30 
the start, as well as all of the pieces built during the four days’ confine- 
ment, should be burned. The honey from the affected hive may be 
heated to the boiling point in a water bath and used for feeding bees. 
The old hive and all utensils used about the diseased colony should be 
disinfected by washing in a solution of corrosive sublimate—one-eighth 
ounce in one gallon of water—and should afterwards be exposed to the 
air and sun for some time. If healthy colonies are to be manipulated 
immediately after handling diseased ones the hands of the operator 
must also be disinfected by washing in the solution just mentioned. 
Those who care to try and save combs and brood should einploy the 
remedial method developed by the late Professor Cheshire. This is 
explained in full in his work on bee keeping,’ and a brief statement of 
it may also be found in **The Honey Bee,” Bulletin No. 1, new series, 
of the Division of Entomology, United States Department of Agri- 
culture. Notwithstanding these remedies, some will prefer, where 
healthy colonies of bees can be bought at moderate prices, to burn 
diseased bees, combs, and frames rather than spend time to effect a 
cure and risk, as they fear they may, the further spread of the pest. 
To kill the bees thus is, however, neither profitable, humane, nor neces- 
sary, for if confined as described above and separated at once from the 
other colonies, this work being done at nightfall, when all of the bees 
are in their hives, the risk of spreading the disease will not thereby be 
increased, nor is the labor much greater than that involved in the 
removal of combs and bees for burning. And if it be found that the 
diseased colonies are weak in numbers and seem, therefore, individually 
hardly worth saving, this need not be taken as an excuse for the death 
sentence, as several colonies may be smoked and shaken together into 
the same box to make a single strong colony, the best queen of the lot 
having been selected and caged in the box in such a way that the 
workers can release her within a few hours by eating through candy. 
Other bacterial diseases, though existing, have developed only very 
locally or have been too limited in the amount of injury inflicted to 
require special mention here. 
The bee or wax moth (Galleria mellonella Linn.) is regarded by those 
unfamiliar with modern methods in bee keeping as a very serious 
enemy to success in this work. It was frequently such when only the 
common black bee was kept and the old way ef managing, or rather of 
trusting to luck, was followed. But with the better races now intro- 
duced and with improved hives and methods, and especially with the 
care that is now given to have no colonies queenless long at a time, the 
wax-moth larve are no longer regarded with great concern. 
Some species of wasps take a little honey at times—more particularly 
when hives are opened—and they annoy the bees; others capture and 
eat workers, as do also the large ant like ‘‘ cow-killers ” (Mutillidz), and 
1 Bees and Bee-keeping,” by Frank R. Cheshire, F. L. 8., F. R. M. S., London, 
1888, Vol. II, page 554-575. 
EE 
