84 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1922 



keepers know that any. bee can enter any hive it 

 wants to when there is no attempt to force it in. 

 When tlie Lees are all out of the hive uncap every 

 cell in the combs. If there is any honey in the cor- 

 ners of the combs, scrape those parts down to the 

 septum and wash out the honey. Then stand the 

 combs in gasoline for two minutes. For that pur- 

 pose a can four inches by ten inches by two feet 

 high is convenient and economical in the use of 

 gasoline. Put the frames in the extractor and throw 

 dTit the gasoline. Stand them a second time in the 

 gasoline for another two minutes, but do not again 

 put them in the extractor. Simply shake out what 

 you can and hang the combs in the supers. When 

 the gasoline has evaporated use the combs any place 

 with safety. This treatment will also kill moths and 

 their eggs. 



This is much better than the shaking method, for 

 any beekeeper knows that when we shake bees many 

 of them crawl into the clothing, and it is possible 

 that those who have authority to inspect and shake 

 bees thus .scatter more disease than they eradicate as 

 a result of the shaking treatment. Disease-laden 

 bees may thus be carried long distances into locali- 

 ties where there is no disease, and when one of 

 them leaves the clothing and enters a hive the owner 

 at once has American foul brood in his bees. 



These ideas are for beekeepers who do their own 

 thinking. W. H. H. Stewart. 



Emerson, HI. 



During the past two months I have re- 

 ceived a dozen or more cards containing the 

 above directions for handling American foul 



brood, and as the Editor will see on the ad- 

 dress side, I am asked to "distribute" these 

 messages for the benefit of other beekeepers. 

 Not having ever tried out the plau here giv- 

 en, I should not be too emphatic in my 

 judgment; but if an opinion is asked as to 

 what I think about it, I will say that it ap- 

 pears to me that the circulation of such ad- 

 vice thru the country, at a time when thou- 

 sands of dollars are being spent to fight 

 American foul brood, should be treated as 

 objectionable matter by the postal authori- 

 ties. If I am wrong, I am ready to be cor- 

 rected; but when one thinks of soaking the 

 combs in gasoline twice, and running them 

 thru the extractor, with all the attendant 

 nastiness that goes with the mess of foul 

 and healthy larvae together when thrown 

 out in the process, and all for what — simply 

 to save a few combs — that is enough to con- 

 demn the plan if there were no other ob- 

 jections. Then again, I do not believe that 

 combs filled with dried-down scales would 

 be free from the disease. 

 Markham, Ontario. 



WINTER PROTECTION in the WEST 



THE practical 

 results of the 

 research done 

 by Dr. Phillips 

 and Mr. Demuth 

 on the essentials 

 of the most suc- 

 cessful and eco- 

 nomical winter- 

 ing are unques- 

 tionably saving the beekeepers of this coun- 

 try many times the total yearly cost of the 

 Division of Apiculture of the Bureau of En- 

 tomology at Washington; yet, strange to 

 say, there is a vast area where beekeeping 

 is growing rapidly, in which the bee- 

 keepers are skeptical as to the benefits of 

 heavy packing outweighing the heavy ex- 

 pense and labor involved. Eesults of such 

 packing in the great arid West, even tho 

 winter temperatures may for short periods 

 approximate those of Ohio or even more 

 northerly states, require careful interpreta- 

 tion and more extended study. 



Certain it is, that in practically the entire 

 arid region bees winter, as a rule, with little 

 or none of the careful and painstaking care 

 required further east. For instance, while 

 my old ABC book says that even a slight 

 direct draft upward thru the hive may cause 

 the loss of colonies; here colonies in hives, 

 so open that they act merely as imperfect 

 windbreaks, usually winter nicely, regard- 

 less of the extremes of temperature. 



One man, an educator of experience, whom 

 I have heard describe his results of heavy 

 packing, packed a number of colonies even 

 more thoroly than advocated. In some of 



Lack of Uniform Results From 



Packing. Can Colonies be Too 



Strong for '^est Wintering ? 



By E. F. At water 



these colonies, 

 the saving in 

 stores and other 

 advantages were 

 exactly as an- 

 ticipated, while 

 other colonies, 

 even in the same 

 packing cases, 

 consumed all 

 their abundant food supply by early spring, 

 and had to be fed. 



My own limited experiments have not 

 been very satisfactory. While the saving in 

 stores, in some of the colonies, was exactly 

 as represented, the colonies showed no con- 

 siderable advantage in early brood-rearing, 

 nor in honey production. In fact, some un- 

 packed colonies were much better. 



Were the Entrances Too Small? 

 It is quite possible that the excessive con- 

 sumption of stores, in some colonies, may be 

 due to packing too early, leaving packing 

 on too late in the spring, or, more probably, 

 to the very small entrances used, usually 

 about % by 1% or % by 2 inches. After 

 packing, almost the entire population of big 

 two-story colonies would be clustered on the 

 outside, often for days at a time; then in 

 April again this excessive clustering out oc- 

 curred; and on examination some time later, 

 stores were found scanty in some, and more 

 or less brood appeared to have been over- 

 heated, with not many bees in the hives to 

 do the necessary work of the spring breed- 

 ing period. The condition of chaff hives, 

 each containing two colonies with only a 

 thin partition between the two, and a little 



