1901 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



65 



plied the sulphur some way. and I think 

 it will be best to give in detail the way 

 I have used it. 



For reasons I will give later on in this. 

 I always go to the colony I am to treat, 

 during the day, and take away all the 

 combs that contain brood; or, at least, 

 unsealed brood or eggs, and give to 

 some other colony; then in the evening, 

 as soon as the bees have quit work and 

 are all home, I proceed to dust sulphur 

 over every comb in the hive and. if pos- 

 sible, on every bee in the hive. I never 

 measure the exact amount of sulphur 

 used, but presume about a tablespoon- 

 ful to every three or four combs in the 

 hive. I do the work by taking what 

 .sulphur I can hold between my thumb 

 and first two fingers and dusting same 

 over first one side and then the other of 

 each comb, bees and all ; also over any 

 collection of bees there may be off the 

 combs in any part of the hive. My aim 

 is to have a thin dusting of the sulphur 

 over every bee and every comb in the 

 hive. The thinner the dusting the bet- 

 ter so it reaches everything in the hive. 

 I tried using an insect powder gun, but 

 couldn't do as good work as I could with 

 my fingers. The next day after doing 

 this dusting, I carry back to the hives 

 the same number of combs and brood as 

 I had taken away. 



The reason for taking away brood be- 

 fore dusting the combs, and returning 

 again afterward is because the dusting 

 of combs not only kills all the unsealed 

 brood in the combs, but ruins these 

 same combs for brood-raising. If such 

 combs are left in the hive, all eggs de- 

 posited in them will hatch out all right, 

 but the larvte will die as soon as hatched. 

 By giving these same combs to strong 

 colonies, they will clean them out and 

 use them all right, and no loss of combs 

 will result. 



For a week after dusting a diseised 

 colony with sulphur, fully as many or 

 more bees will be dying as before tiie 

 dusting ; and this fact may lead some to 

 think the •'cure" is not a cure. It will 



take a couple of weeks before one can 

 tell whether the treated colony is cured 

 or not. 



Diseased colonies are usually very- 

 weak in numbers after being cured, and 

 are of very little, if any more, value 

 than a good nucleus. I have doubts 

 whether it really pays to cure them ex- 

 cept such as can be treated very early 

 in the season, before nuclei can be 

 profitably made. For the last year I 

 have adopted the plan of curing such 

 colonies as needed it as early as the mid- 

 dle of February, or even earlier; after 

 that I make as many nuclei as is needed 

 for the purpose, and as soon as they 

 have a young laying queen I take away 

 the combs from the diseased colonies, 

 giving the brood to these nuclei, thus 

 building them up into good colonies and 

 destroy all the diseased bees with 

 sulphur fumes. 



In changing combs from diseased to 

 other colonltis I am very particular to 

 know that each comb is absolutely free 

 from bees, especially of dead ones that 

 may be in some empty cells. Diseased 

 bees quite often crawl into empty cells 

 to die. 



QUEEN-REARING. 



A Friendly Discussion of some of the 

 Fine Points in Developing Queens of 

 the Highest Order. 



liY W. H. PRIDGEX. 



SAYS Dr. Miller: '-Don't think that 

 in thirty days you can learn as 

 much about queen-rearing as Doo- 

 little did in thirty years,"' which saying 

 is worth repeating ; for after these 

 thirty years, in the same issue of Thk 

 Ax\r. Bee-keeter Doolittle, in an article 

 that furnishes much food for thought, 

 leaves each one to "keep up a constant 

 thinking on the -Cardinal Principles of 

 Queen-rearing" until the queen-rearing 

 of to-morrow may reach a higher plane 

 than has that of to-day."' With all of 

 his knowledge and experience it is evi- 



