THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



43 



conditions to determine how he can 

 best dispose of them without incur- 

 ring rislv. 



GETTING RID OP THE DISEASE. 



We now come to tlie linal and in- 

 dispensable operation for effecting a 

 cure, and that consists simply in trans- 

 ferring the bees from their own combs 

 to hives furnished with frames of 

 loundation or frames with starters. 1 

 have not found it necessary to disin- 

 fect the hives containing diseased col- 

 onies, so, if found more convenient, 

 the combs may be taken out, the bees 

 brushed and shaken in front of the 

 hive, and the hive furnished with 

 frames of foundation. 



But as to what time is this to be 

 done, and what disposal is to be made 

 of the brood? 



AT WHAT SEASON TO DO THE WORK. 



The operation may be successfully 

 performed at any time during warm 

 weather, if only sufficient allowance 

 of time is made to enable the bees to 

 complete their combs before the cool 

 weather of the fall comes on. May, 

 June and July are the best months, 

 and of tnese about the beginning of 

 the white clover flow would be the 

 most favorable time of the year for 

 beginning the work. This is so, both 

 because it is the best time for the bees 

 to build up Avithout any care, as well 

 as because it is the time when robber 

 bees are least likely to be troublesome. 



At this timely season, let us go into 

 the apiary with the necessary hives, 

 ready furnished, to undertake the 

 work. We find many that were but 

 slightly diseased strong and almost in 

 condition to cast a natural swarm. 

 Each one of this class is moved a little 

 aside and one of the prepared hives is 

 I'Ut in the place of each. Now, from 

 each one take out the combs with the 

 bees and shake the bees off in front 



of the new hive, making sure that the 

 queen goes with them, until we have 

 a driven swarm, leaving sufficient in 

 the old hive to care for the brood. Now 

 we have a driven swarm from each 

 one, and the old hives with the brood. 

 Within a week or ten days we will see 

 that each of the latter has given it a 

 good young queen, or a good ripe 

 queen cell, and in 21 days we will take 

 away all the oia combs and replace 

 them with frames containing founda- 

 tion or starters. This disposes of this 

 class, and will surely effect a cure. It 

 would be more than useless to give 

 them another set of frames and anoth- 

 er shaking out. 



THE TREATMENT OF WEAK COLONIES. 



Now we go back to the weaker class. 

 These we will take in pairs. We first 

 select the first pair, set one of them 

 aside and put a new hive in its place 

 and shake out the bees as in the form- 

 er case, only get about all of the bees 

 and the queen out. Now we put the 

 old hive with the brood in the place 

 of the other one of the pair, and bring 

 that other one and shake out the bees 

 and queen in like manner in front of 

 the new hive, then take back the old 

 hive and unite it with the one already 

 on its stand; thus getting from the 

 pair one new one with the bees and 

 the two qoeens, and one united old 

 one with the brood, that will be want- 

 ing a queen in a few days, and a new 

 set of frames in three weeks, as in 

 the former case. The rest are to be 

 treated in like manner. 



A good part of the success of this 

 plan is owing to the medicated food 

 given during all the forepart of the 

 season. Without that the colonies 

 would have been in comparatively 

 poor condition which would have en- 

 tailed an increase of care and labor. 



The cure may be effected during 

 any part of the three months mention- 



