1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



229 



be rejected. All these combs were made 

 from starters by swarms, so my policy will 

 be to use full sheets for swarms, either nat- 

 ural or forced. 



As I do not know that I shall want any 

 more Danz. brood-bodies, my intention is to 

 work these colonies in the same way as 

 group two, up to the time of the flow, when 

 the first section super will be put on between 

 the brood-chamber and shallow story, re- 

 moving the latter when work is well started 

 in super. This shallow story can be put un- 

 der all on the bottom board. I intend to try 

 this to see whether the bees will carry up the 

 unsealed honey it contains, as Mr. Hand and 

 others say they will. Otherwise these shal- 

 low supers can be put on hives run for ex- 

 tracted, used for increase or piled up for fu- 

 ture use, or to fill combs for winter. 



As I can sell extracted honey of superfine 

 quality, in small but dainty containers, at the 

 same price as section honey, my intention is 

 to run all hives for extracted at the end of 

 the season, using section supers only during 

 the rueh of the clover flow, and have all sec- 

 tions fancy. 



I intend trying the method used by Mr. 

 Townsend and others of having extracting- 

 combs on the outside of all supers. The 

 new N super has frames exchangeable with 

 shallow extracting -frames, and the Danz. 

 super can use the shallow Danz. frames. If 

 this plan does not prove desirable, the frames 

 caa be used in sectional hives or in extract- 

 ing-supers. 



Mr. Hand has strong colonies drawing out 

 foundation in sections during fruit-bloom. 

 Mr. Danzenbaker does the same, and also 

 has the colonies, not needed to work on "go 

 backs, "at work drawing out sections for use 

 the following season. I shall also try this 

 plan. 



The producers of honey by the barrel may 

 like extracting from brood-chambers, doing 

 without excluders and using all frames in- 

 terchangeably sometimes for brood and later 

 for honey, but I am yet to be converted to a 

 belief that those methods are for the pro- 

 ducer who desires the whitest and choicest 

 of fancy honey. 



Mr. Alexander proves that a home yard 

 can be made strong much sooner by judi- 

 cious feeding of dilute syrup, thus prevent- 

 ing the loss of bees which go for water and 

 never get back. I have four Alexander feed- 

 ers and two division- board feeders. I will 

 use these and take notes; but outside feed- 

 ers wear out the bees, invite robbing, and 

 supply the neighbors, so I can not afford 

 them. 



I intend to follow out Dr. Miller's plans of 

 records and examination of brood chambers 

 while swarms may be expected. He has 

 shown conclusively that the hive that does 

 not swarm gets the largest surplus of comb 

 honey. 



Alexander's tin tags to indicate age and 

 value of queens are good enough for me, as 

 is his way of getting increase wnen running 

 for extracted and of saving weak colonies by 

 putting them over strong ones. But I would 



never unite at any season without a sheet of 

 newspaper between. This is as sure as and 

 easier than a screen which must be removed 

 and thus disturb them later. I do not be- 

 lieve any other way of using two queens is 

 practicable unless one is working the sec- 

 tional hive. 



Being unable to manage the towers that 

 Mr. Ferris must build with his two-queen 

 method I intend to work out a simplification 

 of Mr. Hand's sleight-of-hand tricks. My 

 season does not oblige me to complete sec- 

 tions in thirteen days, so I hope to raise 

 comb honey and still keep alive. It is no 

 wonder that he prefers queen-rearing. 



Wenonah, Gloucester Co., N. J. 



BEE DISEASES IN CANADA. 



A Case Where the Alexander Plan was a 



Failure; the M'Evoy Method Easier 



and Surer, and Less Expensive 



all Around. 



BY J. L. BYER. 



That article of E. M. Gibson's, page 125, 

 tells exactly how the two methods of treat- 

 ing black brood work out in practice, as was 

 proved in the work done by Mr. Warrington 

 Scott, the first man in Ontario who had to 

 battle with the disease. Although the colo- 

 nies to be treated by the Alexander method 

 were first made very strong, yet, after being 

 queenless for 21 days, by the time the young 

 force of bees came into the field of action 

 the colonies were so weak as to be useless 

 for the gathering of a surplus. While only 

 comparatively few of the colonies so treated 

 remained free from the disease, and the 

 plan of removing all combs and shaking on 

 to foundation was much more successful, 

 Mr. Scott emphatically declares that, even if 

 the Alexander method cured as many cases 

 as the shaking plan, he would still prefer 

 the latter method as being more economical 

 in the end, all things considered. If a colo- 

 ny is made queenless right in the honey- 

 flow, not nearly as good results will be ob- 

 tained in the matter of securing a surplus as 

 if the bees were thrown on to foundation. 

 Indeed, there are quite a few who now claim 

 that it pays to shake all colonies on to foun- 

 dation, even if no disease is present; and 

 personally we are inclined to accept this 

 view provided a quick heavy flow of honey 

 occurs right after the shaking and does not 

 continue for more than two weeks or ten 

 days. To be sure, it is well to remember 

 that, as pointed out by both Mr. Gibson and 

 the editor, locality may make a big differ- 

 ence in this matter of treatment, as in Mr. 

 Alexander's section a lot of work could be 

 done quite early in the season and still leave 

 the bees in fair shape for the late flow that 

 he so largely depended on. In a section 

 where the only flow is from clover, entirely 

 different methods must prevail if a surplus 

 is to be obtained; and the shaking method, 

 it seems to me, is the one for such places. 



The modified plan as practiced by Dr. Mil- 



