1V«08 



GLEANINGS IN BKE CULTURE. 



295 



down spring dwiudllng is interesting as well 

 as valuable. By the way, the time is com- 

 ing when we shall give more attention to 

 this matter of spring dwindling and losses 

 from Hight on bad days in the fall. To win- 

 ter bees successfully is one thing: to "spring" 

 them is quite another. — Ed] 



now TO USE THE SrjlPLICITX AS A BOTTOM 

 FEEDER. 



Here is a new arrangement for bottom 

 feeding with the Simplicity feeder. Cut out 

 each end so that it will be about i inch 

 thick: then nail a strip on the side rails of 

 the battom-board, for a rest, and to permit 

 the feeder to slide in and out. Cut a proper- 

 sized hole in the bottom over the feeder, and 

 slip a piece of tin over this when not in use. 



Attaching Simplicity feeder under the bottom-board 

 at the back of the hive. 



This feeder will be easy to slide in and out: 

 does not mar the beauty of the hive, nor re- 

 quire any side room. If they were made 

 full width of the inside rails of the bottom, 

 in length, the bottom rails could be grooved 

 to receive them, or the little strips could be 

 quickly put on. I dislike to mar the looks 

 of a hive by shoving the bottom out in front, 

 and believe this arrangement is equally sat- 

 isfactory, although cheaper. 



Bladen, Ohio. C. H. Cargo. 



[This method of applying something al- 

 ready in use we consider to be excellent. If 

 one does not have Simplicity feeders he may 

 use a pan with a float. The rim of the pan 

 could be made to slide into rabbeted cleats 

 the same as here shown. — Ed.] 



PLURAL QUEENS ; A FLIGHT-HOLE FOR EACH 

 QUEEN. 



On p. 1579 Mr. Alexander wishes to know 

 why I leave only one super open about the 

 time the young queens are old enough to 

 take their flight. By going back to page 476, 

 for 1905 Gleanings it will be seen that 

 I was superseding my queens in the spring. 

 It was just at this time that I hit upon the 

 dual-queen system by having the young 

 queens mated from the super. 



I experimented with flight-holes in differ- 

 ent parts of the super, but I found that on 

 several occasions it did not prevent the young 



quetins from going in at the main entrance 

 of the hive; so now I always pi'otect the en- 

 trance or flight-hole with a piece of excluder 

 zinc. 



As to that expression of being able to keep 

 as many queens as there are supers, I will 

 state that the limit was three queens to as 

 many shallow supers. You must take into 

 consideration that I am in a semi-tropical 

 climate. The queens are introduced in the 

 fall; and, when found to be accepted, the 

 hive is not interfered with before the first 

 week in February, when the top super with 

 most of the honey is placed below. 



The sting-cut virgin queen (p 1579) turned 

 out to be a drone- layer, and my second at- 

 tempt to get several sting-cut virgin queens 

 mated from one hive was a failure. 



Sierra Madre, Cal. H. Davenes. 



CAN FOUNDATION TRANSMIT FOUL BROOD? 



There seem to be quite a number of colo- 

 nies affected with foul brood all through the 

 section between Worcester and Springfield, 

 and possibly in other sections : and all the 

 people here carry the impression the bees 

 in old box hives are free from disease, while 

 those that are in moder« hives on frames of 

 foundation are all infected, and that the in- 

 fection was from the foundation used. 



Mass. Subscriber. 



[We desire to say most emphatically that foul 

 brood is not carried in foundation. Wax from 

 foul-broody yards has been melted up hun- 

 dreds (and we may say thousands) of times, 

 and made over into foundation without any 

 trouble afterward from disease. There is 

 probably not one pound of foul-broody wax 

 to the hundred that ever gets into the market. 

 Once melting would be suflicient to kill all 

 germs of disease: but after it goes to the 

 foundation-maker it goes through several 

 separate and distinct processes of meltings 

 and refinings covering a period of prob- 

 ably three or four hours all told, during 

 which all germs of disease of any sort would 

 be cooked and killed. It is a principle in 

 bacteriology that boiling for half an hour, 

 then letting it stand for a day or two, and 

 then boiling again, and then boiling once 

 more after another period of rest, will be 

 much more effective than one continuous 

 boiling for the same period. After the wax 

 is melted and cooled, the coverings of the 

 germs open, so to speak, and during this 

 time the germs are very susceptible to the 

 action of heat; and when it is applied again 

 they are immediately killed. Ask any sci- 

 entific man or any bacteriologist and he will 

 tell you that foundation made by any of the 

 standard factories would be perfectly immune 

 to any disease. 



The fact that colonies in box hives in the 

 case cited are free from disease can be ex- 

 plained on the ground that in such hives it 

 is not possible to move combs from one hive 

 to another, as it is in the case of the modern 

 hive with movable frames. If disease of any 

 kind is present in the vicinity it may be trans- 

 mitted from one hive to another by moving 



