316 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 15 



or new brood chamber on the old stand. Then take it into the house at once and 

 cut out the old combs and render them into wax as soon as possible so as to get rid 

 of any possibility of infection from that source. Any bees found in the old brood 

 chamber when opened in the house should be destroyed. Do not allow a single bee 

 to escape as it might carry infection to another colony or to its own colony if the 

 bees had cells drawn out enough for storing honey. 



If you have two infected colonies to treat, transfer the stronger first and place the 

 old brood chamber over queen excluder on the weaker one. Three weeks later 

 remove the queen excluder and put a bee escape in its place. When the old brood 

 chamber is clear of bees, remove it, close it up bee-tight and put it in the house 

 Then transfer the second colony to a clean hive body in the same manner as the 

 first and close up the old brood chamber and put it in the house. Then cut out and 

 render all combs into wax at the same time. Do not let any bees from these old 

 brood chambers escape to return to the hives. 



If you have several colonies to be treated you may use two or three of the weaker 

 ones to stack up the brood chambers from treated colonies to save the healthy 

 brood and strengthen the weaker ones. The old brood chambers from infected, 

 colonies may be placed on these weaker colonies over queen excluder as they are 

 taken away from the treated colonies, stacking them up four or five stories high 

 Three weeks after the last brood chamber was put on one of these colonies, the old 

 brood chambers may be removed one at a time by the use of a bee escape until the 

 colony is reduced to one brood chamber, and then bees transferred into clean hive 

 body as described. 



If any of the "stackup" colonies have more bees than one brood chamber will 

 hold when taking off the old brood chamber, it will facilitate the work to put on 

 empty super between the brood chamber of the "stackup" colony and the last of the 

 old brood chambers to be removed to give clustering space for the bees. Put bee escape 

 over the empty super and next to the old brood chamber to be removed. This empty 

 super should not be allowed to remain on more than a day or two or the bees will 

 build comb in it. If ready to transfer the bees to a clean hive body as soon as the 

 last of the old brood chamber has been removed, which is the best time to do so, set 

 the super with bees clustered in it to one side until you have transferred thebees from 

 the old brood chamber to the clean hive body, then the bees in the empty super may 

 be dumped in front of the clean hive body on the old stand and they will run in. 



All the old brood chambers are taken into the house and combs cut out and ren- 

 dered into wax and the hive bodies, bottom boards, inner covers, treated by burning 

 out and the frames boiled in strong lye water to clean and destroy germs before 

 using again. 



This method of transferring bees from infected brood chamber to clean hive 

 makes use of the same principles as are used in shaking or brushing bees from the 

 combs, but is free from the greatest objections raised to shaking or brushing. The 

 principal advantage of the smoke method is that the transfer of the bees is made 

 without fuss or mess — no infected combs exposed at any time — no honey scattered 

 around to be gathered up by bees — no demoralized bees scattered around to get 

 lost and possibly enter the wrong hive carrying the disease. 



If the work is done carefully, as it should be done, there will be no bees outside the 

 hive at any time, except a very few on the outside of the clean hive when it is re- 

 moved from the old brood chamber and placed on the clean bottom board. These 

 may be brushed off and placed at the entrance and they will go in the clean hive. 



W. L. Walling 

 Hardin, Montana 



