698 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mr. L. W. Baldwin expressed the 

 opinion that it was best not to at- 

 tempt to control swarming, but to 

 know what to do with swarms. His 

 method, during tlie past season was, 

 as soon as a swarm issued, to take the 

 old queen, and in three days destroy 

 all the queen-cells but one, and give a 

 ripe queen-cell. The method had 

 worked to his satisfaction. Mr. C. ^I. 

 Crandall had successfully operated the 

 same plan. 



As to the eighth question discussed, 

 the following resolution was intro- 

 duced : 



Besolved, That the pollen is not 

 detrimental to successful wintering. 



Upon the tenth question the Asso- 

 ciation almost unanimously agreed 

 that the secret lay in the management 

 of the bees, and consequently to the 

 apiarist was due the amount or honey. 



The Association was called to order 

 at 10 a. m., on Sept. 26, by President 

 A. A. Baldwin. Under the head of 

 miscellaneous business, Mr. F. G. 

 Hopkins was appointed as a commit- 

 tee to arrange for the spring meeting, 

 ■which will be held at St. Joseph. Mo. 



The discussion was again resumed, 

 by taking up the eleventh question. 

 The discussion became general, and 

 the general opinion expressed was 

 that the vicious bees were not the 

 best honey gatherers. 



" Are bees more inclined to sting a 

 dark complexioned than a light cora- 

 plexioned person V" was the next sub- 

 ject for discussion, and upon it the 

 Association generally agreed that 

 they were. With the discussion of 

 this question the morning session 

 closed. 



Upon convening in the afternoon, 

 the various committees of judges 

 busied themselves in awarding nearly 

 $200 in premiums, which were an- 

 nounced immediately after the Asso- 

 ciation was called to order at 4 p. m. 



After the awards, the convention 

 received the reports of the different 

 committees, and then adjourned. 



C. M. Ckandall, Sec. 

 A A. Baldwin, Pres. 



on the surface of honey not sealed ; 

 this, Mr. C. thinks, is very rarely the 

 case. It is not only equally probable 

 but certain, that the spores are car- 

 ried from one hive to another, not only 

 by the winds and feet and antennae 

 of the bees, but also the honey-rob- 

 bing bees carry them from the diseased 

 colony to healthy ones. If it were a 

 fact that no spores settled in the 

 honey, as Mr. C. says that he never 

 found any, why would it be so very 

 absurd to feed such honey to healthy 

 colonies, as Mr. C. also claims V These 

 statements and claims are not consis- 

 tent with sound reasoning. Mr. C. 

 again says, " The disease lies wholly 

 and absolutely in the blood," but he 

 denies that the food given to the 

 larvje is the transmitting agent of the 

 spores. May I be pardoned for asking 

 the question, how they got inside the 

 larvseand into the blood ? 



Again, whether or not the seed- 

 germs of the disease are called micro- 

 cocci, or simply spores, does not make 

 so much difference, but they do per- 

 vade the dried larvfe, and are the 

 means of transmitting the disease. 

 Mr. C. lays great stress on the " an- 

 tenna '■ of the bees as being the chief 

 means of carrying the spores from 

 one place to another; those spores 

 which he says, " tly about in the air." 

 If that be true, it would be equally as 

 reasonable as to suppose that men 

 may carry more dust on their noses 

 than on the rest of their bodies. 

 Whether or not bees carry the spores 

 on their toes or on their noses, from 

 one hive to another, has, perhaps, not 

 yet been discovered, and is not of so 

 much consequence as to know that 

 everything coming in contact with an 

 infected hive or colony will transmit 

 the disease. And now to his method 

 of cure. 



For the American Bee JouraaL 



The Use of Phenol on Foul Brood. 



A. R. KOHNKE. d 



On page 644 is an article on the 

 above subject by Mr. F. Cheshire. I 

 am not enough of a microscopist to 

 know whether or not Mr. Cheshire is 

 right in his classilication of micro- 

 organisms ; in fact, these nice distinc- 

 tions may well be left to the expert 

 in scientific microscopy, without af- 

 fecting the main question of preven- 

 tion and cure. But to certain claims 

 and statements of Mr. C. I must take 

 exception. I will first take into con- 

 sideration the means of the propaga- 

 tion of the disease. 



