320 



October, 1910. 



American l^ee Journal 



of the former Directors of the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, insisted that 

 the keeping of a box or gum hive 

 should be entirely forbidden, and 

 that bee-keepers who knowingly kept 

 hives of bees that could not be in- 

 spected should be fined. This very 

 rigid view was due to his having had a 

 great deal of trouble in California, at 

 diflferent times, with apiaries where 

 foul brood existed, when the combs 

 could not all be readily inspected with- 

 out causing breakage and leakage of 

 honey. The evidence of difficulty in 

 detecting foul brood in a box-hive api- 

 ary is shown in the treatises of former 

 days. Hamet, for instance, in his 

 "Cours Pratique d'Apiculture," pub- 

 lished some (iO years ago, informs his 

 readers that the existence of foul brood 

 is detected by the lessened activity of 

 the bees of the colony, and by the dele- 

 terious odor which the hive exhales. 

 At the present day, the apiarist who 

 allows the disease to go this far is 

 pretty sure of a tremendous loss. 



Having had no experience with foul 

 brood, I had a magnified idea of its 

 danger until I took a trip to the West, 

 several years ago. In one of the irri- 

 gated valleys where bees are kept in 

 thousands of colonies, I saw foul brood 

 for the first time. It was there that I 

 learnt that it was possible for a man to 

 have foul brood for years, in a latent 

 condition in his apiary, if he kept fight- 

 ing it, while his neighbor's bees wre 

 immune. It was there, also, that I 

 found that one man could get rid of it 

 promptly because of his energy and 

 thoroughness, while the other would 

 retain it year after year through his 

 neglect or lack of management, Orie 

 man harvested big crops and had his 

 bees in fine shape, while a neighbor 

 less than 5 miles away discouragingly 

 remarked to me that he who had the 

 disease in his apiary once could never 

 be sure that he was rid of it. 



Reader, this is the difference between 

 care and carelessness. Take your 

 choice. 



I will not attempt in this short article 

 to give the remedies or methods of 

 cure for the different forms of brood- 

 diseases. The McEvoy method for 

 ropy foul brood, the Alexander method 

 for black brood are, I believe, acknowl- 

 edged as the most positive. But what 

 is done must be done rightly, for a 

 single germ left may produce millions 

 of bacilli. 



That we will sooner or later succeed 

 in entirely exterminating these diseases, 

 or in making them practically harmless, 

 is certain ; but it will take time. Mean- 

 while we must keep a vigilant eye on 

 our apiaries. 

 Hamilton, 111. 



Essentials of Section-Honey 

 Production 



BY LED E. GATELEV. 



In view of the phenomenal and un- 

 precedented wave of universal popu- 

 larity with which for the past several 

 years extracted-honey production has 

 swept irresistibly over the field of 

 American apiculture, flooding the mar- 

 kets with a deluge of lifiuid honey, the 

 question of over-production in its rela- 

 tion to the section variety becomes 



more and more inconsequential and re- 

 mote. At present, ind perhaps for far 

 into the future, the recently rediscov- 

 ered article introduced under the ap- 

 pellation of" bulk honey" will, no doubt, 

 further diminish the available supply 

 of comb honey. In connection with 

 all of which there arises a new factor 

 in profitable comb-honey production, 

 alive with tremendous possibilities and 

 vast significance. 



In the production of section honey a 

 large increase of colonies is generally 

 associated with'a diminution of surplus 

 in direct proportion to the degree to 

 which division of the working force 

 has extended, in view of which, if sat- 

 isfactory results are to be anticipated, 

 the natural tendency of the bees to 

 swarm must of necessity be curbed and 

 discouraged to the utmost. 



As spring advances and colonies be- 

 come populous, additional room is with 

 sectional hives given by inserting an 

 extra division between the two parts 

 of the brood-chamber. With the hives 

 sufficiently shaded and ventilated, the 

 addition of this third section, through 

 relieving the crowded and congested 

 condition of the brood-nest, checks 

 and prevents swarming until the super- 

 ing season. At that time radical and 

 stringent measures are taken to eradi- 

 cate the reproductive instinct. This is 

 gradually accomplished through cer- 

 tain manipulations of the brood-sec- 

 tions, calculated to rid the hive of all 

 brood, and leave eventually the colony 

 upon new combs and foundation. 



When giving supers to such colonies, 

 they are slipped beneath the upper 

 brood-sections, which are by this time 

 usually about half full of new honey. 

