1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



493 



down, and placing these two frames 

 with queen between them in center of 

 super, on top of colony, in the middle 

 of the day, with no caging or news- 

 paper either. If you use the two up- 

 per queens this way, you now have 

 a field force from 5 laying queens, all 

 left on one stand and all of the same 

 colony, odor, etc. 



As an Experimental Hive 



It is a line hive with which to study 

 the nature of bees. Some are lots 

 better cell starters than others, some 

 better nurses and some are not good 

 for either (get rid of these). It is a 

 great drone conserver. You can place 

 a fi-anie of sealed drones in there and 

 when you take the lid off you have a 

 regular swarm of drones. Can lift 

 a super of fresh grafted cells off, take 

 out the combs on one side, over the 

 cells, and watch the nurse bees work, 

 and go and come from those cells. 



While I do not expect breeders of 

 the magnitude of Mr. Wing, of Cali- 

 fornia, would take to this plan, I be- 

 lieve it would do the trick for Mr. F. 

 Dundas Todd, of Ontario, who in the 

 September issue of the American Bee 

 Journal, pages 361-2, told of keeping 

 the finest recoi'ds I had ever seen, but 

 was never able to raise a queen from 

 those heavy producers; especially if 

 he would build it double-walled and 

 pack it. 



Louisiana. 



AN ANTISEPTIC FOR BEE DIS- 

 EASES 



By Arthur C. Miller 



Last spring Mr. F. Dundas Todd, of 

 Victoria, B. C., sent me particulars of 

 the Lewis treatment for European 

 foulbrood and at the same time say- 



ing it was equally efficacious in the 

 treatment of American foulbrood. 

 Later I had correspondence with both 

 Mr. W. H. Lewis, the discoverer of its 

 application to bees, and Mr. W. J. 

 Shcppard, Chief Inspector of Apiaries 

 of British Columbia. 



So many cures have been offered, 

 many of which I have tested and 

 found wanting, that naturally I was 

 skeptical about this. But it was so 

 well and confidently recommended 

 that I tried it, and tried it carefully, 

 first exactly as recommended, and 

 then varied it until I was sure about 

 every particulai'. 



The article from Mr. Sheppard, in 

 November number, gives all import- 

 ant particulars, so I will not repeat 

 them, but just cite some observations. 



"B.-K." was not available here, but 

 I found a chemist who knew all about 

 it and he told me it was a strong solu- 

 tion of sodium hypochlorite and is 

 made as given in Mr. Sheppard's arti- 

 cle. It is the home-made solution 

 vi-hich I have used. It is so cheap that 

 its cost need not enter into the con- 

 sideration of the treatment. 



After the solution is made, keep it 

 corked, and when using it wear old 

 clothes, because it is a powerful 

 bleaching agent. It is non-poisonous 

 and non-irritating, on the contrai^y, 

 it is a good sterilizing agent for cuts 

 and abrasions. 



In applying it on infected combs a 

 common bush sprayer is used. These 

 may be bought at an agricultural 

 warehouse and cost here 50c. An in- 

 spector having much work to do had 

 better have one made of brass or cop- 

 per, because the tin ones soon rust 

 out. 



It is wise to catch and cage the 

 queen at the start and release her 



when through, because she often runs 

 out with the bees and does not always 

 find her way back. The bees are 

 shaken from a comb and the comb is 

 sprayed on both sides and then re- 

 turned to the hive. Each comb is 

 treated in the same way. The bees 

 keep moving away from the sprayed 

 combs, but soon go back onto them. 

 They lick up all drops of the liquor. 

 When all combs are back in the hive 

 and most of the bees are back in, the 

 queen may be released. I found the 

 full strength solution killed most of 

 the eggs, or at least they disappeared, 

 and this was an advantage, for it was 

 equal to dequeening for three days, 

 and gave the bees a chance to clean 

 up. 



We have here a virulent type of 

 European foulbrood and it is hard to 

 combat, but the spray treatment does 

 it thoroughly. In mild cases or when 

 the disease has just appeared, one 

 spraying is sufficient, but if the dis- 

 ease has been running for some time 

 and there are many sealed cells, and 

 particularly if the colony is weak in 

 bees, several subsequent sprayings 

 are necessary. This is because the 

 gas does not penetrate and sterilize 

 the sealed cells and as soon as they 

 are opened by the bees reinfection oc- 

 curs. 



Here is the description of an ex- 

 periment on a number of treatments 

 and I'esults. Eight colonies were in- 

 fected, some mildly, some rotten with 

 the virulent type. One treatment 

 sufficed with all the mildly infected 

 colonies, but several, three to four,, at 

 intervals of three to six days, were 

 necessary with the others. Two bad 

 cases received several treatments 

 each and almost cleaned up, one hav- 

 ing but two or three infected cells on 

 each comb. These colonies were then 

 allowed to remain undisturbed to act 

 as a "control," as the scientists say. 

 The disease began to spread until 

 they were as bad as at first, literally 

 rotten with the disease. 



There seems no doubt but that the 

 chlorine gas does destroy all germs it 

 comes in contact with, and for me 

 European foulbrood has lost its ter- 

 ror. I was not able this year to test 

 it on American foulbrood. I have 

 spores of that disease and another 

 year shall infect a colony or colonies 

 and try it out. Dr. Phillips is skep- 

 tical as to its efficacy on American 

 foulbrood, because the spores get into 

 the honey, and so are beyond the 

 reach of the spray. The Canadians 

 say it works as well on American foul- 

 brood as on European foulbrood. Let 

 us hope we are as successful, but 

 American foulbrood is not half the 

 trouble the other is. 

 Rhode Island. 



Double colony used for cell building. 



In addition to 300 queens, over 

 was produced 



250 pounds of honey 



French Bee Book 



We have ordered from France half 

 a dozen copies of 'Le Mystere des 

 Abeilles," mentioned in the editorials 

 of October, page 395. The price of 

 the book is about $1 in paper covers. 

 We have a couple of orders for them 

 already. Who wants more? First 

 come, first served. 



