108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 15 



an interval of four days between. The hives 

 were then disinfected, all honey boiled, and 

 the combs rendered away from the bees. Al- 

 though these colonies were blacks, rotten 

 with disease, many of them weak, and pro- 

 vided with old queens, every colony was 

 permanently cured as proven by inspection 

 since that time, in spite of the fact that the 

 work was done during a poor honey-fiow. 



During the same spring I moved fifty 

 healthy colonies — the Berdine yard, in fact 

 — within range of diseased bees which they 

 robbed. Several of the colonies had been 

 shaken, i)revious to development of any dis- 

 ease, to prevent swarming. When, a little 

 later, the disease did appear, lo and behold! 

 these shaken swarms were the worst infect- 

 ed of any in the yard. Wishing to make a 

 clean sweep of the disease, I waited only un- 

 til other colonies in the vicinity were treat- 

 ed, and then began on the McEvoy treat- 

 ment; however, 1 didn't disinfect the hives, 

 as I thought it unnecessary since the disease 

 had been so recently contracted. And after 

 curing hundreds of cases I still believe that 

 the disinfecting would have had little eflect 

 in this case, for some of the colonies were 

 shaken into new hives. In almost every 

 case a return of the disease followed in a 

 short time, leaving the shaken colony in 

 worse condition than before, througli deple- 

 tion of the brood. My readers will now re- 

 member what I said awhile back about the 

 bearing of the "condition of the honey- 

 flow" and "resistant condition of the colo- 

 ny " as to immunity, etc. I want to im- 

 press the importance of this upon my read- 

 ers, even if it is the last column of space I 

 am ever permitted to use in Gleanings. 

 For a surgeon to attempt an operation on a 

 patient who has not vitality enough to with- 

 stand the shock would be considered folly; 

 yet the idea of shaking bees under these 

 conditions is just as unreasonable. Listen: 

 The honey-fiow was poor; the queens were, 

 of course, poor, and the blackest bees in the 

 worst diseased colonies. Had I requeened 

 these weakened colonies at the time of shak- 

 ing, I will wager that the result might have 

 been entirely in my favor and in favor of 

 the shaking method. Also had the honey- 

 flow been good, which it was not, the results 

 might liave been better. 



Well, it didn't take half an eye to see that 

 I was making no headway by "shaking," 

 so I began stacking the brood over other 

 colonies, some of which were kept queen- 

 less. I also stacked some separately, leav- 

 ing only one frame of bees to a body and no 

 queen. As to cures, I had various results; 

 but one fact stood out clearly; viz., the side 

 of the apiary where the diseased brood was 

 piled was getting the best of the bargain all 

 the way through. In the fall flow the stack- 

 ed colonies made a lot of honey while some on 

 the shaken side of the yard had to be unit- 

 ed to be put in shape for winter, and many 

 of them had to be put on combs of healthy 

 stores after brood-rearing had ceased, hav- 

 ing failed to get rid of the disease. 



The McEvoy treatment had been success- 



ful with the black bees at Lowell because 

 we had killed or "chased to the woods " ev- 

 ery disease germ in the hives, combs, and 

 honey. I am satisfied that, without disin- 

 fection of hives in this case, we should have 

 had the disease back again in a short time. 

 In the case of the Berdine apiary the disease 

 was kept in the yard in those stacks, and I 

 believe the germs were scattered through the 

 air. My colonies treated a la McEvoy were 

 in beautiful condition to be reinfected from 

 this source; and right here is the weak point 

 in the shaking treatment in large apiaries, 

 viz., it puts the colony in a weaker and more 

 susceptible condition to contract the disease 

 than it was at first. My new swarms and 

 the previously healthy shaken swarms were 

 also in this susceptible condition as I have 

 just related, the conditions differing only in 

 that tlie treated colonies were the poorest to 

 begin with in general vitality. 



With the advent of the fall flow, most of 

 the colonies cleaned up all traces of the dis- 

 ease, although the crayon-marks remained 

 on each hive, showing their past condition 

 and treatment. Now, had I succeeded in 

 treating aZ^ infected colonies I might be tell- 

 ing bee-keepers to-day of tlie "cure " I had 

 discovered; but, alas! for lack of help I fail- 

 ed to treat about fifty badly infected hives, 

 expecting that they were requeened with 

 the rest of the bees. Tlie disease disappear- 

 ed during the fall flow, and the inspection 

 of the following May revealed that out of 

 fifty hives not treated all were healthy ex- 

 cepting four, which showed the disease in 

 very mild form. This yard had wintered 

 perfectly, contained young Italian queens, 

 and was left in the packing until settled 

 warm weather. It also happened that a 

 small bee-keeper located within about a 

 mile of both this yard and the George yard 

 had failed to clean up, and had a lot of rob- 

 bing going on in some diseased hives. The 

 strong immune bunch of fifty remained 

 healthy, while in the George yard, which 

 had wintered poorly, a dozen diseased colo- 

 nies developed in the spring, and there were 

 more throughout the season. Of course, I 

 got rid of the diseased yard by buying it up 

 a little later; but the circumstance served to 

 impress the importance of keeping all colo- 

 nies in an immune condition, and, inciden- 

 tally, furnished material for testing more 

 fully the cure I shall advocate a little later 

 in this article. The Aylesworth yard of 

 golden three-banders, Cyprians, Carniolans, 

 and Caucasians, which wintered well and 

 were fed frequently, has never showed a 

 trace of the disease since. Now, if the above 

 experience counts for any thing, does it not 

 clearly prove that colonies kept in the pink 

 of condition may be immune to the disease, 

 while weak hives, with poor black queens, 

 are easily infected? 



A DISCUSSION OF THE ALEXANDER AND 

 MILLER TREATMENTS. 



Mr. Alexander reports a cure from uniting 

 and building his colonies up strong, de- 

 queening and decelling for 21 days, and 

 then introducing a cell or virgin queen of 



