458 



AMERICAN BEE J0U5NAL 



July 20, 1899. 



Tin Cans versus Barrels.— Editor Hill, in the American 

 Bee-Keeper. -while conceding- that others may use tin cans 

 in preference to barrels, thinks it not amiss to say that he 

 " has used a number of carloads of tin cans as a honey- 

 packag-e. and has found the percentage of loss thru leakage 

 greater than -svhere barrels are used." 



Duff's Feeder is figured in "Alfalfa, Grasshoppers, 

 Bees: their Relationship," and is very simple of construc- 

 tion. Take a t-ivo-inch soft white-pine plank large enough 

 to cover the hive, bore it full of holes -svith a two-inch or 

 smaller bit, letting the holes come not quite thru, except 

 near the center -where one or two may come clear thru to 

 make passage for the bees. An upper story or a super is 

 set ov.er, thus protecting against outsiders. 



Bees Consume Hore if Stores are Poor A Stray 



Straw in Gleanings in Bee-Culture says : '• Do bees con- 

 sume more stores -when they have ho'ney-de-w ? Some of 

 mine starved with -what I supposed were sufficient stores. 

 [A few years ago, I believe, it was agreed that the bees 

 would consume less good stores than of poor. Has there 

 been anything to change that opinion ? I do not remem- 

 ber.— Ed.]" 



Duff's T Super, as described in the bulletin of Kansas 

 University, differs from the ordinary T super in the con- 

 struction of its T tin. Instead of this being a piece of tin 

 folded in the shape of a T, a straight piece of tin is nailed 

 on a strip of wood. The wood is fs-inch thick, ^j-inch deep, 

 and a little shorter than the inside width of the super. The 

 tin is one-inch wide and '4 -inch shorter than the wood, be- 

 ing nailed on the narrow edge of the wood. Thus the sec- 

 tions are held ;Js-inch apart by the wood, making less tempr 

 tation for the bees to glue than when^a narrow crack is left. 



Tfie U. S. Pure=Food Investigation is stirring things 

 up lively at Chicago. Senators Mason and Harris and Prof. 

 Wiley had Editor York on the stand for tl:e greater part of 

 one session, and he was well loaded with solid facts that 

 were corroborated by H. F. Moore and Mrs. Stowe. The 

 testimony will be printed in full in the report to Congress, 

 and it will be nothing strange if some laws are enacted that 

 will not make the way any smoother for adulterators. [The 

 Pure-food Investigating- Committee got hold of the right 

 men ; indeed, it could hardly have secured better ones. Let 

 the good work go on. — Ed.] — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



Foul Brood has been considered in a series of able 

 articles by Prof. Henry W. Brice, in the British Bee Jour- 

 nal, and his final considerations Ere as follows : 



1. Post mortem examinations show clearly that bees 

 and queens are affected with foul brood, and while this is so 

 no cure can be effectual that confines its attention to brood 

 alone. 



2. The present methods of dealing with affected hives 

 and appliances are decidedly faulty, and in a great measure 

 useless. 



{-■p 3. That while comparatively easy to destroy the bacilli, 

 it is next to impossible (in dealing with live bees and brood) 

 to destroy the spores of B. alvei without injuring the bees, 

 other than by the only safe method of causing them to 

 g-erminate. 



— ; 4. B. alvei in the rod form is capable of being effectually 

 destroyed if the process is properly carried out. 



5. Chemical agents and drugs to be effective must be 

 persistently applied, and the treatment constant, for at 

 least three generations of the worker-bees and brood reared 

 during this period. 



6. Seeing that queens are in nearly every case affected, 

 no treatment can be satisfactory and complete until colo- 

 nies are requeened from a perfectly healthy colony. 



7._ The only perfectly safe method I kiiow of "for treat- 

 ing hives in wliich bees suft'ering from foul brood have been 

 kept is to paint these inside and out with two coats of good 

 oil paint, rubbing the same into every crevice and corner, 



so as to stick down (as bees do with propolis) all spores be- 

 yond the possibility of their being ever again freed and 

 finding a suitable medium for growth. It must be remem- 

 bered that bacilli or germs of any kind are incapable of 

 spreading beyond the frame in which they are isolated, 

 whilst in a fluid state, unless carried to fresh pastures after 

 contact with something else. Thus I contend that a spore 

 stuck up against a hive wall in a sort of enameled case is 

 practically sealed up, and impossible of removal under any- 

 ordinary circumstances. 



