June, 1910. 



American ISae Journal 



sheets of foundation, all but one frame 

 which contains drawn comb that must 

 have had brood reared in it at least one 

 season. This comb is placed in the 

 middle. The supers from the old hive 

 are placed on the new. Then in front 

 of the new hive the bees are shaken 

 quite clean from all the combs in the 

 old hive except two. the queen prefer- 

 ably being shaken among the last bees 

 entering, so that she maynotrushup 

 into the super. Then the old hive with 

 its frames of brood is placed behind 

 and a little to one side of the new one. 

 About a week later the shaking is re- 

 peated, the bees from the old hive be- 

 ing again shaken into the new, and 

 from all the combs but two. Then the 

 old hive is placed on a new stand and 

 a young queen is given to it. 



Anwering the question, " Does the 

 shaken swarm prepare to swarm again 

 after receiving the additional shake of 

 the week later ?" Mr. Griggs says : " I 

 would say about u percent have started 

 queen-cells again; some about a week 

 after the second shake and others 

 toward the close of the swarming sea- 

 son." 



By this method there is 100 percent 

 increase, and Mr. Griggs thinks he 

 gets as much honey as from a non- 

 swarming colony. As to this last, not 

 every one will agree with him, although 

 the difference may not be so very great. 



Why Bees Don't Work in Supers 



The inexperienced bee-keeper is ex- 

 pected to ask as to this matter appar- 

 ently with the notion that at a certain 

 time all colonies, no matter what the 

 circumstances or conditions, will be- 

 gin to pour honey into the supers. 



One reason may be that the colony 

 is so weak that it has all it can do to 

 keep up the supply for the brood-cham- 

 ber, without troubling the supers. 



Again, the brood-chamber may not 

 be filled, and so long as there is any 

 room there it is preferred to room in 

 the supers. 



If sections are in the super, the bees 

 may be hesitating about commencing 

 on the raw foundation, but will prompt- 

 ly begin if a bait-section is present; 

 that is, a section drawn out, or partly 

 drawn out, the previous year. 



Again, the bees may be storing noth- 

 ing in supers because they have noth- 

 ing to store. Even though the bloom 

 be abundant, there may be no nectar 

 in it. 



Foul Brood— Anierit-aii and Eu- 

 ropean 



There seems to be a constant ten- 

 dency toward confusion as to the two 

 kinds of foul brood, and those who say 

 it would have been better to have re- 

 tained the old nomenclature have some 

 ground for saying so. There would 

 be less danger of confusion, and it is 

 certainly shorter to say foul brood and 

 black brood than to say American foul 

 brood and European foul brood. As 

 the Mciivoy treatment is successful 

 with either disease, no harm will come 

 from wrong naming if that treatment 

 be applied. But when it comes to the 

 Alexander treatment, the case is en- 

 tirely different. 



Whatever may lie thought of the 

 Alexander treatment, it should be dis- 



tinctly kept in mind that it applies only 

 to the treatment of European foul 

 brood. Mr. Alexander insisted most 

 strenuously that it was utterly without 

 effect upon American foul brood. So 

 a confusion in names may lead to seri- 

 ous results. A case in point occurs in 

 the interesting report for l'M)9, issued 

 to its members by the Illinois State 

 Bee-Keepers' Association. In the re- 

 port of the Chicago-Northwestern con- 

 vention, page 132, is given in condensed 

 form the Alexander treatment for 

 American foul brood. An inexperienced 

 bee-keeper might easily accept that as 

 correct, and be bitterly disappointed in 

 the result. Of course, European foul 

 brood (black brood) was meant. 



It may be worth while to give here a 

 corrected copy of the condensed state- 

 ment of the two forms of treatment 

 given in the report : 



Modified Alexander Treatment for 

 European Foui. Brood. 



Make the colony rrrr strotiti. 

 Remove the queen. 



Ten days later destroy queen-cells and 

 give a virgin of best stock. 



Modified McEvov Treatment for Euro- 

 pean F"ouL Brood. 



Brush and remove all frames of brood but 

 one. 



Put beside that one two emptv frames. 



When eggs are found in one of the empty 

 frames, remove the foul-brood comb and fill 

 up with foundation. 