Mr. C. speaks of " spores which fly 

 about in the air and settle here and 

 there." Well, if that is the case, and 

 most likely it is, the air in a hive con- 

 taining a diseased colony must cer- 

 tainly be full of them, and permeate 

 every nook and corner, settling also 

 on the cappings of sealed honey, and 



As a remedial agent, he mentions 

 salicylic acid, and raises three points 

 of objection to its use : " First, it is 

 troublesome in application, on ac- 

 count of having to spray the infected 

 combs and then feed the bees with 

 medicated syrup." But I notice that 

 in treating the colony which was 

 furnislied nim for a test, he sprayed, 

 too, and the feeding was done by fill- 

 ing the cells of the combs in the dis- 

 eased colony with his medicated 

 syrup out of a bottle with a very 

 small opening. If no spraying is 

 done, how can the spores in contami- 

 nated combs be destroyed, unless the 

 combs are entirely removtd, which is 

 certainly the best plan V His method 

 of feeding is certainly much more 

 troublesome and tedious than to feed 

 salicylic acid in syrup from any com- 

 mon feeder, out of which the bees will 

 not take his remedy ; unless it is 

 poured upon their backs and forced 

 down their throats, so to speak, they 

 will not accept it. 



2. He says, " The question of dose 

 has never been worked out." Mr. C. 

 is evidently not well versed in apicul- 

 tural literature. The doses, as given 

 in my little pamphlet on foul brood, 

 are as exact and definite as are re- 

 quired for the admjnisi ration of the 

 most virulent poison. They were pub- 

 lished in Germany as early as 1877. 



3. " It has," Mr. C. says, " from a 

 mistaken idea of its insolubility, been 

 associated with borax. It adds to the 

 complexity and nauseousness of the 

 remedy." Just so ; but why should 

 bee-keepers adhere to this mistaken 

 idea, when by using the remedy as 

 used by its discoverer, one has a cer- 

 tain specific — a specific which in solu- 

 tion is entirely inodorous and readily 

 taken by the bees. 



To cap the climax, Mr. C. claims to 

 have discovered in phenol a remedy 

 to cure foul brood. One might be led 

 to think that no means of communi- 

 cation existed between England and 

 the rest of the world. I will give 

 here a translated extract from a little 

 book by Prof. Cech, published in 1877, 

 pages 13, 14 and 1.5: "'To disinfect 

 infected apiaries with phenol proved 

 entirely useless. Bee-hives were 

 washed with a diluted solution of 

 phenol, at least once a month, and all 

 decayed brood was removed. But 

 even if all the combs were removed, 

 and the bees put into new hives, the 

 brood reared afterwards died, all the 

 same. It was impossible to disinfect 

 hives or stay the progress of the ter- 

 rible disease by the use of phenol, a» 

 proven by the treatment of a number 

 of 'Colonies. The experiment to also 

 disinfect the bees, combs and decayed 

 brood, failed entirely. The bees are 

 so aversive to the odor of phenol that 

 they leave the hive within half an 

 hour after its introduction, sometimes 

 even within a few minutes. If they 

 were confined for several hours, they 

 would leave as soon as released- 

 However, it seems that not all colo- 

 nies are alike sensitive to the odor of 

 phenol ; although this drug, as a rem- 

 edy in the hands of the unexperienced, 

 is not to be recommended. It must 

 be admitted, that according to the 

 experiments of Prof Butterow, of St. 

 Petersburg (Bmienzatuiig 1874 to 1876), 

 the bees may be incUiced to take syrup 

 medicated with phenol without any 

 apparent injury, but 1-600 is the maxi- 

 mum dose they are able to stand. In 

 a report sent to me by Mr. Koscec, ad- 

 ministrator in Maximir, it is stated, 

 that in his apiary from May 1 to Sept. 

 1, 1875, 40 colonies succumbed* to the 

 disease in spite of being treated with 

 phenol in every possible manner." 

 That is nine and ten years ago ; how 

 does Mr. C. come to claim priority of 

 discovery ? Has he remained in 

 ignorance of these experiments all 

 this time. 



Phenol has been tried and found — 

 wanting. Salicylic acid is not a 

 poison, at least not any more so than 

 vinegar ; but phenol is a corosive 

 poison, having a very penetrating, 

 disagreeable odor. I will quote two 

 more of Mr. C."s assertions: ''This 

 notion about infected hives is largely 

 a delusion," but still, " boiling would 

 not kill the spores." That is con- 

 fusion worse confounded ! 

 Youngstown, Ohio. 



[Someof Mr.Kohnke's criticisms are 

 as unjust as they are severe, as will be 

 seen by referring to an editorial 

 on the same subject on page 692 of 

 this week's paper.— Ed.] 