 When after a few days the foundation 

 in the boxes has been sufficiently drawn 

 out to receive this honey, the upper 

 section is shifted to the bottom of the 

 hive. The honey it contains will con- 

 sequently be rushed precipitously into 

 the sections, affording unusual and 

 ideal conditions for extraordinary su- 

 per work, especially where separators 

 are used. 



The shallow sections of the divisible 

 hive are also used in connection with 

 full-depth frames that we have on hand. 

 These shallow chambers should be of 

 inestimable value in any well regulated 

 comb-honey yard, especially if the reg- 

 ular hives be of 8-frame capacity. They 

 can be used to advantage in various 

 ways above the brood-chambers early 

 in the season to discourage swarming 

 and to hold odds and ends of honey 

 previous to the main flow, and particu- 

 larly to keep it out of the brood-nest. 

 The addition of such shallow chambers 

 affords a gradual enlargement of the 

 hive that seldom affects appreciably the 

 colony temperatures. The addition of 

 full-depth bodies not only provides 

 more room than the bees can warm 

 and utilize readily, but lowers percep- 

 tibly the brood temperatures, occa- 

 sionally giving weak colonies a griev- 

 ous and unwarrantable setback. 



As our section frames and brood 

 frames are of precisely the same out- 

 side dimensions, we frequently, when 

 short of baits, use a new brood-comb 

 in the center of the first supers given, 

 and find they work to perfection. Some 

 of these are made with perpendicular 

 crosspieces to correspond with the 



edges of sections coming in contact. 

 Occasionally we have used for this pur- 

 pose combs containing a small patch 

 of unsealed brood with no bad results, 

 though in theory such procedure would 

 invariably lead to the undesirable stor- 

 ing of considerable pollen in adjoining 

 sections. 



To produce section honey most prof- 

 itably, it is primarilly and essentially 

 important to secure at all times a fancy 

 article. The cost of production for a 

 cheap and inferior grade is no less 

 than for the more marketable and cor- 

 respondingly higher-priced product. 

 Although by dint of relentless scraping 

 and much unprofitable labor it is pos- 

 sible to remove from them most of the 

 propolis and stain, the only logical and 

 satisfactory way of insuring good ap- 

 pearance is to have sections enclosed 

 in wide frames. In our surplus ar- 

 rangements these 4-piece section-hold- 

 ers rest simply on flat tins in the usual 

 fashion, and are keyed up with follower 

 and hive-springs. No separators are 

 used or deemed desirable. 



Sebastian Co., .'Vrk. 



Some Very Knotty Problems 



BY i;. M. LOOLITTLE. 



With most of the puzzles coming up 

 in bee-keeping I just take them to the 

 bees for an answer; but here are some 

 that have lately come up which the 

 bees do not seem to answer readily, or 

 do not answer to an extent sufficient 

 for me to understand. During several 

 trials with a self-registering thermome- 

 ter, I found that the temperature neces- 

 sary for brood- rearing was from 90 to 

 98 degrees. In other words, in some 5 

 or 6 different experiments with full 

 colonies and weaklings, during times 

 of heat as well as during frosty nights, 

 I could not find a single instance where 

 a temperature of less than 90 was regis- 

 tered, nor one of more than 98 degrees 

 F. So I set it down that the right 

 temperature for brood-rearing was be- 

 tween and including the two. 



All went along smoothly in this mat- 

 ter, as far as my mind was concerned, 

 till one spring I had a colony that be- 

 came so reduced in bees that there 

 were scarcely more than liuo in it. On 

 opening the hive I found that these 

 few bees were keeping a quantity of 

 brood going to a number fully equal to 

 that of their own, but all of this brood 

 was on the "inside" of two combs. In 

 other words, this little handful of bees 

 were not sufficient to cover one comb, 

 the best they could do being to cluster 

 between two combs, and have brood 

 in the side of each of these next to 

 themselves. Thus the eggs and larv;e, 

 which need the most heat, were in the 

 bottom of the cells or in the center of 

 the combs, on the opposite sides of 

 which was no warmth, with the base 

 of the cell-partition not thicker than a 

 sheet of writing paper. 



Soon after I discovered this (to me) 

 strange state of affairs (for up to this 

 time, except with warm weather and 

 very strong colonies, I had always sup- 

 posed, from all my observations, that if 

 there was any brood in any comb, that 

 brood was of nearly equal amount in 

 the cells on both sides of the comb). 



