Mar. 24, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



231 



honey having spores in it, and if there be no brood, and all 

 that honey be consumed by the old bees before any brood is 

 present, that such colony may afterward breed and be free 

 of the trouble. But let a healthy colony carry in honey 

 from a much-infected colony, especially from a colony hav- 

 ingdied of the disease, and use freely of that honey from 

 a much-infected colony, especially from a colony havinj,'^ 

 died of the disease, and use freely of that honey for feeding- 

 the larv;v, there will be a well-developed case, and in not 

 many days' time. 



Some think that there are times and conditions more 

 favorable to its development so that its progress in a colony 

 may be slow or fast according to these conditions. I am 

 not inclined to this view, at least that it progresses fast or 

 slow according to climate and weather, or such conditions, 

 except that its growth may be a little stronger in each indi- 

 vidual larva if temperature and favorable conditions exist. 

 Suppose that to-day one bee gets a load of honey from a 

 dead, foul colony, and in that load is but one spore, and that 

 the one spore gets into one larva, this being the only conta- 

 gion in that colony. For that generation of brood there will 

 be just the one larva die. If that happens in April, proba- 

 bly by May there will be from two to a dozen cells of dead 

 brood, and in another month still more; until by September 

 there maj' be several hundred, yet pass unnoticed by an 

 ordinary apiarist. 



Winter passes, and if the colony starts the brood-nest in 

 some part of the combs that had very little or none of the 

 past year's dead in it, there may be very little development 

 until the brood-nest has begun to occupy the last season's 

 combs, or until honey has been used from the old, infected 

 combs. I consider the extent and progress of the disease in 

 each and every colony to be more a matter of how much of 

 the seeds or spores are scattered in the food given, thereby 

 distributing it to the various larva; throughout the colony. 

 In other words, if the food contains but few spores so that 

 few larva: are fed or receive these spores in their food, then 

 the spread of the disease is necessarily slow ; but let the 

 food be well stocked with these seeds, and where they come 

 into the stomach of any larva that larva is gone. 



HOW LONG WILL A COLONY HOLD OUT ? 



after becoming infected ? If you live across the street from 

 me and have one colony, and my one colony dies of the dis- 

 ease and yours carries away all the hdney left, which may 

 be 10 or 20 pounds, and if that colony has much brood, such 

 as would be in a normal colony in May and June, then in 

 from two to four weeks you have a very rotten colony. 

 If they got that honey in the fall when breeding was ended 

 for the season, if that honey was all consumed by the 

 mature bees before breeding again started, your colony may 

 escape entirely, though I would expect to find a few cells of 

 disease the following summer. In any case, if the food con- 

 tains but few spores, but few larvK will die at the begin- 

 ning ; but if many spores then many die from the start. 



It follows, then, that if a colony receives but few seeds 

 to start with, that field (colony) is like a field with a few 

 seeds of corn in it — it must have time to mature more seed, 

 and in turn be planted before that field is fully occupied. 

 A colony receiving but a few seeds to start with may not 

 finally succumb to its fate until often two full years after 

 being inoculated, but, having a full crop of seed sown, may 

 have a full crop of foul brood with the first generation from 

 the sowing. The more brood in the colony when the seed is 

 plentifully scattered, the quicker will that colony reach its 

 end. 



The usual progress of the disease where many colonies 

 do the robbing of a foul one, so as to let no one colony get 

 much to start with, will take from one to two years to finish 

 the infected ones. It is no uncommon thing for a colony to 

 get its first seed in the fall of one year and still be alive at 

 the end of tzvo full years from the time of infection, and 

 then die out, leaving a hive well-stocked with honey, and 

 that honey in the best possible shape to "fix " any colony 

 that uses it in feeding brood. 



This article is already long, and must stop. I will con- 

 tinue the discussion, taking up treatment and cure in my 

 next. This subject is always a hot one ; when it comes up 

 in conventions there is almost sure to be " a stirring of the 

 animals." The subject is an important one, and I ask a 

 careful reading of what is said in this discussion, and espe- 

 cially by the inexperienced. 



The next article will treat of practical work in dealing 

 with the disease. Larimer Co., Colo. 

 -*-.-» 



See Langstroth Book Offer on another page of this 

 copy of the American Bee Journal. 



