Where Comb Honey is Needed.

THE fact that comb-honey prices did not advance much last season on account of the shortage of the comb-honey crop is at least partly explained by noting where comb honey is now being marketed. The shortage of the comb-honey crop last season was largely among smaller producers in the northeastern part of the country who sell their crops locally. Comb honey from the western states came into the eastern markets as usual and supplied the trade already established by dealers. This means that comb honey did not find its way to the smaller groceries in the smaller towns. The supply was sufficient to take care of the needs of the fancy trade in the cities supplied through regular dealers, hence the price did not advance. Apparently the market as it exists today does not need more comb honey, but the smaller groceries do. In other words, the general honey market would be better off if those who are located where comb honey can be produced advantageously and where it can be sold locally would produce enough comb honey to supply their own locality. This applies largely to beekeepers in the northeastern portion of the United States. In this region beekeepers who have talent for selling honey should produce or purchase enough comb honey to keep every grocery in his territory supplied with comb honey throughout the year. This would not interfere to any great extent with the sale of extracted honey, and would result in a large increase in honey sales.

the West, a shortage of the honey crop in important producing centers in the in the West should encourage eastern beekeepers to bend every effort toward securing the greatest possible crop of honey; for, if the western crop is short, eastern honey should find a more ready market than during the past few years. Apparently the bees have wintered well throughout most of the country and the prospects in the East are better than they have been for several years. However, many colonies were permitted to go into winter quarters short of stores and I will need to be fed this month or next. Wherever there is a possibility of colonies being short of stores, they should be examined on the first warm day, and fed if necessary.

Popular Ideas Concerning Honey.

THE Editor was honored recently by being invited to a dinner attended by 50 or more members of the faculty of a great university where by special arrangement comb honey and hot biscuits were served. The way the honey disappeared, the requests for just another taste" after the supply was exhausted and the many inquiries as to where and how honey can be purchased were in strange contrast with the problem now uppermost in the minds of beekeepers as to how to dispose of their product. Several said that they had been able to purchase a little honey from a local beekeeper last fall, but that the beekeeper's supply was exhausted long ago. Many did not know that honey can usually be purchased at the stores, and pointed out what is too often true that they had not seen any in their local grocery. Here were men and women with more than ordinary intelligence who thought that honey is a luxury so rare that it is obtainable only occasionally! Does not the fault lie largely with the local beekeepers who permit their supply to become exhausted early in the fall and make no further effort to keep honey before their customers until the next crop is available, while others have a surplus begging for a market?

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The Editor was agreeably surprised recently when attending two county association meetings in Indiana to note that these counties had arranged to have a key man in each township whose business it is to locate all the bees in his township and chart each apiary on map of the township. These key men appeared at the meetings, each with his map showing the location of every apiary in the township. It is also the business of these key men as well as every member of the association to look for disease in very nook and corner of their township, so that the association will be kept informed as to any outbreak of disease anywhere in the county. In this way the county association takes over the work of inspection to a large extent and calls on the state inspector only when help is needed to eradicate disease in the case of a beekeeper who harbors disease and opposes inspection, or when a considerable number of diseased colonies are found.

Several years ago the work of organizing county associations in Indiana was begun by the bee inspection department of the office of the state entomologist in order to help the beekeepers to help themselves in the eradication of disease by this kind of co-operation. This work has been going on quietly until most of the important honey-producing counties are now organized in such a manner that the state apiary inspector has available almost complete information as to the disease situation in the state. As a result large areas have been cleaned up entirely, and the amount of diseased colonies in the state has been surprisingly reduced. This organization work is done during the winter when apiary inspection is not possible. This work has been largely planned and carried out by C. O. Yost, who has charge of apiary inspection for the state under the direction of Frank N. Wallace, state entomologist. Like charity, disease-eradication work "begins at home" and the sooner beekeepers realize this and take steps to eradicate the disease locally the better it will be.

bee supplies. The importation of bees in combless packages is also prohibited unless such packages are accompanied by a declaration signed by the shipper that the food supplied to the bees carried in the package is free from disease. This order became effective on and after March 20, 1924.

