42 
apiary, it having been in this instance brought in by a neighbor who 
purchased bees at a distance. It was easily cured, without great loss. 
Thus the beginner’s risks of disaster in this direction are, if he be fore- 
warned, comparatively small. He may, furthermore, gain assurance 
from the fact that, should the disease invade his apiary, prompt and 
intelligent action will prevent serious loss. 
The following is the treatment for a colony which still has sufficient 
strength of numbers to be worth saving: The bees are to be shaken 
from their combs just at nightfall into an empty box, which is to be 
removed at once to a cool, dark place. They are to be confined to 
the box, but it must be well ventilated through openings covered with 
wire cloth. During the first forty-eight hours no food should begiven 
to them, and during the second forty-eight hours only a smail amount 
of medicated sirup—a half pint daily fora small colony to a pint for a 
strong one. This food is prepared by adding one part of pure carbolic 
acid or phenol to 600 or 700 parts of sugar sirup or honey. At the end 
of the fourth day the bees are to be shaken into a clean hive supplied 
with starters of comb foundation. This hive is to be placed outside ona 
stand some distance from all other colonies, and moderate feeding with 
medicated sirup or honey should be continued for a few days thereafter. 
The combs of diseased colonies which contain brood may be assem- 
bled over a single one of these colonies, or, if the amount of brood be 
too great for one colony to care for, over several such diseased colonies, 
until the young bees have emerged. All of the honey is then to be 
extracted. While it is wholesome as food, it should not be offered for 
sale, lest some of it be used in feeding bees or be inadvertently exposed 
where foraging bees might find it and carry to their hives the germs 
of this disease, harmless to other creatures but so fatal to bee life. A 
good use for this honey is to employ it in making vinegar. One and 
one-third pounds added to each gallon of rain water or soft spring 
water and allowed to ferment for three months in a warm place makes 
a quality of vinegar quite equal to the best cider vinegar. Provision 
for the free circulation of air through the cask should be made. This 
is easily secured by placing the cask, not completely filled, on its side 
and boring an auger hole in each end near the upper side, the holes to 
be covered with cheese cloth or fine gauze, to keep out insects. 
If the honey containing the germs is to be used for feeding bees, it 
is to be diluted with half its own quantity, by measure, of water and 
kept at the boiling point for three hours in a water bath—a vessel 
within another containing water. 
The combs from which the honey has been extracted, as well as all 
of the pieces built by the bees during their four days’ confinement, 
may be melted into wax, by thorough boiling in soft water. This 
wax should be kept liquid for 48 hours or longer, to allow all impuri- 
ties to settle. These will include the foul brood spores, which may 
59 
Eee 
