ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



21 



tion, and shake bees into it, letting the 

 queen go, and they will be free from 

 disease. The aid combs are melted 

 into wax, bringring same to a good 

 boil. Often washing with boiling 

 water any hives or implements that 

 might contain disease. Whenever 

 strictly followed, this has affected a 

 cure." — C. Wilcox, Emery Co., Utah. 



Pickled Brood. 



Some seasons pickled brood is quite 

 bad among bees, and in a few cases 

 I have known it to reduce large colo- 

 nies, even large apiaries, to doubtful 

 hopes, but those samie colonies, after 

 I gave them treatment, were in a 

 month free from disease. Some- 

 times it takes as careful handling as if 

 foul brood. I do not believe it is con- 

 tagious, for all I have seen 60 colonies 

 in one apiary badly reduced by it. As 

 an experiment, one of my out-apiaries 

 had 50 colonies at one time with 

 pickled brood. I treated them, and all 

 were soon free from dead brood. At 

 the same time I took ten of the worst 

 brood-combs, where at least two- 

 thirds of the brood were dead, and 

 placed these combs in other strong, 

 healthy colonies. They at once cleaned 

 out the dead brood, and reared as nice 

 brook as one could ask for. ' 



Symptoms. 



The larval bees (in last of May and 

 through June) show light brown spots; 

 a little later the cappings have small 

 holes in — the cappings are not shrunk- 

 en or dark colored, as in foul brood. 

 The dead bee will be first swollen, with 

 a black head dried to a hard bunch, 

 and often turned up — Chinaman-shoe- 

 like. The skin of the dead bee is quite 

 tough, and, if punctured, the thin, 

 watery fluid of the body will flow as 

 freely as water, often a little yellow or 

 brownish colored from the dissolved 

 pollen from the abdomen of the bee. 

 It has very little or no smell; does not 

 at any time stick to th« walls of the 

 comb; is easily pulled out of the cell; 

 is i\ever ropy or sticky, and, if the 

 colony is properly cared for, the bees 

 will take care of themselves. Plenty 

 of liquid, unsealed honey and pollen 

 near the brood, and hives so protected 

 as to keep the bees and brood com- 

 fortable on cold days and nights. 



Never put bees on old black brood- 

 combs, or those with dead broods in; 

 better make wax of the combs, and 



give the bees full sheets of broodcomb 

 foundation. 



Treatment. 



Keep all colonies strong, with plenty 

 of unsealed honey near the brood, and 

 if hives are properly sheltered, so as to 

 be warm on cold days and nights, there 

 will be little or no pickled brood. If 

 the queen is old, shows signs of weak- 

 ness by putting several eggs in one 

 brood-cell and nursing several others, 

 so that the brood is patchy, I would 

 kill such a queen, feed the bees a little, 

 and, when queen-cells are started, re- 

 move them aU and give them a queen 

 andi bees, between two of her own 

 brood-combs from' a hive where she 

 has lived. I do not think pickled 

 brood is often the fault of the queen, 

 but rather a lack of proper food and 

 heat in the hive. In most cases, a 

 shortage of liquid honey, or moldy 

 pollen, even in hives with plenty of 

 sealed honey in the outer combs. 

 There is a time in spring in Wisconsin, 

 between dandelions and white clover 

 bloom, when there is no honey coming 

 in from flowers, and often cold days 

 and nights, so that the live bees con- 

 sume the liquid, unsealed honey first, 

 and cluster in a compact body to keep 

 warm; the result often is the larval 

 bee, just changed from the egg to a 

 tender little grub, is either starved, 

 half-fed or chilled, so that it grows 

 slowly, and too often it dies, and then 

 it is we first notice this about the time 

 white clover honey begins to come in. 

 In other parts of the state, where 

 pickled brood appeared, it was from the 

 same cause, and at other dates, which 

 was due to a difference of time of 

 honey bloom. 



Wherever I fed daily some honey, or 

 even sugar syrup, and kept the hive 

 warm, all dead brood soon disappeared 

 while in the same apiaries other colo- 

 nies affected ' and not so treated, con- 

 tinued for some time, but got rid of 

 it as soon as treated. 



Strong colonies of bees in the fall, 

 with a young laying queen, and an 

 abundance of good honey, sealed or 

 capped by the bees, if properly cared 

 for during winter, whether in the cel- 

 lar or in chaff hives, wintered out of 

 doors in sheltered location, eeldom' 

 have pickled brood; chilled or other 

 dead brood, or dysentery, and are the 

 colonies that give their owner profit. 



