(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



539 



people will reap the natural reward of their 

 transgression. Some have urged that no dis- 

 aster has as yet overtaken them. I once heard 

 of a man who habltnally detied God and his 

 holy word. He one day called the pastor of 

 the church to look over a Held of grain. Said 

 he, "See there. I plowed that Held on vSunday, 

 and planted, and cultivati'd. and cared for it on 

 Sunday; and yet, notwithstanding, I have, as 

 you See. more than an average crop. Now, 

 does not this prove something?" 

 G*" Yes," replied God's faithful servant; "it 

 does indeed prove one thing: and that one 

 thing is, that God does not always settle ac- 

 counts with transgressors on the first of 

 October.''' 



Perhaps the World's Fair may get through 

 until the first of October without the just judg- 

 ment of an oEfen'^ed God and an outraged peo- 

 ple falling upon them; but my opinion is. it 

 will come about soon after if not before. Al- 

 ready the Chicago papers are beginning to 

 admit the Sunday opening is a financial failure. 



IMPORTED QUEENS ; A 8UKE WAY OF INTRO- 

 DtrCING. 



We have just received a consignment of 30 

 imported Italian queens, direct from Italy, by 

 express. Every queen came through alive and 

 in good order, and they are now introduced in- 

 to the apiary without the loss of one. Our 

 method of introducing with this lot was some- 

 thing we had not tried before on so large a num- 

 ber of queens. We, took four or five strong 

 colonies, and divided them up into 30 one-frame 

 nuclei. This was done in the forenoon. In the 

 afternoon we transferred the imported queens, 

 without any attendants, to the Miller introduc- 

 ing-cage. Lest some of you may have forgotten 

 it we reproduce the cut here. One end of this 



jr,,„ 



cage is stoppered up with a long wooden plug, 

 and the other end with a couple of blocks 34 

 inch square, spaced apart ^^ inch with two 

 strips of tin nailed on each side. This leaves a 

 soi't of oblong plug }4 inch thick, and the width 

 of the cage, with a hole H^'M inch running 

 centrally through. This hole is plugged with 

 Good candy. To introduce a queen we simply 

 placed the cage between a couple of combs, 

 •drawing the combs together until they squeezed 

 against the wooden plug. In from 34 to 48 

 hours the bees will eat through and let the 

 <iueen out. But, to return. 



The thirty imported queens having been 

 placed in as many Miller introducing-cages, 

 we then placed one of each in each one of the 

 nuclei above mentioned: they were then left 

 for two days. Most of the queens were out at 

 the expiration of that time, in good order, and 

 they are now all out. 



You see, the point is here: These newly 

 divided nuclei will have old and young bees, 

 and more or less hatching brood. Before the 

 imported queen is released, the old bees will 

 have returned to the old stand, and it is these 

 old fellows that always make trouble in intro- 

 ducing. By the time the queen is released, 

 there is nothing but youmj bees, including 

 those that were brought to the nuclei stand 

 and those that are hatched out in the interim. 

 These, of course, all being young, will accept 

 their new mother, without any trouble. The 

 plan has proved to be so satisfactory that we 

 shall employ it hereafter on all valuable 

 ■queens. 



FOUL BROOD ; ITS TREATMENT AND CURE. 



To many of our readers, and perhaps the ma- 

 jority, the rehearsing of much that is old on 

 this subject may seem unnecessary; but as the 

 information that has been gathered during the 

 past seven or eight years, including our own ex- 

 periments in the treatment and cure of foul 

 brood, have been scattered through many dif- 

 ferent copies of the bee-papers, it is hard for the 

 beginner and others, who have unexpectedly 

 come upon foul brood, to get at the information 

 quickly. We have already carefully considered 

 the subject under the heading of " Foul Brood," 

 in "the ABC book; but as the disease seems to 

 be breaking out anew in many quarters, and 

 many questions are being asked, we will at- 

 tempt to boil down the best that has been writ- 

 ten, including the article in the ABC book, 

 bringing the matter up to the very latest date. 



SYMPTOMS. 



Some of the brood fails to hatch. Cappings 

 here and there are sunken and perforated at 

 the center. On opening one of these cells there 

 will be found a dead larva lying on one side of 

 the cell, somewhat shrunken, and of a brown- 

 ish color, varying all the way from a light pale 

 brown to a dark brown. In the more advanced 

 stages the brown is of the color of a coffee-berry 

 after being roasted. In the incipient stages the 

 brown is of the color of the coffee we drink, 

 when greatly diluted with milk. But so far all 

 these sym|)toms may be present as the result of 

 chilled, overheated, or starved brood. But to 

 determine whether it is the real foul brood, run 

 a toothpick into the dead larva and then draw 

 it slowly out. If the maturated mass adheres 

 to th'^ end of the pick, about like spittle, and 

 finally the fine thread breaks when the pick is 

 drawn back, it is probably a case of foul brood. 

 With all othi^r forms of dead brood, with per- 

 haps one exception, this ropiness does not ap- 

 pear; but with foul brood it invariably appears. 

 Now. then; is another symptom: and that is. the 

 odor, while not exactly foul, resembles greatly 

 that from a cabinet-maker's glue-pot ; and 

 when the disease is pretty well advanced in the 

 hive, the odor will make itself manifest upon 

 lifting the cover or quilt, even before exposing 

 the brood. If other colonies are affected in a 

 similar way, and the disease appears to spread, 

 it is unquestionably a case of foul brood. 



In the above we have referred to an exception 

 where the diseased larvae have a brown color, 

 and yet show the ropiness — a sort of malady 

 that will correct itself, and which is very apt to 

 appear just before the honey-flow during hot 

 weather. It appears very suddenly, and disap- 

 pears just as suddenly. It is not foul brood, be- 

 cause it does not spread; and, so far as we can 

 remember from our own apiary, it lacks the 

 distinctive foul -brood odor. We wish we knew 

 what it was. 



TREATMENT AND CURE OF FOUI- BROOD. 



We have tried all the medicine, acid, or anti- 

 septic treatments. We have carefully followed 

 the reports as given in the bee-journals for 

 such treatments ; but so far we would not 

 advise anybody to place very much dependence 

 upon them. The carbolic-acid (or phenol) 

 treatment is, perhaps, as good as any; but 

 when it is strong enough to kill the germs of 

 Bacillus nlvei (the scientific name of foul 

 brood) it kills the bees too: but even then we 

 have found the disease would reappear in from 

 a month to six weeks after its use. It seems to 

 work a temporary cure; but such a cure in the 

 case of foul brood is no cure at all. In fact, it 

 actually does harm, because, if a more effectual 

 treatment, which we shall give presently, is 

 used, it does away with the (Za?i{/e7' of infection. 



