42 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



WHAT MAY BK DONE WITH MEDICATED 

 SYRUP. 



If the character of the time is such 

 that the bees will take syrup, this 

 may be taken advantage of by feeding 

 diseased colonies a quart or two of 

 medicated syrup made by mixing one 

 ounce of salicylic acid in sufficient al- 

 cohol to dissolve it, in about 25 quarts 

 of a not too thick syrup or honey. 

 This will be found very helpful; and 

 we will not omit to avail ourselves of 

 it as fast as the diseased colonies are 

 discovered. I have found that this 

 medicated food stops the spread of the 

 disease in the hive, and, no doubt, on 

 stronger grounds, prevents the spread 

 of the contagion to other hives. If 

 the time be early spring, as we find 

 colonies which were badly diseased 

 the previous fall, before giving the 

 food Ave will remove from each some 

 of the combs which contain the dead 

 larvae, and leave the bees only the 

 ones which have few or none. These 

 will prove sufficient until a cure can 

 be effected; and the withdi-awing of 

 the combs with the greatest amount of 

 affection will be a very decided ad- 

 vantage to the colony. 



UNITING WEAK COLONIES. 



We are now supposed to have crit- 

 ically examined the entire apiary, and 

 distinguished each diseased colony by 

 a prominent permanent mark and to 

 have given each a supply of medicated 

 syrup. We will now keep each sup- 

 plied with this syrup until the flowers 

 yield fairly well. In attending to this 

 we shall find some of the colonies 

 that are taking but little or none of 

 the food; these we will unite either 

 with each other, or with others that 

 are stronger, putting two or more to- 

 gether as rapidly as it can be safely 

 done. I say safely done, because two 

 colonies standing some distance apart 

 among healthy colonies may not be 



brought close together at one move- 

 ment for that would be likely to send 

 some of the bees into healthy colonies. 

 They must be brought together grad- 

 nually so that all the bees will be 

 brought along. We will make the uni- 

 ted colonies strong by putting a suf- 

 ficient number together to make them 

 so, for weak ones will prove to be of 

 little if any value. 



A CAUTION REGARDING THE USE OF 



COMBS FROM COI,ONIES THAT 



HAVE DIED. 



There is one other preliminary mat- 

 ter that must be attended to, and that 

 is the examination of the combs of 

 colonies that have died during the win- 

 ter. Diseased colonies are particular- 

 ly liable to perish, and a larger pro- 

 portion of the dead ones will no doubt 

 be found to be of that class. The 

 status of each is to be determined in 

 the same manner that we determined 

 the condition of the colonies examin- 

 ed for foul brood early in the spring 

 before brood rearing had made much 

 progress; that is, by looking for the 

 scale-like remains of the larvae which 

 perished the previous year. 



It will be understood, of course, 

 that all diseased combs, that is, all 

 combs from diseased colonies, bits of 

 comb and honey, must be kept at all 

 times where no prying bee can by any 

 chance get access to them. These are 

 the readiest means of the spread of 

 the disease. The honey may be ex- 

 tracted from combs, containing suf- 

 ficient to make it worth while, boiled 

 well for at least fifteen minutes, then 

 medicated and used for feeding; but 

 unless one has conveniences for keep- 

 ing all combs and honey safe, they 

 should be burned up at once. How- 

 ever, with care, there is no good rea- 

 son why the wax from the combs, and 

 most of the honey, should not be sav- 

 ed. Everyone must consider his owu 



