700 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



Sept. 



as any of the new ones for public I'nvor. Wherein 

 one hive is better than another is not in the pro- 

 duction of honey, but in its being- better adapted to 

 suit the wants of the bee-keeper. liccausc one man 

 wants 50 pounds of honey in sections on tlie first of 

 October, witli his bees in a starving condition be- 

 low, while another man wants '^'> i)ounds of this hon- 

 ey in sections, and 2") in the brood-chamber, does 

 not alter the product of the bees in favor of the 

 first, one particle; yet for a hv^ send-off for certain 

 hives the first is claimed to produce double the 

 profit of the' second. 



Taking the i)rice of sugar and honey into consid- 

 eration, together with the labor required to got the 

 first into condition to winter equal with the second, 

 there is nota farthing's difference between the two. 

 Several years ago, when honey was higher in pro- 

 portion than sugar, the cash income might have 

 been in favor of the former; but that would not 

 change the production of honey any. If 1 am cor- 

 rect in the above, and I believe I am, how can we 

 afford to throw away all of our old hives and fix- 

 tures, and invest in these new ones at a higher 

 price, only to reap the same results except in a dif- 

 ferent form? 



As I was almost if not quite the first one to advo- 

 cate the contraction system for the production of 

 comb honey, I wish to say that all 1 claim for it is, 

 that it gives me the larger part of the white honey 

 during the height of the season, in the sections, in- 

 stead of having the same stored in the frames of an 

 uncontracted hive; while later on, when the honey 

 is not quite as white and showy, but etjuallygood 

 for the bees, I get their winter supply in the body 

 of the hive. To accomplish tills end 1 work some- 

 what as follows: When a colony swarms it general- 

 ly has the full comi)lement of frames in the body of 

 the hive, which, as a rule, are full of brood. To 

 hive the swarm J sinijily take their friunes of brood 

 out of the hive, with the few bees which adhere to 

 them, and put them in an empty hire on a new 

 stand, Avhen but five frames are i)ut back in the 

 place of the eight or nine taken out, the rest of the 

 space being filled up with dummies. The sections 

 are now put back, and the swarm returned. They 

 are now left for 2t days, at which time young bees 

 are hatching very plentifully, when the dummies 

 are taken out, and frames of empty comb placed in 

 the center of the hive between the brood for a 

 threefold purpose— to keep the bees from swarm- 

 ing again, to give the queen room of a Iresh nature 

 in the center of the hive, and for a sufficient supply 

 of honey to winter upon. The brood in the combs 

 carried away soon give a splendid colony, together 

 with a (pieen given them, so that they in turn give 

 a good yield of honey, and also get in good shape 

 for winter. It Avill be seen that my aim has been to 

 get all the honey possible in the sections in the 

 height of the honey season, and, later on, both hon- 

 ey and bees in the hive for winter. The above plan 

 may not suit the requirements of any bee-keeper 

 besides myself, and therein is where lies the differ- 

 ence of views regarding hives; but I claim that, 

 aside from this. Other things being equal, there is 

 not difference cuough between any of the good 

 hives now in usuto pay for the cost it would involve 

 to exchange. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. V., Aug., 1886. 



Friend I)., while I emphatically agree with 

 you about misleading statements, jf I un- 

 clerstajitj jou ponectly 1 can not quite agvt!§ 



in regard t(j the amount of labor required to 

 manipulate different hives. Quite a num- 

 ber of successful bee-keepers of my acquaint- 

 ance use hives which, it seems to me, are 

 needlessly complicated ; and I have often 

 thought they might just as well get just as 

 much honey with half the labor, if they had 

 their hives and other tilings arranged more 

 conveniently; and while 1 do not lielieve in 

 changing hives very often, 1 think tiiere are 

 some kinds of hives, even now in use, that 

 it would be money in the owner's pocket to 

 burn up ; that is, if he is going to keep bees 

 and produce honey for, say, four or live 

 years to come. I would, however, experi- 

 ment pretty thoroughly on a few hives of the 

 pattern that seemed to be an improvement, 

 before going to the big expense of transfer- 

 ring and changing over the whole apiary. 



EXPEKIENCE WITH FOUL BROOD. 



FRIEND LONG TELLS US HOAV HE MANAC.i:!) TO 

 GET RID OF IT. 



friE account of trouble at the " Home of the 

 Honey-Bees," in Gleanings for Aug. 1. 

 brings to mind the experience I had some 

 years ago with foul brood among my bees. 

 It was in 1878 or 79 that this scourge first 

 appeared. Where it came from, or what its origin 

 was, I do not know, and can hardly say that I have 

 any idea. When 1 first found dead brood I sup- 

 posed it had died from cold, starvation, or some 

 other cause, and the disease made good progress 

 in a number of colonics before I was aware of the 

 danger. Colonies containing queens brought 

 from other places were especially afl'ected. I re- 

 member a colony containing a (|ueen purchased of 

 J. H. Ncllis; one the (lueen of which came from a 

 breeder in Canada; one having a tested (juecn 

 from A. I. Boot, were all affected. I do not say 

 that these colonies alone were affected; there were, 

 of course, others; but it did seem that the colonies 

 containing Italian (pieens i)urchased were especial- 

 ly bad. After becoming coHvinced that I had foul 

 brood I set about endeavoring to cure it, and put 

 in practice all information I could get from the 

 bee-journals, etc. This was during the season of 

 1880. I fed salicylic acid, sprayed the bees and 

 combs Avith an atomizer, cut out and buried the 

 worst parts of the comb, and got the disease 

 much less, but not eradicated. The spring of 1881 

 I saw but little of the disease; and it being a good 

 honey season, by fall it seemed to have entirely 

 disappeared. 1 congratulated myself that I was 

 well rid of the scourge. It proved, however, that, 

 by reason of the remarkable flow of honey we had 

 dui'ing August, 1881, the disease had been only 

 covered up; for on examining some hives, Feb. 15, 

 188;J, I again discovered foul brood in several hives. 

 It was indeed discouraging, but I did not feel like 

 giving it up, and accordingly went to work more 

 thoroughly than ever. 



I now tried D. A. Jones' starvation plan. I took 

 the bees from the combs and put them in the cel- 

 lar, from 100 to 125 hours; then I gave fdn. in a 

 new hive, thoroughly scalded all ducks, feeders, 

 hives, etc.; melted the combs into wax, and boiled 

 the honey, and by persistent effort was' able to suc- 

 ceed ill eradicating all ti'ace^ yf the disease. The, 



