820 



GLEAXINUS IX 1?RE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



0aR 0WN ^?mw> 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST R. KO<1T. 



FOUL BROOD ; SUCCESS IN WINTERING ; 

 HONEY-BOARDS. 



tHORTLi" after Gleanings for last is- 

 sue was out, tlie weatlier l)er'ame suf- 

 ticiently warm, so that I told the boys 

 to go through the colonies, examine 

 every comb, and watch sliar]i for foul 

 brood. Iii the evening of the same day I sat 

 at my desk in the corner, reading over mat- 

 ter for Gleanings, when all at once the 

 door opened, and Mr. Spafford stepped in 

 and said : 



'' Well. 1 have found another case of foul 

 brood." 

 ■'Is it possible V "" I said. 

 Together we went down to the colony in 

 question. Yes, that very colony had been 

 treated for fcnil brood late last fall, by the 

 plan we liave described in Gleanings. The 

 worst part of it all was. that it reappeared, 

 and that, too. in a clean new iiive. Of the 

 (iO cases that we had treated last fall, all 

 were apparently cured, and we were going 

 to put it down in the ABC book that the 

 plan we practiced was a success in every in- 

 stance ; but this one colony, unless we rnade 

 a mistake in its manner of treatment, 

 seemed to be an exception to the general 

 rule. However that may be, we caii not tell. 

 Uncertain as to what should be done, I 

 started toward the paternal mansion, to lay 

 the matter before father and Dr. Miller (the 

 latter was spending a few days here at that 

 time). The family were just sitting down 

 at tea. Although the hive containing the 

 foul-brood colony was a new one, I inquired 

 whether it would not be best to do with this 

 as we had done with the other ; that is, V)urn 

 it — hives, bees, frames, combs, and all. Dr. 

 Miller and A. I. R. agreed that, as this was 

 apparently the only colony in the apiary, 

 with foul brood, complete extermination was 

 by far the safer way. Accordingly, with 

 Mr. ('alverfs assistance, I carried the hive 

 over to the furnace that evening, threw in 

 tiie coml)s, smashed the hive to pieces, and 

 dumped it into the fire. We both said it 

 seemed too bad to burn a brand-new^ hive 

 and such nice-looking bees ; but we doubt 

 if, under the circumstances, many of our 

 readers would have done otherwise. If but 

 one or two more cases shall yet appear, we 

 don't propose to give them any thing milder 

 than this heroic treatment. If. on the con- 

 trary, one-fourth or one-third of the colonies 

 were diseased, and we have reason to believe 

 that foul brood was scattered all over the 

 apiary, we should try the milder treatment as 

 we did last summer and fall. Tlie complete 

 extermination of forty or fifty colonies would 

 be, in this case, a little too severe. 



Ar'HIL 11.— NOT a single COLONY OF TIIE 



200 LOST. 

 As there is a brighter side to almost every 

 thing, I will now give you some facts whicii 

 make us feel greatly encouraged. For the 

 last week tlie apiary has been examined al- 

 most daily, and no foul brood has been 



found. More than that, at this date, April 

 D, we have not lost a single colony by win- 

 tering. Taking into consideration the'fact 

 that "so many of our colonies had been re- 

 duced last fall by foul brood, and, in conse- 

 quence, were very weak; and taking into 

 consideration that we commenced feeding 

 rather late in the season, and consequently 

 fall brood-rearing was not carried on," we 

 think we have a good deal to flatter our van- 

 ity. Xot only were no colonies lost, but 

 every one seemed to be as strong, and in 

 many cases stronger, than when put into 

 winter quarters late last fall. Unless we 

 have some prett> severe w'eather, I think 

 we shall be al)le to record in next issue that 

 the Home of tlie Honey-Bees has wintered 

 over 200 colonies during the winter of 1H8(t-"7 

 without the loss of a single ove. 



THE SLATTED HONEY -BOARD. AND HOW 



TO USE IT. 



The advent of the Moore crate and the 

 T super— in fact, all kinds of section-crates 

 used above the brood-chamber, has made 

 the use of the Heddon slatted honey-board 

 almost a matter of necessity. The construc- 

 tion of the Simplicity hive is such that an 

 ordinary slatted honey-board to slip inside 

 (such as we have heretofore advertised) can 

 not be used between the stories of our legu- 

 lar Simplicity hives without interfering 

 with the frames above when the hive is run 

 for extracted honey. However, it w^as all 

 right for comb honey. The problem, then, 

 which we have been* trying to solve for the 

 past three or four months was, " llow^ shall 

 we construct a honey-board so that it can be 

 used in a Simplicity hive, exactly as we 

 have made and sold it for years back, with- 

 out interfering with the frames tjr extract- 

 ing, or the double-tier wide frames V " Let 

 me explain to you more exactly the i-eal 

 point we had at issue. 



For illustration, let us take a two-story 

 Simplicity hive ; put into it 10 frames below 

 and 10 above. We insert between the two 

 stories, to prevent the queen from laying in 

 the upper set of frames, and to prevent bun- 

 attachments, a wood -zinc slatted honey- 

 board. As the hive is constructed with the 

 beveled edge, there is I of an incli between 

 the upper and the lower set of frames. The 

 honey-board is ^i inch thick at the ends. We 

 will how put in the slatted honey-board, and 

 see what the results are. We find that the 

 upper set of frames are raised olf the rabbets 

 just i of an inch. We conclude, therefore, 

 that this will not do. ^V"e have formerly 

 told our customers to slip into the rabbet a 

 strip of Avood wide enough to raise the upper 

 set of frames the proper distance above the 

 slatted honey-board. 



We will next arrange the two-story Sim- 

 plicity hive for comb honey. To use either 

 the Moore crate or T super we put in the 

 honey-board, pile on the two crates, slip the 

 body over, and all is well,pro»-?'cZ?'?!;/ the bee- 

 space in the crates or supers is tielow the 

 sections. Our old iioney-board has a bee- 

 space below it, but none above, and it is this 

 particular honey-board that we have been 

 discussing thus "far. 



Now, in discussing the proper construe- 



