AUGL'ST, 19'J1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



later to kill any larvae tliat may have 

 liatched from eggs that were present at the 

 time of the first treatment should be suf- 

 ficient for the safety of the combs, pro- 

 vided they are kept where moths cannot get 

 at them. You can have these combs taken 

 care of by the bees without the necessity of 

 any fumigation by tiering the hive-bodies 

 filled with combs over strong colonies. Ont' 

 strong colony can take care of five or six 

 sets of combs or even more. 



SACBROOD AMJ THE SO-CALLED I'If'KLEn BROOD. 



Question. — .Vre sacbrood and pickled brood one 

 and tlie .same tiling;? H. B. Shollenberger. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — Sacbrood is the name now ap- 

 plied to the brood disease formerly called 

 by some ])ickled brood. The term sacbrood 

 suggests the saclike appearance of many of 

 the dead larvae in this disease. It is not so 

 destructive as American foul brood or Euro- 

 pean foul brood, and it is somewhat tran- 

 sient in character usually disappearing of its 

 own accord, especially after midsummer. 

 Altho this disease sometimes so weakens the 

 colony in the spring that it is unable to 

 store a surplus of honey, it is usually not 

 necessary to give any treatment other than 

 to see that such colonies have a good queen 

 anil snflficient stores. 



COST OF EXTRACTING HONEY. 



Question. — What would you consider a fair 

 price to charge for e.xtracting a neig-hbor's honey 

 if he helps me take it off the hives? 



Pennsylvania. Robert L. Cooke. 



Answer. — If there is only a small amount 

 of honey to extract one cent per pound is 

 probably a fair price, for there w^ould be 

 some loss of time in preparing for the work 

 and cleaning up afterward. When a large 

 amount is to be extracted and a large power- 

 extractor is used, it could be done for less. 



.Sri'EKS A-VD AjrKRIfAN" FOUL BROOD. 



Question. — Would it be safe to use supers of 

 sections filled with full sheets of foundation with 

 here and there a section of drawn comb but empty 

 that had been on a colony having American foul 

 brood? C. W. Horner. 



Answei'. — No, it would not be safe; but, 

 in actual jtractice, a careful beekeeper could 

 do this without many cases of a recurrence 

 of the disease. 



DISTXFKf'TIXO H'VKS RV BOII.IXG IX SAT.T W.\TKR. 



Question. — Is it safe to disinfect hives that have 

 housed colonies having American foul brood, by 

 boihng them in a strong solution of Salter water ? 



New Mexico J. H. Sinclair. 



Answer. — Yes, if they are boiled long 

 enough to kill the spores of the disease. 

 The addition of salt should not be neces- 

 sary, however, for the heat wall destroy 

 these spores if kept at the boiling point for 

 a half hour. The salt solution would have 

 a higher boiling point than pure water, 

 which would reduce the time necessary to 

 kill all the spores. Perhaps 15 minutes 

 would be ample. A serious objection to boil- 

 ing the hives is that it causes the wood to 

 warp and twist badly. Flaming the inside 

 of the hives lightly with a painter 's torch 

 will render them safe to use again. After 



all, the important thing is to have the hives 

 well cleaned on the inside so there is no 

 possibility of even the smallest drop of 

 honey on them. 



REMEDY FOR JMOTH.S. 



Question. — My bees have moths in their combs. 

 What can I do? Marion Rowe. 



Texas. 



Answer. — If you keep Italian bees and 

 see that the colonies do not become weak- 

 ened liv lack of stores or disease, the moths 

 can not harm them. Moths are not able to 

 breed in the combs of strong colonies of 

 Italian bees, but they quickly take posses- 

 sion of any combs not protected b}'" bees. 

 Whoii moth larvae are found in the hives, 

 it is advisable to find out what has caused 

 the colony to become weak, for sometimes 

 one of the brood diseases gets a start in the 

 apiary without the beekeeper 's suspecting 

 any trouble until the moths begin to take 

 possession of the combs. For this reason 

 you should examine the brood carefully in 

 these colonies to see if any of it is dead or 

 discolored, disease being thus indicated. 



QUEENS LAY SEVERAL EGGS IN ONE CELL. 



Question. — This spring I found some of my 

 queens laid two eggs in many of the cells, and in 

 one cell I found three egg.s. Are these queens all 

 right? H. V. Howard. 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — These queens are probably all 

 right. It is not unusual for a good prolific 

 queen, whose colony is not strong enough 

 to take care of a large amount of brood, to 

 go back over her work and- lay a second 

 or third egg in many of the cells. As soon 

 as there are enough bees to cover more 

 biood such queens again lay regularly. It 

 is not difficult to tell from the position of 

 the eggs whether the queen is normal. 

 Drone-laying queens and laying workers 

 sometimes lay many eggs in a cell but place 

 them in irregular positions, sometimes even 

 on the walls of the cells instead of on the 

 base. 



ItfSIXFECTING HIVES WITH KEROSENE. 



Question. Is it possible to disinfect hives by paint- 

 ing them on the inside with kerosene to kill the 

 spores of American foul brood? K. Hurst. 



Oklahoma. 



Answer. — Kerosene is not used as a germi- 

 cide and would probably not destroy the 

 spores of American foul brood altho it 

 might tend to dissolve the external covering, 

 thus weakening their resistance. Until 

 srmeone definitely proves by experiment 

 tl'.at these spores are actually destroyed by 

 a coating of kerosene it will be advisable to 

 use some other method. If American foul 

 brood does not reappear in hives that have 

 licoii treated with kerosene, this can not be 

 tnkcii as proof that the spores have been 

 killed; for if the walls of the hive are ab- 

 solutely free from honey, there should not 

 be nmny cases of recurrence of the disease 

 e\en when the hives are not treated. The 

 application of heat, either by live steam 

 or by liglitly scorching the inner walls of 

 the liives, is doubtless safer than painting 

 tlii'in with kerosene. 



