396 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



up and doubling. In all, however, only 56 colonies were actually 

 brushed upon foundation. When I came to look how they were 

 building up, I found, out of those first treated, that nine had 

 left, bag and baggage, leaving empty hives. That was probably 

 from starvation, so after that I gave to each shaken colony one 

 or more sections of honey taken from diseased colonies. So far 

 as I know, this did not in any case convey the disease. Later, 

 to make more sure against desertion, one of the diseased combs 

 was left in the hive, and beside it two empty frames — not even 

 a starter in the two frames, and the rest of the hive empty. 

 When the bees made a start at building in the empty frames, 

 the old comb was taken away, and the hive was filled up with 

 full sheets of foundation. Sometimes the comb the bees had 

 built in the empty fram.es was taken away after a good start 

 was made on the foundation, and sometimes not. The outcome 

 seemed to be all right either way. 



Partly to please Editor E. R. Root, toward the latter part 

 of the summer I tried the Alexaiiilcr treatment. The gi.st of 

 that treatment is to remove the queen and in 20 da^s i;ive the 

 colony a ripe queen-tell of best Italian stock, or else a very 

 young virgin. Previous to the treatment, however, an impor- 

 tant lequisite is to make the colony strong. 



I varied from the regular treatment by giving hybrid virgins 

 instead of Italians, as my bees were mostly hyl)rids. It may 

 be a question whether hybrids are not as good as Italians in 

 carrying out the treatment, provided the hybrids are of equal 

 •\ igor. 



1 made the inexcusable blunder of understanding that Mr. 

 Alexander had given a laying queen at the end of 20 days of 

 (jueenlessness, instead of giving a virgin. So I gave a young 

 viigin after ten days of queenlessness, so that there would be 

 a laying queen present in about 20 days from the removal of 

 the queen. I now think that the blunder was a fortunate one, 

 since there is a gain of 8 or 10 days in the time of the treat- 

 ment, always provided that continued trial of the plan by 

 myself and others should prove it to be reliable. 



There were some cases of failure, but in each of these cases 

 the colonies had not been made \ery strong. JNlr. Alexander 

 had emphasized the point that in order to have the treatment 



