1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1311 



I 



WORN-OUT STOCKS EXCHANGING WITH STRONG 

 LOTS. 



In following my own experiments the read- 

 er will please understand that worn-out 

 slocks with only a few old bees left may not 

 be treated on the same lines as here laid 

 down, with any hope of a successful issue. 

 However, where there are also some strong 

 lots the following case may be helpful : 



During the early part of the past season 

 an old client, a doctor, wrote me that he was 

 afraid he would have to give up his bees, as 

 they were going down with the plague. Sev- 

 eral lots were still strong, some very weak. 

 What could he do to cure, or should he de- 

 stroy the lot? I at once advised him to re- 

 move all queens, and then, after three days, 

 exchange hives, the weak with the stronger 

 lots. I also told him to follow the izal treat- 

 ment as advised by me, and in seven to ten 

 days he was to place an Italian queen at the 

 head of each lot. He followed out my in- 

 structions, and in a little over a month told 

 me every stock was apparently clean, and pro- 

 gressing favorably. Nothing was destroyed 

 in the process. 



I have elsewhere explained how I ex- 

 changed places with two stocks, one of which 

 was diseased while the other was quite healthy. 

 The latter, consequently, received all the 

 flying bees from the foul-brood stock, but, 

 contrary to all preconceived ideas, the healthy 

 stock remained perfectly sound. You see the 

 hives were moved quietly on a warm day, 

 with no previous smoking or internal dis- 

 turbance whatever; so that none of the bees 

 were induced to gorge themselves before fly- 

 ing in the usual course from their hives. 



TRE.'^TMENT BY SWARMING. 



Following upon this fact gained in man- 

 agement I was able to treat diseased stocks 

 in a manner not hitherto aitempted. Any lot 

 not allowed to go too far could be swartned 

 by removing the old stock and placing a fresh 

 hive with foundation upon the original site 

 with their own queen, thus giving the dis- 

 eased combs an interval of rest, always an 

 important factor. No shaking took place, and 

 as little disturbance as possible of the old 

 combs. The moved lot, having none but 

 young bees, presently have a queen-cell in- 

 serted, and by the time the new pritches of 

 brood develop, no sign of disease is to be 

 seen, providing there is a fair honey-flow and 

 the bees are energetic. At other times both 

 lots require feeding, and, for greater security, 

 with izal in the syrup. Sometimes I have 

 sprayed the bees of the old stock with iznl 

 solution, and often I have not; but in all 

 cases both the swarm and the stock have re- 

 mained clean. In fact, the increase from the 

 young queen in those original and once dis- 

 eased combs has often permitted of a further 

 division the same season. 



Many of your readers will not believe these 

 statements of fact ; but I describe them exact- 

 Iv as they have occurred, not in one case, 

 but many times repeated, with the same suc- 

 cessful ending. 



Rut right here let us consider another im- 

 portant factor bearing upon this matter. You 

 may divide a foul-brood stock, leaving half 

 the combs on the old site with the queen, 

 while the other half of the combs and bees 

 are to take a new situation. Without medica- 

 tion in either case, those left in the original 

 hive, being mostly old bees, with the queen, 

 will remain diseased unless an immune queen 

 be added ; but the portion removed having 

 only young bees, and no addition being made 

 to the brood-nest, will clean out the combs 

 after a few days. I have found young bees, 

 especially if Carniolan or Italian, never fail 

 to do this effectually in the interval of wait- 

 ing for a young queen to lay. 



These successful results have been secured 

 without medication during warm honey 

 weather ; but they were experiments, and 

 there is no reason why the same processes 

 should not be rendered doubly sure by the 

 izal treatment. 



But where do the foul-brood germs go? 

 Of course, the bees carry out the bulk of 

 them, and if insects do not take this refuse 

 into the earth, the sun or rains must render 

 it harmless. While the interval or break in 

 the production of brood in warm weather, 

 when every spore must germinate, appears to 

 be fatal to the disease, there being no further 

 soil for carrying forward the reproductive 

 series of germs meanwhile, thereafter the re- 

 newed vitality of the young bees and young 

 queen is an important factor in the case. 



CURING WITH CLEAN BROOD AND YOUNG BEES. 



Now suppose we take the case of a clean 

 stock being used to regenerate one diseased. 

 It will be an instance that happened under my 

 own observation. A weak lot, slightly dis- 

 eased, had a comb of hatching brood covered 

 with young bees, given to it at short intervals. 

 These youngsters simply cleared out every 

 vestige of the disease, and, with a young 

 queen added, not a speck of the pest appeared 

 thereafter. Three such combs were given, 

 and no medical agent employed. 



At all times, while bees may be safely 

 manipulated, the most urgent item is that of 

 raising the natural vitality of the stock to the 

 highest pitch. If honey is not coming in, 

 then rapid feeding will create that well-known 

 "ronr' which is fatal to any disease-germ. 

 Fresh food means fresh life, even if the food 

 should not be medicated. 



NEW VIT.\LITY VERSUS DISEASE. 



A few years ago a bee-keeper wrote to the 

 British Bee Journal stating he had been sur- 

 prised to get a large swarm in May from a 

 stock which was badly diseased when put up 

 for the previous winter. Upon examination 

 (after swarming) he found the combs 

 crowded with healthy brood, with the excep- 

 tion of the one back comb which was still oc- 

 cupied by foul matter, just about as they all 

 liad been the previous autumn. The bees 

 evidently had no special need of that back 

 comb ; but there it was by the side of others 

 nerfectly clean. Force of vitality and new 

 food were resporsible for the improvement 



