 awhile that I had from 5 to 12 swarms 

 per day. I put all second-swarms 

 back. 



I told a man one day that the time 

 would come that we would have the 

 bees trained to swarm and go into the 

 hive themselves, and that same day, 

 just after dinner, I had a large swarm 

 come out, and they made a few whirls 

 and came over tlie top of the cherry 

 trees and right down to the ground 

 and into a hive that I had placed on a 

 stand three or four days before. That 

 was June 12, and they filled their hive 

 and stored .56 pounds of honey in the 

 sections. I had one swarm issue on 

 June 7, and I picked up the queen in 

 front of the hive, and she had no sign 

 of awing. I hived them, and they 

 filled the hive and stored 112 pounds 

 in the sections, and the old colony 

 stored 79 pounds in the sections. The 

 best colony I had that did not swarm 

 produced 142 pounds in the sections. 



I notice on page 551, a chapter of 

 lamentations written by Joe King. I 

 am not acquainted with the gentle- 

 man, but I think that the bee-stings 

 and the wonderful quantity of honey, 

 and great heaps of money, must have 

 affected his mind as well as his 

 nerves, or else his house is not so very 

 strong, as I have been told by a lady 



that he only has a few bees and about 

 a wagon load of honey. For myself, 

 1 have not been alarmed yet, though 

 I sleep under 4,000 pounds, and eat 

 under 5.000 pounds of honey, and I 

 never think of getting "sweetened 

 up." I have been selling from 25 

 cents to $.S9 worth every trip, and I 

 do not iiave any fears of the bank's 

 breaking, as long as I can furnish 

 them plenty of money ; nor I do not 

 fear burglars, as long as it is warm , 

 enough so I can sleep with the doors 

 and windows open. My pockets are 

 all right, and if they do wear out, a 

 }^-pound of honey will get cloth for a 

 new pair. 



Should the above appear in the Beb 

 JouKNAi. it might be the means of 

 Mr. Joe King and his neighbor bee- 

 keepers getting lietter acquainted. 



Marshalltown,© Iowa, Sept. 1, 1886, 



for the American Bee Joumel. 



Feeding Sugar to Bees. 



n. E. HILL. 



I think that few, if any, will dis- 

 pute Mr. Hutchinson's claim, that 

 " whether lowering the price of honey 

 will put beekeeping down, depends 

 altogether upon what lowers the 

 price." But if the price is lowered as 

 the result of producers' giving the 

 public occasion to believe that honey 

 is obtained by feeding sugar (which 

 Mr. H. acknowledges to be a fair ob- 

 jection to the use of sugar), are "bee- 

 keepers more prosperous than ever V 

 I think not. 



Then Mr. Hutchinson broadly re- 

 fers to " sugar feeding," the " ex- 

 tractor,'? " comb foundation," etc., as 

 "improvements in bee-keeping." I 

 frankly acknowledge this to be too 

 deep for my comprehension, as I have 

 yet to learn why the use of an article 

 that (" fairly "') gives grounds for 

 suspicion, thereby decreasing the de- 

 maud, and consequently the price of 

 our product, should be regarded as an 

 "improvement." 



As another excellent feature of 

 sugar to bee-keepers, Mr. Hutchinson 

 infers that by its use the cost is re- 

 duced. This needs only to come 

 before the notice of some benevolent 

 enthusiast to cause a repetition of the 

 " AViley " sensation. I think the 

 article, as it is copied from one paper 

 to another, will stand : " A promi- 

 nent Michigan apiarist says," etc. 

 However, we will suppose again, that 

 bythe use of sugar the cost of pro- 

 ducing honey could be reduced 25 per 

 cent., and as the result of giving the 

 public "fair" ground for making 

 " unjust accusation " and circulating 

 false statements, the returns from our 

 business are reduced 40 per cent., is 

 the prosperity of bee-keepers ad- 

 vanced by the practice V 



I have never known any one to 

 dispute that the extractor was an 

 improvement in apiculture, and with 

 one or two exceptions I believe comb 

 foundation was heartily welcomed by 

 all as a decided improvement; but 

 when an "improvement" requires 

 several years of writing up to con- 



