376 



November, 1915. 



American IBee Journal 



and sure. But fire proved a sure disin- 

 fectant, destroying bacilli and spores 

 promptly, while the frames and combs 

 proved good furnace fuel. 



As it was getting a bit late in the 

 season, it was thought best not to give 

 the same treatment to the other four 

 colonies. They are to be left until they 

 have no longer any unsealed brood. 

 Then their frames are to be taken from 

 them (not burned) and replaced by 

 combs of sealed honey, and that's all 

 the treatment they are to have. This 

 is a form of treatment recommended 

 by the late Mr. McEvoy. Although not 

 advisable to use such a form of treat- 

 ment in a case found early in the sea- 

 son, it seems to have its advantages in 

 a case late in the season. The colony 

 is not in the least weakened by having 

 its combs exchanged, and should begin 

 the following spring just the same as if 

 no exchange had been made, where-s 

 by the shaking plan the colony has a 

 severe set-back in its work. 



European Foulbrood 



This year we had six cases of Euro- 

 pean foulbrood, not any of them 

 very serious. June 22, Nos. 93 and 94 

 were found diseased; June 29, Nos. 4 

 and 26; July 1, No. 95; July 21, No. 96. 

 It will be noted that four of them vvere 

 in consecutive order, which looks just 

 a little as if the disease might have 

 been carried by bees entering the 

 wrong hive by misiake; although it 

 might not have been so. In each case 

 the treatment was caging the queen 9 

 or 10 days. In no case was there a 

 return of the disease. 



No doubt it will appear again next 

 year, if not from something in our own 

 apiary, from bees of our neighbors. 

 But when taken timely it does little 

 harm. It would be a comfort if we 

 could say the same thing of American 

 foulbrood. 



The Season at Dr. Miller's 



In the August number of this journal, 

 page 264, some account was given of 

 the early part of the season at Marengo. 

 As there stated, 260 supers were on the 

 92 colonies July 1. A pretty big allow- 

 ance, but it must be remembered that 

 an empty super was kept on top, as 

 well as an empty super at the bottom; 

 that is, an empty super was added at 

 the bottom as often as the lower super 

 was about half filled, and an empty 

 super was kept on top all the time, to 

 be used by the bees only if they were 

 crowded into it. But we were not in 

 great fear all the supers might not be 

 needed if the weather were favorable, 

 for the constant rain kept the clover 

 growing, even if it didn't let the bees 

 work. Indeed, we kept adding until 

 July 21, an inventory showed 1 hive 

 with 1 super, 1 with 2, 15 with 3, 33 with 

 4, 33 with 5, 5 with 6, 2 with 7, making 

 389 supers on 90 hives, or an average 

 of about 4;i supers to each hive. The 

 supers on 3 of the poorer colonies had 

 been replaced with extracting combs, 

 or rather brood-combs, for they were 

 destined for feeding next spring rather 

 than for extracting. 



Rain, rain, rain, continued the rule, 

 and in the last week of July the bees 

 were kept indoors 4 successive days by 

 the wet and cold. Fire was needed in 



the furnace a number of times when 

 other years we would have been hunt- 

 ing a place in the shade. But with the 

 hopefulness of beekeepers we kept 

 looking forward for the bees to begin 

 hard work again. For some reason 

 the bees didn't begin, in spite of abun- 

 dant bloom of clover and other plants, 

 and by the last of August we gave up 

 hope. 



Just then, for some unexplainable 

 reason, there began one of the heav- 

 iest flows we ever had. Editor E. R. 

 Root, who was here Sept. 6 with Dr. E. 

 F. Phillips, says of it in Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture: "At the time of our 

 visit there was such a roar of bees 

 about his yard that it looked as if there 

 was a big swarm in the air; in fact, 

 several of them. Nay, rather it looked 

 exactly like a wholesale case of rob- 

 bing; but it was neither. An inspec- 

 tion of the apiary showed that large 

 streams of bees were going into every 

 one of his hives. We never saw such 

 a furor of bees before in so small a 

 yard — 92 colonies, spring count." 



