618 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 1 



cure the largest profits. He should be liberal 

 in the use of super foundation, nothing less 

 than full sheets being permissible. It is in- 

 advisable to give too many frames to these 

 stocks wrought at high pressure for this late 

 flow. My preference would be nine frames. 

 Sections must be kept very warm because 

 the nights begin to chill, and at as early a 

 date as possible finished crates should be 

 withdrawn gradually until toward the close 

 of the flow only one is left. Bees of a good 

 capping strain are best for the heather, and 

 almost all heather men swear by the blacks. 

 In excessive heat, be liberal with the amount 

 of ventilation, but don't overdo it. A large 

 entrance is at all times desirable. Such a 

 force of bees requires ample scope for exit 

 and entrance in order that there should be 

 no crowding or impeding of the diligent 

 toilers. 



PACKING AND TRANSPORTING. 



Special heather hives are turned out by 

 several appliance-dealers, admirably arrang- 

 ed for ease and speed in packing. They are 

 supplied with means for ample ventilation, 

 and are provided with an arrangement for 

 carrying supers in position. A few screws 

 driven home is about all the packing requir- 

 ed. Any common hive, however, can be 

 arranged in such a way that there is little 

 fear of a breakdown in" transit. The ques- 

 tion of transporting hives to the heather 

 has been reduced to a fine art in many parts 

 of Scotland and the north of England. 

 Many apiarists carry them thirty or forty 

 miles to the foraging grounds in all sorts 

 and conditions of vehicles, from a small 

 hand barrow to the huge lorry carrying a 

 heavy load. The journey is generally un- 

 dertaken at night, and the bees liberated at 

 early dawn. When the distance to the 

 moors is more considerable, bees are sent by 

 rail; and now even motor cars are utilized 

 for this purpose. Some cozy sheltered nook 

 is selected on dry porous soil, with a slope 

 coming gently down from the foraging- 

 grounds, so that bees heavily laden will 

 have their homeward journey down hill. A 

 southerly exposure is preferred, as on such 

 reaches the sun's rays ripen and expand 

 the heather bloom more fully. It is a glori- 

 ous sight to see those heather hills at their 

 best, with their ilhraitable stretches of pur- 

 ple hue stretching leagues and leagues on 

 every side, scented like a honey-comb. 

 These bees work as I think they can do no- 

 where else— at least in this country. 



HEATHER HONEY. 



The product of Callema vulgaris is of a 

 rich amber color, bright and sparkling, rath- 

 er than dull and shady. It has a strong 

 pronounced flavor, delicious to the palate 

 when one has acquired a liking for it. The 

 aroma is pungent and penetrating, making 

 itself manifest in a room where heather hon- 

 ey is kept in a closed cupboard. Its consis- 

 tency is so remarkable that it will not leave 

 the comb by any amount of centrifugal 

 force used in the extractor, and, when de- 

 sired in the liquid form, the combs have to 



be pressed by heavy screw power in a spe- 

 cially constructed press. Most bee-keepers 

 in heather districts, therefore, work for sec- 

 tions only; but it pays well to press all de- 

 fective combs preserved for the purpose, 

 and thus renew the works of the brood area 

 periodically. On account of the profusion 

 of the bloom the flow is at times extraordi- 

 narily abundant; but as the lateness of the 

 season frequently causes unfavorable weath- 

 er conditions the crop is an uncertain one. 



Heather honey sells at about double the 

 price obtained for any other kind in this 

 country. While a great part of the flower, 

 clover, and lime honey in sections brings the 

 apiarist only 18 cents per lb., heather fre- 

 quently fetches him 36 cents. While, too, the 

 other kinds drag on the market, heather hon- 

 ey sells readily, and is often disposed of be- 

 fore it comes oft the hives. Retail prices in 

 Edinburgh and London warehouses are often 

 as high as 48 to 60 cts. per section! 



BanfT, Scotland. 



FOUL-BROOD LEGISLATION. 



The Foul-brood Laws in the United States Criti- 

 cised; Permitting Bees to be Kept in Box 

 Hives Prevents the Eradication 

 of Disease. 



BY I. HOPKINS, 



Late Chief Government Apiarist of New Zealand, 



Allow me to congratulate you on securing 

 a foul-brood act for Ohio. You say in your 

 issue of .Tune 15 that "In the opinion of 

 some of the best experts in the country it is 

 one of the best measures that was ever en- 

 acted." If this is meant to apply to similar 

 acts already in force in the United States 

 only, then I have nothing to say against 

 the experts' opinion; but if meant to em- 

 brace all acts of the kind, then I differ with 

 them. 



The Ohio act, as given in your issue of 

 March 15, has the cardinal weakness of all 

 your other acts, and, therefore, for efficiency 

 in controlling disease I can not see that it 

 is one whit better than the others. That 

 weakness is, in not enforcing the use of 

 frame hives only as domiciles for bees. The 

 chief obstacle to the efficient control of dis- 

 ease has been and always will be the ignorant 

 and careless bee-keepers. These are the men 

 who keep their bees in bee-gums, packing- 

 boxes, skeps, etc., with immovable combs, 

 and I maintain that any one keeping bees 

 who does not get beyond this stage is a pos- 

 itive drawback and a danger to the industry. 



For fully 25 years the bee keeping indus- 

 try in New Zealand was kept back through 

 foul brood, which was rampant all over the 

 dominion. The spreading and propagation 

 of disease was entirely due to the ignorant 

 and wilfully careless box-hive bee-keepers. 

 Knowing this so well, when I had the honor 

 of drafting our "Apiaries Act " I made the 

 compulsory use of movable-comb hives the 

 paramount section of it. The effect of this 