8. Boiling- is almost useless as at present carried out. 

 In fact, I found it necessary to permit some time to elapse 

 between successive boilings, to allow the spores to germinate 

 between each operation. For this purpose a medium must 

 be present of some kind, as without this even successive 

 boiling of hives is mainly unsatisfactory. 



9. In ordinary hands it is futile attempting to cure any 

 but mild cases of the disease. It thus becomes both better 

 and cheaper to destroy by burning. This may seem hard 

 lines to some, but I feel convinced that in bad cases it is 

 the only method worth consideration. 



Queen=Breeding Delayed in tiie South. — Gleanings in 



Bee-Culture says : " Strangely enough, the queen-breeders 

 of the South have this spring had almost no advantage over 

 those of the North. During March and the forepart of 

 April the weather was about as unfavorable for queen- 

 rearing in the southern portions of our country as in the- 

 northern : and when the weather did open up warm and 

 balmy, the queen-breeders in the North could Isegin just as 

 soon. These thoughts came to me when we tried to get 

 queens from the South this spring. The almost universal 

 complaint seemed to be that the weather had been too un- 

 favorable in the South. 



Extra Honey Brings Extra Prices. — " Stenog " says iii 

 Gleaning-s in Bee-Culture that some remarkabl}' fine honey 

 was received by the A. I. Root Co. and offered at 20 cents 

 per section of about 14 ounces (about 23 cents a pound.) It 

 was all taken instantly, even at that price, and he thinks a 

 large amount of such honey might be sold in the cities, to- 

 a certain class who care little what a thing costs so it suits, 

 them, at 40 cents a section. He adds : " Of course, not all 

 can produce such honey, but so long as the poorest regulates 

 the price of the best, just as the worst boy in school 'regu- 

 lates ' the morals of the rest, it behooves somebody to see- 

 that the poorer grades are improved." 



Do Large Colonies Store Hore than Small Ones, in 



proportion to numbers? That's the question that is troub- 

 ling two of our editors. Editor Hutchinson admits Editor 

 Root's argument that a large colony can keep up the heat 

 more economically, but thinks that rather an argument 

 against large colonies, as the principal storing occurs when 

 bees are driven out of the hive by the heat. To help settle 

 the question. Editor Hutchinson, in the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view, proposes experiments something like this : 



"When two swarms unite in the air, hive one-third of 

 the bees in one hive and two-thirds in another hive, giving 

 each a queen. Some of these swarms should be hived on- 

 combs, some on foundation, and some on starters, and re- 

 sults carefully noted." 



Queen.Cells- When Should they be Given?- G. M. 



Doolittle says in the American Bee-Keeper : 



" If I attempt to give a cjueen-cell to a colony from 

 which I have taken a queen, before they start cells from 

 their own brood, as a rule, the cell will be destroj-ed. Hence 

 if, at 24 hours after the removal of a queen, no cells are 

 started with me, it is not safe to give a cell just ready to- 

 hatch, unless the cell is protected with a cell-protector. As- 

 looking over the combs to see just when cells are started is- 

 extra work, I now wait 48 hours, or use the cell-protector at 

 24 hours (generally the latter), and all works well. The West 

 cell-protectors, which are the best in the market, can be 

 bought of any supply-dealer, or any one can make protec- 

 tors bj- rolling wirecloth around a properly-shaped stick so 

 as to form a cage having an opening- in one end as large a» 

 a lead-pencil, while the other end is large enough to admit 

 the cell at the base. The ripe queen-cell is now slipt into 

 the protector, and the large end secured so the bees cannot 

 get at it, when the whole is put down between two combs, 

 where it is left to hatch. As the bees always destroy a cell 

 by biting into the side of it, this protects the cell .so they 

 cannot do this, yet allows the queen to come out at the lead- 

 pencil hole." 



