JUNE 1, 1912 



empty hives; and, for reasons that I can not 

 explain, all the last colonies had died from 

 queenlessness. There was not a sign of 

 brood of any kind to be found in any of the 

 combs; and as all of them had been built on 

 full sheets of foundation they were what we 

 would call perfect combs in every respect. 

 Later on in the season, as I had not seen 

 the first suspicious sign of foul brood in 

 1910, I had no fear of using these combs. I 

 knew well enough that nearly all the new 

 combs built on starters by the shaken-oflf 

 colonies w^ould be more or less irregular, and 

 I intended to use these good (?) combs to 

 exchange with them and fill out the hives 

 later on. All, or nearly all, the new colonies 

 I had reduced to five or six frame capacity, 

 according to the strength of the colony at 

 the time of shaking ofif, and I considered 

 these combs, in addition to the full sheets 

 of foundation, just the thing to fill out the 

 hives. 



With the advancing season, which 

 brought us a fairly good honey- flow or flows 

 (we had clover, buckwheat, and fall flows) , 

 the progress in the hives was all that could 

 be expected. The starters were rapidly 

 drawn out, and stocked up with brood by 

 the introduced Italian queens, and nowhere 

 could the reappearance of the disease be no- 

 ticed. As combs grew larger and brood be- 

 gan to hatch, I deemed it advisable to begin 

 sorting out undesirable combs, especially 

 those that were nearly all drone comb, re- 

 placing them either with full sheets of foun- 

 dation or with some of these reserved combs 

 mentioned above. Whenever the condi- 

 tions of the different colonies would admit 

 I inserted foundation or combs in the mid- 

 dle of the brood nest or began to remove 

 the division-boards I had used for reducing 

 the hive space, and filled out in the same 

 way. 



I hardly need to say that I kept close 

 watch on all growing brood; and just when 

 I began to flatter myself of my achieved 

 victory I received a setback that caused me 

 no little anxiety. Many of those inserted 

 combs show^ed again signs of disease. To 

 be sure, only a few scattering cells were vis- 

 ible; but the diseasewasthere just the same. 

 However, later in the season all affected 

 brood disappeared again of its own accord. 

 What the outcome will be, whether the trou- 

 ble will reappear this year or not, is a mat- 

 ter of conjecture. Time will tell. 



The foregoing experience shows very forc- 

 ibly that we can not be too careful in bat- 

 tling with the disease. Although I had a lit- 

 tle fear of using these old combs, this was 

 removed by the opinion of our foul-brood 

 inspector. When the latter called at my 

 place last spring we examined these combs 

 very closely; and after I had given him the 

 history of them he did not think it would 

 be dangerous in the least to use them again 

 as I proposed. 



I can not say positively that those old 

 combs were infected. The disease might 

 have appeared on perfectly sound combs 

 any way; but as no signs of infection were 



335 



noticed on combs the bees had built them- 

 selves from starters, nor on any they had 

 drawn out from inserted full sheets of foun- 

 dation, the appearance leans a little in that 

 direction. If I had to repeat the whole pro- 

 gram I would rather err on the right side. 

 I would consign all combs, sound as they 

 may seem, to the furnace, or, as in this case, 

 to the wax-press, and use full sheets of foun- 

 dation instead. The actual loss, outside of 

 the trouble of making the wax, would not 

 be of sufficient consequence to run the risk 

 of making a failure of the treatment, for the 

 wax so obtained would nearly if not quite 

 pay for the foundation used. 



We are advised to render all diseased 

 combs into wax, and thus save at least a lit- 

 tle from the destruction. From a financial 

 point of view this may seem plausible; but 

 to handle this rotten mess is a most disa- 

 greeable job, to say nothing of the danger 

 connected with the work. All our tools and 

 appliances used in making the wax would 

 necessarily be infected with the germ of the 

 disease; and instead of putting a stop to its 

 ravages we would assist, or be liable to, in 

 spreading the disease. The best, safest, and 

 (in the end) the cheapest way of disposing 

 of all the diseased combs and other con- 

 taminated traps is to annihilate them in the 

 quickest and shortest way that will accom- 

 plish it. This, from experience, would be 

 my advice. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



[If there are only a few diseased combs it 

 undoubtedly would be cheaper in the end to 

 burn them; but if there are a good many 

 the loss of the wax amounts to considerable. 

 If the old combs are boiled in plenty of wa- 

 ter — not simply brought to a boil, but boil- 

 ed and stirred, and boiled some more, there 

 is no danger. Such work, if not done in a 

 screened building, should be done at night, 

 and all cans or utensils that came in con- 

 tact with the comb before it was boiled, or 

 with the honey dripping from them, should 

 be thoroughly cleaned and boiled out. All 

 old boxes, sacks, or baskets holding the 

 comb should be burned. — Ed.] 



HOW PROPOLIS IS COLLECTED 



Some Further Notes on Pollen-collecting 



BY F. W. L. SliADEN 



Thinking it would be impossible for the 

 bee to pass a gummy substance like propolis 

 through the leg to the eorbicula, as it does the 

 pollen (March 15, p. 172) , I removed a cover 

 from one of my hives and exposed it in the 

 apiary to the warm sunshine to see what 

 would happen. A bee soon alighted, and, aft- 

 er making several futile attempts, succeeded 

 in detaching with its mandibles a little bit 

 of prorolis. Seizing the fragment in its fore 

 legs it dashed it on the left eorbicula with the 

 left middle leg, patting it on the eorbicula 

 with the metatarsi of this leg. Further 

 fragments were detached, and passed on in 



