792 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUIUXAL. 



colony. They began breeding first, 

 and became the strongest colony, but 

 furnished no surplus honey. 



BEES FOR BUSINESS. 



!Mr. Fellows — ^Vhich would be the 

 belter way, if one wished to Italianize 

 his apiary, to rear queens or buy 

 them y 



Prof. Cook— I was talking this mat- 

 ter over with Mr. Poppleton a few 

 years ago, and his decision was that 

 so long as we had so good queen- 

 breeders it was better to buy queens. 



A. I. Root— It is a question with 

 me whether it Is advisable to Ital- 

 ianize, or Syrianize or Carniolanize an 

 apiary. I have been thinking for 

 some time that it would not be profit- 

 able for a honey- producer to breed for 

 a pure race. Many desire hybrids, 

 antl are satished with nothing else. 



R. L. Taylor— I am very much 

 pleased to hear Mr. Root speak as he 

 does. The time has come when we 

 must breed " bees for business," re- 

 gardless of race, color, or markings. 



Prof. Cook— No race has all the 

 best qualities. We must select the 

 best, cross them, and then weed out 

 the undesirable qualities. 



T. F. Bingham— AVhen I stated at 

 the Cleveland convention in 1S72, that 

 the black bee had some superior 

 qualities, it raised a perfect " sizzle." 

 But time tries all things, and merit 

 will eventually win, and at last the 

 merit of the black bee is recognized. 



COMB FOUNDATION. 



A. I. Root — I should like to know 

 whether any one present has had any 

 experience in using two pieces of 

 foundation in each section V 



Mr. Macpherson — Mr. Cornell has 

 used them. The pieces are triangular 

 in shape. 



.fohn Rey — I use one piece, but 

 fasten it at both top and bottom. 



A. I). I>. AV^ood — I have tried this. 

 It is a failure with two-p umd sec- 

 tions ; as the foundation sags too 

 much. Separators must be used with 

 one-pound sections, or there will l)e 

 trouble. The foundation must be 

 warm when it is put in, then it will 

 not stretch so much. 



Mr. Matthews— How shall we avoid 

 having imperfect sections ? 



R. L. Taylor— Do not put on the 

 sections until honey is coraing in 

 rapidly, and crowd the bees. This 

 course is not advisable, however, as 

 it is better to luive some imperfect 

 sections than to curtail the quantity 

 of honey. 



Prof. Cook— How far is it advisable 

 to use foundation ? 



R. L. Taylor— I think it is profit- 

 able to use it in sections, also in the 

 brood-nest, unless it is at the time of 

 hiving swarms. I think newly-hived 

 swarms had better build their own 

 combs in the brood-apartment, unless 

 it may be that it is so late in the sea- 

 son that the bees would not till the 

 brood-nest without help. 



t Mr. Fellows— I tried taking away a 

 few combs when the fall honey-liow 

 commenced, and put empty frames in 

 their places, but the bees built drone- 

 comb and tilled it with honey. 



R. L. Taylor— That was not follow- 

 ing the Hutchinson plan. ^Ir. H. 

 insists upon a small brood-nest, and 

 that the empty frames be used only 

 when hiving swarms. You gave 

 empty frames in the fall to an es- 

 tablished colony ; at this time the 

 bees are reducing the size of their 

 brood-nest, and if any comb is built 

 it is tilled with honey, consequently 

 drone-comb is built. 



A. I. Root— Will the use of drone 

 foundation in the sections prevent 

 the building of drone-comb below V 

 If so, is there any objection to its use V 



Mr. Fellows— I have used it in the 

 sections, and the honey was fine, but 

 it was black bees that did the work. 



AV. Z. Hutchinson— The hiving of 

 one or two swarms upon empty frames 

 does but little towards settling the 

 question. A large number of swarms 

 should be hived ; hiving them alter- 

 nately upon empty frames and upon 

 foundation ; weighing everything 

 carefully, and continuing this year 

 after year. This I have done, and I 

 knovr that it does not pay me, with 

 my management, to use foundation 

 in the brood-apartment when hiving 

 swarms. 



Prof. Cook— I have tried Mr. Hutch- 

 inson's plan in a small way. and I 

 must say that I am delighted with it. 



^Y. Z. Hutchinson— What is the 

 best way to avoid the trouble arising 

 from the drone-comb built as the re- 

 sult of having old queens i" 



R. L. Taylor— Allow the comb to 

 remain until anotlier spring, then re- 

 move and extract the honey, melt up 

 the comb, and put a sheet of founda- 

 tion in its place. 



