July, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE U L T U R E 



525 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



every day, you would think our bees were 

 jiatlieriiifi' up all the neclar in the world, 

 when really it is not a drop in the buLket 

 compared with the amount of nectar tliere 

 is provided. Niature is surely a lavish 

 liousekeeper! She spreads out tons and 

 tons of nectar in her flowers for bees and 

 butterflies and all the other hundreds of in- 

 sects tliat feed upi/U it, and the greater part 

 remains untouched. Rob says one colony of 

 bees alone consumes nearly five hundred 

 pounds of honey a year, and a good colony 

 will give us over and above that in a good 

 season, about a hundred pounds. We get 

 the little end. Just tliink how much sugar 

 our three hundred colonies — four hundred 

 witli our new yard — are picking up from 

 our doorstep, and there must be an enor- 

 mous quantity left in our fields and 

 meadows in the bottoms of flower-cups. 



I ought to be sleeping this minute instead 

 of figuring the amount of sugar at hand 

 which we can't have unless the bees will 

 collect it for us, if I am to be ready for 

 Rob and the gas-engine at half -past five. 

 We seem to be getting a very good crop this 

 year if it holds on as it has begun. The 

 worst will be over w'hen I write you next. 

 When are you and the boys coming out? 

 Shall we look for you next month"? 



Yours immereed in nectar, 



Mary. 



zio ^ ejr 



How I Permanently Cured European 

 Foul Brood 



In the spring of 1914 I bought an apiary 

 of 177 colonies at Reno, Nevada. It was 

 too cold to examine them; but I learned 

 that they had conti'acted European foul 

 brood and that the whole state was also in- 

 fected. I was told that it could not be 

 cured permanently — that some experienced 

 beekeepere were already out of business, 

 and others were working their bees to the 

 limit, foreseeing the time they also would 

 be obliged to quit. I had not seen Europe- 

 an foul brood, and no one gave me much 

 encouragement in regard to its cure. 



However, I remembered the disease rag- 

 ing in New York ten or twelve years ago. 

 So I searched for every available article, 

 written by men of that state. I tried many 

 of the different treatments, but only one 

 appealed to me — that given by Mr. S. D. 

 House, page 330, June 1, 1911.' Right here 

 I will say that, if any one will foUow Mr. 

 House to the letter, he will cure Euroi)ean 



foul brood. Dr. Miller's cage treatment 

 ('o'>sn't work liere, for these bees are entire- 

 ly black, while his are hybrids. G. H. Rea 

 can come to Nevada and shake the life out 

 of the bees, but they will still be diseased 

 if he doesn't change the stock. 



Some good authorities claim there is no 

 resistant stock; but I believe there is, but 

 such strains are few. I tried ten of the 

 best breeders in the United States and saw 

 otlier beekeepere try as many more; and out 

 of all, I found only two strains that were 

 immune. These I have shaken into bives 

 in which diseased bees had died, yet not a 

 bad cell develoj^ed. 



Altho some strains of Italians are sus- 

 ceptible to the disease, still the real home 

 of European foul brood is with the black 

 bee itself. Why? Probably because the 

 black race has run wild, inbred, and de- 

 generated, while man has taken charge of 

 the beautiful Italians and \m& bred them to 

 the highest standards. May 1, 1914, I 

 examined my bees and found 151 colonies 

 were alive and 85 in healthy condition. Of 

 these latter, 35 swarmed during dandelion 

 bloom. June 1 I found all of my colonies 

 were diseased — even the new swarms. In 

 some hives I detected only a few cells; in 

 othei-s all was diseased, or, in plain talk, 

 rotten. When the main honey-flow came, 

 June 12, thei'e were 135 colonies still alive. 



ilY TREATMENT. 



I had already ordered a pure Italian 

 queen for each colony, the queens to arrive 

 at different dates from May until July 1. 

 I started on the worst colonies first, and here 

 is the secret that I discovered: If the 

 swarm is of average size, simply remove all 

 brood, shaking the bees and queen back into 

 the hive; and if the combs remaining in 

 the hive are full of diseased honey, this 

 fact need cause no worry. Refill the empty 

 space witli frames containing starters or 

 full sheets. I will guarantee that colony 

 will show no disease in the first brood, a 

 little in the second, and a great deal in the 

 third. I have yet to see the disease show- 

 ing in the first brood unless the queen is 

 failing. Now comes the next secret. Get 

 that pure Italian queen introduced and lay- 

 ing immediately, or within the twenty-one 

 days wlien tiie first brood would develop. 

 1 have had as much as twenty-five per cent 

 of diseased brood before the Italian bees 

 began on the job, and it all disappeared in 

 from thirty to sixty days after tliey took 

 full charge. 



If a colony is weak, and also twentv-five 



