142 Advanced Bee Culture 



treated exactly as it was at the first shaking, when the result will 

 be another healthy colony, while the old combs will be entirely free 

 from brood, and should be taken to some place of safety (where no 

 bees can gain access to them) and eventually treated as may seem best. 



Colonies not populous enough to make a good colony each, when 

 shaken, may be treated in "pairs." We select the first pair, set one 

 of them aside, as was done with the strong colony, and put a hive 

 containing frames, furnished with foundation, in its place. We now 

 shake out the bees into the new hive, as before, only we get all of 

 the bees, as well as the queen. We next put the old hive with the 

 brood on the stand of the other hive of the "pair," bringing the latter 

 to the location where the first "shaking" took place, and shake out 

 the bees and queen in front of the hive into which the bees from the 

 first hive were shaken, the combs of brood being taken back to their 

 old location and united with the combs of brood from the first-shaken 

 colony. We thus get only one "shook swarm" from two colonies, but 

 it is stronger for that reason. The united colonies of brood will be 

 given a young queen in ten days, and then shaken upon a new set 

 of frames in twenty-one days, as was done with the populous colony 

 first described. 



There is still another method of treating foul-broody colonies in 

 which there is no shaking-off of the bees ; and it has always been a 

 wonder to me that it has not come into more general use. The plan 

 originated with Mr. M. M. Baldridge, of St. Charles, Illinois, and is 

 called the Baldridge method. It is based upon the fact that, when a 

 bee leaves a hive naturally, in quest of honey, its sac is free from 

 honey, and it might enter a healthy colony without infecting it with 

 disease. Of course, when it returns with a load of newly gathered 

 nectar it is still in that harmless condition. Here is the method of 

 management: Close the entrance and then bore a hole in the front of 

 the hive, just above the entrance, and near the side of the hive. Over 

 this opening fasten a bee-escape in such a position that bees can pass 

 out of the hive through the escape, but can not return. Next cage 

 the queen of the colony, laying the cage on top of the frames. The 

 following morning go to some healthy colony and select a comb of 

 sealed brood, either with or without the adhering bees ; place it in an 

 empty hive, filling out the hive with frames filled with foundation, and 

 set the hive thus prepared upon the stand of the diseased colony, set- 

 ting the latter to one side, so that the two hives will stand side by 

 side, close together, and fronting in the same direction. Have the bee- 

 escape as near as possible to the entrance of the new hive that is on 

 the old stand. It will be seen that all flying bees will return and enter 

 the new hive on the old stand; and, as fast as the bees leave the old 



