800 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1.5. 



represent the facts." Mr. Taylor seems to have 

 followed the suggestion, for & picture appears 

 in the Bee-keepers' Review for September. 

 Further reference will be made to this experi- 

 ment, editorially, elsewhere. 



We next turned our attention to foundation- 

 fasteners and other fixings used in the apiary. 

 Every thing about the shop betokened careful 

 thought as to how labor in performing the 

 various operations might be the most economi- 

 cally employed. He finally look his Bingham 

 smoker and a large screwdriver, and was soon 

 ready to look over the divisible-brood-chamber 

 hives, the manipulation of which by Mr. T. I 

 was very anxious to see. 



As our readers know, he is a strong advocate 

 of a capacity of eight frames— at least, for the 

 Langstroth size; and when I fired the question 

 at him again, he expressed himself as perfectly 

 well satisfied with that size of brood-nest for 

 the Langstroth frame. A glance over the 

 apiary showed that there were a few old-style 

 eight-frame Heddon hives still in use; but the 

 great majority were of the divisible-brood- 

 chamber type. 



I then asked him whether he had seen any 

 cases of dead brood in his yard. Yes, he had, 

 and he very soon showed me some. We were 

 speculating somewhat upon the difference be- 

 tween the dead brood that had visited some 

 of the apiaries of late, and the ordinary viru- 

 lent type of foul brood, when Mr. Taylor re- 

 marked: 



" I think perhaps I have a sample of foul 

 brood that we can look at." 



" But." said I, "are you not afraid to open 

 up the hives, now that the honey season is over, 

 in the middle of the day?" 



Foul brood had no terrors for him. He would 

 just as soon have one or two cases in his yard, 

 in order that he might study it. As he sells 

 nothing in the way of bees or queens, the dis- 

 ease is not likely to get beyond his yard, nor, 

 indeed, into the honey, considering the care 

 with which he does every thing in the yard. 

 Well, the marked difference between the foul 

 brood and dead brood was, that the former was 

 decidedly ropy. The latter looked very much 

 like it, but lacked this one characteristic of 

 ropiness— that is, that tenacious, sticky quality, 

 that would cause the maturated mass, when 

 perforated with a spear of grass, to adhere to 

 the end of it as it is drawn out slowly, making 

 a stringlike filament that breaks when drawn 

 out an inch or so. 



Mr. Taylor then showed me a hive that had 

 shown traces of foul brood about a year ago. 

 This he had left to its own devices to see what 

 it would do. The disease would appear and 

 then at times disappear. At the time of our 

 inspection we found one or two diseased cells. 

 This was an interesting case, as it illustrates 

 how some colonies will resist the disease, with- 

 out any serious effects. 



Well, how about those Heddon divisible- 

 brood-chamber hives? He handled them very 

 expeditiously and easily, although they had 

 been in use several seasons, I believe. After 

 removing the cover, his next operation was to 

 loosen as many frames as he cared to remove, 

 by prying between the frames with the large 

 screwdriver. Then the operation of withdraw- 

 ing the frames was easy, and was done without 

 any disturbance on the part of the bees: nor 

 was there any bee killing, that I could discov- 

 er. Mr. Taylor is not one of those who bubble 

 all over with enthusiasm when he is pleased 

 with any thing; but in his quiet way he seem- 

 ed to be perfectly satisfied with the Heddon 

 hive. 



I forgot to ask him whether he had any diffi- 

 culty, as some of us have had, in getting the 

 bees to breed properly in two shallow brood- 

 chambers— i. e., from one to the other. My own 

 experience with shallow chambers, as well as 

 that of some other bee-men whom I saw on this 

 trip, who had tried similar arrangements, seem- 

 ed 10 indicate that, while ihe bees would breed 

 all right in one section, it required pressure 

 and considerable coaxing to get them to enter 

 the next one, either above or below. I remem- 

 ber, when Mr. Taylor removed the frames, that 

 there seemed to be brood distributed in both 

 sections of the hives. That being the case, 

 perhaps he can tell why he has no trouble 

 along that line, or how it may be obviated. 

 Perhaps something may be due to the race of 

 bees used. And that brings me to the Taylor 

 bees. I was surprised to see how well-behaved 

 they were, despite the fact that, in one instance 

 (I believe for a test of their temper), he remov- 

 ed the cover with a snap ; yet they did not 

 seem to resent particularly this intrusion. 

 " Why," said I, '• Mr. Taylor, you can not do 

 that with some of our hybrids, much less those 

 that are nearly black." I am glad to know 

 that they are well-behaved. But the principal 

 reason why they are preferred, I believe, is be- 

 cause they shake readily from between the 

 combs of the shallow brood-chamber, and thus 

 render more feasible certain operations with 

 this sort of hive. 



The five-banders were about the meanest bees 

 in point of temper and robbing disposition he 

 had, or, I believe, ever had had. All the time 

 that I was in the yard the yellow fellows were 

 following us about; and even while we were at 

 a considerable distance from the apiary, looking 

 over the fruit-farm, an occasional five-bander 

 would buzz about our heads. 



While thus pleasantly engag^^d in the apiary, 

 I noticed that I had only six or seven minutes 

 to gHt to the depot. I was soon on the bicycle, 

 and in a few minutes more was on the train 

 again for Flint, there to change cars (for it was 

 Saturday afternoon) for Manistee, Mich., the 

 home of an aunt. 



To be continued. 



