1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNA!U> 



291 



Higher or Lower Elevation for an Apiary. 



BY PETER J. SCHARTZ. 



Oa page 54, " Maiae " asks Dr. Miller if an apiary located 

 on quite an elevation has as good a chance to secure a crop of 

 honey as an apiary not elevated. I say yes, for this is exactly 

 how my apiary is located. My bees are located on the top of 

 a hill, and I, like "Maine," secure good crops of honey, and 

 sometimes more than my neighbor beekeepers who are located 

 on low ground. I will tell as nearly as I can why I have my 

 bees on high ground. 



This hill faces east; directly opposite is another hill fac- 

 ing west ; between these two hills is a valley where we keep 

 our stock, and our barns are located there. Our dwelling 

 houses are built on the hill, and more favorably speaking the 

 most of Cook county is on the hill. 



I see no difference in the bees, nor do I have any trouble 

 in keeping up the strength of my colonies. In fact, my bees 

 are better on this elevated ground than they would be on lower 

 ground, for the reason that the thermometer will register 20- 

 more in this valley than it will on this elevation, so you see 

 that it is decidedly in favor of the bees. 



Bees never fly out on this high ground when it is too cold 

 for them, but if they were below the sun would soon warm 

 them up, and out they come never to return. I tried it once 

 with a single colony, and will never do so again if it can be 

 avoided. What a shame to see the poor bees come out of their 

 hive and scattered everywhere, too much chilled ever to re- 

 turn again. It made me feel as if I could pick up hive, bees 

 and all and carry them up these 17 flights of stairs and set 

 them down alongside their comrades. That settled the experi- 

 ment for me. 



Spring dwindling I know nothing of, nor have I lost more 

 than two colonies in wintering in all these six years. 

 They are always wintered on the summer stands with but 

 scant protection (while the north wind blows them full In the 

 face), and there they are in the spring safe and sound, unless 

 they have walkt off with two (in)human legs under them. 

 Some of the hives have from 12 to 16 Langstroth frames each. 



This is my experience, and if "Maine" doubts this, let 

 him or her try low ground with one colony and be convinced. 



Cook Co., III. 



Spreading Foul Brood Among Bees. 



BY PROF. A. .J. COOK. 



Mr. Jas. T. Lisonbee, of Maricopa Co., Ariz., asks me to 

 answer the following question : 



"Is there any danger of spreading foul brood by the use of 

 the watering-trough as described on pages 204 and 395 of the 

 American Bee Journal for 1S9T, which is, in short, a plank with 

 holes bored in it and grooves cut to connect the same ? Cheshire 

 speaks of bees carrying the disease on their feet from a diseased 

 colony to a healthy one. If you will answer, you will oblige me 

 and others." J. T. Lisonbee. 



As this is a question of general interest I am giad to reply 

 through the American Bee Journal. 



In case of these microbe or germ diseases, there is so much 

 yet to be learned that we may not any of us speak with over- 

 much confidence. Yet no science of to-day is receiving more 

 close attention and hard study than this one of Bacteriology. 

 And we are fast becoming acquainted with facts that bid fair 

 to become of vast practical importance. 



It is true that the late Mr. Cheshire believed that foul- 

 brood germs could be and were carried by the bees. If I re- 

 member correctly (I have not his work at hand) he also be- 

 lieved that the germs were not carried in honey. Mr. Cheshire 

 did excellent service in his study of foul-brood germs, and 

 discovered important facts, but I think experience and the 

 consensus of opinion among our most intelligent and best in- 

 formed bee-keepers would not agree with him in either of the 

 above positions. Owing to the minute size of these lowest 

 vegetable or plant germs, it is not easy to demonstrate the 

 facts regarding their life history. 



That bees do not carry the disease-germs to flowers, 

 watering-troughs, etc., or that if they do the germs are im- 

 potent to develop seems obvious from the fact that the disease 

 spreads so slowly from apiary to apiary and from colony to 

 colony in the same apiary. With a little care on the part of 

 the apiarist, as shown by Hon. R. L. Taylor, of Michigan, 

 foul brood may be kept in certain colonies for days and weeks, 

 and yet no signs of it appear in other colonies close along side. 

 If the bees of the affected colonies carried the germs as they 

 went out to flower or pool, surely the disease would be sown 



broadcast, and all the bees in the region would very soon show 

 the malady, and become doomed. 



