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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



mostly in worker-cells, dies, and assumes 

 an appearance varying from that of pickle 

 to almost the appearance of foul brood. 

 Some is slightly ropy, some is not (as in 

 pickle), and in time it dries down to a hard 

 scale on the lower cell walls, where it ad- 

 heres quite strongly, much as in foul brood. 

 I have usually melted such combs; but where 

 such colonies have been robbed out, no foul 

 brood has developed. I want to know if 

 you, Mr. Editor, or some of your readers, 

 can tell me if the above is a brood disease. 

 So far as I remember, it has appeared in 

 only two of my yards near Star, Ida., where 

 there is some pickle, and rarely a case of 

 genuine foul brood. We now have foul 

 brood in several widely separated localities 

 in Idaho, and it is spreading rapidly in at 

 least one of our valleys, and I think all 

 owing to the kindness of some bee-keepers 

 who brought their bees from other States. 

 However, we are not at all bitter toward 

 them, nor has any one been treated as H. 

 H. Hyde once suggested in Gleanings, his 

 ' * bees burned and himself drummed out of 

 the country." 



Another subscriber of Gleanings will lo- 

 cate here soon, and probably favor us with 

 another supply of foul brood, yet we all ex- 

 tend him the " glad hand." 



I think that, if a bee-keeper in a foul- 

 brood locality wishes to move to a better 

 coimtry, if he can not sell his entire outfit 

 he should kill the bees, melt the combs, boil 

 every thing, and bring his hives, wax, and 

 outfit, buying bees at his destination. 



Now please ask some of your Cu lan read- 

 ers to tell us exactly, in every detail, how 

 to make a success producing extracted honey 

 in a foul-brood locality, for that is just the 

 knowledge that will soon be worth dollars to 

 some of us here in Idaho as well as else- 

 where. 



Meridian, Ida., Jan. 13, 1905. 



[We have had some samples of diseased 

 brood sent us which, on microscopic exami- 

 nation, showed the presence of germs of 

 both pickled and foul brood; but if foul 

 brood were present at all it would make a 

 condition requiring just as urgent and 

 thorough treatment as if no pickled brood 

 were complicated with it. It is barely pos- 

 sible you have had a combination of the two 

 diseases, but that is improbable. We have 

 examined hundreds of specimens of pickled 

 brood, and have found that they vary some- 

 what in characteristics. Sometimes the 

 dead matter will rope some, but never quite 

 enough to reach the long stretch of the 

 characteristic foul brood. The very fact 

 that this pickled brood does not spread like 

 foul brood goes to show that what you have 

 is not that disease— fiactZiws alvei. 



The moving of bees from one locality to 

 another, especially from a locality infected 

 with foul brood into one free from it, should 

 be most severely condemned. There ought 

 to be a United States law putting a stop to 

 any thing of this kind. Such a law would 

 not necessarily prevent the importation of 



bees from one State to another, but it 

 would require that bees before removal be 

 inspected by some State inspector or other 

 competent person, and that the locality for 

 several miles around be pronounced free 

 from the disease. 



One of our corresponents, Harry Craven, 

 will shortly answer in these columns just the 

 question you ask regarding the handling of 

 foul-broody colonies for honey.— Ed.] 



WHERE PURE ORANGE HONEY IS OB- 

 TAINED IN FLORIDA. 



Some Characteristic Scenes. 



BY W. W. GRIM. 



Some of the bee-keepers who think there 

 is no pure orange honey made should come 

 to Manatee Co., Fla., the first of March, 

 and stay just one month. They would sure- 

 ly be convinced that there is considerable 

 honey in orange bloom. I believe there are 

 several colonies of bees here that have fur- 

 nished a surplus of 25 lbs. of pure orange 

 honey, as pure as clover, alfalfa, or any 

 other honey. If there is any thing for the 

 bees to work on during orange bloom I have 

 failed to find it. If the bees coukJ be put 

 in condition to do good work on the orange 

 I do not doubt that 50 lbs. could be harvest- 

 ed. As the orange is the first bloom to 

 work on, it finds the bees in poor condition 

 to harvest a good crop. I do not know how 

 this season compares with others, but surely 

 there was a good flow this time. The man 

 who thinks of coming here to keep bees for 

 orange honey had better go slow. I came 

 here for that purpose, and will go back to 

 Indiana in June. All the honey here is too 

 dark, except the orange, and that is not 

 nearly as white as the samples generally 

 called orange honey. 



I send you some photos of Mr. Rood's 

 bees just at the close of orange bloom, March 

 27. The first view represents the home 

 apiary showing strength of three - story 

 hives; about 50 hives in this yard. 



The second view shows bees on and under 

 the hives. 



The third view is called Cedar Hammock 

 yard, and has about 75 colonies. 



The last view shows the way the little 

 folks live in Florida. If you do not think 

 there is lots of good exercise in climbing 

 palmetto-trees, come down next orange sea- 

 son and try one. I have. 



Palmetto, Fla. 



[We note trellises overhead in Figs. 1 and 

 3 m the view shown, doubtless for the pur- 

 pose of affording shade by means of a trail- 

 ing vine of some some sort during the mid- 

 dle of the day. There are no shadows to 

 indicate whether these trellises are ranged 

 directly east and west so that the hives may 

 be shaded from morning till night; but in 

 the absence of any statement to the contra- 

 ry we will assume this to be the fact, for 

 this is the rule in Arizona, where an over- 

 head shade of this kind is almost a matter 

 of necessity. —Ed.] 