Some days after the foregoing was 

 written, we received the following on 

 the subject mentioned in the above 

 item, first paragraph : 



Dear Mr.Editor:— Both Mr. Doolittleand 

 Mr. Byer have complained of the terms 

 "American Foul Brood" and "European 

 F'oul Brood," and yet they both keep on 

 using them, whereas neither term has been 

 accepted by the bee-keeping world, nor likely 

 to he. The objections are these: 



1. You cannot change a common name, 

 such as "foul" brood or "black" brood, 

 once established. <tr// if desirobU, 



2. No change is necessary, or desirable. 



3. The rule of priority holds good. 



4. There are over 100 bee-papers in exis- 

 tence, and only two or three have attempted 

 to make the change. There is not the slight- 

 est probability of the others making any 

 such Quixotic attempt; tlierefore. in the in- 

 terest of science and of bee-keeping, it 

 would be well for writers to drop the at- 

 tempt and return to the st^ilus uiio ante. 



.San Diego, Cal. W. K. Morrison. 



It certainly would be a good thing if 

 all the bee-papers, at least those in the 

 English language, would agree in the 

 nomenclature referred to. " Foul 

 brood" and "black brood" are very 

 much simpler, just as clear, and have, 

 besides, the advantage of several years' 

 use. 



Disinfecting- Foul-Broody Hives 



Another American fallacy has been ex- 

 ploded—namely, that respecting the useless- 

 ness of the disinfection of hives. The Swiss 

 inspectors have also carried out experi- 

 ments, and they have proved just the con- 

 trary. An instance is given of an apiary of 

 20 colonies, the bees of which had died out 

 in the Bernese Oberland. I'he proprietor 

 sold the hives to several bee-keepers in the 

 neighborhood, and in every case where they 

 were used the disease broke out, —///vV/t/; />'<•<• 

 fonrnat. 



American bee-keepers are by no 

 means a unit in believing it is unneces- 

 sary to disinfect a hive in which foul 

 brood has dwelt. Some of them insist 

 just as strongly upon disinfection as if 

 they had spent their whole lives on 

 British soil. The man, however, who 

 thinks disinfection unnecessary will 



hardly be satisfied with the mere state- 

 ment that Swiss inspectors " have 

 proved "disinfection necessary. He will 

 say, "You've got to show me," and will 

 ask lunv it was proved. As to the in- 

 stance given, he will say, " I grant you 

 that there may have been 20 cases of 

 foul brood in hives that had previously 

 contained foul brood. And I can point 

 you to 20 cases in new hives that by no 

 possibility could have previously con- 

 tained foul brood. Where is your proof 

 that the hive had anything to do with 

 it in either case ?" 



Perhaps it does not make so much 

 difference but that each may go his 

 own way. The one will say, " Thou- 

 sands of infected hives have been safely 

 used; so it is certain that disinfection 

 is not always necessary, and the cases 

 of carrying the disease are so few that 

 it is cheaper to treat again the few 

 cases that occur than to be to the 

 trouble of disinfecting all hives." The 

 other will say, " It is not much trouble 

 to disinfect a hive, and I believe it is 

 best to be on the safe side." 



Ohio Foul-Brood Law 



Ohio bee-keepers are rejoicing be- 

 cause their foul-brood law has passed 

 both houses of the legislature, but are 

 still on tenter-hooks lest the governor 

 veto it. There seem to be good 

 grounds for their fears, from the fact 

 that lately the governor of New Jersey 

 vetoed a similar bill after it had passed 

 the legislature, and some time ago the 

 governor of Missouri did the same 

 thing. It would be a good thing to 

 have prepared a special course of in- 

 struction for governors, that they 

 might be coached in advance. 



Foul Brootl Law in New Zealand 



Bee-keepers in New Zealand are feel- 

 ing quite encouraged with the workings 

 of their new foul-brood law. Keepers 

 of bees in box-hives at first thought it 

 a hardship and an interference with 

 their rights to be obliged to put all 

 their bees into movable-frame hives, 

 and some of them thought there was 

 no need to submit to such a law. But 

 Mr. W. B. Bray, the energetic inspector, 

 had two of them fined for failure to 

 transfer their colonies into hives with 

 movable frames after having written 

 notice served upon them, and this has 

 caused a change of mind. Very likely 

 the box-hive men will all come to look 

 upon the law as a blessing in disguise. 



Reserve Combs of Houey for 

 Feeding 



Not many pieces of advice can be 

 given of more value than the advice to 

 have on hand some extra combs sealed 

 full of honey, ready to be given in the 

 spring or early summer wherever 

 needed. Not only does the beginner 

 need the advice — there are no doubt 

 those who have been keeping bees for 

 years that do not fully realize its im- 

 portance. 



It takes a long time to learn with 

 what rapidity stores are used in the 

 early part of the season, when colonies 

 are building up, with combs filled with 

 brood that recjuire a big lot of feeding, 

 when perhaps little or nothing is being 



