12 



GJ EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



FIG. 1.— rambler's jouncer for clean- 

 ing SUPERS. 



ting out diseased cells until the disease is 

 cured. The extensive bee-men believe in 

 heroic methods, and they think that the es- 

 quire mig-ht in time cure a colony of the 

 disease; but the careless bee-keeper would 

 not. Then there are a few instances where 

 Mr. Bowen has been abused while in the 

 performance of his duties, which, I suppose, 

 is the common experience of foul-brood in- 

 spectors. There was a very bad case of 

 foul brood in a small apiary of about 50 

 colonies near Selma, and Mr. Bowen called 

 in a few men, as usual, in order to make 

 his authority stronger. Mr. Stearns had 

 an idea, and a correct one, that the Ram- 

 bler would like to be on the board, and, 

 with that good team of his, he trotted me 

 over to Selma. Mr. Bowen had a strong 

 backing in the persons of Mr. Steai-ns with 

 his manj^ hundred colonies, and Mr. Payne 

 with many hundreds. Then there were four 

 or five besides, with a varying number of 

 colonies and experience. Mr. Bowen was 

 armed with gauntlet gloves, veils, smoker, 



and several prodding-wires. These were 

 sharp-pointed, and were distributed amwug 

 the board of examiners. If ;in examiner 

 found a suspicious portion of brood the 

 prodder was used. After jirodding around 

 among the disease the prodder was prodded 

 into the ground a few times to remove all 

 danger from the germs getting from the 

 prodder to the man and from the man to his 

 own bees, and that was a wise provision on 

 the part of Mr. Bowen. 



But the fun came in when we came across 

 box hives with tops and bottoms more or 

 less split, and nailed on with ten-penny 

 nails. 



Well, that bottom had to come off, and a 

 slice of comb cut out and examined; but I 

 protested that a little piece of brood was 

 not enough. when some of the movable-frame 

 hives had been examined and condemned 

 when only a cell or two of the disease had 

 been found. What if a cell or two should 

 be hidden somewhere in that brood-nest? 

 The board decided we could not tear all of 



FIG. 2. — rambler's jouncer and 



GETS THE BEES. 



