'I HE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



189 



A straw, (Tleimiugs 40"), miotes Dr. Latinne 

 to the effect that extra honey in the hive in 

 winter regulates temperature, and bo makes 

 the colony winter better. Tliis may not be 

 so shamefully astray for the mild winters of 

 France and Italy, but I don't believe its 

 orthodox for our fierce winters here. Too 

 mnch like taking a thousand silver dollars 

 to bed with yon on a cold night to equalize 

 temperature. 



Thanks, Dr. Miller, for the actual fact 

 you give in -that other straw on page 40.'). 

 We cut down fine basswoods (because they 

 are basswoods) and plant in the vacant 

 place little, forlorn whips of lindens, because 

 they are lindens. Sometimes we make two 

 steps of it — displace a German queen by an 

 Italian, and displace the Italian by Punic or 

 Carniolan. 



Richards, Ohio. 



•July 8, 1897. 



EXXRKOXeD. 



How to Cure foul Brood Among Bees. 



Foul brood is a much dreaded disease, 

 but it is one that any bee- keeper can get 

 rid of if possessed of determination and the 

 right kind of information. Probably no 

 man has had greater or more varied exper- 

 ience with foul brood than has Canada's 

 foul brood inspector, Mr. Wm. McEvoy, 

 who has recently contributed to the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal a lengthy article on the 

 subject of curing foul brood. This article 

 reads as follows: — 



"This disease has destroyed hundreds of 

 apiaries at all times, in almost every land 

 where bees have been kept, and it is tO-day 

 making its deadly march unchecked through 

 the bee-yards of the world. 



For 17 years I have warned the bee-keep- 

 ers to keep all dead and imtrid matter out 

 of their colonies, 'io a-< not to cause foul 

 brood, and while I have been warning and 

 holding up Death's head and the cross 

 bones, the professional guessers, who were 

 not practical bee-keeper*, have been en- 

 couraging the whole^alf spread of the dis- 

 ease by saying that rotten l)rood in hives of 

 bees would not cause foul brood. Such 

 teaching as that ha-; caused thousands of 

 bee-keepers to be very careless, and when 

 the disease has broken out in their bee-yards, 

 it was left to run its course to the ruin of 

 their apiaries, and all others in the same 

 localities. It is only the very few among 

 many thousands of bee-keepers that have 

 succeeded in caring their apiaries of foul 



brgod after it got a good start in their bee- 

 yards, and the owners left to themselves to 

 manage the curing. 



I will now give my methods of curing foul 

 brood, which cannot fail when followed ex- 

 actly as I order. 



In the honey season, when the bees are 

 gathering honey freely, remove the combs, 

 and shake the bees back into their own hives 

 in the evening; give comb foundation start- 

 ers, and let them build comb for four days. 

 In the evening of the fourth day, remove 

 the comb, and give foundation to work 

 out, and then the cure will be complete. 

 Fill an empty two-story hive with the combs 

 of foul brood that have been removed from 

 two or more diseased colonies, close them 

 up for two days, and shade them from the 

 sun; after that open the entrance, and when 

 most of the brood is hatched, remove those 

 combs, and give the bees starters of fouLda- 

 tion in a single hive, and let them build 

 combs for four days. Then in the evening 

 of the fourth day. take out those new combs, 

 and give them fouudatiou to work out. 



Let it be remembered that all of these 

 operations should be done in the evening, 

 so that the bees will become settled down 

 nicely before morning. 



Before extracting from the diseased 

 combs, all the combs that were not sealed 

 musit be cut out of the frame, or some of 

 the decayed brood will be thrown out with 

 the honey. Then after cutting out the un- 

 sealed comb, uncap the sealed honey, ex- 

 tract it, and bring it to a boil. 



All the foul combs, and the new combs 

 that were built in the four days, must be 

 made into wax, and the dross from the wax 

 extractor, must be buried, because what 

 runs with the wax would not be heated 

 enough to kill the spores, and if it was 

 thrown out where the bees could get at it^ 

 it would start the disease again. 



When the diseased brood that was placed 

 in the two-story hive is hatched and the 

 bees are given full sheets of foundation, 

 then they should at once be given a queen- 

 cell ready to hatch out, or a young queen ; 

 then everything will be all right. 



The empty hives need no boiling, scalding, 

 or disinfecting in any way, and are per- 

 fectly safe to use. no matter how b^d the 

 disease may have been in them; and I have 

 always erot the curing done in the same 

 hives. But as the frames get more or less 

 daubed with the diseased honey when the 

 combs are cut out of them, I always 

 order the frames burned as soon as the 

 combs are cut out, because it doesn't pay to 

 waste valuable time fussing and cleaning 

 old frames, when new nice ones are so 

 cheap. 



Where an apiary is diseased so badly that 

 the colonies have become weak, then all the 

 combs, both in and out .of the hives, should 

 be made into wax at once, and all the colo- 

 nies doubled up at the same time, as it 

 won't pay any person to waste time with 

 weak colonies. 



In some bee-yards I have put three and 

 four colonies in one, to get fair-sized colo- 

 nies to start on. 



