1935 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



713 



out from the foul-brood combs will perish, 

 thereby causing a loss of bees to the force 

 below. When we first put on the chute it is 

 always best to close it up for a few hours or 

 until the bees have quieted down, for some- 

 times the bees that are left in the upper hive 

 call their comrades, and we have to do the 

 shaking all over again. 



Now as to the snug fit to the alighting- 

 board of the chute. If we did not fit it 

 close, I have found sometimes that the bees, 

 when they came out, have found their way 

 back up the chute and have gone to work 

 and raised another queen, thereby nullifying 

 all our work as to getting the bees into one 

 hive and strong enough to gather a surplus 

 of honey during the summer. We can make 

 this close fit by making the opening at the 

 lower end of the chute on an angle so that 

 one straight edge will come tight to the 

 alighting-board, while the other straight 

 edge will have a § beeway. Fig. 1 will show 

 what is meant. The last thing to be done 

 with the whole operation is removing the 

 foul-brood hive after the brood has hatched 

 out. You must be careful in removing or 

 you will find to your sorrow that you will 

 have all your troubles over again next sea- 

 son, and perhaps more of it. 



In closing let me impress on your mind to 

 have the upper hive bee- tight, for it is from 

 there we get all our trouble. We cage the 

 queen so that she may not abscond with the 

 swarm, which has been known to happen 

 more than once. It gives the bees time to 

 build down the comb, and by the time the 

 queen is at liberty she has plenty of room 

 to deposit her eggs, and is perfectly content 

 to stay. 



This is the plan as I saw it, and practiced 

 last summer, and is being practiced by the 

 large bee- men of Colorado with good results. 

 While it can not be said that it is infallible 

 in curing or absolutely abolishing foul brood, 

 it can be said that, in about 75 per cent of 

 cases, it does cure, and is far more effective 

 when it comes to raising surplus honey from 

 foul-brood colonies. I can also say that it 

 would be far more effective in curing foul 

 brood if there were not so much careless- 

 ness in operation. 



Another plan practiced by one of the larg- 

 est comb-honey producers of Colorado for 

 curbing foul- brood and working the bees for 

 surplus is as follows: Take from two to five 

 colonies infected with foul brood, shake them 

 out, first caging the queen, before new hives 

 on their old stands. Now take the old hives 

 and stack them on top of another, as many 

 as you please. Inside of 21 days shake out 

 fie two, three, four, or say five hives before 

 a clean hive with a new queen caged in the 

 hive, and you have an increase. This plan 

 does not appeal to me, for it does not give 

 greatest possible strength in bees for the 

 gathering of surplus during the honey- flow. 



Evanston, 111. 



[This I consider to be a very valuable con- 

 tribution to our bee- lore, and I respectfully 

 recommend it to those of our readers who 



are afflicted with foul brood, and yet desire 

 to secure a crop just the same. 



The plan is somewhat similar to the one 

 advocated by M. M. Baldridge some seven 

 or eight years ago; but instead of using a 

 transfer-board and a chute he recommended 

 an ordinary escape-board through which the 

 young bees, as fast as they hatched, passed 

 into the lower hive. But the chute and 

 transfer-board, as above described, has an 

 advantage over the Baldridge plan in that 

 the bees do not immediately desert the 

 brood. Unless it is warm weather the old 

 bees as well the young ones will sooner or 

 later (probably "sooner") go through the 

 bee-escape into the lower hive. But the 

 Colorado plan, with transfer-board and 

 chute, provides that the brood shall not be 

 deserted until the bees are of a flying age. 

 By that time the brood will probably have 

 all hatched out, and the result will be there 

 will be no chilled brood along with the reg- 

 ular foul brood. 



I am not sure but the supply-manufactur- 

 ers ought to supply these outfits. If there 

 should be a call for them they undoubtedly 

 would. They should be well made, and 

 exact, as our correspondent points out. 



One thing more should be mentioned, and 

 that is, the side of the chute through which 

 the bees escape should be toward the hive; 

 that is to say, the bees, when ready to fly, 

 escape into the new hive below; and when 

 they desire to pass outward they fly from 

 the entrance toward which they will natu- 

 rally return, joining their fellows in the 

 lower hive. 



In the third paragraph our correspondent 

 conveys the impression that the transfer- 

 board and chute is not applied to the infect- 

 ed hive until the honey-flow. It would 

 seem to me to be better to commence opera- 

 rations before that time, so that the entire 

 force would be available and ready at the 

 time of putting the supers on the lower 

 hive, which would now have combs drawn 

 out below, and the queen at work. — Ed.] 



PERTINENT REMARKS ON SHAKEN 

 SWARMS. 



Fifteen Minutes a Colony all the Time Needed. 

 A new Scheme of Shaking. 



BY E. S. MILLER. 



In your explanation of "shook" swarm- 

 ing, page 528, it seems to me you miss some 

 of the points essential to success, and em- 

 phasize others not so important. Here is a 

 better way. 



If your colony is very strong, first tack a 

 piece of Tinker zinc over the entrance. 

 Provide yourself with a heavy cloth or can- 

 vas—a grain-sack is all right— and a hive 

 filled with empty combs or frames with 

 starters. Remove the super and throw the 

 canvas over the top of the hive to keep the 

 bees in. Next, roll back the cloth from one 

 side, and smoke down as you remove each 

 frame of brood, and replace it with an empty 



