ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEES ASSOCIATION". 



21 



not at any time stick to the walls of the 

 comb; is easily pulled out of the cell; is 

 never 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 

 comfortable 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 brood-comb founda- 

 tion. 



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 weakness 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, 

 remove them all and give them a queen 

 and 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 moldj" 

 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 consume the liquid, unsealed 

 honey first, and cluster in a compact bodj' 

 to keep warn; the result often is the larval 

 bee, just changed from the egg to a tender 

 little grub, is either star/ed, 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. 



Wheiever 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 colonies affected 

 and not so treated, continued 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 cellar or in chaff hives, 

 wintered out of doors in sheltered location, 



seldom have pickled brood, chilled or other 

 dead brood, or dysenterj% and are the 

 colonies that give their owner profit. 



BLACK BROOD. 



Black brood is another fatal and con- 

 tagious disease among bees, affecting the 

 old bees as well as the brood. In 1898, 

 1899 and 1900, it destroyed several apiaries 

 in New York. La^t year I foimd one case 

 of it in Wisconsin, which was quickly dis- 

 posed of. Dr. Howard made more than a 

 thousand microscopic examinations, and 

 found it to be a distinct form of bacteria. 

 It is most active in sealed brood. The 

 bees affected continue to grow until they 

 reach the pupa stage, then turn back and 

 die. At this stage there is a sour smell. 

 No decomposition from putrefactive germs 

 in pickled brood. In black brood the dark 

 and rotten mass in time break3 down and 

 settles to lower side- walls of the cell; is 

 of a watery, granulated, syrupy fluid, 

 jelly-like; is not ropy or sticky, as in fuU 

 brood, and has a peculiar smell, resembling 

 sour, rotten apples. Not even a house fly 

 will set a foot upon it. 



TREATMENT. 



Best time is during a honey-flow, and 

 the modified McEvoy plan, much as I 

 have treated foul brood, by caging the 

 queen five days, remove the foundation 

 starters and giving full sheets, keeping 

 queen caged five days longer. As great 

 care should be taken of diseased hives, 

 combs, honey, etc., as in foul brood. 



DYSENTERY. 



Dysentery among bees in Wisconsin in 

 the spring of the year is often quite serious, 

 many colonies die sdth it. Dysentery is 

 the excrements of the old bees; it is of 

 brownish color, quite sticky, and very 

 disagreeable smelling, and is sometimes 

 mistaken for foul brood. 



CAUSES. 



1. Bees confined too long in the hives, 

 so that they can no longer withhold their 

 excrements, and are compelled to void the 

 same on the other bees and combs. 



2. Poor winter stores, gathered in the 

 fall from honey-dew, cider mills, soi^hum 

 mills, rotten fruit; also some kinds of fall 

 flowers 



3. Old and especially moldy pollen or 

 bee-bread. 



