. The Bee-keepers' review. Bee culture. a6 THE BEE-KEEPERS brood were not to be found in the honey. This conclusion was not accepted in this country because it was found that practi- cally at least it was not trae. I doubt if Cowan himself would deny that the germs could be mi gled with honey by the hand of man and if they could then they also could, in the ways I have herein before indicated, by the bees. With these exceptions was not Cowan correct. ? This is a matter of considerable impor- tance, because a true answer to the question would give us a pretty clear insight into the methods by w
. The Bee-keepers' review. Bee culture. a6 THE BEE-KEEPERS brood were not to be found in the honey. This conclusion was not accepted in this country because it was found that practi- cally at least it was not trae. I doubt if Cowan himself would deny that the germs could be mi gled with honey by the hand of man and if they could then they also could, in the ways I have herein before indicated, by the bees. With these exceptions was not Cowan correct. ? This is a matter of considerable impor- tance, because a true answer to the question would give us a pretty clear insight into the methods by wliich the disease in question may be disseminated. If Cowan is correct, with the limitations suggested, then the dis- ease cannot be conveyed by germs floating in the air or carried about on the bodies of the bees, otherwise they must certainly be carried to the honey in open cells through- out the hive. With these thoughts in mind I made an experiment with honey taken from one of the colonies operated on. The colony was quite badly affected, there being in the space occupied by the queen from one- fourth to one-third of the cells that con- tained dead brood. The honey was contained in the two outside combs of the upper section of the Heddon hive. The combs contained five or six pounds of honey and had apparently never contained any brood. The honey was fed to a colony of moderate strength and very short of stores but act- ively engaged in the rearing of brood, by placing the combs in a story above the hon- ey board through which the bees came and and carried the honey below until it was all gone and evidently all or nearly all used in nourishing the growing larvae. In this experiment the thought was th^it if the honey contained the germs that fact would certainly be revealed by the appear- ance of the disease among the brood below and that the continued absence of the di-e;ise would be pretty satisfactory evidence ihat fhat honey contained no germs, and, conse quently, in so f
Size: 1401px × 1784px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbeecult, bookyear1888
