oe (4)ee-f\eepeps J\eviea 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 

 Devoted to tl^e Interests of Hoqey Producers, 



$L00 A YEAR, 

 f . Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL, VIL FLINT, MICHIGAN, OCT. 10. 1894. NO. 10. 



Work at IVTicliigaji's 



Experimental 



-A-piary. 



B. L, TAYLOE, APIAEIST. 

 AN EXPEBIMENT WITH FOUL BKOOD. 



MUCH ques- 

 tion has been 

 recently made as 

 to the likelihood 

 o f foul brood 

 germs being 

 preserved and 

 conveyed in the 

 beeswax of com- 

 merce, and, so, ;is 

 to the danger of 

 contracting the 

 disease of foul 

 brood by the use of foundation manufac- 

 tured from such wax. I think that no seri- 

 ous question will be made that the vitality of 

 the germs referred to would be destroyed 

 were the wax containing them brought to 

 the temperature of boiling water and that 

 temperature maintained for say a quarter of 

 an hour, but it is to be remembered that 

 there are several facts which make it possi- 

 ble for wax to be rendered and put in a 

 marketable form without bringing it even 

 approximately to the temperature of boiling 

 water, and, indeed, without the careful use 

 of a thermometer one may easily be deceived 

 and induced to believe that his wax is of 



that temperature when it lacks many degrees 

 of it. Thus the melting temperature of wax 

 is about 140°, which makes it possible by ap- 

 propriate methods to render, cleanse and 

 cake wax without employing a temperature 

 to exceed 1.50° or 15.5 while the temperature 

 of boiling water is at least 57° greater. 

 Then, anyone who has had much experience 

 in the manipulation of wax could not have 

 failed to notice that as wax is slow to give off 

 heat it is in the same degree slow to receive 

 it, i. e., as compared with water : the conse- 

 quence of this being that the water under 

 melting wax may be brought to the boiling 

 point and by its action cause the wax to bub- 

 ble and appear to boil while in fact it re- 

 mains many degrees below the temperature 

 of ?V2°, indeed, much of it may be still un- 

 melted and consequently below 140°. Again, 

 of late, much use is made by bee-keepers of 

 the solar wax extractor in the rendering of 

 wax, the temperature of which in this local- 

 ity seldom reaches 180°. In all this it is also 

 to be borne in mind that as the weakest link 

 is the strength of the chain, so the lowest 

 temperature to which any part of a lot of 

 wax attains is the temperature to be con- 

 sidered with reference to the degree neces- 

 sary for the destruction of foul brood germs. 

 The danger then is in failing to bring all of 

 the wax to the temperature necessary for 

 the thorough devitalization of the germs. 



It may be said that though wax made from 

 the combs of diseased colonies may contain 

 and preserve germs in a state of vitality, yet 

 the process of its manufacture into founda- 



