442 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



eleven in all, consisting of 800 

 colonies of bees. 



That fall we erected a small 

 ■warehouse at the O'Brien Branch 

 and put in a stock of bee supplies 

 for the trade. Also the same fall I 

 bought a gasoline engine and a 

 No. 4 Barnes saw with all needed 

 saws, cutter heads,, etc. for mak- 

 ing be© supplies and installed tiiem 

 at Cordele, Ga. for the purpose of 

 making the most of the supplies I 

 might need for the future of the 

 business and bought a light car of 

 Cypress boards dressed both sides 

 out thirteen-sixteenths inches 



thick and as soon as the honey was 

 removed and packed at the Cordele 

 Branch and bees put up for winter 

 I taught my apiarist how to cut out 

 with the machine, comb honey sup- 

 ers and interior parts of same ex- 

 cept separators, and gave him a 



helper. And besides the supplies 

 needed for the next season's busi- 

 ness at Oordele Branch which con- 

 sisted of bottoms, covers, bodies, 

 frames and shallow extracting sup- 

 ers with frames, he cut out 1000 

 comb honey supers for the two 

 new branches of business which 

 were sent there and set up in 

 readiness during the winter by the 

 two apiarists in charge whom I visit- 

 ed several times during the win- 

 ter and outlined the work to be 

 done the previous year. 



Well, this was a great year's 

 work indeed and now my dreams 

 seemed to be materializing and bee- 

 keeping was a real business such 

 as it had long been my desire to 

 make it and a profitable one too. 

 While I did not have much money 

 ahead I was able to make the busi- 

 ness widen out. 



Combating Foul Brood in Winter 



ALLEN LATHAM, Nonvich, Conn. 



It will lead to an easy under- 

 standing of the contents of this arti- 

 cle if a recent experience is related 

 as an introduction. 



The writer to suit his own needs 

 and inclinations has developed a 

 system of What it seems pertinent 

 to describe as "Let Alone Beekeiep- 

 ing." To that end he devised some 

 twelve years ago a hive which met 

 all the requirements, in so far as 

 the writer understood them, of the 

 honeybee. The hive is an all-the- 

 year-round hive, and the bees will 

 not suffer if not seen for a whole 

 year or for two whole years. 



The last statement was practically 

 true till foul-brood reached these 

 let-alone apiaries. Then havoc came. 

 The very fact that the hives were 

 largely let alone led to the gradual 

 Increase of black blood. Hence the 

 European disease found fertile soil 

 For a time at least the writer will 

 have to vary his system which has 

 wrought so well for him. 



On January 2nd of the present 

 year an apiary in Lancaster, Mass., 

 was visited to garner the honey of 

 the previous summer. The first two 

 or three colonies showed nothing 

 wrong, but when more colonies were 



opened up the disease, European 

 foul-brood, began to be in eyidence. 

 Little difficulty was encountered in 

 discovering the disease. The frames 

 were of the closed top-bar type and 

 as the cluster of bees was ap- 

 proached unclean cells began to 

 show. Here and there a capped cell. 

 Tlie comb drawn from the hive 

 showed some dried down larvae, and 

 the odor when the comb was press- 

 ed to the face became very appar- 

 ent. 



Three colonies were found which 

 had succumbed entirely, though 

 there was honey still in the hives, 

 for the weather had not been toler- 

 ant to robbing. A fourth colony was 

 found which was seriously affected 

 and had too few bees to winter well. 

 A fifth was found the combs of 

 which had the odor, but appeared 

 to the eyes as clean. This last col- 

 ony showed good Italian traits and 

 as there were a, fair number of bees 

 it was left for treatment (if neces- 

 sary) in the spring. Everything, in 

 the first four mentioned as diseased, 

 which could in any way transmit the 

 disease was burned. 



Today that apiary i§ apparently 

 (Continued on page 470) 



