THE BEE-KEEI'KKS' REVIEW. 



8i 



WHAT TO DO II- Kori. HROOl) 

 IS TRKSENT. 



ICveii if there is foul brood in the old 

 hive, this plan of moving the hive from 

 side to side, and thus coaxing the bees 

 into the new hive, can be put in practice 

 if it is done very carefully so as not to 

 disturb the bees and cause them tu fill 

 themselves with honey before leaving the 

 hive. By the way, one very effectual 

 method of curing foul brood is that of 

 stopping up the entrance to the hive, re- 

 moving the queen, putting a bee escape 

 in the front of the hive, and setting a 

 healthv nucleus by the side of the hive 

 to catch the bees as they return. It 

 seems that when a bee leaves the hive, in 

 a natural way, that is, undisturbed, it 

 goes out with its honey sac empty, and 

 this is why it carries no seeds of foul 

 brood with it. But, even if this plan 

 could be put in practice so far as the 

 moving of the hive from side to side is 

 concerned, the last of the bees, those 

 left in the old hive at the end of 21 days, 

 could not be shaken in with the bees in 

 the hive, as the disturbance would cause 

 them to fdl themselves with the infected 

 honev. I rather think that if there were 

 foul brood in the coml)s, or, if I mistrust- 

 ed there was any there, I should not try 

 to thus gradually get the bees into the 

 new hive. Neither would I immediately 

 destroy the combs; I would do as I have 

 already explained, put the hive on a new 

 stand, and then, in three weeks, shake 

 out the bees upon frames with ff)unda- 

 tion starters. 



Mr. Pearce asks about setting the old 

 combs over the sections, using a fjueen- 

 excluder to keep the cjueen from getting 

 back again into the old brood-nest. This 

 is something that I have never tried, al- 

 though I have seen the plan recommend- 

 ed. My idea is that the bees would fill 

 the cells, in the old brood-nest, with hon- 

 ey about as fast as the bees hatch. If 

 the old brood-nest is not there, the hon- 

 ey would all go into the sections. To be 

 sure, the hatching bees would be added 

 to the colony, but I have already shown 



how this may be done by moving the old 

 hive about by the side of the new one, 

 and we then do not have the old combs 

 on the hive to furnish a storing place for 

 the honey. 



Those who have had experience along 

 the line suggested by this article, are re- 

 quested to send articles to the Review on 

 this subject. — Ed.] 



.\I,L THE HONEY M.\Y NOT BE INFECTED 



IN A COLONY DISEASED WITH 



FOUL BROOD. 



Since the foregoing was put in type I 

 have received a letter from Mr. W. 

 Hickox, of Colorado, and I have his per- 

 mission to publish that tjortion of it that 

 bears upon the subject under discussion. 

 You know that Mr. Hickox lives in that 

 part of the country where this particular 

 plan is put in practice, hence he knows 

 whereof he is speaking, when he says: — 



"I have just received the February Re- 

 view, and have read Mr. Rankin's let- 

 ter regarding toul broody hives, and 

 your note following. I think Mr. Ran- 

 kin is on the right side — the safe one. 

 But are there not one or two points you 

 both fail to mention ? In the first place, 

 not (i// honey in the hive of a diseased 

 colony is of necessity infected. Infection 

 starts, possiblv, from a single cell; de- 

 pending upon the amount of infected 

 honey secured from outside sources. 

 There may be cases when this is all con- 

 sumed by fully developed bees, and no 

 disease results. It may be stored in a 

 single comb, or fed to one larva, or many. 



The honey stored in combs attached to 

 the side of the hive is usually gathered 

 -c'/iffi uectar is plenty, and at such times 

 (in this locality M)ees will not rob. In 

 this case there would lie no danger, even 

 if some honey should remain on the side 

 of the hive; but honey thrown from other 

 combs, when shaken, or dropped from 

 broken combs, might remain on the 

 sides of the hive or on the bottom board, 

 and thus carrj' infection. 



Again, hives from which foul brood 

 has been removed are not always used 



