8 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. L 



he pointed out the robbed hives in front of 

 which he had piled straw. The bees were not 

 then flying, so I just pulled the cover off the 

 nearest one and put my nose over the hive. 

 As the odor was suspicious I pulled off the su- 

 per ( empty ) and pulled up a central frame, 

 which was about half full of foul brood. The 

 disease had progressed so far that the colony 

 was nearly all dead, and tlie stronger colonies 

 in the yard were carrying out the honey. An 

 examination of the yard showed about a third 

 of it badly diseased — possibly all of it infect- 

 ed. I witnessed the burning of a portion of 

 the worst colonies. The om ner has since in- 

 formed me that he burned more of them after 

 I left. He had no suspicion of foul brood, 

 vet my own experience with it leads me to be- 

 lieve that it must have been in his yard at 

 least two years. Some, no doubt, open hives 

 too much ; but while I look forward to the 

 time when I shall handle frames very little, 

 still I would have hives in such shape that no 

 disease could progress far without being dis- 

 covered. 



Mr. J. L. Strong, of Clarinda, Iowa, a spe- 

 cialist who has been in the business there for 

 many years, showed me the first foul brood I 

 ever saw. I think that was as much as fifteen 

 years ago. He never destroyed a colony on 

 account of it. He always cut out any cell in 

 which it appeared, and never let it make any 

 headwa}'. He told me last winter that it dis- 

 appeared in a 3^ear or two, and has never since 

 reappeared. 



While speaking of foul brood I may say 

 something of my experience with it. In Jan- 

 uary, 1894, I purchased an apiary that was dis- 

 eased. The former owner had transferred 

 some combs, and used them in the extracting- 

 super. These combs had the very first begin- 

 ning of foul brood in them. In this way he 

 introduced the disease to a nice apiary, and at 

 the end of two years — ^the time I purchased 

 the stock- — I think it was four colonies that 

 were pretty badly diseased, two of them very 

 bad. The first year I had them, four more 

 colonies developed it. The second year, two ; 

 the third year, one ; while the fourth year 

 (1897) none showed disease. 



During this experience I have watched it 

 very closely ; and, so far as it goes, I am led 

 to believe that the disease does not progress 

 very rapidly at first. I should expect, where 

 slight contagion has been introduced, say in 

 the fall or early spring, that the colony infect- 

 ed might live over that summer, possibly to 

 die the next spring and be robbed out, and so 

 communicate the disease to a number of other 

 colonies in the yard. At this rate, about three 

 years from the introduction of the disease 

 would practically finish an apiary if it were 

 not looked after. Possibly it may develop 

 more rapidly at times ; but this is my observa- 

 tion in one of my own apiaries, covering a 

 term of four seasons, every colony thoroughly 

 inspected from four to six times each season. 



If this is the ordinary way with the disease, 

 surely it is not so much to be dreaded by the 

 practical apiarists so long as the disease can 

 spread only from the contagion in one's own 

 apiary. If, however, a neighbor allows a few 



colonies to become thoroughly rotten, and my 

 bees do a wholesale robbing, and bring that 

 honey and distribute it through my apiaries, 

 then I should expect one summer to badly in- 

 fect almcst an entire apiary. These points are 

 still farther corroborated by a limited experi- 

 ence as foul-brood inspector of our county, 

 and by testimony of other county inspectors 

 in this State. 



Now to return to the account of our trip. 



After reaching the old home where I lived 

 for twent3--eight years we spent about two 

 months in visiting with old neighbors. We 

 also at one time decid ^d to locate there. As 

 the weeks of visiting brought us near the hol- 

 idays and the approach of downright winter, 

 we decided to M'inter there. It was there, in 

 our little rented rooms with our sheet-iron 

 camp stove as heater and cook-stove, that the 

 former musings were written and placed in 

 the hands of the editor of Gleanings. 



As our plans failed to work to our satisfac- 

 tion we did not locate after all ; and as soon 

 as the roads would permit in the spring we 

 headed toward Colorado and home. We plac- 

 ed a stove in the back end of our wagon, and 

 on March 19th we pulled out of Page Co., 

 Iowa, and after about five weeks of traveling 

 and visiting we again landed in Loveland the 

 the latter part of April, after an absence of 

 about eight months. 



We crossed the great Missouri River shortly 

 before she went out of her banks in the great 

 spring floods. The homeward trip was made 

 just about as direct as we could do so. The 

 trip was uneventful, save that it snowed or 

 rained about once or twice a week, and so of 

 course we had much mud. We also narrowly 

 escaped a small cyclone in Nebraska. The 

 storm-center was a number of miles from us, 

 though we experienced a heavy wind and 

 much rain for a few minutes. We were fortu- 

 nate in that the heaviest storms always missed 

 us, and nowhere did we encounter floods. 



We visited but one bee-keeper on the home- 

 ward journey — Mr. J. B. Dann, of Dewitt, Neb. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Dann and family entertained us 

 very nicely over Sunday. The Dann apiary, 

 of about 70 colonies, was about the neatest 

 and best-kept apiary we found on our trip. If 

 I remember rightly, Mr. Dann told me he had 

 a contract with his wnfe, that, if he produced 

 the honey, she was to sell it. She took orders 

 and delivered honey, both at home and in 

 neighboring towns. 



In closing this rather disjointed narrative of 

 our trip, let me tell of the wonderful piles 

 of corn we saw. Southwest Iowa, Southeast 

 Nebraska, Northwest Missouri, and Northeast 

 Kansas is probably not excelled anywhere in 

 the United States as a corn country. We pass- 

 ed through some villages where the corn-cribs 

 full of corn covered more ground than all the 

 other buildings. Of course, this was not the 

 rule by any means, yet there were millions 

 upon millions of bushels of corn stored in 

 Eastern Nebraska. 



Now, friends, we are settled again in our 

 Colorado home. Wife's health is much im- 

 proved — better than for two years, and we 

 have decided to remain here. I have been 



