378 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



SWARIIS LEAVINC AFTER BEING 

 HIVED. 



A GOOD STORY SUGGESTED BY THE CARTOON. 



Snip HAVB been looking over my fifty hives of bees 

 §| to-day, and find them in splendid condition; 

 never better at this time of the year. This day 

 is beautiful beyond description. The blossoms are 

 out, the bees and the birds are filling the air with 

 their musical notes, and why should not man thank 

 God for this beautiful country, and be happy? 



But your cartoon for May reminds me that I have 

 some notes laid away in regard to bees swarming 

 out and decamping after being hived; for the loss 

 in that direction is more than many are aware of. 

 I myself have lost heavily in that way. Now if you 

 see a swarm coming out again after being hived 

 from three to twenty-four hours, you can set it 

 down that they mean business, and that is a bee 

 line to the timber; for, mind you, they have their 

 place selected then. In 1874, my first swarm, a good 

 large one, came out the next day after being hived. 

 When I saw them coming, I ran and got a pail of 

 water and a dipper, and threw the water among 

 them; but they paid no attention to it, having other 

 business on hand. My wife brought out t<* me the 

 looking glass, but by this time they had crossed the 

 fence, in the direction of the timber, which was one 

 mile distant in that direction. One of my neighbors 

 was going by, and seeing the trouble ran to my as- 

 sistance. The first thing he did was to take up a 

 handful of gravel and throw it up among them. All 

 the good it did was to come down on my looking 

 glass, breaking it all to smash. We next got into a 

 field of new mown hay, and, as the most of them 

 were not more than six feet high, we commenced 

 thrashing them with the grass, to try to confuse 

 them. But this only got us into a free fight, we 

 coming off second best* for they stung us most un- 

 mercifully. We then concluded to volunteer to go 

 with them to their leafy home; but, on our way, we 

 went right through a neighbor's door yard, where he 

 had a pile of fine stove wood. Here a new idea 

 struck me, and I concluded that, if neither gravel 

 nor grass would do, I would try what virtue there 

 was in stove wood. So I threw the stove wood 

 among them thick and fast, every stick making a 

 hole through them as effectually as if it had been a 

 eanon ball. This so confused them that they alight- 

 ed on an apple tree, ready to make the best condi- 

 tions of peace. The boy soon overtook us with the 

 hive, and we carried them back. 



On the road back I happened to think I had read 

 somewhere that giving them a card of young, hatch- 

 ing brood would keep them from swarming out. I 

 acted on the spur of the minute, set them down in 

 the apiary, gave them a card of hatching brood, and 

 it j ust locked them in, and they were happy. I have 

 never hived a swarm since, without giving them 

 brood, and haven't lost a swarm or had one come 

 out. It is final. Now try it, brother bee-keepers, 

 and, if it fails, just give J. Elliott of Easton, Wayne 

 Co., 0., a blowing up through Gleanings; for I tell 

 you it is much easier and more profitable than run- 

 ning after a swarm on a hot June day. 



BLUB THISTLES AND THISTLES IN GENERAL. 



Since I have the floor, I want to say to your cor- 

 respondents that are recommending the blue this- 

 tle for bee forage, that if they had cut as many this- 

 tles as I have in hot summer days, when a boy, they 

 would go slow on anything called a thistle. I had to 



walk among thistles in my bare feet, had to grub 

 among thistles, had to mow among thistles, to plow 

 among thistles, so that I almost wished old mother 

 Eve had minded her own business, and not stole ap- 

 ples off that tree that did not belong to her, and 

 brought such a curse of thistles and thorns upon the 

 earth. We shall have enough to answer for to the 

 next generation, without importing thistles, let 

 them be blue thistles, or white thistles, or Canada 

 thistles, or any other kind of thistles. 

 Easton, Wayne Co., O., May 4, '80. J. Elliott. 



FOIL. RROOI>. 



fJlUK following, from the Salt Lake Daily 

 Jjl Herald, will doubtless do good, in 

 ' warning our A B C class to beware of 

 foul brood, even though the measures rec- 

 ommended are a little strong. I hope no 

 one who has the disease any where near him, 

 will ever think of selling bees or queens. 



A LITTLE MORE ON THIS SUBJECT FROM A BEE MAN. 



Editors Herald: — We do not wish to become wea- 

 risome on this subject, but rather to impress upon 

 the minds of all bee-keepers the necessity of a, unit- 

 ed effort, throughout the territory, to utterly de- 

 stroy and effectually eradicate this terrible disease 

 from our borders; and as there is no necessity of 

 importing any more bees into our territory from 

 abroad, there will be no fears on this account of im- 

 porting the disease in that way, as has already been 

 the case. We will quote a few reliable authors of 

 great experience on the foul brood subject. 



Wm. M. Quinby, the distinguished bee man, says; 

 "Foul brood can'be traced from a diseased stock to 

 a healthy one, like measles, whooping cough, small- 

 pox, and other diseases peculiar to the human fam- 

 ily." — American Bee Journal, p. 252, vol. 8. 



Herr Lambrecht and his committee, appointed by 

 the Central Bee-keepers' Association of the King- 

 dom of Hanover, after many experimental tests to 

 cure the contagion, say: "Foul brood cannot bo 

 cured." See American Bee Journal, p. 267, vol. 8, 

 June, 1873, for their full report. 



W. H. S. Harbison, a distinguished bee-keeper of 

 California, says: "Destroy it, by burning or other- 

 wise, wherever found." 



W. H. Alley, of Wenham, Mass., says: "Destroy 

 hive, bees and all by fire."— American Bee Journal, 

 1870. 



Editors Wagner and Clark, of the same journal, 

 say: "Wm. Alley's is the only effectual remedy for 

 foul brood." 



At a bee meeting held in Provo, Utah County, 

 March 9th, 1880, it was tbe unanimous voice of that 

 meeting that foul brood was contagious, and that 

 the only way of effectually destroying it. was to burn 

 or bury the hive and all of its contents. Wm. Ed- 

 win Whiteing, of Springville, Utah County, says that 

 he has lost 100 swarms of bees by foul brood, which, 

 valued at $12 each hive, would be $1,200. His reme- 

 dy is burning them up entirely when affected. 



Geo. B. Bailey, of Mill Creek, has lost $1,500 from 

 foul brood, and after much experimenting with the 

 disease, concludes that the most effectual means of 

 destroying it is by tire. 



S. H. Putnam, of Woodruff, Utah, says: "By all 

 means burn or bury all infected hives." 



C. Stillman, of Mill Creek, has lost, by foul brood, 

 over $300. 



Messrs. W. Woodruff, S. E. Murphy, John Herbs, 

 John Morgan, Ed. Morgan, Dan. 'Bryan, J. A. 

 Wright, Reuben Miller and others in Salt Lake Co., 

 have lost over 125 swarms from the same disease, the 

 estimated loss being $1,500. In Salt Lake City about 

 100 swarms have been lost by tbe same cause. W. 

 J. Burton, of Iron County, and W. It. Burbeck, of 

 Cedar City, say by all means destroy foul broqd 

 hives whenever found. Mr. J. E. Johnson, of St. 

 George, and Mr. C. F. Arthur, of Cedar, say destroy 

 all affected hives as a sure remedy. The direct 

 losses sustained within a brief period by the citizens 

 of Utah from the ravages of this plague are esti- 

 mated at $7,060. The consequental losses are set 

 down at $11,120. Total $21,180. 



Edward Stevenson, 

 Secretary Territorial Bee Association. 

 S(s It Lake City, June 8, 1880. 



