THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



761 



some extent. It was a plant that was 

 in (lower from July loth to the 2d of 

 September, and when in flower was 

 fairly black with bees feeding upon it 

 from early till late, every fair day. 

 Thev woiild leave goldenrod and 

 buckwheat to work upon it. Mr. Hoyt, 

 in speaking of the value of pasturage, 

 remarked that he had one colony that 

 gathered twenty-tive pounds of honey 

 in a single week on bass. If such pas- 

 turage as a bass forest afforded could 

 be continued through the season, what 

 stores our colonies would gather ! In 

 regard to buckwheat he had sowed it 

 for six years, and thought it had paid 

 almost every year, as he usually raised 

 twenty bushels per acre. 



Mr. French gave some of his ideas 

 on bee pasturage. He has provided 

 sweet clover, borage, buckwheat, 

 Simpson's lioney plant, and the spider 

 plant, at dillerent times, but did not 

 think much of the spider plant, as he 

 found his bees did not work upon it. 

 He should try it one season more and 

 if the bees did not work on it to a 

 greater extent than formerly, should 

 discard it. The bees worked on borage 

 all the day long. He thought they 

 worked but very little on red clover. 



Brief remarks were made by Mr. J. 

 E. 15ennoch of Orono; :Mr. Sampson 

 of Oldtown ; Mr. Wilmont, a Califor- 

 nia bee-keeper who was present, and 

 other gentlemen, after whicli the con- 

 vention adjourned. — Home Farm. 



Iowa Central Convention. 



The Iowa Central Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation met at Winterset, on Friday, 

 Nov. 3, 1882, and was called to order 

 at 10:30 a. m. with Pres. A. J. Adki- 

 son in the chair. 



No report of the last meeting read, 

 the minutes having been lost. 



The following orticers were elected 

 for the ensuing year: President, A. 

 J. Adkison, Winterset; Vice Presi- 

 dent, J. W. C4raham. Winterset ; Sec- 

 retary, J. E. Pry or. Arbor Hill ; Treas- 

 urer, Mrs. Mary Pryor, Arbor Hill, 

 Iowa. 



From 94 colonies of bees at the be- 

 ginning of the honey season of 1882, 

 there was reported an increase of 13.5 

 colonies, and a production of 1,943 

 pounds of comb honey, 6,980 pounds 

 of extracted honey, and 48 pounds of 

 wax. Of the 2.32 colonies reported at 

 the close of 1882, there were 94 Italians, 

 127 Hybrids, and 11 Blacks. Kinds of 

 hives used : 1.50 Langstroth, .50 North 

 Star, S box hives, and 2 American. 



This is hardly a fair representation 

 of the bee-keepers within the bounds 

 of the Association, several of the 

 principal apiaries not being reported. 



After receiving several new mem- 

 bers and discussing methods of win- 

 tering, etc., the meeting adjourned to 

 meet in the council room in the Court 

 House at Winterset, on Friday, May 

 11, 1883. J. E. Pktok, tfec. 



1^ The annual meeting of the Cort- 

 land Union Bee-keepers' Association 

 will be held in Cortland. N. Y., on 

 Tuesday, Jan. 9, 1883. 



M.C. Bean. Sec. McGrawville. N.Y. 



Kead before the N. A. B. K. 8. 



How to Cure Foul Brood. 



D. A. JONES. 



This is a subject on which much has 

 been said and written; and there seems 

 to be a great many and varied ways of 

 curing it ; some of them, however, are 

 rather difficult, and not within the 

 reach of every bee-keeper, as well as 

 being sliglitlycostly. 



I purpose setting forth in the follow- 

 ing the most easy and cheap, as well 

 as the surest method that has yet 

 come under mv notice, and one that 

 comes within the reach of every apiar- 

 ist on however large or small a scale. 

 This mode of procedure (by starving) 

 has never yet failed when properly 

 carried out. and I have tried it in 

 many cases in our country. 