That the germs are in the honey is a generally accepted 

 theory, as no other seems to explain the spread of the disease, 

 as it very often occurs. I think Mr. A. I. Root, if my memory 

 serves me, thinks his bees were inoculated through honey that 

 leakt out at the depot. 



It is now known that many microbes are speedily killed 

 by exposure to sunlight, while sunshine is almost immediate 

 death to these minute germs. The germs of consumption or 

 tuberculosis are said to be quickly killed by sunlight, while 

 the full blaze of the sun is immediate death to these terrible 

 microbes. Thus a flood of sunlight, and better, sunshine, is 

 the best disinfectant of a house that harbors a consumptive. 

 Even then if Cheshire was correct in the belief that the germs 

 were carried by the bees, we may have in the sunshine such 

 an effective fungicide or germicide that the germs are killed 

 before they are conducted to the hive and placed in a nidus 

 suitable for their growth, development and multiplication. 



The answer, then, which I would give to Mr. Lisonbee, 

 would be that there is little if any danger of foul brood being 

 communicated from a watering-trough visited by bees from a 

 diseased colony. I believe the same would be true regarding 

 transmission of the germs through the visits of the bees to the 

 flowers. I think it is generally conceded that foul-brood 

 germs are not transmitted in wax, and so foundation from 

 comb that has harbored the disease-germs is entirely safe to 

 use. 



It the sunlight theory of destruction is true, then prob- 

 ably honey from a foul-broody colony would not be likely to 

 bear the fatal germs. It may be possible that the immersion 

 in the honey would protect against the sunlight, or tend to do 

 so. It is presumable that the visits of robber-bees to diseased 

 colonies, which are from their very depletion through the 

 effect of the microbes specially liable to attack, are generally 

 responsible for the spread of the malady. 



I should like very much to hear from Mr. Taylor regard- 

 ing the spread of the disease. From his long experience and 

 close and most intelligent observation, I think he would be 

 be able to give some specially valuable hints. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



The Bee-Industry in Arizona. 



BY B. A. HODSELL. 



The name Arizona recalls the many blood-thirsty bat- 

 tles with Apache Indians, the stage-robber, of men dying for 

 want of water, of cactus and barren desert. Of course, when 

 a sensational story is written they must locate it some place, 

 and it appears that Arizona has been imposed upon. It may 

 be of interest to know that the Salt and Gila valleys alone 

 shipt 29 carloads of honey to Eastern markets in a single 

 year, besides a large home consumption. 



My experience in bee-keeping commenced back in Ohio, 

 25 years ago, and many were the losses from drouth and cold 

 winters. Here it is pleasant to keep bees. There is scarcely 

 a day that they do not fly. There is no place in the United 

 States that we look on as competitors, except Southern Cali- 

 fornia, of which this is an inland valley. First in season are 

 Cottonwood buds, which furnish an abundance of pollen by 

 Feb. 10, followed by agua motas, yielding both pollen and 

 honey. Then come greasewood blossoms and a sea of desert 

 flowers. 



Bees commence swarming by March 15. Next comes the 

 honey crop from mesquite, catclaw, ironwood, which extends 

 into the alfalfa season, which begins about April 15, and con- 

 tinues until about Nov. 1. 



In the fall bees gather honey from wild poppies, sun- 

 flowers and other desert flowers. 



The bees here are nearly all hybrids or full Italians. 

 Nearly all of our bee-keepers are members of two associations, 

 through which they buy their supplies aud ship their honey in 

 carload lots. 



We produce extracted honey almost exclusively. The 

 yield ranges from 50 to 200 pounds per colony a year. 



The country is thoroughly watcht for bee-locations, and is 

 generally stockt, averaging about one colony to each acre of 

 alfalfa. In order to secure suitable locations for a number of 

 out-apiaries, I have them scattered 40 miles from home. 



In my searches for out-apiaries I found a beautiful valley 

 along the Gila river, near a railroad, surrounded by mesquite 

 and desert flowers in season. Large herds of fat cattle were 

 on the range in midwinter. Several farmers have built an 

 irrigating canal and irrigate about six sections of the very 

 best of valley land. 



A quarrel over a drove of hogs arose between those who 



