1887 



GLEAKl^NGS IN JbJEE CULTUKE. 



129 



Contract the brood-chamber to four or five Lang'- 

 stroth frames, according' to the size of the colony. 

 Have in these frames nothing' but starters of foun- 

 dation, 'i inch wide. Place over the brood-chamber 

 a queene.x'clnding honey-board, and above it room 

 for surplus, according to the needs of the colony. 

 The sections may contain full sheets of foundation. 

 Put this hive on the stand of the colony to be cured, 

 removing the ashes, sand, or whatever you have in 

 front of the entrance, replacing with fresh. Shake 

 or brush the bees down in front of the hive and run 

 them in. Tn all this, disturb the bees as little as 

 possible, so that they may not fill themselves with 

 honey. The philosophy of the method is, that the 

 bees are compelled to build considerable comb be- 

 fore they cau rear any brood. This consumes what 

 honey they have in their sacks in wax-making. If 

 any remains unused it goes into the boxes instead 

 of being stored in the brood-chamber, and thus be- 

 comes harmless. In very bad cases it may be well 

 to hive the bees in an empty box or old hive for two 

 or three days, then shake them out and melt up the 

 comb they have made, into beeswax. 



If honey is scarce in the fields, put tin- bees in an 

 ordinary-sized brood-chamber, on full sheets of 

 foundation, and feed them phenolaled syrup until 

 they are self-supporting. To prepare this, take 

 honey, or syrup of the same consistency, and add 

 one-si-\th of one per cent of carbolic acid. Thin this 

 down, as required, for feeding. 



The combs from which the bees were shaken niaj' 

 be tiered up over other colonies which have the 

 disease. Put them three or four stories high. As 

 soon as there are bees enough, shake the queen 

 and a good-sized colony of bees into a wire-cloth 

 box, and, after one or two days' confinement in a 

 dark place, hive them on a new stand. Ten days 

 after the queen is removed, give the old colony a 

 queen-ccll or young queen, as those they raise may 

 not hatch. In ten days more, treat them as first 

 described. Extract the honey, boil it, and nuike 

 the combs into wax. Be very sure to disinfect 

 thoroughly every thing that has been used in do- 

 ing this; and be sure, too, that no bee gets a taste 

 of the honey in all your operations. There is so 

 much danger in trying to do any thing with the 

 combs, that, unless you have many, you had bet- 

 ter burn them up. 



The hives may be disinfected by thorough boil- 

 ing. Scalding will not answer. A little lye or 

 wood ashes in the water will take the propolis off 

 clean. If you have not facilities for boiling hives, 

 add .T'f of carbolic acid to strong soapsuds, and 

 scrub the hives well with the mixture, rinsing 

 afterward. 1 think I would rather depend on this, 

 if thoroughly done, than on boiling alone. 



Tn conclusion, I would say that, if you are care- 

 ful, prompt, and thorough, you can cure foul 

 brood. If you are not so— and most people, T be- 

 lieve, are not sufficiently so until they have had 

 some costly experience— you had better not trj- it, 

 unless you have considerable at stake. Indeed, 

 in any case, if you have only a few cases— say not 

 over '■>'„■ of your apiary— and are sure there are no 

 more iu yours or youi-rueighbor's apiaries, I should 

 advise you to destroy them— bees, hives, and 

 combs, if \ ou can do so without handling them. If 

 you are obliged to handle them, you might as well 

 cure them. J. A. Gkekn. 



Dayton, HI., Jan. 10, 1887. 



Friend G., I believe you have carefully 



covered the ground, and, as far as our ex- 

 perience goes, we can agree with all that 

 you have said. In fact, it seems that we 

 have practiced the same, or very nearly the 

 same, method of cure which you consider 

 most effective. Come to rentiember, in a 

 private letter you gave us a few suggestions 

 at the time we were battling with the dis- 

 ease. After receiving said letter we aban- 

 doned starving the bees, and, instead, put 

 them into clean hives where they were com- 

 pelled to build combs, or. rather, work out 

 foundation. However, we gave frames with 

 full sheets of foundation, and all colonies so 

 treated were cured. Perhaps in the ad- 

 vanced stages of the disease, starters only 

 would be preferable. We did not use car- 

 bolic acid, as you recommended, though we 

 exercised extreme caution, even burning 

 a tool that had by accident received a possi- 

 ble taint of the disease. Your statement, 

 that starvation weakens a colony, is very 

 true, as we are satisfied from repeated ex- 

 periments. In regard to cleansing the 

 hives, we have, as you know, used steam, 

 and hives so disinfected have not as yet 

 given us any trouble. 



DRONE COMB. 



KKIENU UAUANT GIVES US S(JME VAI,f.\BJ.E IDEA8 

 IN REGARD TO IT. 



HE above subject, treated by Mr. Hutchinson, 

 [hi" in Gle.\nings, Nov. 1."), drew my attention, 

 I? and incites me to redress some, to my mind, 



false notions accepted as truths by about 



every bee-keeper. 



1. A swarm, hived on empty frames, always be- 

 gins its construction by worker cells. 



2. It the queen of a SAvarm is removed, or dies, 

 while the bees are building, all the combs, nmde 

 during her absence, will consist of drone colls. 



3. If the queen of a swarm is very iiroHflc, \ery 

 little drone comb will generally be made by her 

 bees. 



4. If, on the contrary, from old age, or from some 

 other cause, the fecundity of the queen is deficient, 

 her bees will fill the hive with a quanf iti' of drone 

 comb. 



I am persuaded that e\ery true bee-keeper will 

 admit the above, premises; from which I draw the 

 infert nee, not only that the presence (if thr (/itrin iu 

 tlic hive eompeh the liees to make worker cells, hut that 

 they rush into the huildirm of their preferred (store) 

 cells as soon as Vie queen ceases to control their work; 

 for. a verj- prolific queen, having to wait for cells, 

 is all the time watching the work of her bees; while 

 a slow-laying queen is soon left behind. Then her 

 workers, acting without control, hasten to build 

 drone com/*, which would be more appropriately 

 named store-comh. Such actions prove, without 

 possible contest, that there are two opposite prefer- 

 ences during the building of comb, the preference 

 of the workers for store combs— a preference which 

 bows before the desire for worker cells manifested 

 by the queen, who exercises her sovereign authori- 

 ty iu this one circumstance only. 



The deficient proliflcness of a queen is not the 

 only cause which allows the bees to build too many 

 sf ore-cells; for we meet with swarms which, al- 

 though having very prolific queens, have con- 

 stru jted a large amount of drone comb. Such a fact 