I shall give the process, first where 

 there is no brood or where one does 

 not care to save it; and secondly, 

 where there is brood in the hive, and 

 one is desirous of saving it. First, 

 smoke and drum the bees until they 

 have all gorged themselves with honey; 

 and it is important that they be all 

 well filled, otherwise that portion of 

 them whose sacs are not full will not 

 live the time tliat the other portion 

 would be required to starve, to affect 

 the cure ; hence the necessity of hav- 

 ing their sacs filled evenly. They 

 should not be allowed to settle down 

 again after having gorged themselves; 

 the operations when once commenced 

 should be carried through without the 

 loss of any time, as a short space only 

 would require to elapse, if left quiet, 

 before some of them would replace 

 their honey in the cells again, when 

 the work of smoking, etc., would have 

 to be repeated. After they have been 

 smoked and drummed sufficiently, 

 shake the bees into a clean hive or box, 

 over which place a wire-cloth cover, 

 care being taken that none escape, as 

 one bee escaping and entering another 

 hive would, in all probability, spread 

 the disease, as it is by the depositing 

 of the diseased honey in the cells of 

 clean colonies that this disease is gen- 

 erally contracted. To prevent the 

 spreading of the disease, the opera- 

 tions should be performed either early 

 in the morning or late in the evening, 

 when no bees are flying ; or if the work 

 is done during the day, it should be 

 beneath a wire tent, or in some other 

 place of con finementj where there is 

 no chance of any of the bees from the 

 aSected colony escaping. These pre- 

 cautions are "required only where a 

 portion of the yard is diseased ; but 

 where the whole apiary is attacked, 

 the work may be carried on with im- 

 punity. 



When all the bees have been se- 

 cured in the hive or box covered by 

 the wire cloth, carry it to a cool, dark 

 place, and there layit on its side ; and 

 why y First, because when in a dark, 

 cool place the bees will cluster and re- 

 main more quiet than when subjected 

 to light and heat ; and secondly, when 

 clustering in the top of the hive ; and 

 were the hive or box to be placed on 

 its proper bottom they would all clus- 

 ter on the wire cloth, and thus prevent 



a proper ventilation, which would 

 cause suffocation ; whereas, by plac- 

 ing the hive or box on its side, the 

 other side would then become the top v 

 and on this tlie bees would cluster, 

 thus securing a free circulation of air. 

 The temperature of the place where 

 the starving takes place should be from 

 .50- to .j'P, never above 60=, and a cel- 

 lar would therefore be the best place 

 in hot weather. They should then be 

 left alone, perfectly quiet, from 80 to 

 120 hours, or until the bees are noticed 

 crawling around the bottom of the box 

 or hive in a starving condition, and a 

 few of them are dead ; then put them 

 in a clean hive with clean comb or 

 foundation ; if comb, there should be 

 honey in it, and if there is not, the bees 

 should be fed honey or sugar syrup, 

 as also should they be fed when foun- 

 dation is used, and remove them to a 

 place one or two miles distant, where 

 let them remain until the whole yard 

 is cleansed, when tliey may be returned 

 to their original stands in the old yard. 

 While the bees are starving, scald the 

 hives and frames from which the af- 

 fected colonies have been taken ; ex- 

 tract the honey from the combs, which 

 may be boiled and fed back to them 

 again ; render the combs into wax ; 

 and the wax, manufacture into foun- 

 dation, and place it in the scalded 

 frames, for use in the scalded hive, 

 into which put the bees, after their 

 allotted time of starving has expired. 



Great caution should be exercised to 

 see that the queen is placed in the hive 

 or box in which the bees are to starve, 

 unless in the case where the colony has 

 been queenless some days previous, 

 when they will do almost as well with- 

 out one. 



Now, in the second case, where one- 

 desires to save tlie brood, proceed as 

 in the former instance, with the smok- 

 ing and drumming and transferring of 

 the bees and queen to the hive or box 

 for starvation, only sufficient being 

 left in the diseased hive to nurse the 

 brood. 



With those placed in the clean 

 hive or box, the operations will be the 

 same as heretofore described. The 

 remaining brood and bees, if weak, 

 should then be doubled up and other- 

 wise strengthened as much as possible; 

 and when hatched out, put tlirough 

 the same process as the others. This 

 method, if properly carried out, will 

 invariable prove successful. It was 

 my intention to have referred to the 

 various causes of the disease ; but I 

 find that my paper is already suffl- 

 cientlv lengthy. I will therefore defer 

 it at this time. Before closing, I may 

 sav that, by referring to page 103 of 

 the American Bee Journal for 1882, 

 in its issue of Feb. 1.5, some further 

 explanations may be found regarding 

 this method of curing foul brood by 

 starvation. 



^" The Western Michigan Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will meet at 

 Supervisors' Hall, in thecitvof Grand 

 Rapids, on Wednesday and Thursday, 

 Nov. 29th and 30th. 1882. Tlie co-op- 

 eration of all bee-keepers of this- 

 section is desired. 



Wm. M. S. Dodge, Sec. 



