274 



Any colonies, at the first shake, not strong 

 enough to make good colonies, are shaken 

 together. 



If a honey-fiow is on, the bees may be 

 supered as in the regular method of forced 

 swarming practiced by some, and a crop of 

 honey han-ested. If no honey is coming 

 in they must be fed. 



The wax from the melted combs will pay 

 for the new foundation and the work. The 

 bees are now absolutely clean, and on new 

 combs, and practically nothing is lost but 

 the time necessary for the work, and that 

 is really paid for. Do not lose sight of the 

 fact that other bees in that locality must 

 be looked after too. 



By the shaking treatment the bees lose 

 practically no time. In fact, they will work 

 with the vim of new swarms. All colonies 

 headed by old or failing queens, or those 

 not pure Italian, are replaced with young 

 Italian queens. Methods of treating that 

 involve a period of queenlessness make a 

 serious break in the life of the colony. The 

 bees will practically loaf thru that queen- 

 less period. A colony left queenless or 

 without a laying queen for two or three 

 weeks will be of no particular value for the 

 rest of that season. I trust that no one 

 will misunderstand me. I recognize the 

 many good and valuable things in other 

 methods of treating; but fifteen years' ex- 

 perience with this disease has taught me 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



that radical treatment is not only the saf- 

 est but the most economical in the end, and 

 the only sure way to stamp it out. 



There is much talk just now about strains 

 of Italian bees that are immune. It would 

 not surprise me if some would-be queen- 

 breeders (?) would start advertising such 

 bees. Will the gullible public bite? There 

 is much evidence that Italian bees are re- 

 sistant to the disease because of their vigor, 

 and should be introduced generally as a 

 help in the fight. But immune — not yet. 

 I venture to say from the very nature of 

 things they never will be, but that is an- 

 other subject. We all know how Italian 

 bees will clean out the bee-moth and keep 

 them out. That is because the}- are a hardy 

 and vigorous race of bees, and not easily 

 discouraged. They will work at European 

 foul brood the same way, and tend to keep 

 it down; but while they are doing so in 

 many cases they are losing out at the same 

 time. The beekeeper who thinks that he 

 will never have European foul brood just 

 because he has a good strain of Italian bees 

 may wake up with a sudden jar some fine 

 morning. 



I know what it means to handle more 

 than one thousand colonies of bees with lit- 

 tle competent help, and to treat hundreds 

 of cases of foul brood, and I offer my ex- 

 perience for what it may be worth to others. 



Reynoldsville, Pa. 



TO THE RESCUE OF MR. HOLTERMANN 



BY LAURENCE A. P. STONE 



Poor Mr. Holtermann! I wish I could 

 sympathize with his sad remarks on page 

 116, Feb. 1 ; but, unfortunately, my feelings 

 concerning the menace of European foul 

 brood among the bees do not disturb me, 

 altho I have had to contend with this dis- 

 ease among my bees ever since I have been 

 in the bee business. It has been more of a 

 blessing than a woe, for it has improved 

 conditions among the beekeepers of my lo- 

 cality, and made it possible to get decent 

 prices for honey. 



Situated as I am, in Canada, just across 

 the river from Buffalo, I have had the full 

 benefit of European foul brood ever since it 

 crossed Niagara River. Before the disease 

 arrived, almost every farmer in the vicinity 

 liad one or two hives of vicious black bees; 

 and when any surplus honey was made they 

 sold it for a song. It was impossible for 

 any bee specialist to compete with these 

 people, as the latter would invariably un- 

 dersell. Since these farmers never gave 

 any time to their bees, what honey they 



received was in the form of a bonanza, and 

 what they could not eat themselves was 

 promptly sold at the first price offered, or, 

 rather, just a little below the one they heard 

 the regular beekeepers were offering. No 

 care was ever taken of the bees; the hives 

 were made of any kind of material, and I 

 doubt if one person in ten of these had 

 ever seen the inside of a hive. 



Then came the disease; and the way it 

 wiped out these beekeepers was a caution. 

 Before long a hive of live bees was almost 

 a curiosity in the neighborhood. Luckily 

 for me I had started right, and had mostly 

 Italians. The disease used to touch my 

 yards now and then ; but with one exception 

 it never took a firm hold in any colony of 

 pure stock. Only the hybrids suffered, and 

 I requeened these as fast as I could with 

 good stock imported from the United States, 

 and in but one ease was there trouble with 

 the queens purchased. These queens came 

 from a very prominent breeder, and I was 

 pained with the results obtained from their 