Use of Drone and Queen Excluders. 



BY C. D.WENI'OKT. 



I READ C. P. Dadant's article on page 807 (1903), entitled, 

 "ThetTseof Drone and Queen Excluders," with much 

 interest, but I will say frankly that I do not agree with 

 him, and, if it will not be considered out of place, I should 

 very much like to give my own views and experience in re- 

 gard to this matter. 



It will be easily seen that we hold different views, when 

 I state that I have about ISO queen-excluders, and that I do 

 not believe that I ever invested any money for goods, in one 

 line, that has paid me better from a dollar-and-cent view, 

 or that has saved me more work, than they have. In fact,' 

 if I were to be deprived of the use of excluders I should quit 

 producing extracted honey — in a large way, at least. I 

 have produced tons of extracted honey both with and with- 

 out the use of excluders, and if I know anything at all about 

 our pursuit, it is that I can produce more extracted honey 

 with less work, by using them than I can without them. I 

 say this with all due respect to Mr. Dadant, for I know that 

 I am but a novice in this branch of our pursuit compared 

 with him. But let me briefly explain, or describe, how it 

 works both ways here : 



Let us take a strong, or medium strong, colony early 

 in the spring, that is, to run for extracted honey. We will 

 say that they are in either 8 or 10 frame-hives, for there is 

 not much diflference in results between the two sizes here in 

 running for extracted honey. On the first colony we will 

 not use an excluder. If it is a strong colony they will, dur- 

 ing fruit-bloom, need an upper story, and in a short time 

 the queen will invariably work up into this story, and more 

 or less of these combs will be filled with brood. But now 

 note this : It is very seldom that there is more brood in 

 both of these stories before the main flow commences than 

 the lower one would hold, especially if we are using 10- 

 frame hives. We now have the frames in these two stories 

 more or less filled with honey, pollen and brood. The main 

 flow is on, and they soon need more room. There is nothing 

 in either story fit to extract, so another story is added, and 

 the queen will, nine times out of ten, lay more or less in 

 this third story, but she will seldom go down to the lower 

 story, of her own accord, again that season, unless the col- 

 ony swarms and she does so in order to get out of the hive. 

 It is now three stories high, which is about as high as it is 

 safe for us to go here without danger of the whole thing 

 being blown over during some of the sudden storms with 

 high winds which we are subject to in the summer. 



But if the flow continues good they will soon need more 

 room, and this whole outfit boiling over with bees, old bees 

 young bees, drones, queens — somewhere in the two upper 

 stories — brood in all stages, pollen and honey — it is all 

 mixed up. We take what honey we can get ; this may be con- 

 siderable, but it is never first-class honey that we get from 

 such an outfit. It is tainted more or less with pollen, the 

 excrement from young, just-hatching bees, larva; and larval 

 food. If we don't extract from frames containing brood we 

 will get but little honey, for there is a little brood in a large 

 part of them. A good many who would have to handle 100 

 colonies in this way would wish the flow to be short, so that 

 there would be only one extracting. We will suppose this 

 to be the case. The whole thing has to be handled frame 

 by frame once more in the fall any way, in order to get the 

 colony in size, shape and condition to be wintered. 



Now let us take a colony and use an excluder. When 

 they need more room we place on the excluder and upper 

 story, and know that the queen is, and will stay, where she 

 belongs— in the brood-nest. The bees at once commence to 

 store honey in this upper story, if they lack either storage 

 or brood room below ; usually by this time not much more 

 pollen is being gathered than is in demand for brood-rear- 

 ing, and this is stored below, near the brood. As the flow 

 continues we place another empty story under the first one. 

 By the time they need more room the combs in the upper 

 story will be filled and sealed nearly solid with beautiful 

 snow white honey. In order to clear this of bees, all that is 

 necessary in the evening is to raise up one end and slip 

 under an escape-board ; by morning the bees will have gone 

 below, and we have the combs clear of bees, and ready to 

 extract. And, my friends, this is honey — pure, unmixed, 

 first-class honey, gathered by bees from flowers. After ex- 

 tracting, this set of now empty combs is placed next, and 

 the other set on top of it, and so on as long as the flow con- 

 tinues, and we don't care ho-.v many times we have to ex- 

 tract, for it is a pleasure to produce extracted honey by this 



