16 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTUiiE. 



Jan. 



with good results for tbe past twelve years, and 

 where It is indicated in any disease, it never dis- 

 appoints. 



One more item, and I will relieve you. Mrs. L. 

 Harrison said that she and medicine had fallen out 

 many years since, and had never "kissed and made 

 up;" and you falliato the wake, and express the de- 

 sire that she may die Avithout being required to take 

 much medicine. I say this: If the human race 

 were well posted in the physical and hyg-ienic laws 

 of life, there would be but little need of medicine. 

 More, it is my firm conviction, and has been for 

 many years, that there would be less morta'ity of 

 the human race, without medication than there is 

 with, as conducted at the present time. You may 

 think the last assertion pretty strong for a man to 

 make who depends upon the practice of medicnie 

 for his support; but 1 have nothing to detract. It 

 is my lirm conviction. Gr. F. Peckham, M. D. 



Elyria, Ohio. 



^ I — '— 



liGCIlLER'S 600 1.BS. TO THE HIVE, 

 AUAIIV. 



ALSO SOMETHING IN REGARD TO FOUL BROOD. 



fItlEND ROOT:— I have just read, with consid- 

 erable interest, an article in Gleanings, 

 — headed, "Lechler's 6C0 lbs. to the Hive," to 

 which I would like to add a few notes from my own 

 experience ; and more especially to the closing let- 

 ter from G. W. Lechler himself. 



During the season of 187S I increased 4 colonies to 

 36, and took 1500 lbs. of honey without the use of 

 either comb foundation, or empty combs; nor did 

 they get half the attention they needed, and I am 

 fully convinced that, had I given them my wliolc 

 *une, with the aid of foundation, they would have 

 done twice as well. And I know of another man 

 who claimed to have increased from 6 to 40, and took 

 two tons of honey. I think many bee-keepers make 

 a mistake in keeping too many bees; that is, they 

 keep more than they can properly attend to. As a 

 general thing, the very best reports and largest 

 yield from any one stock come from those having 

 small apiaries. In order to attain to the best results, 

 we must first have prolific queens, and must breed 

 for honey-gathering qualities; and secondly, we 

 must have our bees strong at the 7'i{jht time. 



Friend Wilkin hits a good point when he speaks of 

 "the best management for tliat year." Bee-keeping 

 here, ditfers widely from bee-keeping in the east. 

 Our swarming season usually begins in the latter 

 part of Maroh, and continues through the months of 

 April and May, during which time there is but little 

 surplus stored, the bees just gathering suflicient to 

 keep them breeding nicely, and to keep the swarm- 

 ing fever at its highest pitch. Now here comes in 

 the fine point of management. All the increase we 

 can make without detriment to the old colony, and 

 have strong by the time the honey flow sets tn, is so 

 much clear gain; but if we cripple the old stock, 

 and do not get the new ones strong at the rUjlit time, 

 we are so much the loser. And all this depends 

 largely on the Aveather which is to eome, and of 

 which we know but little. Very frequently, cold 

 winds precede the honey flow, and carry off the bees 

 as fast as they are produced, making it impossible 

 to get them any stronger. A great many young 

 queens are often lost in the same way. The past 

 season was a very bad one to get queens fertilized; 



if they were not lost on their bridal tour, they would 

 be killed by the bees on their return to the hive. 

 Mr. Gallup doubled up his bees this year, but after- 

 ward had to cut down the increase about one-half, 

 on account of queen failures; and many others have 

 had about the same experience, so you see we can 

 tell better after the season is over what course we 

 should have pursued in the spring. 



But I must pass on to Mr. Lechler's own letter, or 

 I shall have no room for my special remarlss. He 

 says, in speaking of foul brood, " A few years ago 

 there were some apiaries that were bothered with 

 it, and claimed they caught the disease from feeding 

 diseased honey; but on investigation I find about 

 the only apiaries affected were those where the own- 

 ers practiced artificial swarming, and allowed the 

 brood to get chilled." 



During the season of 1877— the dry year — I had in 

 charge an apiary of 150 colonies (perhaps one to 

 which Mr. Lechler refers); they did not gather suffi- 

 cient stores for winter, and I fed them about 2000 

 lbs. of honey, procured in San Francisco. In a very 

 few weeks after, I noticed the brood looked very 

 peculiar. 1 examined it closely, and compared it 

 with Quinby's description of foul brood, and found 

 them to agree exactly. Chilled brood has no such 

 smell as foul brood, neither does it decay to such 

 rottenness as does foul brood. By closely following 

 Quinby's directions, and yours in the A B C, we 

 eradicated the disease the next season. But a 

 neighboring bee-keeper, who fed similar honey, de- 

 nied having foul brood, and said we got the disease 

 by letting the brood get chilled; but the next sea- 

 son, after making a big lot of honey (some so thin 

 that it soured), he sold out very cheaply, the buyer 

 getting more than he bargained for — /oul ?»roo{7 in 

 aU its rotten^^css. This is a cure for foul brood, not 

 published In books, and I know of several cases 

 where it has been successful. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I should like to explode, with one 

 blow, the idea that chilled brood can produce /on? 

 brood. I piesume that you have had as much chilled 

 brood in your apiary as any other man, and you have 

 perpetually said that you never had a case of foul 

 brood, and never saw one. If chilled brood could pro- 

 duce foul brood, it would certainly follow in the 

 wake of " spring dwindling;" but no such catastro- 

 phe follows, as I know by experience. I have seen 

 many a comb of dead brood cleaned out by the bees, 

 without any bad results, but I have yet to see my 

 first comb of foul brood cleaned out by the bees. 

 And right here I would like to question Mr. Muth a 

 little. He has stated somewhere in Gleanings, 

 that he cured a case of foul brood, and a bad one at 

 that, by the use of salicylic acid. Now, I would like 

 to ask him how he happened to get that one case and 

 no more; and if the bees really sucked up the I quid 

 rottenness and packed it out of the hive. I do not 

 like to doubt such authority as Mr. Muth, but it does 

 seem strange that any man should get on'y one case 

 of foul brood in his apiary, and that a had one, and 

 not be able to account for it. Salicylic acid has no 

 effect on the disease here, and I am inclined to think 

 that those who report cures with soda baths and 

 salicylic acid have the kind of foul brood that Mr. 

 Lechler speaks of — chilled brood. R. ToucaTON. 



Santa Paula, Cal., Dec. 12, 1881. 



I quite agree with you, friend T., so far as 

 my experience goes. I have had a great 

 deal of brood chilled, and I have had it get 



