THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



221 



is any opposition back of it. This plan 

 keeps the queens in the best possible condi- 

 tion for shipment, and enables me to keep a 

 stock of queens on hand all ready for im- 

 mediate shipment. 



AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL TOO LOW IN PBIOE. 



Bro. York of the American Bee Journal 

 says that one of his subscribers complained 

 because better paper is not used in printing 

 the Bee Jaurnal. Very properly it is ex- 

 plained that at the present price, and the 

 " slow pay " of some of the subscriber,*, bet- 

 ter paper cannot be afforded. Let the price 

 of a journal be what it may, there will al- 

 ways be delinquent subscribers unless the 

 "pay in advance" rule is strictly enforced, 

 and this greatly reduces the list as I know 

 by a costly experience. The simple fact in 

 the case is that the price of the ^»ier*caH 

 Bee Journal is too low. Qlass journals can 

 never be published at such low rates as in 

 the case of general newspapers and maga- 

 zines, as they can never secure so large lists 

 of subscribers. Most of our bee journals 

 are run in connection with a supply trade, 

 and this enables their proprietors to furnish 

 the journals at prices which allow of very 

 small profits unless the list is large. Bro. 

 York, why don't you raise the price of your 

 paper or else add a supply trade ? Perhaps 

 some will think that this is none of my busi- 

 ness. Perhaps it isn't ; but Bro. York has 

 worked hard, and is yet working hard, and 

 while he is making a good journal, much 

 better than some of us thought he would, 

 only an editor knows how much better he 

 could make it if he only had plenty of money 

 to spend upon it. If one-half were added to 

 the price, I will warrant that twice the value 

 would be returned to the subscriber in the 

 way of bette paper, more illustrations and 

 an increase in valuable correspondence, etc. 



THE BALDEIDGE METHOD OF TKEATING FOUL 

 BEOOD A SUCCESS. 



I have a bee-keeping friend who has treat- 

 ed several colonies for foul brood this sea- 

 son, using the Baldridge treatment. He will 

 allow me to publish his experience but not 

 his name. However, I can vouch for his re- 

 liability. Last fall he found th^t he had fif- 

 teen colonies affected with the disease. Some 

 of them were quite bad, others were slightly 

 affected. He made no attempt to treat them, 

 simply marked the hives and wintered all of 



his bees in the cellar. In the spring about 

 half of the diseased colonies were dead and 

 most of those alive were weak in numbers. 

 They were placed near together in a seclu- 

 ded part of the yard and finally all united 

 into one colony. An examination of the 

 supposed healthy colonies revealed three 

 more diseased ones — two quite badly and 

 one only showing an occasional dead larva. 



As soon as the fiow from white clover be- 

 gan one of the colonies v,as treated by shak- 

 ing the bees into a new hive containing 

 frames with starters only. There was no 

 cutting out of the combs built during the 

 first four days, a la McEvoy, but there has 

 been no sign since of the disease. The other 

 three colonies were treated by the Baldridge 

 plan as published in the Review, and it is 

 now near the middle of August with no trace 

 of the disease showing. 



My friend says that the cones do not do 

 their work absolutely perfect. To a certain 

 extent, the returning bees congregate upon 

 the outside of the cone, drawn there perhaps 

 by the odor from the hive and the presence 

 of bees inside. The cone will sometimes 

 become quite thickly covered with bees, and 

 finally some of them will find the entrance 

 at the end, and call the others in. Things 

 did not work to his entire satisfaction with 

 two of the hives until he put a Porter bee 

 escape on the outer end of each cone, then 

 everything was lovely, as not a bee could re- 

 enter the hives. In the other case the cone 

 alone seemed to work all right, but the rob- 

 bers eventually discovered the entrance to 

 the cone, and, fortunately, he discovered the 

 robbers soon after they made their discov- 

 ery. The hives were left about a month af- 

 ter the cones were put in place, when two 

 hives contained about half a teacupful each 

 of bees and the other hive not a single bee. 



The advantages of this plan are that all of 

 the brood is saved while the disagreeable 

 task of shaking off the bees is avoided, and 

 there is no danger of a bee loaded with foul- 

 broody honey getting into a healthy colony. 



It seems that when a bee leaves its hive of 

 its own accord it goes with an empty honey 

 sac and free from the seeds of disease ; if, 

 at this moment, or in this condition, it can 

 be transferred to a hive that is free from dis- 

 ease, and be induced to accept the new hive 

 as home, that bee is no longer a source of 

 contagion. This is exactly what the Bal- 

 dridge plan does— truly the bee escape prin- 

 ciple is not without its value to bee-keepers 



