1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



79 



it should always crop out again. In these 

 cases hive disinfection was not deemed at all 

 necessary, and I venture to say that this is 

 one reason why foul brood has to be treated 

 over and over for years, many times in the 

 same apiary. I have never been able to see 

 why some of the small States that have had 

 foul-brood inspectors for many years are not 

 more free from the disease, unless it is that 

 the disease reappears from some cause or 

 other. And at least some cases can be 

 traced back to non-disinfected hives, I feel 

 almost sure. 



Fig. 1 shows only one of several places 

 where wholesale disinfecting was adminis- 

 tered in my inspection work. All of the 

 methods of disinfecting hives, etc , have 

 been used more or less, but most of them 

 are too slow. Instead of scorching out a 

 single hive-body at a time we stack them up 

 as in Fig. 2 to 5. The empty hives rest on a 

 bottom-board which provides an entrance 

 below to create a draft. A small quantity of 

 coal oil is poured down the inside of the 

 stack, as in Fig. 2. In Fig. 3 a bunch of 

 straw, which was first set afire, is thrown in 

 at the top, falls to the very bottom, and the 

 fire runs up the streaks of oil. The draft 

 upward soon makes all a roaring furnace of 

 heat, which in a very few minutes would 

 consume the entire pile of hives. A spade- 

 ful of loose earth to close the entrance in- 

 stantly and cut off the draft, and a cover 

 over the top as in Figs. 4 and 5, quenches 

 the flames; but the heat remains intense for 

 some little time, thus making splendid work 

 of it. Those stacks in the pictures having 

 covers on them have already been treated. 



I used to think it was a waste of time to 

 disinfect frames or save them at all; but 

 experience has shown that it is expensive 



to .destroy them. In Fig. 6 is shown a large 

 vat over a quickly made trench in the 

 ground in which a rather strong solution of 

 lye and corrosive sublimate in water is heat- 

 ed. The frames, gathered together in lots, 

 are immersed and thoroughly boiled for a 

 short length of time. They come out as nice 

 and clean as so many new frames. 



In Fig. 8 the same solution is used in a 

 large round tank which is heated by a steam 

 jet from the upright boiler shown. In our 

 work, all supers that may have been on foul- 

 broody colonies are disinfected just the same. 

 These are immersed with the frames in 

 place, as shown in Fig. 8, a strong spring 

 wire reaching over the top of the super 

 holding them in place. The work is rapidly 

 done in this wholesale way as effectively as 

 in many of the methods that require too 

 much time and trouble, and which, on this 

 account, are too often neglected. 



Now, since we can do this work so easily 

 and rapidly and thoroughly, and since it is a 

 risk not to do it, can we afford to say that it 

 is not necessary to disinfect our hives etc.? 

 I say, no. 



New Braunfels, Texas. 



ITALIANS SWARMED MORE THAN THF 

 BLACKS. 



BY W. C, MOLLETT. 



Being convinced by what I had read in the 

 bee journals and books of the superiority of 

 Italians over the common black bees I bought 

 queens of good Italian stock and requeened 

 all except two or three of my colonies. This 

 was two years ago, and I was very much 

 pleased with the Italians on account of gen- 



Fig. 6. — The frames are boiled in a large vat and made safe to use again. 



