538 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



wire rack, about ^ inch high. On top 

 of this wire rack I put a machine oil-can 

 that holds about a pint; put a rubber tube 

 on the spout of the can, run the end of the 

 rubber tube in a hole at the bottom of the 

 cupboard; put in the oil- can about half a 

 teacupful of formaldehyde; light the lamp, 

 turn it just high enough to boil the formal- 

 dehyde; then shut the doors tight. I have 

 the lamp burning about an hour, or a little 

 longer. By that time the formaldehyde is 

 nearly boiled away. Leave the doors shut 

 24 hours, and there will be no black brood, 

 bees, nor moth-larvas left. Open the doors, 

 and air until they smell all right, about 

 half a day, and they are ready for use 

 again. 



Last season I put two very light colonies 

 down in another lot, and used them to stack 

 on the best frames of brood. As fast as I 

 found a diseased colony I shook them out on 

 foundation at evening; just as the bees stop 



flying I cover all adjoining hives with some 

 old sack, so no bees will enter them. As 

 soon as they all get in I put on a piece of 

 queen-excluding zinc to keep them from ab- 

 sconding; then stack the best frames of 

 brood on one of the light colonies. Last 

 season I had them 5 to 12 frame hives high. 

 As soon as the brood would all hatch I 

 shook the bees off. fumigated the combs, 

 and used them again; and I kept on stack- 

 ing as long as I could find any disease. 



When the swarms I use to stack have too 

 many bees I shake out a swarm on founda- 

 tion, and set them in a new place. Some 

 of the worst-diseased combs, after fumigat- 

 ing, I marked on the dates, and set them 

 in the center of a healthy colony, and found 

 them solid full of capped brood. 



To-day, Apr. 20, I have 92 colonies. A 

 near neighbor that had more bees than I 



had, when black brood struck us, lost the 

 last of his last winter, and many more have 

 one, two, or three left. 



Last fall I fumigated all of my extract- 

 ing-frames, and all section boxes that had 

 been on the hives, before putting them 

 away. 



Mayfield, N. Y. 



[The wire rack to which you refer is, I 

 judge, a little device to be fitted on to a 

 lamp-chimney that can be bought at the 

 stores for heating a cup of milk for chil- 

 dren at night when the fire is out. We had 

 such an arrangement when our boy was a 

 baby, and we found it to be very effective. 

 If it can not be obtained, any arrangement 

 that will hold an oil-can about half an 

 inch above the top of the glass chimney 

 would answer. The oil-can shown in the 

 illustration is probably not the same thing" 

 that Mr. Haines has in mind. I judge that 

 he uses a spring-bottom oil-can, with a 

 perpendicular snout, such as can be ob- 

 tained for 10 or IS cents at any hardware 

 store. An ordinary rubber tube can be 

 slipped over the snout; but it should first 

 be cut off to give a larger opening. 



Apparently it is important to have the 

 fumigating cupboard or box as nearly air- 

 tight as possible. Mr. C. H. W. Weber, of 

 Cincinnati, who has had considerable ex- 

 perience, sajs that an ordinary hive is not 

 tight enough. He recommends putting the 

 combs in hives, the hives inside of an air- 

 tight box, then generating gas and forcing 

 it into the box. 



As Mr. Haines recommends, combs con- 

 taining the disease may be stored in upper 

 stories above perforated zinc over a strong- 

 colony. What brood is healthy can hatch 

 out. The combs can then be fumigated as 

 directed. We shall be glad to get reports 

 from our subscribers who are in position 

 to test this method of cure. 



So far I do not know of a case where, 

 when the gas has been properly applied, it 

 has failed to disinfect the combs. 



If more convenient for our subscribers, 

 they can order their fumigating apparatus 

 and chemicals of C. H. W. Weber, Cincin- 

 nati, O. The chemical comes in two forms 

 — fluid formalin and solidified formalin. 

 The former is in 1-lb. bottles costing 50 

 cents; postage 40 cents extra. The latter 

 is in ounce packages costing 75 cents; post- 

 age 5 cents. The solidified formalin is 

 mrch more concentrated and cheaper — one 

 ounce of it being equivalent to 3 lbs. of the 

 liquid article. The generator, including 

 '2 ounce of the solidified formalin, costs 

 $1.25; postage 20 cents. Send your order 

 to Mr. Weber. And, by the way, Mr. 

 Weber has a little book that gives full par- 

 ticulars on how to apply this drug. Per- 

 haps I am giving our friend a free adver- 

 tisement; but he has spent not a little time 

 and money in helping to develop and bring 

 before the public this new method of cure, 

 and it is no more than right that he be 

 rewarded for his pains. — Ed.] 



