1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



513 



saw. I got them all in and moved them to their 

 place at dark, but the next day they all came out 

 again, and I could not induce them to settle. I fol- 

 lowed them about a (juarter of a mile to the woods, 

 where they settled in a white-oak tree about 50 feet 

 high. I let them stay there about four hours, and 

 then cut the tree, and hived them nicely and that 

 night I brought them home. They went to work 

 right otr. I looked them over to-day and found a 

 nice large hybrid queen, so I think they are all 

 I'ight. I have caught :J10 drones from the old Amer- 

 ican hive, which this swarm came out of since it 

 swarmed. Charles Wittek. 



Salem, Ind., May 27, 1887. 



DANDELION A PEST IN IOWA. 



B. Kenyon, of Oakland, Cal.. in Gleanings for 

 May ].5th, inquires about dandelion. You suggest 

 ten colonies to the acre. We have more than ten 

 acres to the colony, and I think our bees would all 

 starve if nothing but dandelion were accessible. 

 With us, dandelion has almost become an intolera- 

 ble nuisance. It is everywhere. It takes possession 

 of everj' lawn, every strawberry-patch. It is war to 

 the death to keep it even in subjection. It is open 

 only two or three hours in the forenoon. I wish 

 there were a commercial value on the root, even if 

 not more than a cent a pound. Good wages could 

 be made here at that price. The seeds germinate 

 anywhere, even on a dry tough sod, and in a year 

 or two the roots are down from six to twelve inches. 

 It is the invincible. We have it by the thousands of 

 acres. 



DRY WEATHER. 



We are suffering from a wonderful drought. My 

 experience of thirty years in Fayette Co., Iowa, has 

 never seen any thing like it. We usually suffer 

 from excessive wet. We have had no rain of any 

 consequence for a year now — only light showers at 

 long intervals. Unless we get rain, the honey-crop 

 must be a failure. Next to dandelion we have white 

 clover. Indeed, in our gardens and strawberrj-- 

 patches it is a question which shall take posses- 

 sion. B. F. Little, 107—70. 



Brush Creek, la.. May, 1887. 



Friend L., they already make use of dan- 

 delion down East, and pay a big price tor it 

 besides ; but it is not the common dandelion 

 that is a pest in your vicinity. We have 

 sold it to some extent in our town, and it al- 

 ready commands a pretty good figure. 



EXPRESS COMP.\NY REFUSING TO RECEIVE BEES. 



It appears that we are about to have trouble in 

 shipping bees. On the 2d inst. I shipped two colo- 

 nies on the packet to Evansville, Ind., to have them 

 expressed to Michigan. The express agent refused 

 to take them until the clerk guaranteed the pay- 

 ment of expressage. About the same time I had 

 Mr. Hughes, agent here for the boat, to ship one 

 hive to St. Louis, to have it expressed from there to 

 Washington Territory. On the return of the boat 

 t" .Tohnsonville, on this river, the captain received 

 a telegram from the boat agent at St. Louis, which 

 said, " Express refuse bees unless prepaid *;{0. See 

 Hughes, Clifton." Under the circumstances I could 

 only instruct the captain to bring the bees back and 

 send the man the ^4.00 paid for them. When the 

 man ordered the one colony he wrote me that he 

 would want ten colonies more if this one was satis- 

 factory when received. 



Now, friend Root, can't you and others do some- 



thing to help out bee-keepers who have a surplus of 

 bees and can not get rid of them in any other way 

 than to brimstone them? I prepaid ten colonies In 

 hives to Indianapolis, which went through at (juite 

 moderate charges. I do not know how we can ad- 

 vertise bees, and agree to prepay the express, as we 

 can not tell where the orders will come from. I 

 have shipped bees to different States, from Nebras- 

 ka to Maine. C. Weeks. 

 Clifton, Tenn., May », 1887. 



Friend W., I do not think there need be 

 any appreliension of trouble in the diretition 

 you mention. We have for years been oblig- 

 ed to guarantee express charges on bees and 

 every thing else we ship, or else take the 

 risk of delays. In regard to the bees you 

 wanted to ship to Washington Territory, 

 had you asked your agent about it Ijefore 

 putting them up he would have told you the 

 charges would be enormous, and would have 

 to be prepaid. We receive orders to ship 

 goods by express every few days, where the 

 result would be disastrous if we undertook 

 to ship as directed. 



A SUOGESTION IN REGARD TO THE TREATMENT OE 



FOUL BKOOD, AT THE HOME OF THE 



HONEY-BEES. 



I have just finished reading Our Own Ai)iary, on 

 page 483. It appears to me, if I understand your 

 treatment of foul-bi'oody swarms, that you destroy 

 all the brood in the infected swarms. Why not 

 save all the brood that will hatch, by giving the 

 brood from two or three infected swarms to one in 

 the same condition, until the brood is hatched, and 

 in this way save a good swarm of bees from the 

 combs of two swarms treated? There can be no 

 danger when honey is coming in, as at present, 

 only a delay of a few days. L. C. Whiting. 



East Saginaw, Mich., June 18, 1887. 



Your suggestion might be put success- 

 fully in operation under some circumstanc- 

 es ; but in our own case, the policy of de- 

 stroying all the brood as soon as the dis- 

 ease makes itself apparent 1 think is the 

 wiser one. In the first place, while foul 

 brood exists among our bees, bees are of al- 

 most no value whatever to us. Of course, 

 we can not fill orders for bees and queens 

 from the home apiary ; and as our locality is 

 already overstocked, we can not run them 

 for honey ; so you see our apiary at present, 

 instead "of being a source of income, is a 

 source of expense, and the few hatched bees 

 which we might save in the manner you 

 mention would not begin to cover the risks 

 attendant upon such practice. As long as 

 there is a possibility of danger by leaving 

 infected brood anywhere in the apiary, I can 

 not see that it is Vvise. at least for ourselves, 

 to stack the infected brood in a colony by 

 themselves. Another thing : We have been 

 experimenting lately to determine whether 

 foul brood would ever cure itself. We left 

 some colonies from ;i week to two weeks ; 

 and while the disease apparently disappear- 

 ed for a time, sooner or later it reappeared. 

 While we were making these experiments 

 we liad something like a dozen colonies that 

 were diseased at one time, and which had 

 not been treated. It was easy to observe 

 that foul brood broke out tdmost every- 

 where in the apiary during this time. Since 



