168 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 17. 



GEORGE W. YORK. Editor. 



PUBf.lSHT WEEKLY BY 



IIS Michigan Street, CHICAGO, ILL. 



[Entered at the PostOffloe at Chicago as Second-Class Mail Mattel] 



UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' UNION 



Organized to advance the pursuit of Apiculture; to promote the interests of bee- 

 keepers ; to protect its meiubers ; to prevent the iidulteration of honey ; and 

 to prosecute the dishonest honey-commission men. 



Afembersiiip foe— ^l.OO xter- Annum, 



Executive CoMMiTTEE-Pres., Georce w. York; Vice-Pres., W. Z. Hutchinson; 

 Secretary, Dr. A. B. Mason. Station B. Toledo, Ohio. 



Board op Directous-E. It. Root; E. Wbitcomb; E. T. Abbott. C. P. Dadant; 

 W. Z. Hutchinson; Dr. C. C. Miller. 



General Manager and Treascrer— Busene Secor. Forest City, Iowa. 



VOL. 38. MARCH 17, 1898. 



NO. 11. 



^OTE.-l'llO American Bee .lournal adopts the Orthography of the followin' 

 Rule, rccommenilcd by the Joint action of the American Philological Assci- 

 ciation and the Philological Society of England:— Change "d" or "ed" tlnal 

 to "t when so pronounced, except when the "e" affects a preceding sound. 



The Next Xational Convention of bee-keep- 

 ers ought to be even larger and better than that of 1897, if 

 that be possible. But whether or not that will be attained 

 depends much upon where it will be held. Editor E. R. Root 

 and Rev. E. T. Abbott are whooping it up for Omaha, some 

 time during the great Trans-Mississippi Exposition to be held 

 there from June 1 to Nov. 1, 1898. 



The Executive Committee, who have to decide as to where 

 the convention is held, want to be assured of as low railroad 

 rates to Omaha as will obtain to Cincinnati where the Grand 

 Army meets early next September. This assurance the Omaha 

 Exposition people so far seem to be unable to make. So there 

 we are. 



In all probability the rate to Cincinnati will be one cent 

 a mile each way, as it was to Buffalo. Personally, we should 

 like very much to go to Omaha, and it seems to us that all the 

 railroads on this continent could well afford to make a 

 straight rate of one cent a mile to Omaha during the months 

 of the Exposition. 



The Executive Committee of the United States Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union feels that it ought to know sotnething definite about 

 rates before it decides to hold the meeting anywhere. 

 ■*-»-^ 



Honey market of Belgium.— The United States 

 supplies Belgium with more honey than any other, and the 

 trade is well establisht. France is her chief competitor. Out 

 of more than 2,000,000 pounds imported into Belgium in a 

 recent year, the United States supplied 915,000 pounds. So 

 reports the Orange Judd Parmer. We believe a large general 

 foreign trade in United States honey could be developt if the 

 right men could be found to undertake It and work It up. 



Foul Brood and Drones.— We have received the 

 following letter from Mr. A. F. Flucklger, of Oregon, who 

 says : 



As I am a reader of the American Bee Journal, I would 

 like to know your opinion about the article written by Mr. 

 Poppleton, on foul brood, as per the enclosed clipping, as It 

 differs much from Mr. McEvoy's statement. Also the facts 

 about apiculture, from Mrs. Jessie Thornton ; I find all a lit- 

 tle strange, as I never before read in a bee-journal that the 

 drones are useful for ripening the honey. 



A. F. Fluckiger. 



The articles to which Mr. Fluckiger refers are dipt from 

 the Webfoot Planter, an agricultural paper which seems to be 

 publisht in Portland, Oreg. Mr. E. R. Poppleton says : 



"I do not agree with Dr. Chase (nor do our best bee-.jour- 

 nals), as to his statement regarding foul brood. You can no 

 more start foul brood In a hive of bees than you can start a 

 a herd of cattle without a male and female. The disease Is 

 caused by a small insect or spora, and must be taken into the 

 hive, where it multiplies very rapidly. It takes from 6 to 12 

 months to kill a hive — according to the amountof spora taken 



into it If bees become weak from the middle of June to 



October, moths will frequently fill the hives so full of web 



that the bees cannot get into contract the disease As 



for the bee-moth, I believe they save ten hives to where they 

 kill one — if they ever do kill any, which I very much doubt. 

 In the 8,000 or 10,000 hives I have transferred during my 

 20 years' work throughout the Willamette valley, I have 

 never found one good hive that I thought the moths could 



have killed The reason moths will save bees is because 



they fill the foul brood hive so full of web the bees cannot get 

 in to carry off the honey. Foul brood hives that die in the 

 winter are the worst to deal with, as there are then no moths 

 to keep the other bees out, and these are sure to smell it in the 

 spring." 



It would be somewhat Interesting to know what Dr. Chase 

 could have said that would neither agree with Mr. Poppleton 

 nor our best bee-papers. For certainly the bee-papers would 

 not entirely agree with Mr. Poppleton in some of his state- 

 ments. There must be something peculiar about Mr. Popple- 

 ton's locality, for he says you can't start foul brood In a hive 

 full of bees, while elsewhere you cannot find a better place. 

 With him " the disease Is caused by a small Insect or spora," 

 while elsewhere. Instead of belonging to the animal kingdom 

 It belongs to the vegetable kingdom, the whole trouble being 

 laid to a minute plant called "bacillus alvel." In other locali- 

 ties the bee-moth will hardly be considered such a benefactor 

 as to save ten hives to where they kill one ! 



Then, the idea of moths trying to kill "hives" made of 

 wood ! Of course they couldn't. But they have often de- 

 stroyed colonies of bees. 



Mrs. Jessie W. Thornton, who has been engaged in bee- 

 keeping for 20 years, gives " a few facts relative to the honey 

 or section rack." She says : 



" A good colony should consist of from 9 to 12 fra es of 

 honey and brood, one good queen, and 20,000 workers. 

 Granting that the operator has a good colony ready for the 

 production of comb honey, he will now place his honey-rack 

 on top of the frames, di'ectly over the brood-chamber. If the 

 weatlier is fine and there are plenty of flowers for the produc- 

 tion of honey the section-rack will be full of unripe honey In 

 from four to six days. Now comes the process of ripening — 

 quite essential — for bees will not cap unripe honey. In the 

 ripening process is where the drones come into use, and there- 

 fore they should never be killed off. With their large wings 

 they fan the air, keeping it In motion, and thus causing the 

 water to evaporate from the honey. It will take about four 

 days for the honey to ripen If the weather Is fair; If cloudy it 

 will take longer. Ten days Is long enough in any case, so in 

 ten days from the time you put on the rack you can take it off 

 and it will be nicely filled with white, ripe honey." 



Mrs. Thornton lives quite a distance south of Mr. Popple- 

 ton, and If possible has a still more peculiar locality. With 

 20,000 workers the section-rack will be filled with honey in 

 four to six days, and with fair weather ripened In four days 

 more, so you are always safe to take it off in ten days! In 

 other localities, with twice as many bees, the bee-keeper will 



