GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 1 



sun beating down warmly, the air heavy with the 

 fragrance of blossoms, sunshine glinting on flash- 

 ing wings, and the air lull of a steady hum which 

 rises to a subdued roar? Then it i.s, indeed, that we 

 know what a goodly thing it is to be alive. 



Even for the woman who does not wish to go into 

 bee-keeping on a large scale, it can be made in most 

 localities the source of quite a Ifttle income — espe- 

 cially desirable where there is a large family of girls, 

 as well as pioviding a wholesome sweet for the ta- 

 ble. I have in mind two friends who keep from ten 

 to a dozen hives of bees, v>^hich on an average net 

 them about 8100 a year. They winter outside, and 

 leave the packing around the hives all spmmer, 

 thus saving themselves much heavy lifting. 



It is emphatically true that all the work 

 necessary to be done with bees during the 

 warm period of the year can be done in fine 

 weather. 



We wish to emphasize one other point, 

 made by Miss Robson, that, in order to 

 make bee-keeping a success, "brains and 

 persistence" are required. She is emphati- 

 cally right. We need more of both of these 

 commodities in all walks of life. 



THE CANADIAN BEE JOURNAL ON EIGHT 

 VERSUS TEN FRAME HIVES; IS THE TEN 

 TOO HEAVY FOR WOMEN AND ELDERLY 

 MEN? 



Editor Hurley, in the November issue 

 of the Canadian Bee Journal, gives his 

 cordial support to our plea for standardiza- 

 tion, and in particular the ten-frame L. hive; 

 but he says that, in his experience, an eight- 

 frame super filled with honey is about all he 

 cares to lift; that a large number of bee- 

 keepers are women and elderly men, and 

 that the ten-frame hive is too heavy for that 

 class. He thinks, therefore, it would be dif- 

 ficult to eliminate the eight-frame hive. 



While we admit that the eight-frame is a 

 little easier to handle, so far as lifting is 

 concerned, than the ten-frame, the relative 

 difference is very small. According to mod- 

 ern methods of handling bees in connection 

 with a wheelbarrow or cart, there need not 

 be very much lifting, but, rather, of sliding. 

 Frankly, it is our opinion that even the 

 eight-frame full -depth Langstroth body 

 when filled with honey is too heavy for the 

 average woman or elderly man. Such j^eo- 

 ple can hire for this heavy lifting a man at 

 $1.50 a day, and that lifting can be confined 

 mainly to the time of taking off the honey. 

 All other lifting that will be necessary can 

 be accomplished by means of a light block 

 and tackle, and a small tripod, such as we 

 recently described in these columns. 



Well, then, if all the important lifting 

 can be accomplished by means of a light ma- 

 chine or a $1.50 man, why not start out with 

 the right hive in the first place — a ten-frame 

 one? In putting on empty supers, one can 

 handle ten-frame size as easily as eight. In 

 the production of comb honey the supers will 

 be only half depth; and that leads us to the 

 point that a large number of extracted-hon- 

 ey producers are using half-depth ten-frame 

 bodies for extracting. If these women and 

 elderly men do not care to hire a cheap man, 

 or fuss with a lifting-jack, they should by 

 all means use half-depth extract! ng-supers. 



It is well known that in a light honey-flow, 

 or where the flow is very limited in dura- 

 tion, it is better to give a colony a half-depth 

 super than one full depth. 



Well, friend Hurley, taking it all in all, it 

 seems to us that the ten-frame hive still has 

 the advantage of the argument, both going 

 and coming. 



FOUL BROOD, BOTH AMERICAN AND EURO- 

 PEAN, AND ITS EXTENT OVER TH^! 

 UNITED STATES. 



The following has been given out for 

 publication by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture: 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Division of Publications, 



Jos. A. Arnold, Editor and Chief. 



WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ON 

 BEE DISEASES. 



The honeybee annually produces a crop of 

 honey valued at (at least) 820,000,000. and there are 

 vast opportunites for increasing this output. The 

 most seriovis handicap to bee-keeping in the Unit- 

 ed States is the fact that there are contagious dis- 

 eases which attack the brood of the honey-bee. 

 There are now recognized two such diseases, known 

 as American foul brood and European foul brood. 

 From data recently obtained by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, it is known that Amer- 

 ican foul brood exists in 282 counties in 37 States, 

 and European foul brood in 160 counties in 24 

 .States, and it is estimated conservatively that 

 Ihf se di.seases are causing a loss to the bee-keepers 

 of the United States of at least S;i,000,000 annually. 

 This estimate is based on the probable value of the 

 colonies which die, and the approximate loss of 

 croij due to the weakened condition of diseased col- 

 onies. The States in which the diseases are most 

 jjrevalent are California, Colorado, Illinois, Indi- 

 ana. Iowa. Kansas, Michigan, Missouri. Nebraska, 

 New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, 

 and Wisconsin: and it is unfortunate that these 

 are the States in which honey production is most 

 profitable, making the future outlook of the bee- 

 keeping industry so much the worse unless active 

 measures are taken to control the diseases. Fur- 

 thermore, the distribution of these diseases is by 

 no me.ins fully known, and they are constantly 

 spreading. 



The cause of American foul brood has been found 

 by the Department to be a specific bacterium, and 

 enough is known of the cause and nature of Euro- 

 pean foul brood, which is also a bacterial disease, 

 to make it possible to issue reliable recommenda- 

 tions concerning treatment for both diseases. Both 

 attack the developing brood; and as the adult bees 

 die from old age or other causes, the colony be- 

 comes depleted since there are not enough young 

 bees emerging to keep up the numbers. When the 

 colon.v becomes weak, bees from other colonies en- 

 ter TO rob the honey, and the infection is siiread. 



Both of these diseases can be controlled with 

 comija^ative ease by the progressive bee-keeper; 

 but the chief difficulty encountered in combating 

 these diseases is the fact that the majority of bee- 

 keepers are unaware that any such di.seases exist; 

 they therefore often attribute their losses to other 

 sources, and nothing is done to prevent the sijread 

 of the infection. It is, therefore, nece.ssary in most 

 cases to point out the existence and nature of the 

 diseases, as well as to spread information concern- 

 ing the best methods of treatment. Several States 

 have ijassed laws providing for the inspection of 

 apiaries for disease, and the bee-keepers in other 

 St-ifes are asking for the same protection, so that 

 careless or ignorant bee-keepers can be prevented 

 from endangering their neighbors" bees. This in- 

 spection is a benefit in the spread of information 

 concerning disease, in so far as the inspectors can 

 cover the territory. The Department of Agricul- 

 ture is helping in this work by sending out publi- 

 cations to the bee-keepers in Infected regions by 

 examining samples of brood suspected of disease, 

 and by sending out information concerning the 

 i>resence of disease, so that bee-keepers will be in- 

 formed that their apiaries are in danger. The co- 

 operation of agricultural colleges. State bee-keep- 



