1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



23 



rescue and told us that the introduction of 

 young Italian queens was a great factor in 

 the abolishment of the dread disease, on 

 which we resumed queen-rearing. By the 

 time we had queens to introduce, our colo- 

 nies, I should imagine, were just longing for 

 queens, and had had the requisite time for 

 perfect housecleaning. They have never had 

 foul brood since the introduction of these 

 young queens, and some of them had it very 

 badly indeed. My partner said to me one day 

 as we were looking through them, "I be- 

 lieve we have found a cure for foul brood, 

 viz., keeping them queenless for a time," 

 and proposed putting our queens, which are 

 all young, into nuclei, giving the bees time 

 to clean up and then return them. He urg- 

 ed me to write you, giving our experience; 

 but I said you would laugh at us for think- 

 ing that such a simple thing could cure foul 

 brood; and if there was any thing in it it 

 would have been discovered long ago. Nev- 

 ertheless, we had decided to try it provided 

 it makes its appearance in the spring. 



In your footnote you say, ' ' The question 

 may naturally arise now whether the Alex- 

 ander treatment would not prove equally 

 effective in the cure of foul brood." When 

 the tenacious matter Mr. A. speaks of can 

 not be removed by the bees they eat the 

 combs out and build them up anew, as we 

 have seen in hundreds of instances this year. 

 In fact, one- half or two thirds of our colo- 

 nies got rid of it without any assistance in 

 that way. 



In our management of diseased colonies 

 we have found the less room they have the 

 better. Unless they are very strong, or you 

 have plenty of brood to give them, they 

 should be confined to a single hive. Do I 

 hear some one saying, "I guess it was not 

 genuine foul brood ' ' ? The foregoing ex- 

 perience was with real foul brood. 



Mr. Alexander's article gave us great en- 

 couragement, and several points from which 

 to work, the most important of which is the 

 matter of time to keep colonies queenless. 

 We had feared that the method, so far as 

 our experience had reached, would necessi- 

 tate keeping colonies so long queenless as to 

 reduce them so much it would be impossible 

 to receive any benefit from them for that 

 year. 



Jamul, Cal., Nov. 17. 



[I have read both of these articles with 

 more than ordinary interest. To say that 

 the Alexander treatment, or the Simmins 

 treatment, whatever we may call it, gives us 

 hope of curing foul brood as well as black, 

 without destroying combs, is putting it very 

 mild indeed. But the thing I can not under- 

 stand is this: Honey is known to be a medi- 

 um for carrying foul brood. Supposing that 

 the germs of this disease are in honey that 

 is sealed up in combs in the hive under treat- 

 ment, if the bees clean out the brood- combs 

 containing the dead matter, what is to pre- 

 vent reinfection of the new brood fed on 

 this honey? We have demonstrated time 

 and again that honey from a diseased hive 



will carry the infection to another one per- 

 fectly healthy. I can explain this peculiar 

 phenomenon in the case of black brood, be- 

 cause I understand from the inspectors that 

 this disease (black brood) is not carried 

 through the medium of the honey. 



The articles by Mr. Gibson and by Mr. 

 Samuel Simmins are both encouraging; but 

 I must confess to a feeling of doubt that 

 the treatment will prove effective for foul 

 brood where the combs of honey actually 

 contain the germs of the disease and are 

 left in the hive. If all such combs oe re- 

 moved, extracted, and honey boiled, then I 

 can see how, if the combs be given back, 

 the bees would clean them up and remove 

 the infection. — Ed.] 



A SECTION-PROTECTOR. 



A Device for Keeping the Sections Clean. 



BY J. W. ORMSBY. 



I will try to give you a description of the 

 device I have been using this season for 

 keeping my sections clean. First, I use the 

 ordinary section-holder, which prevents the 

 bottom of the sections from being dirty, and 

 then I have cut from zinc a piece the exact 

 size to cover the sections in the super, with 

 the beeway the same as the bottom of the 

 section-holders, which I place on the top of 

 the sections the same as a queen-excluder 



should be used. This prevents the bees from 

 traveling over the sections, and consequent- 

 ly all I have to clean is the beeway above 

 and below in the sections, which I trim with 

 a very sharp knife. 



To remove the sections from the super, 

 proceed in the ordinary way. Knock out 

 the wedges and upset the super on a bench 

 or table, and the section will come off easily, 

 and this prevents the protector from getting 

 kinked or bent, as it comes off last. In us- 

 ing this we can leave the sections on any 

 length of time, and they can't be soiled. 



Bonsall, Cal. J. W. Ormsby. 



