March, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



HEADS OF GRAIN 



44™^^QOlFBERENT^_n 



How a Neighbor 

 May Suffer. 



It may interest the 

 reader to learn where 

 my bees got foul 

 brootl. Between the white-clover and buck- 

 wheat flows a year ago last summer we had 

 a week or two of complete honey scarcity 

 from natural sources. In spite of this my 

 bees were bringing in honey at a lively rate, 

 and, judging from their commotion and gen- 

 eral behavior, they were robbing at some 

 near-by place. Wishing to ascertain the 

 cause of the trouble, I followed their line of 

 flight until I came to a neighbor's bee-yard 

 of five or six dead colonies. Among them 

 stood a box hive, bottom side up, rotten with 

 American foul brood; and, to make it still 

 handier for my bees, some of the combs 

 were broken or cut out and scattered over 

 the ground. 



It was too late to lock the proverbial 

 stable door after the horse was stolen. Still, 

 at night, when the bees had quieted down, 

 I gathered up all the combs, broken pieces, 

 hive and all, and consigned the whole outfit 

 to the flames. G. C. Greiner. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



[As stated on page 105 of February 

 Gleanings, Mr. Greiner lost practically all 

 of his colonies by his neighbor's careless- 

 ness. — Editor.] 



01 — lo 1^ or: — xa 



What Is a Very Bad On page 86, February 

 Case? Gleanings, Dr. C. C. 



Miller asked for fig- 

 ures to determine the difference between a 

 very mild and a very bad case of foul brood. 

 My idea is that in a colonj^ with from 2 to 

 ^0 frames of brood, if less than 10 cells are 

 diseased, the case would be a very mild one; 

 if from 10 to 40 cells, mild; more than 40 

 cells to one per cent, medium; more than one 

 per cent, bad. Fifty per cent could safely 

 be called rotten. Arlie Pritchard. 



Medina, O. 



[It would be impossible to get all bee- 

 keepers to agree on figures to determine the 

 seriousness of a diseased condition. For 

 each one the figures would be high or low, 

 depending upon his fear of the disease un- 

 der discussion. If this estimate refers to 

 European foul brood, we would not material- 

 ly change it except to decrease the 50 per 

 cent by at least half. In case of American 

 foul brood, however, we would lower all of 

 the figures considerably. — Editor.] 

 O i — lo ^^cb =iff 



Granulated Cork Nearly all my hives 



for Packing. are double-walled. I 



buy thom in the flat 

 and pack with granulated cork, such as 

 Malaga grapes are packed in. I have no- 

 ticed that when ice forms on top of hives 

 and this ice is later covered with snow, that 

 the ice on those hives which have a tray of 

 forest leaves and pine needles on top, will 



be melted in an oblong circle over the 

 cluster, showing the escape of heat thru the 

 sealed cover, the packing material, and the 

 outer cover. This condition does not appear 

 when the trays are filled with granulated 

 corkwood. This wood seems to be a far bet- 

 ter conserver of heat, and is, therefore, a 

 better packing material. 



Brookhaven, L. I. E. M. Barteau. 



The Wheelbarrow Here is another type 

 for Bee-Hunters. of wheelbarrow known 



as the Toggenburg 

 type, which is used principally for transfer- 

 ring bees from the woods. He is also used 

 for pointing game. Whenever I go bee- 

 hunting, I let him go too as he is a great 

 woo<ls-conipanion. He will leave the other 

 goats and go with me if I let him. On a bee 

 trip he i)acks my coat and lunch, while I 

 pa'k the compass and glass and do the 

 scouting. As for packing bees I let him have 

 two-thirds of the side rails. I have a string 

 connected with the halter and the end of the 



Tlie wlicelbarrow for boei-hiintiug in the mountains. 



rail, and pull on either one to guide him. 

 He is right there with the goods, except he 's 

 a little fidgety about standing. This bee- 

 tree was nearly two miles from home, made 

 up of a mile of trail and the rest nothing 

 but gulches, brush, and hills, some steep at 

 that. If you are much of a bee-hunter and 

 want a good partner, get a billy goat and 

 train hin), as it will cost nothing to keep 

 him. Geo. W. Kinzie. 



Oiting, Wash. 



Get Rid of That I read with much in- 



Moisture. terest the article by 



Grace Allen, on page 

 28, January Gleanings, in which she says 

 she has been reading a treatise by Ed. H. 

 Clark in regard to the problems of moisture, 

 etc., within the hive. Mr. Clark says we 

 need a well-varnished hive inside to permit 

 of this condensation so as to have plenty of 



