1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



435 



THE WEEDS AND GRASS THAT ANNOY. 



When I began with bees the weeds and grass used to an- 

 noy me so that I felt like setting the hives on top of the 

 house. Ali around our house the ground is so rich that 

 angle-worms have come to stay, and every spring my chickens 

 make such holes hunting for them that it is impossible to run 

 a lawn-mower. If I put my hives on plowed ground the weeds 

 would grow. Now, I can almost build a house with a ham- 

 mer and a screw-driver (if it is all cut out like hives are), but 

 I can't handle a scyttie without running the point into the 

 ground, so I just couldn't keep the stuff down myself, and my 

 husband and the hired men were always afraid to go near a 

 bee-hive unless I first went and blockt the entrance. 



I tried sawdust and chip-dirt, but with the wind 

 and chickens neither would stay. But like a great many 

 other difficulties I have met I kept at it till, unlike the ghost, 

 it did down. Mr. Brown happened, one spring, to get a lot 

 of cheap cull lumber for making fences, and among it were a 

 good many boards a foot wide and over, and all about 16 feet 

 long. I took some of these and laid them down "three 

 abreast " until I had a " sidewalk " as long as my bees would 

 need, each hive set in a row about 18 inches apart. The 

 front end of the alighting-board rested on the edge of the 

 " sidewalk," and the back end was raised up and a block put 

 under to make it level. When the grass began to come up be- 

 tween the cracks, I turned the boards over, turning it all 

 down under. With one of my little boys (the children are not 

 afraid of the bees) at the opposite end I could turn the boards 

 all over in a little while. 



I am still using these boards, not having found anything 

 better. They give a strip the whole length of a row of hives, 

 and over 3 feet wide entirely free from weeds and grass. They 

 make a very good alighting-board, and in swarming-time the 

 dipt queens from the comb-honey hives can be found very 

 easily. Eau Claire Co., Wis. 



Does All the Honey in a Foul-Broody Colony 

 Contain the Disease-Germs ? 



B\- HON. R. L. TAYLOR. 



Two cases of foul brood were discovered during the sea- 

 son of 1896. These were treated as heretofore by putting the 

 bees Into clean hives furnisht with foundation, and the dis- 

 eased hives with their combs disinfected with heat. The 

 treatment was completely successful, as has uniformly been 

 the case heretofore. The two all-important considerations in 

 the operation are that the management be so careful and 

 guarded that no bees from the diseased colony be driven to 

 other colonies, and that no bees from healthy colonies be per- 

 mitted to visit the combs of the diseased colony. 



The reason upon which this caution is founded is that the 

 germs of the disease are liable to be carried from the diseased 

 colony to healthy ones in its honey — at least it is the supposi- 

 tion that there is such liability. We know certainly that rob- 

 ber-bees, when engaged in robbing a diseased colony, carry 

 the infection to their own hive. We are certain also that 

 honey extracted from combs which have contained the dis- 

 eased larvfe convey the disease to colonies that use it. But to 

 have this effect it is not necessary to suppose that every cell 

 of honey contains germs, and when we consider how small 

 a proportion of the larvae are freshly affected with the disease 

 at any one time, and that the progress of the disease in a col- 

 ony Is generally quite slow, it is rational to suppose that but a 

 small proportion of the cells of honey contains the germs. 

 There would perhaps be an exception to this if a strong 

 colony became badly affected with the disease towards fall, 

 say in August, when its hive was well filled with brood, and 

 when a good flow of honey occurred in September, for, in that 

 case, in the ordinary course of things, as the dead matter of 

 the larvae dried down, the cells containing it would be filled 

 with honey. It would seem inevitable, then, that a large pro- 

 portion of the cells of honey should contain floating germs so 

 soon as sulficient time were given to allow the honey to soften 

 the dried matter. After this the cells containing affected 

 honey may be largely increast in numbers by the removal of 

 the honey from cell to cell as in the spring when brood-rearing 

 is resumed. 



Cowan, in his celebrated work, laid it down as a scientific 

 fact that the germs of foul brood were not to be found in the 

 honey. This conclusion was not accepted in this country be- 

 cause it was found that practically at least It was not true. I 

 doubt if Cowan himself would deny that the germs could be 

 mingled with honey by the hand of man, and if they could 



then they also could in the ways I have hereinbefore indicated 

 by the bees. With these exceptions was not Cowan correct ? 



