312 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 15. 



able barrier to calls, and I hastened along to 

 Portland. 



Having in mind the fate of Bill Greene in 

 Portland, and the warning it conveyed, and to 

 fortify myself against any such occurrence, I 

 secured a fine asylum on the fifth floor of the 

 Goodenough building, strictly temperate, es- 

 pecially on the fifth floor. Here I just luxu- 

 riated a few days in writing letters and listen- 

 ing to 



The raindrops' showery dance and rhythmic beat, 



With tinkling of innumerable feet 



on the tin roof. As I listened, and calmly 

 looked down from my fifth story, and saw the 

 ladies passing to and fro, I used Judge Lever- 

 ing's phrase about rain, and exclaimed, " Let 

 her rip ! " 



Since my return to Southern California the 

 above formula has been placed in the hands 

 of Mr. M. R. Kuehne, of San Bernardino Co., 

 and he is at present giving it a thorough trial 

 with some hopes of success. Where he has 

 not been successful he attributes it to not hav- 

 ing conveniences such as he needed for carry- 

 ing out his experiments. With his first trials 

 he is confident that he has greatly reduced the 

 ravages of foul brood in the hives operated 

 upon. Further reports will be given later. 



[This new treatment for foul brood may 

 work ; but in any case it appears to me it 

 would involve considerable labor and some 

 risk ; for how is one to know whether he has 

 washed out all the diseased cells ? A good 

 deal of apparently healthy brood has the 

 spores of the disease in the blood; and as soon 

 as these develop, the larva dies and decay sets 

 in. I have come to believe that it is danger- 

 ous to fuss with foul-broody combs. I would 

 not even melt them up into wax. I would 

 burn them. It saves time and risk. I never 

 yet had a case where the bees of an affected 

 hive drew out foundation but that the result- 

 ing comb and brood were perfectly healthy. 



I should like to know about this formalin, 

 however. I am not yet satisfied that there 

 has been discovered hitherto a real antiseptic 

 for foul brood. If there are any of our readers 

 who are in position to try this new treatment 

 I wish they would give us the results of the'r 

 experiments — especially with formalin. — Ed.] 



FEEDING OUTSIDE THE HIVE, VERSUS INSIDE 

 FEEDING. 



Question. — It will be necessary for me to 

 feed my bees considerable this spring, and I 

 wish to know how best to do it. Will it be 

 better to put the feed in shallow troughs out 

 a few rods from the hives, as I see recom- 

 mended by some, or should I feed in the hive ? 



Answer. — Outside feeding has been recom- 

 mended in the past by some good apiarists; 

 and where there are no bees, either in the 

 woods near by or at some of the neighboring 



farms or houses within two miles of the per- 

 son wishing to feed, the plan will do. But, as 

 a rule, the person undertaking feeding in such 

 a way finds out sooner or later that he is feed- 

 ing many other bees as well as his own, and it 

 is not a real pleasant feeling that comes over 

 one when he realizes that he is at dollars of 

 expense feeding bees from which they can 

 not expect to reap any pecuniary benefit. 

 Then such feeding is very liable to engender 

 robbing, especially if the feed given contains 

 any honey, and if given in the scanty snpply 

 that is often recommended in stimulative 

 feeling; for when the feed gives out, along in 

 the hottest part of the day, the scent of the 

 just stored feed from the hives places a great 

 temptation before such bees as have just be- 

 fore been carrying feed to their fullest capaci- 

 ty, on now finding themselves suddenly de- 

 prived of any more work to do, so they set 

 about trying to get the savory sweet from the 

 hives from which the savor comes; and woe 

 betide the weak colony that does not have 

 sufficient numbers to repel the attack of a 

 numerous throng of excited marauders which 

 have been appetite-whetted only just before, 

 with nothing now, in a legitimate sense, to 

 supply that appetite. Bees placed in such a 

 condition are made fools and robbers to a ten- 

 fold greater extent than they naturally are 

 where " left to their own sweet will; ' and for 

 this reason alone I do not think it ever advis- 

 able to feed outside unless it can be done gen- 

 erously enough so that the bees can have a 

 full supply the whole of the day in which 

 feeding is commenced in the morning. 



Then, again, by such outside feeding, bees 

 can not be fed in proportion to their needs, 

 one colony as compared with the others. 

 Some of the colonies in the yard may have all 

 the honey in their hives that is for their best 

 good, while other colonies may be nearly or 

 . entirely destitute, and in a wholesale outside 

 feeding there is nothing to hinder those colo- 

 nies having plenty of honey from securing 

 fully as much as those on the verge of starva- 

 tion; and thus it comes about that, while the 

 needy ones are helped, those having an abun- 

 dance are hindered, from the amount coming 

 into the hive taking up the already scanty 

 supply of cells left vacant for the queen to 

 deposit her eggs in. Thus we have a crowd- 

 ing-out of the queen just at the time when she 

 should have all the room needed in which to de- 

 posit eggs which are to develop into the 

 workers for the honey-harvest only a little 

 way ahead. Then should the day in which 

 you commence to feed prove to be one of 

 those fitful ones which we often have in the 

 spring, after an entirely clear, pleasant morn- 

 ing, when the wind rises up, and floating 

 clouds pass over the sun, causing a few min- 

 utes of bright sunshine and an equal number 

 of cloudy chilly minutes, many bees will be 

 lost by trying to carry the feed at a time when 

 they will become chilled before they get fairly 

 loaded, or en route home; and the loss of a 

 single bee at this season of the year is of 

 more account than the loss of a score — yea, 

 of a hundred — would be just after the harvest 

 of white honey is past. 



