272 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



the disease they are marked, and when swarming actually begins 

 their heads are pinched off and they are given a golden Italian virgin 

 queen. 



Perhaps I had better tell hozv J make this c.rainviation. I select 

 some warm evening when the bees are all in the hive and there has 

 been some honey and some pollen coming in during the day, and they 

 are breeding pretty heavy. My! what a current of hot air there is 

 coming out of those entrances. Why, see that grass wiggling 'way 

 out there two or three feet! I'll just bet if I put my nose down to 

 that entrance and there is any foul brood there, I'll s}ncU it. "Oh, 

 hold on — '' seems to me I heard somebody say, "you couldn't smell 

 the disease unless it was quite bad." But let me tell you if you will 

 choose just such a time as I have mentioned, and there are two hun- 

 dred diseased cells, you'll get it if your smeller is good. 



(The late W. E. Alexander advocated the making of the colony queenless for 

 a period of some few days over three weeks, or until the healthy brood had all 

 hatched, before giving them a new queen. After being hopelessly queenless for 

 so long, the bees would naturally be in a condition to clean out and prepare every 

 available cell for the use of the queen, including any diseased cells there may be 

 present at that time. 



Later : Several variations of the method seem to work equally well as swarms 

 left queenless so long; simply exchanging queens, or, preferably allowing the col- 

 ony to rear their own queen, etc. The majority seem to agree with our corre- 

 spondent, that Italian blood is preferable to other, as a resister of European 

 foul brood. 



Now comes Mr. Eugene Baker, Los Angeles, Calif, American Bee Journal, 

 page 92 for March, saying Carneolans are better than the Italian bee as a re- 

 sister of European foul brood. One would naturally wonder after reading these 

 conflicting reports, if there was not something vet to learn about European foul 

 brood.— E. D. T.) 



Comb Foundation. 



ARTHUR MILLER, Providence, R. I. 



^^^11 Y does comb foundation stretch? What an absurd ques- 

 \J^ tion ! Because it is tired of staying in one position, of 

 course. Suppose you had been rolled out as flat as a pan- 

 cake and been sat upon by one or sundry females, don't you sup- 

 pose you would stretch if you got a chance? I would. 



But it is exceedingly annoying to the bee-keepers, so they try 

 to put in stays and wire it in sundry fashions and .sometimes they 

 succeed and some other times they do not, and they have vague 

 wonderings as to the reasons thereof, but they and their daddies have 

 puzzled over the matter before to no marked results, and speculating 

 along the line is getting tiresome, so they drop it and resignedly try 

 to prevent it with sticks and strings, wires and corset steels. 



Perhaps, and prol^able there is, a real tangible reason behind the 