W. Z Hutchinson— That is the best 

 I can do ; but it is an expensive 

 method. It can be avoided by super- 

 seding queens, but I should look upon 

 the remedy as worse than the trouble. 



R L. Taylor— Queens do the best 

 work the first two seasons, and if 

 they are to be superseded, I suppose 

 it is best to do it during the swarm- 

 ing time. 



Geo. E. Hilton — I have taken away 

 the old queen at swarming time, and 

 allowed a young queen to run in the 

 hive in her place. 



The convention adjourned until 

 7:30 p.m. 



EVENINO SESSION. 



President Cook called the meeting 

 to order at at 8 p.m., and Mr. R. L. 

 Taylor read the following essay, en- 

 titled, 



WHAT I KNOW OF FOUL BROOD. 



Some one has said that foul brood 

 is a subject of discussion in every 

 bee keepers' convention, and perhaps 

 it would not be well that this conven- 

 tion should be an exception. I chose 

 this subject, too, because I am greatly 

 interested ill it myself just now, and 

 with the hope, first, that I may get 

 from others some information that 

 will be of assistance to me ; and, sec- 

 ondly, that I may be able to give 

 some hints ttiat will be of value to 

 others— not, indeed, to those who al- 

 ready have experience with the dis- 

 ease, but to those who, not having 



had any pai"ticular knowledge of it, 

 shall, in the near future, receive a 

 visit from this insidious enemy. 

 There are, undoubtedly, some such 

 here. This so-called foul brood made 

 its appearance among my bees, so far 

 as I know, during the present season. 

 I first discovered its foot- prints by 

 here and there a dead larva in 2 colo- 

 nies last May, but from obtuseness or 

 incredulousness. or from the imper- 

 fections of published descriptions of 

 it, or from a different type of the dis- 

 ease, I did not recognize it. 



Mr. Muth says : " Foul brood can 

 be rooted out completely and without 

 an extra amount of trouble, provided 

 you are sutficiently impressed with its 

 dangerous and insidious character, 

 and are prepared to meet it promptly 

 on its first appearance." But to be 

 that, one must know it at first sight. 



What are the characteristics by 

 which it may be certainly recognized? 

 AVe are told that the dead larvas are 

 brown or coffee-colored, but brown is 

 of several different shades ; and what 

 is coffee-colored V Is it that of the 

 raw coffee bean, or of the parched 

 bean, or of the pure decoction with 

 milk in it V At the best, I think these 

 descriptions are too indefinite. I 

 should describe the color of the dead 

 larvai as being, at first, just like that 

 of coffee, as you find it on your break- 

 fast table, with a moderate quantity 

 of milk in it ready for consumption. 

 The larvai gradually become darker 

 until they are almost as black as tar, 

 and about of the consistency of a 

 piece of dry, dark brood-comb. At 

 this stage they lie somewhat spread 

 out upon the lower side of the cells, 

 are drawn back a little from the 

 mouth of the cells, and have the ap- 

 pearance, at first glance, of being 

 turned up a little, somewhat like the 

 toe of a boot. At this stage, in a good 

 colony, with dark combs for breeding, 

 as seen in the autumn, an inexperi- 

 enced person would scarcely discover 

 the dead larvse at all. 



Secondly : The consistency of the 

 dead larvae is homogeneous, there 

 being no watery matter that may be 

 drawn off, leaving more solid parts, at 

 first, and for a considerable time the 

 substance of the larvag is ropy, tena- 

 cious, and elastic, so that if one end 

 of a splinter is inserted in the matter 

 and withdrawn, itie matter will draw 

 out in a thread like thick honey, but 

 it is so much more elastic than honey 

 that when the thread breaks, which it 

 will do wlien drawn to the length of 

 half an inch, there is no danger of 

 any of it dropping, but the one part 

 will spring back into the cell, and the 

 other part to the splinter. You will, 

 of course, understand that the dead 

 larvse retain their shape more or less 

 perfectly for a considerable length of 

 time on "account of their outer mem- 

 brane remaining apparently intact. 



Thirdly : Much has been said about 

 the disagreeable character of the odor 

 arising from a colony affected with 

 the disease ; it is true that it is suffi- 

 ciently so, but not to a greater extent 

 than many other odors. It is much 

 like that of a poor quality of glue in 

 a warming-pot in preparation for use. 

 The disease would ordinarily run sev- 



