362 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



bees in just the same way as their forefathers 

 did centuries before: and up to tliis day they 

 do not use comb foundation nor the extractor; 

 and no one can convince them that one can feed 

 bees with sugar successfully. They never do 

 this; they feed only honey. There is not one 

 of them who has not in his house a dry honey- 

 room in whicli one may find three to six barrels, 

 every one containing 300 pounds of honey, from 

 one to three and more years old. They call it 

 "futterhonig;" that is, honey for feeding. 

 These barrels are made from old oak wood, and 



A RECEPTACLE IN WHICH THE GERMANS STORE 

 THEIR BROKEN COMB HONEY. 



never lealt if the wood is put together when 

 very dry. Under the cover of the barrel is 

 placed a cloth to prevent the intrusion of dust. 



From 50 colonies, spring count, the honey crop 

 will be. in a very good year, 12>-^ such barrels, 

 each of 300 pounds of honey, and .50 pounds of 

 wax. They will get ^.500 for the honey and §13 

 for the wax. 



Their chances for getting such a honey crop 

 are, so far as I can see, not so good as in New 

 York Slate. However, the bee-keepers are not 

 satisfied witli the honey-flow at liorae, and 

 therefore they move their bees one, two, or 

 three times in a season, ten, twenty, or forty 

 miles from their home, wlien the honey sources 

 at home are cut ofl" or do not flow fast. To un- 

 derstand this, I must say that we have in Ger- 

 many thrt'i' regions for bee-pasture: 1. Such as 

 where bees have very good honey pasturage in 

 the spring till the beginning of July or August; 

 2. Those wliere bees find scarcely any food, but 

 live from hand to mouth from early in the 

 spring till the beginning of July or" August, 

 when buckwheat and the Ericd vulgaris: wiW 

 come in bloom; 3. Last, there are in Germany 

 a few scattered regions where bees have good 

 pasturage from spring to autumn. 



The bee-keepers of this last region have only 

 house- apiaries, and do not move their bees, 

 while the occupants of the two other regions 

 must wander if they wish to get a crop that 

 pays well. Therefore the occupants of the 

 second region, in Nortli Germany, move their 

 bees early in the spring to the first region till 

 July or August, when tliey go home, because 

 buckwheat and heatlier (erica) will come in 

 bloom. Many of the inhabitants of this region 

 who keep bees in straw skeps will also wander 

 to buckwheat or heather. 



In the third region there prevails the mova- 

 ble-comb hive; also in South and Central Ger- 

 many : but in the second it has not found a 

 foothold. 



In another article I will tell the reader how 

 the bee-keepers in this region manage their 

 bees in their old dome-shaped straw hive in a 

 very rational way to get a honey crop that pays 

 well. C. J. H. Gravenhokst. 



Wilsnack, Germany. 



To be continued. 



[All of this is exceedingly interesting to those 

 of us who have been advocating, during the 

 last twelve months, the handling of hives more 

 and frames less, since it shows that the bee- 

 keepers of Germany do make money with the 

 old straw skep; and while we would not for a 

 moment advocate in our own country such 

 methods of keeping bees, we do say that bee- 

 keepers having frame hives may learn a lesson. 

 The point is just here: While movable frames 

 give us advantages that we can not afford to 

 dispense with, it is not at all necessary that we 

 should handle the frames so excessively as is 

 the practice of many bee-keepers, and thus ab- 

 sorb what otlierwise would be profit.] 



FOTJL BROOD IN AND AROUND YORK, 

 NEBRASKA. 



another statement of the case. 



In Gleanings for March 15, page 205, 1 saw 

 an article from the pen of Mr. L. D. Stilson, the 

 editor of the Nebraska Bee-keeper, in which he 

 attempts to prove that, because Mr. Todd does 

 not belong to any society, and purchases his 

 supplies where he can do the best, and has kept 

 bees only two years, his statements are injuri- 

 ous, and intended to create a false impression 

 of things here, and injure the trade of those en- 

 gaged in business here which lie does not pat- 

 ronize. Mr. Todd has never had any burning 

 desire to attend society meetings, but may at- 

 tend in the near future. He makes his own 

 hives and frames, and buys other kee-keeping 

 supplies of A. I. Root. He never picked up 

 and used any old combs, as was intimated by 

 Mr. L. D. Stilson, but buried tliem as soon as 

 found. He is an invalid, largely dependent on 

 his bees for support: and by close study he has 

 made liimself very proficient in his chosen call- 

 ing. He knows foul brood woll. having made 

 it a study for the last two years, first having 

 satisfied himself that it was foul brood by send- 

 ing two samples to Prof. Cook, who pronounced 

 them genuine foul brood. 



R. R. Ryon. Ex-inspector of Bees for York 

 County, Neb., and Ex-president of York County 

 Bee-keepers' Association of the State of Ne- 

 braska, and now of Salem, Ore., says: 



"I am satisfied that foul brood did prevail in 

 many parts of York, and especially in North 

 York. I have ample evidence that the south 

 part of York Co., and the nortli part of Fillmore 

 Co.. have many cases of foul brood in its worst 



form. Mr. , of York, admitted that his bees 



had died with the disease. Mr. also lost 



his and left his hives and fixtures lying around, 

 whereupon I notified him to clean them up 

 under penalty of the law. R. R. Rvon." 



If the readers of Gleanings have any doubt 

 about the existence of foul brood, tliese extracts 

 from tlie Nebraska Bee-keeper ought to con- 

 vince them of its existence; also that Mr. Todd's 

 statements are true, and not made through a 

 desire to injure any one's business. In Vol. I., 

 No. 2, page 7, Mr. Stilson says, " Foul brood is 

 well scattered all over Nebraska, having been 

 brouglit from the Eastern States." 