This is a matter of considerable Importance, because a 

 true answer to the question would give us a pretty clear in- 

 sight into the methods by which the disease in question may 

 be disseminated. If Cowan is correct, with the limitations 

 suggested, then the disease cannot be conveyed by germs float- 

 ing in the air or carried about on the bodies of the bees, 

 otherwise they must certainly be carried to the honey in open 

 cells throughout the hive. 



With these thoughts in mind I made an experiment with 

 honey taken from one of the colonies operated on. The col- 

 ony was quite badly affected, there being in the space occu- 

 pied by the queen from one-fourth to one-third of the cells 

 that contained dead brood. The honey was contained in the 

 two outside combs of the upper section of the Heddon hive. 

 The combs contained five or six pounds of honey, and had 

 apparently never contained any brood. The honey was fed to 

 a colony of moderate strength, and very short of stores, but 

 actively engaged in the rearingof brood, by placing the combs 

 in a story above the honey-board through which the bees 

 came and carried the honey below until it was all gone, and 

 evidently all, or nearly all, used in nourishing the growing 

 larvie. 



In ihis experiment the thought was that if the honey con- 

 tained the germs that fact would certainly be revealed by the 

 appearance of the disease among the brood below, and that 

 the continued absence of the disease would be pretty satis- 

 factory evidence that that honey contained no germs, and, 

 consequently, in so far as one experiment goes, that they are 

 not carried about by the action of the air, nor upon the bodies 

 of the bees. Several examinations were made of the colony 

 during the latter part of the summer and early fall to dis- 

 cover the existence of foul brood, if such were the fact, but 

 no trace of the disease was found. 



If enough further experiments give the same results, a 

 decided relief will often be experienced in dealing with the 

 disease, as where there are considerable amounts of surplus 

 honey above the honey-boards. 



Continued observations have been made in the cases of 

 two experiments which have been heretofore reported ; one of 

 these was the immediate introduction to a healthy colony of a 

 queen taken from a colony so badly affected with foul brood 

 as to be about worthless. Examinations the last season show 

 that the colony to which the queen was introduced remained 

 healthy, as had been anticipated from the fact that it had re- 

 vealed no signs of disease the previous season. This seems to 

 show pretty conclusively that a queen is not necessarily dis- 

 eased herself, tho she has been for a long time in a badly dis- 

 eased colony. 



The other one was the case of a colony of which mention 

 has been made several times heretofore, in which what to all 

 appearance was foul brood showed itself without making ap- 

 parent progress, disappearing altogether at times and reap- 

 pearing again to the extent of a few cells only. During the 

 last season it did not show itself in the colony at all. It would 

 be of interest to know certainly whether this was a case of 

 true foul brood, and if it reappears an effort will be made to 

 have the point determined by a competent microscopist. — Re- 

 view. Lapeer Co., Mich. 



Apis Dorsata and Bee-Improvement. 



BY W. A. VAKIAN. 



There has been much said for and against the government 

 going to the expense of arrangements for the introduction of 

 Apis dorsata. It seems to me that the coming occupation of 

 Manila and the Philipine Islands by the United States may 

 prove a good chance in this matter. If any one will look at 

 the maps and descriptions given in Alfred R. Wallace's " Is- 

 land Faunas and Floras," it will be found that these islands 

 have almost the whole fauna and flora of the East Indies, part 

 of that of China and Japan—" temperate Asia " — and part of 

 that of Australia and the Pacific, thus being about the richest 

 in this respect of any place on the globe. 



I think it almost certain that there will be among the vol- 

 unteer troops going there (who are not, it seems, likely to be 

 workt to death) bee-keepers enough to make a pretty strong 

 committee, who, with very little aid in the shape of material 

 from the agricultural departmeut, if the great bee, or a closely 

 allied variety, inhabits the region, can test them there, and 

 If they prove adapted to hiving, introduce them. There will 

 be such chances in natural history out there that each regi- 

 ment should have Its Scientific Society, and the boys, in those 

 cases where they have time before leaving San Francisco, 

 should buy and carry along a small library of the latest works 



