NOVEMBER 15, 1912 



725 



closely for disease; and if none is found 

 the colony is considered healthy. Each 

 diseased colony in the yard is marked ac- 

 cording to its strength in bees. Extracting- 

 supers of white clean combs that have 

 never been used by the queen are given 

 to the healthy colonies above queen-exelud- 

 ers. Those marked "bad" are left as they 

 are until the approach of the honey sea- 

 son, when they are treated as follows. 



OUR PLAN IN DETAIL. 



Any time during the day, provided rob- 

 bers are not allowed to get a taste of the 

 diseased honey, we remove from all of the 

 diseased colonies every comb that does 

 not contain brood in a quantity worth while 

 saving. These are extracted, and then 

 rendered into wax. When removing these 

 combs of honey or empty combs, as the 

 case may be, the brood-combs left in the 

 hive are loosened, and spaced a little wider 

 than usual for convenience in handling 

 them later. About every fourth colony, 

 however (we try to select those lightest in 

 bees), is left with the combs spaced as 

 usual, and jjushed over to the side of the 

 hive; for in these hives we afterward stack 

 the diseased brood from the other colonies 

 for the purpose of allowing it to hatch. 



We now return to the colonies to be 

 treated. Remove the old hive to one side, 

 and in its place upon the same stand put 

 a clean ten-frame hive containing seven 

 frames of full sheets of foundation, and 

 Iwo drawn combs (if it is an eight-frame 

 hive, five frames of foundation are enough). 

 A cover is then put on, and a wide alight- 

 ing-board put in such a position that tlie 

 bees and queen will have no trouble in 

 finding their way back into the hive when 

 the combs are shaken. We then shake 

 off the bees that can be dislodged without 

 spilling a particle of honey, using a brush 

 to get" the rest of them. These five or 

 seven combs of diseased brood, according 

 to the strength of the colony treated, are 

 now carried to the light colony mentioned 

 above. The light colony will care for the 

 capped brood in three stories; and as we 

 do not care to preserve unsealed brood, 

 as T will explain further on, a colony of 

 this size is large enough for what we want 

 of it. 



The two drawn combs given the treated 

 colon V really save one shaking, or nearly 

 so, and one day in the time taken for the 

 double shaking plan. It is a fact that, 

 with any method of freeing the diseased 

 (omb of the bees, much diseased honey is 

 carried into the clean hive with the bees; 

 and the secret of success lies in one's abil- 

 ity to get the bees free from this diseased 



honey before storing any honey in their 

 new quarters. These two empty combs 

 accomplish this result. Let me digress. 



MORNING;, NOT EVENING^ THE BEST TIME TO 

 SHAKE. 



Eor several years I have felt that the 

 practice of shaking bees at night in the 

 treatment of disease is all wrong. It is 

 advisable to treat American foul brood 

 during the honey-flow, and at night, after 

 a day's work in the field, much nectar is 

 stored that shakes from the combs at a 

 mere touch, so that it is impossible to get 

 the bees from the combs without spilling 

 considerable of this thin honey. It is not 

 desirable to let this get into the clean hive. 

 Furthermore, aside from Avhat is shaken 

 out of the cells, the honey-sacs of the bees 

 are full of this thin nectar, in the process 

 of evaporation, so that a more undesirable 

 time to do this kind of work could not be 

 selected. 



Brushing bees from diseased combs with- 

 out first shaking off the majority of them 

 is rather too slow a process. It takes so 

 long to get the bees all off a set of combs 

 that many of them have time to fill their 

 sacs with honey and carry it to the new 

 hive. This we do not want. 



In the morning, on the other hand, the 

 honey from the previous day has been 

 evaporated to such an extent that none is 

 shaken from the cells, and the nectar in 

 the process of being evaporated from the 

 previous evening is cured and stored to 

 quite an extent. 



Taking advantage of the fact that the 

 honey in the combs will not shake out. and 

 also that the bees have disgorged them- 

 selves of the honey in their honey-sacs, we 

 are ready to remove those two combs before 

 mentioned, and it is done as follows : 



The first morning after the colony is 

 shaken from the diseased comb we quietly 

 remove the cover of the hive, give the bees 

 a slight puff' of smoke, so that they can 

 l)e handled, and in less than a fourth of a 

 minute, and before hardly a single bee 

 lealizes what is going on, they are shaken 

 from these two combs, and three more full 

 sheets of foundation put in their places. 

 Tlie hive is now closed up nearly destitute 

 of honey. One will be sui-prised at the 

 amount of honey in these two combs after 

 only the one day. Even when there is 

 but little coming in from the fields, the two 

 combs will be quite heavy with honey, 

 sliowing the need of taking it away. 



Some may ask if we do not lose two 

 extra combs by this plan. AVe do not, for 

 it sometimes happens that we have some 

 undesirable combs that we can use for this 



