1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



183 



crease, and my apiaries are to-day in better 

 condition than I ever had them before. 



SHADE AND EXCLUDERS. 



I certainly believe in shade, and just as 

 certainly do I not believe in excluders. In 

 this climate one would be blind if he could 

 not see how bees suffer without shade, so 

 that great numbers are engaged in carrying 

 water on hot days. The water-carriers are 

 reduced in number when shade is furnished. 



I can not comprehend how any one should 

 wish to use an excluder that enforces such 

 discomfort on the poor bees. I agree with 

 Mr. Scholl that it is a honey-excluder as 

 well as a queen and drone excluder. I may 

 not be as scientific as some, but I should 

 hate to see the day come when I would be 

 compelled to use excluders, as I should cer- 

 tainly regard them as a handicap of the 

 most unpleasant kind. 



Uvalde, Texas- 



pieces if the corners were not bound secure- 

 ly- 

 Boulder, Col. 



HOW TO KEEP BEES FREE FROM EURO- 

 PEAN FOUL BROOD. 



BY D. E. ROBERTS. 



A BOX ROR CARRYING SMOKERS. 



BY WESLEY FOSTER. 



In going from one apiary to another in 

 our rounds it is very convenient to have a 

 lighted smoker on hand so there need be 

 but one lighting of smokers during the day. 

 It is not safe to carry the lighted smokers 

 close to any material that might be easily 

 ignited, as the fire always gets to burning 

 briskly before the yard is reached, owing to 

 the draft caused by the moving wagon. 

 Then the smoke is disagreeable to have con- 

 tinually blowing into one's eyes. We fixed 



a box with a hinged door fastened by means 

 of bolts to the iinder side of the wagon-box 

 at the rear end. The box will hold four 

 Jumbo Root smokers standing upright, and 

 is made out of a wooden case that holds two 

 sixty-pound cans. The box might be lined 

 with tin, though we have found this unneces- 

 sary so far. The sides are bound with strap 

 iron to add to the strength, as the jolting of 

 the wagon would soon shake every thing to 



Our problem is not how to cure this dis- 

 ease, but how to make our bees stay cured. 

 One step toward a permanent cure would be 

 to transfer the bees in box hives into the 

 "bonnet " of the owner. The constant con- 

 tamination from the old box-hive colonies 

 is what makes trouble. 



Another thing that all of us can do who 

 have bees on movable frames is to keep all 

 colonies at all times as strong as possible. 

 This is difficult, under the circumstances, 

 we know; but colonies which we think are 

 well over the disease toward fall can be fed 

 abundantly, and thus be carried over the 

 sluggish period to a time when we can do 

 something with them. 



"Strong colonies " is a term often used, 

 but I have never read an explicit definition 

 of it. At present I take it that a colony is 

 either strong or weak according to the work 

 it has to perform. Last summer I formed 

 ten nuclei. As a matter of experiment a 

 queen-cell was grafted on a comb that was 

 not above suspicion — in other words, a comb 

 that contained disease. This comb with its 

 adhering bees, in addition to those of two 

 other brood-combs, was placed between two 

 solid frames of honey. This was done with 

 all ten; and afterward 

 eight of the nuclei 

 showed no sign of dis- 

 ease. I suppose this 

 would substantiate Dr. 

 Miller's theory, page 

 753, Dec. 1, 19l0. (By 

 the way, I am glad the 

 doctor has the disease 

 among his bees; and, 

 although I hate to say 

 it, I hope he will not 

 run short of material 

 until he is through ex- 

 perimenting.) But 

 these ten nuclei, I think, 

 show what a few young 

 bees with a young queen 

 will do if put to work 

 in the right manner. 



All of the so-called 

 cures of European foul 

 brood seem to have one 

 point in common — that is, the arrest of 

 brood-rearing. Apparently, nature also 

 works this way. I have had colonies that 

 became healthy without any help; and the 

 conditions when this occurred were about 

 as follows: All colonies at the time were not 

 overwhelmed by the disease, but had per- 

 haps over half of the brood capped. The 

 honey-flow was abundant, and the queens 

 were in condition to allow themselves to 