Since bees will begin to move from the southern states into Canada this month, there is no time to lose by those who have ordered bees on combs from the South to cancel their orders and have the bees shipped in combless packages. Neither is there any time to lose on the part of shippers in changing the style of their packages and making the necessary arrangements for a signed declaration to accompany each package that the food supplied the bees and carried in the package is free from disease. nuclei or package bees without the proper declaration as to food being free from disease are started to Canada, such shipment will, no doubt, be stopped at the border and result in loss of the shipment.

If

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We understand that this blanket order for the entire Dominion of Canada has been brought about by the insistent demand on the part of beekeepers in western Canada where beekeeping is now developing by leaps and bounds and thousands of packages of bees have been imported during the past few years. these importations had been confined to combless packages shipped with food known to be free from disease, all would have been well; but many shipments were made of bees on combs since it was thought a better start could be obtained with nuclei than from combless packages. Not only have the nuclei failed to prove better than packages, but many fresh outbreaks of American foul brood have been traced to such shipments according to G. B. Gooderham, Dominion Apiarist. In discussing this phase of the question we quote Mr. Gooderham, as follows:

With proper care and feeding. combless

packages of bees will travel equally as far and in as good condition as will bees on combs. With proper management after arrival they will build up into strong colonies equally as fast and give practically the same results as can be obtained from nuclei.

In this connection the attention of shippers and purchasers of bees should be called to the fact that several of the northern states prohibit the shipment of bees on combs into the states. We had

hoped to have complete data as to which of the states prohibit the shipment of bees on combs for this issue of Gleanings, but there is so much confusion in regard to the matter and so many new orders going into effect that this would be difficult to do. A new regulation in North Dakota, effective April 1, prohibits the shipment of bees into that state except in combless packages, and several state inspectors have declared a quarantine either for the entire state or for portions of the state. The safest rule for shippers and purchasers of bees will be to make all shipments in combless packages.

As to the food supply of the package bees, it is not safe to ship bees on candy that is made from honey and powdered sugar, unless one can certify that the honey was produced in an apiary free from disease. The safest solution of this problem is to make the candy of invert sugar or use syrup for feeding the bees en route.

IN his article in this issue, pages 230 and 231, J. L. Byer brings up some important questions concerning Sterilizing the use of the alcoDiseased hol-formalin solution Combs. in sterilizing diseas ed combs, and gives some excellent advice gained from his experience in using this solution.

Working with the alcohol-formalin solution in winter time is quite a different problem from that of handling it in the summer when the windows will be wide open so that the fumes are carried away rapidly. Mr. Byer is certainly right in his conclusions that the combs should not be shaken when first taken out of the solution as was formerly advised, but put directly into the extractor. This applies especially when this work is done in the winter on account of the disagreeable fumes that result from shaking the major portion of the solution from the combs before putting them into the extractor. Mr. Deyell, who has sterilized a lot of extracting combs during the winter here at Medina, came to the same conclusion after he had tried shaking one or two batches of comb.

Dr. Hutzelman formerly recommended that when the combs are put into the solution they be tipped first to one side then the other to allow the air bubbles to escape from the cells. When Mr. Barber designed the large tanks illustrated in the November issue of Gleanings, he arranged to have them filled after the combs were put in place, which gave no opportunity for releasing any air bubbles that might be entrapped in the cells. We were at one time somewhat concerned

about these air bubbles that do not all escape when the comb is held stationary in a vertical position and the liquid allowed to fill the tanks. The fact that Mr. Barber had no recurrence of disease on returning the treated combs to the bees led us to investigate further the action of these air bubbles.

