1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



307 



ers, can not allow it. There is nothing better 

 than the old way of inspectors and transferring, 

 or possibly the Baldridge method as amended 

 in the August Review. 



But where I am criticising you, Mr. Editor 

 (and nearly every writer on the subject, for 

 that matter), is right here: Here are all these 

 drugs, of such proven efficacy in their relation 

 to Bacillus nlvei that they will stamp it out, 

 even when it has accumulated in such propor- 

 tions as to cause the death of the brood; and, 

 on the other hand, there is foul brood itself; 

 and no one who has not been through the mill 

 can realize what a disagreeable .job it is to deal 

 with, not to speak of the loss. Is there not the 

 strongest kind of presumption that some one of 

 the drugs mentioned can and ought to be used 

 as a preventive by bee-keepers who are any- 

 where near foul brood, and that every contri- 

 bution to drugs as cures ought to be eagerly 

 welcomed, whether slow or not, for the good it 

 may do in prevention'^ Our wise shakes of the 

 head ought to be reserved for the impractical 

 method of relying on drugs, without transfer- 

 ring, after the disease has obtained a foothold. 



So much for a priori grounds. Are there 

 any a posteriori? Yes, and good ones, though 

 not extensive as yet. I have not at hand the 

 number of the Progressive (page 76, 1894) which 

 contains what I refer to; but the following is 

 Mr. Hasty's comment: " D. L. Tracy, of Den- 

 ver, makes a success of preventing foul brood 

 by the use of dilute carbolic acid. For four 

 years neighbors all around had it badly, and 

 he escaped. He merely sprinkled heavily the 

 tops of the frames three times each breeding 

 season. Formula: Carbolic acid Jl ; salt' 3 ; 

 water 2Ufi. D(One part of carbolic acid to 300 of 

 water, and a level tablespoonful of salt to every 

 pint of the mixture is an easier way to remem- 

 ber it.) Easy enough to try. But don't put on 

 iire-proof paint as a preventive after your 

 building is all ablaze at one end. That's about 

 the way half the boys would do— if they did 

 any thing." But that last statement shouU 

 not be construed to indicate that preventives 

 should not be made known for fear they would 

 be taken as cures. The rest of us ought not to 

 suffer, even if some men are fools. 



The first year I began bee-keeping I had to 

 transfer all I had — 30 colonies — on account of 

 foul brood. Being a novice, and pressed with 

 other work, my colonies were so weakened that 

 they took until the fall of the second year to 

 build up; and the second spring after, the 

 spring count was 7 to show for the original 20. 

 A knowledge of a preventive, and a sense of the 

 desirability of using it (which the bee-papers 

 do not give) at the time I bought my bees, 

 would have saved me SlOO at the least. It is a 

 terrible mistake, sometimes, to be too cautious, 

 when nothing would be lost by venturing. 



Let us admit that a colony in full robbing 

 career would contract the disease anyhow, pre- 



ventives or no preventives; still, the evidence 

 that the preventives would make a great dif- 

 ference in the degree to which that colony 

 would be afflicted is strong. Compare Mr. R. L. 

 Taylor's occasional plan of holding the dread 

 disease in check by the use of medicated feed 

 until the close of the season— not that such a 

 procedure is to be recommended; but for evi- 

 dence, it is just what we want. But in the 

 majority of cases it is probable that the 

 disease does not begin by excessive robbing. A 

 taste here and there, and a bee entering the 

 wrong hive occasionally, are mainly what we 

 have to look out for, and are precisely the con- 

 ditions which we have very strong reasons to 

 suppose would be rendered harmless by those 

 drugs which have been able to effect cures. 



Mr. Adams, the inspector for Boulder County, 

 who constantly uses and recommends the form- 

 ula referred to, and can furnish other evidence 

 besides what I have given, spoke of it at the 

 meeting of the State Association last April, but 

 said plainly that he did not recommend it as a 

 cure. After learning about it I told a near 

 neighbor, who had about 3.50 colonies among 

 which he had discovered two cases of foul 

 brood shortly before, that I would apply the 

 method to the rest if he would furnish the ma- 

 terials. He agreed, and I did so. Neither his 

 bees nor mine showed a trace of the disease 

 last season. Perhaps they would not have 

 done so anyway; but who knows? I do know 

 this, though; that, if the disease had spread 

 among those 250 colonies with the same rapidi- 

 ty that it did among my 30, the labor, the loss, 

 and the vexation would have been enormous. 



Another use of drugs, and an important one, 

 is in treating colonies after they have been 

 transferred. That is the very time when, if by 

 any hook or crookf a drop of foul-broody honey 

 should be left exposed, they would be apt to 

 get it; and such treatment is especially desir- 

 able when, for any reason, the remaining colo- 

 nies have to be transferred during the day, in- 

 stead of in the evening — and that is quite often 

 the case^when there are many to attend to. 

 Experience soon shows that the assumption, 

 that more than a very, very few colonies can be 

 properly transferred by one or two persons, 

 after the bees have stopped flying and before it 

 gets dark, is fallacious. Robber-bees fly as 

 late as they can see, anyhow; and the average 

 bee-keeper can not muster a gang of men for 

 this business, even if he could afford it. Here 

 is where the Baldridge method, if approved 

 will be a boon indeed. I transferred most of 

 mine during the day (after a few frantic and 

 unsuccessful attempts to do it up in the eve- 

 ning), and fed a part of them with medicated 

 honey, after boiling. At this time the bees had 

 begun to show a slight propensity to rob, the 

 main flow being over. If I had to do it again 

 I would sprinkle the hives of all after transfer- 

 ring, and give medicated food to all. The next 



