1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



419 



CHITTAM BLOSSOMS, NATURAL SIZE. 



FORMALDEHYDE -SULPHUR TREATMENT 

 OF FOUL-BROODY COMBS. 



Is it Wise to Rely on Drug Treatment? 



BY J. G. GILSTRAP. 



In Gleanings for March 1 are several val- 

 uable papers on foul brood and European 

 foul brooil. 1 have as yet never had any 

 personal experience with the latter disease; 

 but 1 have had some experience for about 

 eight or nine years with American foul 

 brood. 



E. E. Pressler, page 141, referring to Mr. 

 Alexander, quotes him as saying, "The old 

 American foul brood is incurable. You can 

 save the bees by the McEvoy treatment; 

 but you can not save the combs." . . "I 

 wish to have it understood that I do not 

 think that, up to the present time, there 

 has ever been a comb that was alTected by 

 American foul brood cured of that disease. 



. . " Well, I hate to stand against such 

 testimony. I am sorry Mr. Pressler and 

 Mr. Alexander were so unfortunate in their 

 efforts; but my personal experience has been 

 to the contrary of their views. 



I believe it was eight years ago this sum- 

 mer that I made some progress in curing 

 and actually eradicating American foid 

 brood and saving the combs. I saved many 

 combs and used them afterward, with no 

 bad results. 



I prepared a box about four feet square 

 each way, hinging a close-fitting door in one 

 end. I made the box air-tight, or as nearly 

 so as I could; and after a number of quite 

 successful treatments I selected a strong 



two-story hive that was well supplied with 

 brood — about fifteen frames of it; but I think 

 fully one-fourth of this brood was rotten. 

 Oh such a terrible mass as it was! I remov- 

 ed the queen and bees into an empty hive 

 on the old stand; placed the two-story dis- 

 eased hive, together with a lot of other in- 

 fected material, in the aforesaid box, and 

 placed a pan of coals in which I put nearly 

 a teacupful of sul|)hur; then in another pan 

 I set two formaldehyde candles burning, 

 and closed the door. In alDout five hours 1 

 opened the door, put in another charge of 

 both sulphur and formaldehyde. In a few 

 hours I opened the box, and on examination 

 the combs were " frosted " with the sulphur, 

 and very strong of the gas. I marked that 

 particular hive and super, antl then examin- 

 ed the broody combs. I found that all the 

 rotten foul brood that was stringy and ropy 

 before treatment was now changed to a gran- 

 ular form; it would not string out, nor ad- 

 here to a straw, stick, or pin; it was more of 

 a crumbly nature. The next day I selected 

 a healthy colony — one of the best in the 

 ai)iary; and, eli])ping the queen, I threw the 

 bees and t[ueen in (his two-story treated 

 hive containing brood-combs and honey 

 (ten-frame hive), and for two or three days 

 the bees were rather obstinate about not re- 

 maining, but finally went to work. I kept 

 these particular combs with this same hive 

 and bees, and after more than one year from 

 then no trace of foul brood ever showed up 

 in that hive, when I quit keeping further 

 track of it. I know American foul brood 

 can be cured; but I think it is rarely accom- 

 plished. 

 I have done no experimenting on these 



