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NEW FOUL-BROOD PLAN 



Eliminates Shaking in Transferring and in the 

 Treatment of American Foul Brood 



About livo years since I made a cage, with 

 the idea of transferring bees from box hives 

 quickly and without cutting out the combs. 

 It was a success from the start. I got all the 

 bees and queen out quickly. The cage was 

 made thus. I took the bee-escape or honey- 

 board and cut a hole in it 4 x 6 inches and 

 made a wire cage as large as the honey- 

 board and eight inches high. To transfer a 

 colony, remove the hive from the stand 

 a few feet, put the new hive where 

 the old one was, remove the top from 

 the old hive, and place the honey- 

 board as described on the hive with the wire 

 cage in place. Get the smoker well started, 

 put in it about one tablcspoonful of carbolic 

 acid, and smoke freely in the entrance of the 

 old hive. The bees with the queen will soon 

 lie in the cage. Now remove the cage with 

 bees in it to the new hive on the old stand. 

 If they are slow in going down in the new 

 liive. shake them gently off the honey-board 

 :ind then out of the cage. The carbolic acid 

 in till' smoker puts everything out of the old 

 hive ill a rusli. After the successful use of 

 the cage in transferring it appealed to me 

 as a good plan to use for foul brood to elimi- 

 nat>e the shaking, as we Avell know the shak- 

 ing plan in the hands of a careless operator 

 will spread the trouble more than check it. 

 I have used this plan in and about Wichita 

 for several years. Bees are not so apt to 

 abscond and the honey and the brood in the 

 iliseased hive can be removed and burned 

 without spilling a drop of honey. 



8o much for the old or cage plan; but I 

 have it beaten by my new plan, which is as 

 follows: First, place the new hive where 

 the old hive formerly was located (to be 

 sure, the old hive must be removed first) ; 

 next, arrange the old hive with alighting- 

 board teuching alighting-board of the new 

 hive (except in cases of severe brood trouble, 

 when I leave about two inches of space be- 

 tween, with a thin piece of board put on the 

 two for the bees to walk across on). Leave 

 the toj) and the sides open, and the bees will 

 ^o across if handled right, and if a few do 

 take flight they will alight at the new hive 

 on the old stand. Have both entrances open 

 the full width of the hives. Slide the cover 

 of the old hive forward about two inches 

 ami smoke in the back of the hive at the 

 top — not too much smoke (most of our bee- 

 keepers and many of our inspectors use too 

 niuch smoke). This smoking will crowd the 

 t'ces ill front of the hive, and, when well 

 "itarteil across, the volume of smoke can lie 

 increased. fSome of our inspectors say they 



shake one frame or scoop up about a pint 

 of bees and place them on the alighting- 

 board of the new hive, thinking it helps to 

 start them across. I have never found it 

 necessary to try this plan, as they go for me 

 and go quickly. I would advise plain smoke, 

 no carbolic acid. One can very quickly 

 make a colony very stupid and dull with too 

 much carbolic acid. We have some inspec- 

 tors here who killed thousands of bees with 

 the cage plan the first few times they tried 

 it, just because they used carbolic acid too 

 strong and smoked too freely. The hives 

 should be properly placed, and there should 

 not be too much smoke to start with. I dem- 

 onstrated both plans in transferring and in 

 treatment of foul brood at the field meeting 

 at Nickerson. Also at the State field meet 

 at Manhattan where they have neither box 

 hives nor foul brood, I put a colony in a 

 new hive for demonstration. While both 

 plans are a great advantage over the old 

 shaking plan, the new one is much superior 

 to the cage plan and is all-sufficient for 

 transferring also. We know the plan works, 

 as we have ten inspectors out here all using 

 the ))lan successfully. There has been no 

 complaint from any of them, only very flat- 

 tering praise. It is safe to say there will be 

 no more shaking for foul brood in Kansas. 



Wichita, Kansas. O. J. Jones. 



[We have tried this plan and find it woiks 

 successfully. The only possilile drawback 

 we can see is the fact that a few of the bees 

 take wing .and, since the smoking causes 

 some of them to fill up with diseased honey, 

 if. the hives are close together, there is a 

 chance that a few, confused by the old hive 

 being placed directly in front of their en- 

 trance, might enter near-by hives and thus 

 spread the disease, just as they sometimes ilo 

 when applying the shaking treatment. In 

 comparison with the shaking plan, liowe\er. 

 it seems to us this new plan is greatly to be 

 {(referred, since there is no possibility of ex- 

 posing diseased honey where other bees may 

 obtain it and so spread the disease. We are 

 glad Kansas is giving the method so good a 

 trial. — Editor.] 



afi ^©f: 



PREVENTION OF AFTER - SWARMS 



Dr. C. C. Miller States Objections to Plans Given 

 in Previous Issue 



Just how to allow a colony to swarm once 

 and no more, allowing the old queen and a 

 great majority of the bees to remain at the 

 old stand, is a thing that many a beginner 

 would like to know. In Gleanings for June, 

 on page 3.52 and on page -356, the matter is 

 disciisscil. I M like to keep good friends 

 with ('. K. Deiicen, and Editor Root, as well 



