392 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVlEW 



Field Notes From Tennessee. 



J. M. BUCHANAN, FRANKLIN, TKNN.. STATE BEE INSPECTOR. 



During September and October is a .t^ood time to do your rc- 

 queening, as good queens can be bought cheaply at this time; then 

 in the spring- you will have a young and vigorous queen to build up 

 the colony rapidly. Probably not all the colonies will need re- 

 queening. If a queen is not over two years old, and her colony has 

 done good work during the honey-How, it would ])e perhaps as well 

 to give her another season. However, I would prefer to requccn 

 all colonies that failed to come up to the average in hone}^ pro- 

 duction, or any that have hybrid or misnuited queens. 



Since there is always a risk in using mailing cages with candy 

 in introducing, it would be better to use one of the direct methods. 

 These are simple and much safer than the cage and cand}- plan. 

 It ma}' be done with the use of smoke, as described by A. C. Miller, 

 in Gleanings, recently, or by the fasting method. This latter con- 

 sists in keeping the queen alone and wdthout food for about forty- 

 five minutes, when she can be run directly into the hi\'e. Of course 

 the old queen and all queen-cells must be first removed. 



I want to endorse wdiat ]\[r. Alillen says in the September 

 Review alx)ut care and thoroughness in the treatment of Foul 

 Brood. Too many bee-keepers are haphazard and careless in their 

 methods of dealing with these diseases, and inclined to trust to 

 "luck*' in effecting a cure. It takes careful, conscientious work in 

 treating to get permanent results. Above all, don't take any chance 

 with robber bees, for they can scatter more foul brood in ten min- 

 utes than you can clean up in a month. 



I have found carbolic cloths very useful in treating diseased 

 colonies, and also in taking off honey, where the bees were in- 

 clined to rob. Sprinkle an old sack with crude carbolic acid and 

 place over the hive to drive the bees down, or laid over the dis- 

 eased combs it will keep the robbers at a distance. In taking oft' 

 honey, it is best not to let the cloth remain in contact with the 

 frames more than a few minutes, or the honey will be scented 



with the acid. 



* * * 



Why will bee-keepers generallv allow the rearing of tliousands 

 of useless drones? They are consumers and not producers; their 

 room is much preferred to their company; and it seems to me 

 that these great lots of surplus drones have much to do with induc- 

 ing swarming. In an apiary where very few drones are allowed, 

 there was not over ten per cent of swarming this season, while in 



