518 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



:METir()D OF HANDLING SECTIONS. 



Grasp tlie two sections, placed as seen in 

 the engraving, in sucli a way that the thumb 

 and finger cover the two upper corners adja- 

 cent to each other. You will observe that 

 you can thus with one hand pick up two 

 sections ; and as you proceed to put them to 

 one side, the two pairs maybe placed togeth- 

 er compactly. This method of picking up 

 sections is, peiiiaps, in common use among 

 not a few of our readers ; but among some 

 of the friends, especially beginners, the idea 

 may prevent them from damaging the sale 

 of otherwise marketable honey. 



FOUL BROOD. 



Our old friend the enemy is still witli us, 

 and does not seem disposed to give us any 

 rest this season. We are still experiment- 

 ing on different methods of cure. We have 

 now under experiment the plan recommend- 

 ed by C'. r. Muth, of Cincinnati — that is, to 

 spray the combs with salicylic acid in solu- 

 tion. As yet we have not reached any defi- 

 nite conclusion in regard to it. We have 

 also under contemplation Frank Cheshire's 

 phenol cure. There are so many factors 

 which must be taken into consideration, and 

 which, in spite of us, seem determined to 

 upset our efforts in getting exact results, 

 that we will not report just at present. 



FOUL BROOD, BY A. I. ROOT. 



ALSO SOMETHING IN REGARD TO PUTTING UP AND 

 SHIPPING BEES BY THE POUND. 



fHE friends will notice, perhaps, that 

 Ernest has told all about foul brood 

 in our apiary ; and he has covered the 

 ground so well that I have but a sin- 

 gle point to make. It is this : Al- 

 though we have been at work nearly a year 

 with this pestilence, there has at no time 

 been more than a few cells of foul brood in 

 a comb. Most cases that we have treated 

 by fire have had only from three or four to 

 a dozen cells in tiie hive. In fact, all the 

 foul brood that has been in our apiary has 

 done no damage practically whatever. Our 

 colonies are strong, healthy, and prosperous. 

 They had never wintered so well in the 

 world as last winter. One might ask, "What 

 is the use of making all this fuss for noth- 

 ing?" I reply, "Only that we may by no 



possibility send foul brood to any of the 

 rest of you.'" Finding only two or three 

 cells in the Swamp Apiary was enough to 

 condemn it. so far as using the bees to fill 

 orders was concerned. When we succeed 

 in stopping this occasional breaking-out of 

 it we may accomplish something of benefit 

 to the world. From what I have seen of it, 

 I think it quite likely that it might be a con- 

 siderable time before it protluces any effect 

 so far as honey-gathering is concerned at all. 

 If we use none of our bees and queens, 

 how% then, do we fill orders V Well, the re- 

 sponsibility fell fiist on Neighbor II., 

 whose apiaries are several miles distant. 

 When we began to draw on his apiaries, 

 however, until they seemed in danger of 

 ruining his stock by taking away too many 

 bees, we were obliged to hunt up nice stock 

 among our neighbors. He found a place a 

 few miles away, where there were nice bees, 

 originally from our own stock, and I asked 

 him to give an account of his trip, which he 

 does as follows : 



D. L. .JONES'S apiary; the ROADS, ETC. 



After making- many promises to visit Jones's apia- 

 ry (not D. A. Jones, of Canada, but D. L. Jones, of 

 Le Ro\-, O.), I started with a buggy full of bee- 

 cages, and about the time I started it began to 

 rain; and as the honest farmers had been working 

 out their tax due the State of Ohio, when it was so 

 wet that they could not work anywhere else, I had 

 the full benefit of our now system of road-makjng. 

 I found a nice pile of sods scraped up in the center 

 of the road, that looked like a row prepared to set 

 out sweet potato plants. As T had but one horse 

 it was impossible to drive in the center of the road. 

 I had to go on one side, with two wheels on the 

 ridge and two in the ditch, with one side of the 

 buggy two feet higher than the other. Don't do so 

 any more, brother farmers of the State of Ohio. We 

 can afford to be cheated out of the tax, better than 

 the suffering public can afford to bump over the 

 roads after you have scraped sods in them. 



But I got there after a while, and found an apia- 

 ry of 37 colonies of nice bright Italians. The hives 

 were in three rows, on a well-kept lawn, and so full 

 of bees that it was nothing but fun to put up 

 pounds of bees. I got to work just as the noon 

 whistle blew, and at 15 minutes past one I had ffi 

 pounds of bees and 12 queens tacked up in 23 sep- 

 arate cages. 



This is the moral that Bro. Root wants you to 

 draw from this story: That, with the modern 

 appliances for handling bees it does not take long 

 to weigh and put up quite a good many orders, 

 provided you have the bees and the tools to do it 

 with. H. B. Harrington. 



Medina, O., June 20, 1887. 



There is just one point I wish to make in 

 Neighbor it.'s communication above. Some 

 years ago Mr. II. A. Burch gave as a reason 

 for not filling his orders, that he had so 

 many of them he could not get around to all 

 his business, and it was out of the question 

 to find competent help to put up the bees 

 and send them off. Mr. Horn has lately 

 made the same or a similar plea. Now, I do 

 not want to be uncharitable, but I can not 

 tmderstand how any man could ever be 

 swamped by having too much business, es- 

 pecially business where he gets cash before 



