ing metal to hold the queen in case of swarming out the next morning. A regular 

 queen-excluder laid on the bottom board under the brood chamber will answer the 

 latter purpose. It would be even better to clip the queeni so she cannot fly, then 

 leave the excluder off. They should also be given a clustering space to occupy, as 

 in the case of a natural swarm. Whenever bees are disturbed in their hives they 

 will fill their honey sacs with honey from the comb. As this will happen when the 

 hive is being treated, and some of this diseased honey might be stored in the new 

 combs, it is necessary to make them eat it before they can find a place to put it. To 

 make sure of this, not one bit of comb of any kind can be left in the hive. Even 

 sheets of foundation are unsafe, as some cells can be so quickly drawn out, enough 

 to deposit a little infected honey. The hive must be quite empty so far as comb or 

 foundation is concerned, except that very narrow starters of foundation, not more 

 than one-half inch wide, may be placed in the frames to indicate where the combs 

 are to be built. Thus the diseased honey will be consumed in wax secretion before 

 any of it can be deposited in the hive. 



Method of Tkeatment. 



When there is a good honey flow on, the colonies should first be prepared for 

 treating by removing from the hive every comb which does not contain brood. This 



Fig. 3. — The ropiness of American Foul Brood. (U.S. Dept. Ag. Far. Bui. 442.) 



will include all the super combs and probably two or more next the walls in the 

 brood chamber. These must be put under cover immediately and destroyed as 

 soon as possible. The remaining brood combs should be loosened and spread apart 

 to facilitate rapid handling later. When all diseased colonies are thus prepared 

 during the day it will he a short matter to finish the treatment in the evening. 



When bees have nearly stopped flying for the night, each prepared colony is 

 treated as follows: First remove it from its stand, then set in its place a clean, 

 disinfected hive containing clean frames with half-inch starters, and, if convenient, 

 a division board feeder with thin sugar syrup. If the queen is not clipped the en- 

 trance of this hive must be covered with queen-excluding metal. Now shake the 

 bees from the combs of the old hive into the new ; but if any fresh nectar flies out 

 in shaking it will be necessary to brush instead of shaking. Get these combs im- 

 mediately under cover, and clean up very carefully any honey that may be around, 

 so that robbers from healthy colonies cannot carry home disease. 



When the diseased colonies are weak in bees, two or three of them should be 

 united to form one good colony with which to start the cure. But in doing this, 

 diseased colonies must be united with their next door neighbor, and not carried to 

 another part of the apiary, as flying bees will be sure to return and may enter ad- 

 joining healthy colonies, carrying disease. 



