1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



43 



mediately began the same work on entering 

 the healthy one. Since then I have seen the 

 same thing often, though not so strikingly. 

 The remedy, of course, is to spread the hives 

 as much as possible, and to face them in dif- 

 ferent directions. But I think it is perfectly 

 safe to keep them in pairs, as I never knew 

 bees to mistake right and left. 



An odd thing is that robbing infected 

 combs does not always cause the disease in 

 the robbing colony. Three years ago colo- 

 nies number 34 and 59 went partners in rob- 

 bing out a stack of diseased combs. Neither 

 one has ever shown any dead brood. I have 

 reared queens from both, hoping to get 

 stock that was more or less immune, but am 

 not sure that I have it. 



Two things the novice is always anxious to 

 know when he finds dead brood; first, what 

 disease is it? second, whether it is going to 

 put him out of business entirely. Regard- 

 mg the first, I think the roping test is a sure 

 one. Twist a toothpick in the oldest dead 

 larva you can find; pull it out; and if it draws 

 a thread, call it American foul brood. If it 

 does not draw a thread, and smells sour, 

 call it European and kill the queen. 



Regarding the second question, whether 

 it will put him out of business entirely, no; 

 not unless he wants to quit. He can save 

 eight colonies out of ten by proper treat- 

 ment. In the case of European foul brood 

 I think about three out of the ten would get 

 entirely well in the course of time without 

 treatment of any kind. But in the mean 

 time they would be worse than useless, and 

 would spread the disease to every other col- 

 ony within flying distance. 



Newman, 111. 



PAINTING HIVES. 



What Paint to Select, and how to Mix; 

 Complete Instructions from a Prac- 

 tical Painter. 



BY C. G. HULICK. 



The part that usually gets the amateur 

 painter into difficulty is the buying and mix- 

 mg of paint. My experience as a house 

 pamter, from 1S96 to the present, shows to 

 me that there is no better and cheaper paint 

 than pure white lead and pure raw linseed 

 oil. The purity of these two parts is essen- 

 tial to a durable paint. Most people do not 

 know that pure oil is the basis of good paint. 

 Linseed oil is the only good oil known to the 

 trade. Pure raw oil boiled in a kettle has a 

 much " heavier body " than the so-called 

 boiled oil, of which a circular issued by a 

 prominent Chicago paint-manufacturing firm 

 tells us is heated only to near the boiling- 

 point, a dryer added, and sometimes other 

 adulterants. White lead and oil are not hard 

 to get mixed if only a small quantity of oil is 

 added at a time. 



To mix the ingredients, lift some lead into 

 a bucket and stir, if possible, before adding 

 oil; then pour in halt as much oil as there is 

 lead, and stir until thoroughly mixed. Add 



half the quantity of oil as before, and stir. 

 Repeat until thin enough to spread well but 

 not run. Then put in from a half to one 

 pint to the gallon for winter painting, and 

 one-fourth to one-half pint for summer,;^of 

 Japan dryer when raw oil is used. 



This is' where I differ with F. Dundas 

 Todd, who does not use dryer. In this cli- 

 mate, paint mixed with raw oil would wrin- 

 kle if used in cool or cold weather, and that 

 is where many of us have time to put togeth- 

 er and paint the hives we use. Japan dryer 

 causes the paint to dry from the wood out 

 instead of skimming over and wrinkling 

 with the cold. Raw oil dries very slowly in 

 cold weather, page 857, 1909. 



For hard pine knots and pitchy lumber, 

 use turpentine in the first coat — one pint to 

 the gallon. 



Painting hives adds durability and neat- 

 ness; keeps ants away; keeps water out, etc. 

 This spring I bought some dovetailed hives, 

 two years from the factory, that had only 

 one coat of paint. When I began to paint 

 them I found the bottom-boards almost gone, 

 rotten inside, as well as badly cracked all 

 over, proving to me that hives should be 

 well painted. 



Why do Dr. Miller and Mr. Doolittle not 

 paint their hives? Why should we let hives 

 waste by decay when paint will preserve a 

 hive as long as a house? The advancing 

 price and decreasing quality of lumber makes 

 the strongest argument for preserving the 

 hives we have. I paint the dovetails, rab- 

 bets, and joints of all bodies, covers, bot- 

 toms, and supers, and give them three coats 

 of white lead and oil after nailing. We have 

 enough moisture here to use up an ordinary 

 hive in about two years, unpainted. Do not 

 the bees deserve the most comfortable mois- 

 ture-proof house to live in that we can give 

 them? Buying bees in old, rotten, and shaky 

 hives makes one look with much pleasure 

 on sound well-painted hives. 

 Ainsworth, Iowa. 



[We are glad to indorse all of these sug- 

 gestions. There is nothing better than a 

 pure white lead and linseed oil. In this con- 

 nection we wish to caution our readers 

 against using cheap ready-mixed paints. 

 The pure-food and drug act does not prevent 

 wholesale adulterations of any article of 

 manufacture not calculated to go into the 

 human stomach. The consequence is, there 

 are but very few brands of ready-mixed 

 paint that are pure; and even some that are 

 contain too large a percentage of zinc. 

 While zinc is good for inside finished work, 

 it has a tendency, when mixed with white 

 lead for outside work, to scale, and hence 

 after a time the house looks flaky. Even 

 after it is repainted it looks badly, and, what 

 is worse, some of the old scales will flake off, 

 carrying with them the new paint. A pure 

 white-lead paint, after it has been on wood 

 a good many years, will chalk like powder. 

 A second coat of pure lead and oil right over 

 this will combine with the lead pigment from 

 which the oil has dried out, and make a good, 

 new smooth finish. 



