Mar. 16, 1S99. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



163 



were all dead, and there was a horrible stench. He' exam- 

 ined other hives, and found there was no foul brood in the 

 yard at all. He went into the house and wrote a messag^e 

 to this man. to be delivered to him when he arrived home, 

 telling- him he had examined the bees and found no foul 

 brood, and recommended taking- out the hive that had 

 broken down and save the rest of the bees. Mr. France 

 saved this man five or six colonies of bees. So, as I said in 

 the first place, we would better be sure ourselves that our 

 bees have foul brood before we destroy them. 



Mr. Moore — Have you had foul brood, Mr. Raymond, in 

 your own apiary ? 



Mr. Raymond — No, sir ; as Mr. France told me, he did 

 not find anj' foul brood among extensive bee-keepers. 



Pres. Beers — Principally among those who, in j'our 

 opinion, are careless and do not pay much attention to their 

 bees ? 



Mr. Raymond — I think many times, possibly, there is 

 some trouble with bees, and theirowners don't know what it 

 is, and consequently they destroj- the bees unnecessarily. 



Dr. Peiro — Mr. Raymond's suggestion is a very good 

 one. After all there is an intrinsic evidence in foul brood, 

 and I suppose that any person knowing it can't go wrong : 

 that is, the condition of the cells, and especially the condi- 

 tion of the advanced state of foul brood. As stated in the 

 paper, it looks like coffee that has had milk in it and that is 

 stickj' ; stick a sliver in it and it pulls out like thin molas- 

 ses ; now if that exists, why, I don't think I would hesitate 

 very long to surmise it was foul brood, and destroy it. 



Mr. Richardson — I would like to ask if there is any 

 work giving a history of this parasite ? 



Dr. Miller — Dr. How-ard's book gives more than you 

 will get from anything else. [This book is mailed from the 

 office of the Bee Journal for 25 cents, or sent with a year's 

 subscription to the Bee Journal — both for $1.10 — Editor.] 

 [Coutiuued ae.Kt week.] 



i mAf terthought. I 



■^^ The " Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. ^^ 

 ■^ By " COQITATOR." ^ 



TOO RESPECTFUI, TO A CROSS COLONY. 



Mr. Miles, you have written a first-rate article, and I 

 guess you are all right, but it sounds almost as if you 

 were too respectful to that extra-strong and cross col- 

 ony j'ou are preparing for cellar, on page 66. I was going 

 to say. end the terrible tension at once ; borrow a big can- 

 non and blow the whole thing from the muzzle of it ; but 

 on the whole I won't say it. Under some circumstances 

 your precautions are probably all right ; only do not get 

 our young brothers too much frightened before thev are hurt 

 any. 



PASSAGE UNDER THE HIVE — DISGR.4.CEFULLY SATISFIED. 



Mr. Pettit's contention, on the same page, that a pas- 

 sage under the hive is better than the bottom off entirely — 

 well, it may be correct, but Cogitator came through it with- 

 out feeling that it had been proved exactly. 



One gem of a thoug-ht that sparkles at the end of Pettit's 

 article is where he tells us that the worst feature of the win- 

 tering situation is that so many are satisfied — satisfied with 

 disgracefully imperfect results. Right he was, that time. 



" 'TATER " DREADS TOO BIG SWARMS. 



Mr. Coverdale, page 67. Too big swarms that have to 

 be '• scattered among all nations " before they will stay any 

 place. Yes, Cog-itator is aware that there is such a 

 thing. Even a seven-pound swarm should have a little ex- 

 tra thought and care — and room. And a ten-pound swarm 

 'Tater kind o' dreads. 



ENTRIES FROM "RECORDING ANGELS " NEEDED .43 S.^MPLES. 



So this is Aikin's way of recording: "4-1; 3-2-4." 

 'Which same means : April Ist, 3 frames would hold all the 

 bees ; 2 frames would hold all the brood ; 4 frames wovild 



hold all the honey. Just to be hateful, Cogitator will com- 

 plain that this doesn't look like an actual record. Two 

 frames of brood too much to expect April 1st, of a colony 

 only covering three frames. 



