546 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Aug. 31, 1899. 



colony should be burned in a pit on level ground, so that 

 any honey or wax not burned will be melted in the bottom 

 of the pit, to be covered by the earth taken from the pit. 

 Beeswax, hone?', or refuse of a solar wax-extractor is not 

 heat enough to kill the germs of foul brood ; but beeswax 

 as now made into comb foundation is safe to use. I do not 

 believe in burning property that can be saved, and know, 

 by the experience of many, if these directions are carefully 

 followed, it will cure foul brood. 



PICKLED BROOD — SYMPTOMS. 



' Some seasons pickled brood is very bad, and in a few 

 cases I have known it to reduce large colonies to doubtful 

 hopes, but those same colonies after treatment were in a 

 month free from the disease, never showing it since. It 

 may take as careful handling as if foul brood. 



The larval bee shows light-brown spots : a little later 

 the capping, of natural color, has a small pin-hole. The 

 bee underneath will be round, having a black, dried, hard, 

 pointed head, often turned up. Chinaman-shoe like. The 

 skin of the bee is quite tough, and, if punctured, the liquid 

 portion underneath will run out, somewhat colored, as thin 

 as water, but never ropj' like foul brood. It has little or 

 no smell, does not stick to walls of comb, is easily pulled 

 out, and if the colony is properly cared for in nearly every 

 case the bees soon remove them all. 



Never make your bees use old black combs, or combs 

 with dead brood left in them, better make them into wax, 

 and replace with sheets of foundation. If the queen shows 

 feebleness by putting several eggs in one cell, missing 

 others, so that the brood is irregular, I should kill her, and 

 in a week remove all queen-cells from her brood, then in- 

 troduce a good queen or give a frame of brood with eggs in 

 it from a good colony. Keep all colonies strong. 



I do not think the most of pickled brood is owing to the 

 queen, but rather to lack of proper food and heat at stated 

 times. In most cases I find it from a lack of unsealed 

 honey and pollen stored near the young brood. There come 

 times in the spring (between dandelion and white clover 

 bloom) with no honey coming in, and the old bees eat this 

 uncapt honey, starving the larval bee at an early age. The 

 result is, it may be pickled brood, and at a date late enough 

 they are gathering honey. If a little careful feeding each 

 day of these shortages is practiced, there will be little or 

 no pickled brood. Rye flour in early spring often will be 

 taken as pollen by the bees, if put out-doors in a warm 

 place. Strong colonies with plenty of good food and j'oung 

 laying queens seldom have any pickled brood. 



Grant Co., Wis. 



Honey-Dew a Natural Plant Secretion. 



BY C. C. P.^RSONS. 



FROM time to time there appears in the various bee- 

 papers articles on the subject of honey-dew. In nearly 

 every instance what is written is written from the stand- 

 point that it is an animal secretion. I do not know who is 

 responsible for the prevailing idea that that is its chief 

 source — somebody said so a good while ago — some promi- 

 nent writer wrote it — then, some otherwise well-informed 

 persons accepted it without any investigation, and publisht 

 it to the world as a fact. So it has found a lodgment in 

 the minds of bee-keepers (or writers on bee-keeping) just as 

 the comb honey " pleasantry " of a few years ago was ac- 

 cepted by the masses of the people. T/if one is no tnore ab- 

 surd than the other. If all the " bug-juice " articles that 

 have been written — not only by the " small fry," but by 

 those of much knowledge of the bee-keepers' occupation — 

 were printed in a book, and read by all the people, it would 

 do inlinitely more to lessen the consumption of honej- than 

 did the false statements of the scientist when he said that 

 comb honey could be made by the hand of man. It is no 

 wonder that so many fall into the error when so man)- of 

 our prominent writers teach, or admit, that it is no error. 



Some of the most voluminous advocates of the theory 

 of animal secretion have declared that there is no such 

 thing as "real honey-dew." If there is no such thing as 

 " real honey-dew," there has been much said upon a vis- 

 ionary subject, and all that has been said of it as an animal 

 product has not caused a single person to become a con- 

 sumer of honey. I do as firmly believe that there is real 

 honey-dew as I believe there is a real Henry Jones. There 

 may not be a Henry Jones in every community. 



