656 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



An apiary of 13o colonies that jiroduced 15,000 lbs. of honey after the whole yard was treated for European 



foul brood. 



in pollen. At this time I take out my Alex- 

 ander feeders and proceed to feed every 

 colony thin warm sugar syrtip, regardless of 

 how much honey they may have in store. 

 I try, of course, to equalize stores, and, later 

 on, to equalize brood, and, as far as possible, 

 get them built up good and strong in bees 

 and brood. I may find some building up 

 too fast for the little honey coming in, and 

 appear to lack brood room. From such I 

 take away a frame or two of honey, and re- 

 place with empty combs. The queen will 

 climb right into these combs as soon as cells 

 are cleaned up, soon filling them with eggs 

 that will hatch out an army of young bees 

 just in time for the honey-flow. 



The year I had the queen from which 1 

 had taken seven frames of brood early, for 

 increase, I went out early one cold morning 

 and counted 103 drones outside of her hive. 

 Of course, that meant no stores. I opened the 

 hive and found 9 frames of brood solid from 

 top to bottom and end to end, and not four 

 ounces of honey. Though it was cold, they 

 had to be fed, and at once. There was 

 bloom, but it was too cold for bees to gather, 

 and it continued so for nearly a week; but 

 my timely examination and feeding saved 

 the brood for the near-by harvest. 



The majority of bee-keepers, as a general 

 thing, do not pay close enough attention to 

 the needs of their bees and the quality of 

 their queens. This latter feature surely de- 

 serves close watching, although I am well 

 aware that many believe that "a cjueen is a 

 queen," and when they know that there is 

 one in the hive they feel satisfied, and be- 

 lieve the crop depends on the season. 



Well, alongside of the queen I just spoke 

 about 1 had another that I fooled with all 

 summer, and failed to get a single pound of 

 surplus, or any stores for winter. .Just after 

 the full How of nectar I destroyed her, and 

 gave to her colony a prolific queen. They 

 built up at once, and got in good shape for 



winter on the late fall flow. Now note the 

 difference in results, just because of the 

 quality of these three queens. Had the pro- 

 lific queen, early in the season, been given 

 to the colony that failed to produce any 

 honey, I would have been at least 100 lbs. 

 of honey ahead. So much for queens. 



I will now conclude my long and perhaps 

 rambling letter by giving you my system 

 for keeping track of queens without book- 

 keeping, but with absolute correctness. I 

 use tin tags of three shapes — round, half 

 round, and square. Beginning with the 

 round ones I tack one on the lower left-hand 

 corner of each hive. If a queen jiroves good 

 I move the tag over to the center; if very 

 good, higher up in the center; and if extra 

 good, giving a big surplus, I move the tag 

 to the top of the hive in the center; and 

 when a queen proves poor I move the tag to 

 the right-hand corner and "discharge" this 

 queen as soon as I can get one to fill her 

 place — the sooner the better. 



The second year I take another shape of 

 tag; so you see the shape of the tag tells the 

 queen's age, while the place it occupies on 

 the hive shows her quality. 



Robbins, Wis. 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD. 



McEvoy Cure Proves Permanent only where Bees 

 are Pure Italians; 15,000 Lbs. of Honey Produced 

 the Same Season after All Colonies had been 

 Treated. 



BY WARRINGTON SCOTT. 



In the spring of 1907 European foul brood 

 broke out in my home apiary. Being with- 

 out experience in treating it, I notified the 

 Department of Agriculture, at Toronto, and 

 they sent an inspector to examine my bees. 

 He pronounced the disease European foul 

 brood. It was a poor year for honey, and I 