Here is an actual entry from my own " Stand Journal :" 

 "5-4 Bees (12) Brood (38) Hon. (F. P.)" This reads : May 

 4th, bees 12 counts, brood 38 counts, honey enough for the 

 present. Of course F. P. are the abbreviations of "for 

 pre.sent," capitalized for convenience and prominence in the 

 book. A count of brood is a rude estimate of a quarter 

 thousand, which would be a patch a little over 3 inches 

 square, and I think of 3 inches when counting. Thus, 38 

 counts are expected to approximate 9,500 young bees ; and 

 the ease of reducing counts to thousands is a point in favor 

 of the system. The counts of bees are (for convenience's 

 sake) much less accurate ; and I bear the fact in mind that 

 weak colonies are likely to number less bees to the count 

 than strong ones. Combs with only a few dozen bees on 

 are counted nothing ; combs with 200 or 300 count one ; 

 combs thinly covered count two ; and combs well covered 

 count three. Long practice makes the various counts come 

 easy to me as I look through a hive. Bees (12) would be, 

 two combs well covered, two thinly covered, and two combs 

 with considerable bare territory. 



If a number of " recording angels" would send in an 

 actual entry or two, then perchance beginners in the r. a. 

 business might choose an eclectic system, with good points 

 from several, and faults of none. (Or would they do just 

 the reverse of that ?) 



The weak point of the Aikin recording is that a pro- 

 gressive man will every now and then be making changes 

 in his system ; and ten years hence he will be unable to 

 read his own records, they are so largely in the mind of the 

 the recorder. Mine are full enough and clear enough that 

 another person could probably read my record-books — with 

 some effort and study. 



BRACING FOUNDATION WITH SPLINTS — A TWO-PLANET 

 CLIPPER. 



I was much interested with Dr. Miller's method of put- 

 ting brace splints on sheets of foundation, to prevent sag- 

 ging', as given on page 70. 



And .so Ernest Root has been clipping queens 50 years. 

 Well, well 1 case of transmigration ; and he dipt the bees 

 of some other planet 25 years before he came over. 



DRONE-COMB OPPOSITE WORKER-COMB. 



I guess the drone-comb opposite worker-comb (page 74, 

 paragraph 3) is all right. The foundation was probably so 

 heavy that the bees treated it just as they would a waxt 

 board — first left one side alone then leveled and propolized 

 it, and later on made it a half-comb of drone-cells. 



WAS IT K LONG-TONGUED WOODPECKER ? 



'Tater wants to know whether that woodpecker's tongue 

 was long enoug-h to reach half the honey in the hive, or 

 whether his everlasting thump, thump, thump, caused the 

 bees to quit work, and eat the honey up themselves. 



OPINIONS SPLIT LENGTHWISE .4ND CROSSWISE. 



Query 89 is bad because it has two very different mean- 

 ings. Suppose all the respondents had answered with a 

 simple "Yes." Then some readers would have understood 

 that a well-qualified individual, in a good location, might 

 go into bee-keeping expecting to make his whole living out 

 of it. Others would have understood that any ordinary per- 

 son desiring an occupation might safely do so — a very dif- 

 ferent affair. Saying "anyone" when we mean " every 

 one " is one of the perversities of the English tongue — yet 

 so common that it cannot be ruled out altogether. As it 

 stands, the respondents are split lengthwise by their opin- 

 ions, and crosswise by the view of the question which they 

 take. About 15 out of 24 seem ready to encourage a good 

 man in a good place. Apparentlj- no one of the 24 thinks 

 that indiscriminate plunging into apiculture oft'ers a liveli- 

 hood. 



ADULT BEES ARE POLLEN-EATERS. 



I think the impression prevails very widely among us 

 that adult bees pass a considerable portion of their days 

 without consuming any pollen. On this account I would 

 jog- the reader's memory once more on Dr. Miller's article, 

 page 84. The Dr. Howard who is there quoted is one of 

 the leading authorities. If every bee he ever di-ssected had 

 more or less pollen-grains within, why, then, our impres- 

 sions had better be giving way. Evidence prettj' strong — 

 like a minnow in the milk — and our impression that the 

 milkman is honest will hardly suffice. 



