NOVEMBKK, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



713 



mostly colery and parsnip. The last named 

 does not t'nrnish as good honey as the celery. 



Troublesome Stages of European and 

 American Foul Brood. 



Mr. Gear has had his share of foul-brood 

 troubles; and he is one of the few men in 

 California who know both European and 

 American. He had both diseases practically 

 under control when I was there. 



At another time I hope to show photos of 

 European foul brood from one 

 of his apiaries in an advanced 

 stage which he was holding for 

 experimental purposes, and also 

 a sample of American from the 

 same j'ard. I was confused as 

 to which was which. There; 

 were the characteristic scales 

 which were alike in both sam- 

 ples. There were the typical 

 perforations, both alike. They 

 were alike in so many other re- 

 spects that it is not to be won- 

 dered at that many of the bee- 

 keepers of California have been 

 confused. I showed photos of 

 these at a number of field 

 meets, and asked the beekeepers 

 to tell me which was which, and 

 in most cases they got them 

 wrong; and I will tell you why 

 at another time. 

 Rendering Foul-brood Combs. 



Air. Gear 's experience with 

 foul brood necessarily forced 

 him into the wax-rendering 

 business. Fig. 4 shows his 

 handy outdoor wax-rendering 

 outfit with which he has melted 

 up thousands of combs and 

 cleaned up all his apiaries. At 

 the time of my visit he had 

 cleaned up everything excejit 

 the two hives before mentioned, 

 and, of course, was having but 

 very little use at that time for 

 the rendering outfit. 



I find that more and more 

 beekeepers iise these outdoor 

 rendering outfits. During quite 

 cool days when the bees do not 

 fly much and the beeman can- 

 not work with his bees the 

 combs are melted up, letting all 

 the unpleasant odors escape in- 

 to the open air. 



Disinfecting Hive-bodies. 



Mr. Gear showed me a little 

 trick of the trade in disinfect- 

 ing — or, rather, burning out hive 

 bodies. He makes a wholesale 

 job of it. He takes an ordinary 

 fruit can holding about a quart. He 

 punches a hole near the bottom in one 

 side with an eight-penny wire nail. He fills 

 this can with kerosene and plugs the afore- 

 said hole for the time being. He now piles 

 up four or five hives on a hive-bottom, or 



as high as he can reach conveniently; then 

 with the can of kerosene he allows a fine 

 streaiu of the fluid, after removing the plug, 

 to flow out against the insides of the stack- 

 ed-up hives until the inside surfaces of the 

 hives are pretty well covered with the 

 kerosene. The little tin can is much more 

 effective than one would imagine. By hold- 

 ing it near the top, and whirling it around, 

 a fine stream of kerosene will be thrown all 



Fig. 3. — Mr. Gear, Walnut Grove, and one of his stacked-nii hive.s 



filled with parsnip and celery honey. At the time of the editor's 



visit, Mr. Gear had many such hives in his apiary, and all of them 



showed by the burr-combs that the bees were storing honey. 



over the inside of the stacked-up hives. He 

 now touches a match and allows the flame 

 to burn for a few seconds, when he dashes 

 in a little water and claps on the cover. The 

 whole operation can be performed in much 

 less time than it takes to tell it. 



