74 



GLl3ANiNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



EeU. 



is this time victorious, while those in the cellars are 

 "gone up," and you find him in the predicament of 

 our friend in May No. of Glkanings for 1S81, " This 

 Apiary for Sale." 



One advocates chaff cushions, division-boards, 

 blanketing bees during winter; others advocate 

 " letting vhem sit on their summer stands," and all 

 seem to ad%'0cate their way as the best. One man 

 says you must take your bees out for a fly during a 

 warm day in winter; another saj-s, "The less you 

 disturb them during winter, the better," etc., until 

 your poor bewildered novice in bee-keeping, halting 

 between the dozen or more opinions, finds himself 

 in the position of the traveler who inquired which 

 road he should take to reach a certain town to which 

 he desired to go, and was told that it did not make 

 any difference which one he took, for before he got 

 half way through he would wish he had taken the 

 other one. So it is with us. It makes no difference 

 which way we winter our bees; in the spring we will 

 wish we had taken the other way. 



One man informs us that, in order to make bee- 

 keeping pay, you must accustom your bees to fre- 

 quent handling; another says, "If you want honey 

 you must disturb your bees as little ns possible." 

 These different kinds of advice are given till the 

 poor victim, after trying each one in a vain endeav- 

 or to ffot some profit out of his bees-ness, gets his 

 hopes blasted, and, discouraged and sick at heart, 

 he gets in the shape of ray friend mentioned above, 

 or else he gets mad and kicks the bee business high- 

 er than a kite, which I never do. If I had, perhaps I 

 would have fewer losses. A. M'. Willmartii. 



Embarrass, Waupaca Co., Wis., Dec. 34, 1881. 



I admit, friend W., that there is consider- 

 able truth in what you say; but, after all, 

 there is another and brighter side to the 

 "bees-ness." If you will look back over 

 the reports of the past year, you will lind 

 that a great many are succeeding, and suc- 

 ceeding splendidly too, even though many of 

 them be but beginners who have been guid- 

 ed solely by the journals you seem to think 

 so inefticient as jicuides. Your points are 

 good, and we witliout question need, most 

 of us, to be careful about rushing to conclu- 

 sions; but, while we get from lOU to 500 lbs. 

 to a colony, and reports of over 100 lbs. are 

 coming from almost all localities, need we 

 be very much disheartened? 



FRIEND MUTH TELLS VS ABOUT FOUL 

 BROOD. 



ALSO SOMETHINQ ABOUT CANDIED HONEY. 



fT does not often happen" that I can write an arti- 

 cle on bee culture; not because the subject has 

 lost interest, but because other business pre- 

 vents. I have occasionally no time to read a bee 

 journal for weeks. This time, however, I looked 

 over your January No. of Gleanings, on receipt of 

 It, and think that a reply is necessary to several re- 

 marks from different friends, in regard to foul brood. 



The remarks of friend Touchton, of California, p. 

 16, show that he is, perhaps, like myself, too busy to 

 read our bee journals regularly, or he would not say 

 that I stated to have had one hive of bees infected 

 with foul brood. I have had a hundred hives or more 

 infected with the malignant foul brood, which origin 

 nated, however, from one hive purchased of a party 



in Kentucky eight years ago. I have burned up per- 

 haps 10 or 1.") hives, colonies and combs. All the rest 

 I have cured. Every season, almost, I have made a 

 statement of my experience in that line at our year- 

 ly meeting, or in one or the other of the bee jour- 

 nals, in order to draw attention to the importance 

 of the subject. I will mail to-day to friend Touch- 

 ton a copy of my "Practical Hints," which will ac- 

 quaint him with a sure cure for foul brood. But 

 the treatment requires promptness, and a thorough 

 di-'infection of every thing that comes in contact 

 with the diseased colony. Interested friends must 

 look up former statements, as I can not afford to 

 give details just now. As no beginner, making his 

 lirst attempt, should expect to meet with the success 

 of an experienced hand, he should not altogether 

 contradict a theory based on experience. I do not 

 here reflect on friend Touchton; but I can cure with 

 salicylic acid a colony of bees affected with the 

 worst kind of foul brood, and with the first attempt, 

 and I am not afraid to prove it. Friend Jones may 

 suggest a plan, and I will satisfy him. I would, be- 

 fore this, have satisfied him at his own apiary, had 

 my business permitted a trip to Canada. Brother 

 Savage and I used the starving process when the 

 disease made its first appearance in our apiaries, 

 and I am certain that he wiU tell Brother Jones, as I 

 do, that it is an insufficient remedy. Brother Dun- 

 can had no foul brood, if turning the bees on to fdn. 

 remedied the disease. Such, at least, is my experi- 

 ence. 



The friend you mentioned on page 48, sent me by 

 mail a piece of comb containing unmistakable signs 

 of the malignant foul brood, and I so told him. This 

 piece of comb, placed within i-each of bees, would 

 infect with the disease the hive of every visiting 

 bee; and if exposed, in spring or fall, when honey is 

 scarce, would infect, eventually, every apiary In the 

 neighborhood, visiting bees carrying the fungus 

 home with them on their legs or feet. But if j'ou, 

 friend Koot,have seen no foul braod yet in your api- 

 ary, our friend mentioned above must look for oth- 

 er quarters as to the origin of his case. 



CANDIED HONEY IN JARS. 



I have to say that, in years gone by, I have taken 

 great pains to keep my friends supplied with the 

 liquid honej'. As their customers objected to gran- 

 ulation, we kept exchanging, whenever and wher- 

 ever it was desirable. My own retail customers 

 would object to granulation, and we therefore kept 

 our shelves filled with liquid honey all the time. It 

 was not a small nor a pleasant job to constantly re- 

 liquify, re-label, and re-box lots of honey, and often 

 the same lot several times. But that time is past. 

 Our customers, and dealers as well as customers, are 

 posted. They know now that pure honey will gran- 

 ulate, and that it will granulate just as surely as it 

 is pure. No exchanging of granulated honey has 

 been necessary for the last two years, and you can 

 see our shelves filled with honey, granulated just as 

 solid as can be expected of the pure article. It is 

 amusing and interesting to notice the change of 

 opinion; as, viz., we have four shelves in the store, 

 one above the other. The lower one is filled with 

 half-pound tumblers; the second one with 1-lb. jars, 

 and the third one with 2-lb. jars, all granulated sol- 

 id. On the upj^er shelf stood 3-lb. jars, recently liq- 

 uified (from the barrel). A customer was asking for 

 a 3-lb jar of honey a day or two ago. A young man 

 was about to get down a jar, when our friend no- 