Then Mr. Root set out to find out 

 what the bees were working on, went 



through bush and briar, over or under 

 barbed-wire fences, got lost, and hav- 

 ing started west finally relieved the 

 growing anxiety of his friends by mak- 

 ing his appearance from the east. But 

 he wasn't so very much wiser as to 

 what the bees were working on. He 

 found them on clover, heartsease, as- 

 ter, and other plants, but not in appar- 

 ently large numbers on any one plant. 

 Perhaps their affections were some- 

 what evenly divided. It may be said 

 in passing that bees never make a very 

 big show on white clover, at least not 

 here, even when white clover is doing 

 its best. Possibly because there is no 

 other plant so thoroughly distributed 

 over the ground. 



But the cold and wet again closed up 

 business, and the last day of September 

 saw all sections taken from the hives. 

 At this date, Oct. 5, there has been no 

 killing frost, clover and other bloom 

 is still plenty, but honey plants do not 

 seem to yield out of season, even if 

 still plenty. At any rate, with the ther- 

 mometer at 49 degrees in the warmest 

 part of the day it is not strange that 

 bees keep by their own fireside. 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



Conducted by J. J. Wilder. Cordele. Ga. 



Getting Ready for Next Season 



Long before the last case of honey 

 was packed, lumber was bought and 

 laid down out of which we were to 

 make our next season's supplies and 

 our regular machine man and helper 

 started cutting and working it up. 

 Every man who has our bees in charge 

 made known his needs in August, and 

 a bill of same was sent in. By the time 

 the first man takes off and packs his 

 last case of honey and puts away his 

 last colony of bees for winter, his com- 

 plete needs in the way of supplies will 

 be in his shop ready for him, and he 

 will go right to work setting them up. 

 Very early in the season next year he 

 will be ready to haul out and distribute 

 them where needed. In this particular, 

 all progressive beekeepers should fall 

 in line and be ready to go into apiary 

 work next spring. 



In my case there was a general un- 

 derstanding personally between each 

 man in charge and myself as to what 

 would be best to do. There is nothing 

 like a thorough business understand- 

 ing and good congenial agreements 

 between man and man working to- 

 gether. 



Apiary Tidiness 



I have seen a few apiaries in my 

 travels that were kept almost over tidy. 

 But the average apiary in Dixie in this 

 particular is far lacking in what it 

 should and deserves to be. Some few 

 apiarists have the high quality of tidi- 

 ness about their work and somehow 

 leave things looking neat wherever 

 their hands may touch. We greatly 

 admire this quality in one of our men, 



and we often wish more possessed 

 it. It does help the looks of an apiary 

 so much when it is kept clean, with 

 everything in proper place, etc., and it 

 takes but a very small amount of extra 

 work to do this. 



On the other hand, it leaves a bad 

 impression to visit an apiary that has 

 not had justice in this particular, cov- 

 ers, bottoms, stands, etc., lying scat- 

 tered about, a great accumulation of 

 straw, leaves and trash, and the hives 

 sitting around in all kinds of ways and 

 tilted over one way or the other. It is 

 a pity more beekeepers do not cultivate 

 this good quality in their general api- 

 ary work. I am aware that the amount 

 of business one has to look after has 

 much to do with it, for some beekeep- 

 ers are badly rushed at times and can- 

 not keep things in place, but there is a 

 time when he could do so. 



Wanting Locations 



During the past 60 days there have 

 been a number of beekeepers wanting 

 me to assist them in getting well 

 located in Dixie. They want to move 

 into our part of the country and join 

 our ranks. 



I want to say to these and others 

 that I refrain from too favorable an- 

 swers to such requests. I have always 

 been as generous in this as I could well 

 be, locating and helping these new 

 comers the best I could. But failures 

 have resulted and a lot of bitterness 

 followed. So I absolutely refrain from 

 taking up this matter personally with 

 any one further than what is said 

 through our Dixie Department. It is 

 very easy to over-estimate our country 



