AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



85 



the diseased hive, I took out two frames 

 from one side and replaced them with 

 the frames from the nucleus — bees, 

 queen and all — placing the queen against 

 the side of the hive. 



I found that the sick bees driven away 

 from their own hive, were trying to 

 enter the hives nearest, and were beg- 

 ging food of any field-bees that fell on 

 the ground as they came in laden with 

 honey, and that the field-bees would 

 stop and feed them, no matter what hive 

 the field-bees belonged to. If the dis- 

 ease was contagious, here was an easy 

 way to carry it from one hive to an- 

 other. The question came up. How can 

 I prevent the sick bees from getting into 

 other hives, or coming in contact with 

 the field-bees of other hives ? 



After thinking the matter over, I con- 

 cluded to put the diseased hive, and the 

 other hives within 15 feet, on top of 

 barrels, and under the front of the dis- 

 eased hive place something to catch the 

 bees as they were pushed off the bottom- 

 board in front of the hive. 



First cleaning away the dead and dy- 

 ing bees from the front of the hive and 

 burning them up, I placed the hive on a 

 barrel, and put on the ground in front 

 of the hive an iron pan about three feet 

 square, and with sides about three in- 

 ches deep. The quivering motion of the 

 sick bees" wings enabled them to crawl 

 rapidly over the surface, but they could 

 not get over the raised sides. Every 

 morning I went out and burned up the 

 bees in the pan, generally finding from 

 one-half a pint to a pint of bees. 



The bees in the diseased hive were 

 one-fourth Italians, with no light bands. 

 The new queen was a pure Italian. In 

 five weeks from the time I put her in, 

 all the old bees had disappeared, and so 

 had the disease. Although it was late 

 in the honey season, I got over 30 sec- 

 tions from that colony. The disease did 

 not spread to any other hive. 



Since then I met an apiarist from the 

 enter of the State. He told me his 

 hives were on a side hill ; that one of 

 the hives in the top row got the disease, 

 and it spread down the hill through his 

 apiary, and he lost a great many colo- 

 nies of bees. 



To sum up: Raise the diseased hive 

 and others around it about three feet 

 from the ground; place under the alight- 

 ing-board of the diseased hive something 

 that will catch the sick bees, and burn 

 them up every day. Change the queen, 

 and feed liberally to help her to replace 

 the dead bees as fast as possible with 

 healthy brood. I think the burning of 



the dead bees a very essential part of 

 the treatment. Will some bee-keeper 

 try the method in full — not half of it — 

 and report results ? 

 Asheville, N. C, June 18. 



BeesaMHoney-PMsinDtaL 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY E. S. LOVESY. 



Among other questions of late, I have 

 had many inquiries on the matters indi- 

 cated by the subject of this article. As 

 I have before stated, lucerne, sweet clo- 

 ver, and Rocky Mountain bee-plant are 

 some of the principal honey-plants here. 

 We also have sweet willow, locust, 

 fruit-bloom, and others. The lucerne 

 has been in bloom here since the first of 

 this month ; further south, it is earlier. 

 The sweet clover comes in early in July, 

 generally remaining in bloom more or 

 less for about three months. The Rocky 

 Mountain b6e-plant is a fall plant. 



The bees do not always work on the 

 lucerne to the extent that they are doing 

 now, for in many localities they are 

 booming. I have several colonies now 

 with over 100 pounds of new honey In 

 their hives, gathered principally from 

 lucerne, and some of them are colonies 

 that I have divided, and I have also 

 taken some brood from them to build up 

 weak ones. While some of those weak 

 ones are building up now, I do not 

 know if it will pay me or not. The rea- 

 son I have them with me, is that on the 

 morning of the first of May one of my 

 neighbors had a large frame barn burned 

 down, and my bees were burnt with it, 

 leaving a few bees in about one-third of 

 the hives. While I felt badly to lose 

 them, I feel worse to have them de- 

 stroyed by fire, and just at a time that 

 the honey harvest is commencing. 



In this connection, allow me to ask a 

 question — Is there such a thing as luck? 

 Does everything go by chance ? For 

 four years we fought the ants until we 

 got the best of them by a method pub- 

 lished in the Bee Journal last Septem- 

 ber. Then two years ago last winter we 

 lost the most of our bees by the long, 

 hard winter, and now a poor, miserable 

 fire-bug, through his enmity to some one 

 else, applies the torch to us! But I am 

 drifting from the subject of honey- 

 plants. 



While the bees are working well on 

 the lucerne now. they sometimes work 

 more on the sweet clover at the time 

 that the second and third crop of lu- 