By placing drop after drop of the solution on the lower cell wall at the mouth of the cell and watching its action through a magnifying glass, the solution could be seen as it crept inward on the lower cell wall, then upward on the sides as well as the base of the cell and finally along the upper cell wall until the entire inner surface of the cell was covered with a film of the solution. A similar careful study of the air bubbles that do not escape from the cells showed that they are completely surrounded by a film of the solution so that there is no spot on the inner walls of the cell that is not wet with the solution. Since air bubbles do not touch the walls of the cells even at the top, it is not necessary to go to the trouble of changing the position of the combs to allow them to escape. The alcohol in every case drives out enough of the air so that it is in contact with the walls of the cell throughout.

As a further test we selected some of the worst combs we could find and immersed them in the solution for 48 hours without being disturbed to release any air bubbles remaining in them, then sent one to the bee culture laboratory at Washington for examination. The report came back that the spores had been entirely killed. One of these combs was photographed and illustrated on page 87 of the February issue of Gleanings.

In regard to the possibility of a residue of formalin being left in the combs sufficient to taint clover honey that is stored in them, no such tainting was noticed in the experiments last summer and none has been reported thus far. As a further test we have tried the experiment of filling combs that had been through the solution, and then aired for a few weeks, with water and with warm honey. After several days the water was taken out and tasted. The honey was dug out, wax and all, to taste. In no case could any taint be detected.

In this connection should be mentioned the fact that Dr. Hutzelman has repeatedly stated that alcohol denatured with violent poison which adheres to beeswax can not safely be used in making the alcohol-formalin solution for sterilizing combs. Both pure grain alcohol and formalin are very volatile, and when a properly made solution is used the residue left in the combs should evaporate completely after a few weeks of airing.

About the only serious complaint that has been raised

against the Hutzel

man solution for sterilizing combs

affected with foul brood has been the cost of the apparatus. The objection has also been raised that, while the large beekeeper could apply the treatment, the small one could not do so, for the want of a special tank suitable for holding a set of combs.

I am happy to inform our readers that these objections have been successfully

square tin, they had a thought of the beekeeper, and much less any idea of making the inside dimensions so that a Langstroth frame could easily slide down into it when the top was removed. The coincidence is, nevertheless, remarkable.

The ordinary 5-gallon square can unless lengthened out will soak, as explained, a little over half of the combs at a time. After one end of the combs has been soaked for 48 hours they can be pulled out and turned the other end down for another 48-hour soaking, thus sterilizing both ends of the combs. To do the complete job of sterilizing will take four days; but that is no serious objection to the beekeeper with three or four colonies. While the combs are soaking it is necessary to hold them down with a weight. One or two bricks will answer.

Fig. 1. The top or bottom of the ordinary 5 gallon honey can is cut with the hive-tool and a hammer.

Overcome. About a month ago it occurred to me that a 60-pound or 5-gallon second-hand honey can-something that almost every beekeeper has or can easily obtain-could be converted into a container for soaking standard Langstroth combs.

There are two or three ways for accomplishing this; but perhaps the simplest is to take a common ordinary hive. tool, cold chisel or a can opener and cut out the top of an ordinary square can. The illustration in Figure 1 shows how this may be done with a common hive-tool and hammer. After the top is cut out, the folded edges should be pounded down so there will be no sharp cutting edge. This can is now ready for holding enough solution to soak, one end at a time, a set of seven combs as shown at the right in Figure 3.

By the way, I do not suppose that father Langstroth knew, when he decided on the depth of his frame, that it would be just right to go into a 60-pound can in the manner I have explained. Neither do I suppose that, when the can-makers settled on the dimensions of the 5-gallon

Fig. 2. Half of one can is spliced on the top of another to make it deep enough to take standard combs standing on end.

How to Splice Ordinary Square Honey Cans.

But there is a much better way for sterilizing combs all at one soaking, and still use second-hand square cans for the purpose. The makers of the square can, when they were making up the depth of their cans, did not know that they had adopted such a dimension that by cutting one can transversely through the middle we can take one of the halves and splice it on to another full can and thus make a can and a half, or one deep enough to submerge the full length of a Langstroth frame and yet leave room enough for an inch of solution over the end-bars. The method of doing this is as follows: