470 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Comb-Foundation and Foul-Brood. 



. Last week, on page 437, we stated 

 that we did not agree with Mr. Corniel 

 about the spreading of foul-brood by 

 the use of comb-foundation, and called 

 for the modus operandi of the larger 

 manufacturers to show that the tempera- 

 ture, while manufacturing, was suffi- 

 ciently high to kill the spores and mi- 

 crobes. We are now glad to present the 

 following letters on the subiect, and we 

 think they will show most emphatically 

 that the fears of Mr. Corniel are entirely 

 groundless : 



Mr. Corniel, in the American Bee 

 Journal, page 447, says — 



The opinion is held by prominent bee- 

 keepers, both in Europe and America, that 

 the contagion of foul brood may be com- 

 municated by the use of comb foundation, 

 made from the wax of infected colonies. 

 Instances are given in which the reasons 

 for believing that the disease was conveyed 

 by this means, seem very strong. 



I saw, also, in the Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal, of March 15, that the number of 

 prominent bee-keepers of both Europe 

 and America, alluded to by Mr. Corniel, 

 amounts to four — two in England, and 

 two in the United States — and that the 

 opinions of these gentlemen are nothing 

 but guess work. I notice that, with Mr. 

 Corniel, the United States means Amer- 

 ica, and England means Europe, for I 

 do not remember having seen, in any 

 paper from France, Germany, Italy, or 

 Switzerland, a single item intimating 

 that the use of comb-foundation may be 

 the cause of foul-brood. 



Besides, although we have sold half a 

 million of pounds of comb-foundation in 

 thirteen years, we have not yet received 

 a complaint from any bee-keeper having 

 reasons for believing that our foundation 

 conveyed the disease to his bees ; yet we 

 buy wax from dealers living in every 

 part of the United States, from Florida 

 to Oregon, and from Vermont to New 

 Mexico ; and some of the wax was cer- 

 tainly rendered from combs containing 

 foul-l3rood. Furthermore, we have re- 

 ceived wax melted from combs whose 

 bees had died of foul-brood, and can 

 give the names of the parties who sent it 

 to us, if necessary. 



The store-room in which we weigh, 

 sort and keep the wax, as it comes from 

 dealers or bee-keepers, is often open to 

 our bees, and its windows are provided 

 with bee-escapes. Sometimes there are 



thousands of bees running over the 

 cakes, attracted by the smell. Yet we 

 have never seen a single case of foul- 

 brood in any of our apiaries. Does not 

 such facts prove that the heat at which 

 the wax melts is sufficient to kill the 

 spores of foul-brood in the combs ? 



Pasteur has ascertained that all the 

 seeds of disease which may exist in 

 wine, can be destroyed if the wine is 

 heated to the temperature of 140^. In 

 accordance with his information heaters, 

 called in France oessotherras, were built 

 to heat the wine, and we know by ex- 

 perience that they accomplish the desired 

 aim perfectly. As beeswax does not melt 

 at less than 148^, and as it is impossi- 

 ble to melt it without raising the temper- 

 ature higher, there can be no doubt that 

 all the spores of foul-brood are killed in 

 the rendering of the combs. 



Mr. Corniel writes, also : 



There is good reason for believing that 

 foundation is sent out which has never 

 been heated up to 190^. 



We have ascertained that, to get rid 

 of all the impurities of beeswax, we 

 should keep it liquid for at least 24 

 houi-s. To obtain such a result, we melt 

 the wax with water, in a boiler holding 

 about 800 pounds, and do not put the 

 liquid in our double-walled tanks until it 

 has been heated to 2 12-, skimming, dur- 

 ing the heating, all of the impurities 

 which rise to the surface. The scum is 

 emptied into barrels out-of-doors, with 

 all the dirt scraped from the purified 

 cakes. Although this scum has never 

 been heated to 212°, our bees which 

 visit it freely, do not infect their hives. 



From these experiences, which have 

 extended over a period of 14 years, are 

 we not entitled to proclaim that the heat 

 at which beeswax melts is sufficient to 

 kill the spores of foul-brood ? We think 

 that no scientific guessing can hold good 

 in the presence of the facts related 

 above. 



The causes which may scatter foul- 

 brood in localities where it was unknown, 

 are very difficult to ascertain. As this 

 malady is not spontaneous, the main 

 cause is certainly the bringing of bees 

 from one locality to another. This 

 malady is not known around us, but sup- 

 pose that a novice in bee-culture, living 

 ten miles away, receives from a distance, 

 a foul-brood colony ; another apiary, two 

 miles distant, can contract the disease, 

 which, in turn, may be transferred to 

 another neighbor, long before the first 

 one knows anything of foul-brood, and 

 so on. The malady may reach our apiary 