I saw honey-dew in the days of my childhood, and lickt 

 it from the leaves of bushes where it had fallen from its 



source above. Since I have kept bees in Alabama, the 

 honey-dew has not failed a single year. It is usually in 

 sufficient quantity to be available as a source of surplus 

 honey. It comes on time if it comes at all — just the same 

 as the blooming of the trees and plants. The time is fixt — 

 not on a certain day, but at a time when the vegetation ar- 

 rives at a certain stage of development. The quantity de- 

 pends upon the condition of the vegetation at that particu- 

 lar stage, which is determined to a great extent by previous 

 and present meteorological conditions. 



What is honey-dew ? It is the material food of the 

 plant, digested and taken into the circulation of the plant 

 in greater quantities than is needed by the plant, flowing 

 out thru the vents provided by Nature as safetj'-valves. So 

 far as I have been able to observe, this substance is essen- 

 tially the same, whether exuding from the outlets in the 

 flowers, upon the stems, or on the surface of the leaves. It 

 is usually clear as crystal, and that gathered from the 

 leaves does not partake of the flavor and aroma of the plant 

 that produces it, but is sometimes contaminated by coming 

 in contact and being mixt with other substances. Fermen- 

 tation or decomposition, also, sometimes degenerates it into 

 an unwholesome substance. 



The most copious flow of honey-dew I ever saw was in 

 1897. It was from the pine. In early morning and late in 

 the evening it could be seen dripping from the trees till all 

 the leaves, and even the bare ground beneath them, were 

 covered with the nectar. The bees swarmed over the trees, 

 and the hives were filled as I had never seeti them before. 

 The honej' was light amber, and of fine flavot, and gave 

 my customers the best satisfaction of any honey I ever 

 produced. 



While this honey-flow was on, there was scarcely any 

 honey-dew to be found except from the pine, and everv pine 

 was dripping with it — the small as well as the great. Iso- 

 lated bushes, overshadowed by trees or other growth, that 

 were not producing honey-dew at this time, and those stand- 

 ing in open spaces away from any overhanging trees, gave 

 me a most favorable opportunity to observe the source of 

 this " real honey-dew." 'Tis true, a few insects could be 

 seen with the natural ej'e, and with a powerful glass many 

 more were seen, but from their diminutive sizes, and insig- 

 nificant numbers, I would as soon try to believe that the 

 drop of rain water was secreted by the animals it contains, 

 as to try to believe that these insects secreted all this honey- 

 dew. 



Prof. Cook expresses astonishment that so great an 

 error should find a place in our dictionaries. If he will 

 carefully read his own evidence in the " Bee-Keepers' 

 Guide," ISth edition, page 335, and compare it with his 

 statement in the American Bee Journal of Jan. 12, 1899, 

 first page, he may be able to give another reason why error 

 sometimes finds its way into good company. 



Jefferson Co., Ala. 



Value of Sweet Clover for Forage and Honey. 



BY H. R. BOAKDMAX. 



I AM surprised that any bee-keeper of experience, who 

 has had a reasonable opportunity of observing, should 

 report sweet clover anything less than a first-class 

 honey-plant ; and yet I am aware that there are a few ad- 

 verse reports coming from very reliable sources. 



I am quite sure — yes, I think I know from my own ex- 

 perience and observations with this plant, extending thru 

 a period of a dozen years or more — that it is unsurpast, and 

 equaled only by the noted alfalfa; and these convictions 

 are supported by the opinions of some of the most practical 

 and reliable bee-men of niy acquaintance. 



The last season was the first for several years when 

 white clover alone yielded me any surplus, and this, too, 

 with the fields white with its bloom in every direction as 

 far as bees could fly ; and yet I should not be warranted in 

 claiming that white clover was not a good honey-plant. It 

 has a world-wide reputation that is unimpeachable. If it 

 were no more abundant than its cousin it would hardly have 

 gained this enviable reputation — certainly not in the last 

 few years. 



I think it has been generally conceded by practical bee- 

 keepers that it will not pay to plant for honey alone. This 

 conclusion is undoubtedly a safe one. We must, then, look 

 for some other value besides that of honey, in order to 

 recommend sweet clover as a field crop. 



I once supposed, as most people do now, that sweet 

 clover was entirely worthless as a forage-plant for stock — 



