idO 



TBE BEE-KEEPERS'- REVIEW. 



When the curing is to be done before or 

 after the ho ey season, the greatest caution 

 is to be used so as not to start robbing. 

 The curing can be done just as well before as 

 after the honey season by feeding plenty 

 of sugar syrup in the evenings, so the bees 

 will work out the starters of foundation, 

 and store the diseased honey in them, that 

 they took from the old, diseased combs, 

 and when the new combs are removed the 

 fourth evening, and the foundation given, 

 the feeding must be continued to get foun- 

 dation worked out and filled with plenty 

 of good stores for winter. 



When I find apiaries of foul brood at the 

 close of the honey season, I get the queens 

 caged in all the weakest colonies for about 

 ten days, so that no brood can be started to 

 become foul. I then get the owners to take 

 the brood out of the strong colonies, and 

 tier it up on the weak colonies with the 

 caged queens. Then give the colonies 

 starters as soon as the combs are removed, 

 and feed sugar syrup in the evenings for 

 four days; then remove the starters for 

 foundation. Then at the end of ten days 

 get all the combs taken from the weak col- 

 onies that have the caged queens, and shake 

 the bees into a single hive, give starters of 

 foundation, let the queens out of the cages, 

 and feed sugar syrup in the evenings and 

 remove the new combs the fourth evening 

 for full sheets of foundation, and continue 

 the feeding until all is in good condition. 

 The colonies that were weak when the 

 brood of other colonies was tiered up on 

 them, will be very strong from the quantity 

 of bees hatched out during the ten days. 



I have to use considerable judgement in 

 curing my foul-broody apiaries, so as to 

 make the cure as profitable as possible, and 

 have every colony a good, strong one when 

 the season closes. 



It is a very easy thing for one to cure a 

 foul-broody apiary, and soon put it in good 

 order, no matter how bad it was when I 

 started to fix it up in good shape to cure it. 

 But I have found it a very hard thing to 

 handle all sorts of men so that they would 

 cure, and do as I ordered them. 



When a few colonies in an apiary are 

 found with foul brood at the close of the 

 season, the owner can very easily fix them 

 up all right by removing the combs in an 

 evening in October, when the queens have 

 done laying, and have sealed combs from 

 sound colonies. If the owner has no sealed 

 combs, he must feed until the bees in the 

 sound colonies seal them for that purpose, 

 and then when given to the foul colony the 

 bees won't have any place to store the foul 

 honey they took from the diseased combs, 

 and then they will have to keep it until they 

 consume it: and with no place to start 

 brood, the queen stopped layine, and cold 

 weather coming on, the bees will have got- 

 ten rid of the diseased honey long before 

 brood is started again. Every bee-keeper 

 should have, every fall, plenty of combs 

 sealed over like the best of section honey. 

 I have hundreds of them every fall. 



I know of many failures in Ontario where 

 the drug system has been tried, and I have 



many private letters from several localities 

 in the United States where it has been a 

 complete failure. I never knew one cure 

 made by the drug system, and why any man 

 should speak of it as a cure when it is 

 always a failure, is something I can't 

 understand. 



I will warn all men not to waste their 

 time in tinkering with any kind of drugs in 

 a bee-yard: the best place for such drugs 

 would be in the sea — only it might be a 

 sorry time for the fishes. 



The D. A. Jones starvation plan will cure 

 every time, but it is too hard on the bees, 

 and completely unfits them for comb build- 

 ing for a time, by making the bees very 

 thin, lean and poor; and the starving some- 

 times almost ruins some of the queens for 

 life. 



On page 370 of the American Bee Journal 

 I said the dross from the wax-extractor 

 must be buried. Since then Mr. Gemmill 

 has written me, saying that I should have 

 said the dross from a solar wax- extractor. 

 He says the dross from foul-broody combs 

 that were boiled would would be all right, 

 which is very true, and I am very thankful 

 to Mr. Gemmill for noticing that I had not 

 explained what I meant. I meant the dross 

 from all steam wax-extractors, but forgot to 

 say so, and explain why the dross from them 

 must be buried. 



If foul-broody combs are out in a steam 

 wax-extractor, the honey will run out into 

 the wax-pan, just as soon as the steam warms 

 the honey in the combs, then as fast as the 

 steam melts the combs the wax will run in- 

 to the wax-pan. 



The common practice with the most bee- 

 keepers and their wives, after lifting out the 

 the wax to heat over and run into cakes, 

 is to throw out dross and honey that was in 

 the bottom of the pans: if the bees get at 

 such honey, and take it to the larvjp, it will 

 start foul brood at once icith a vengence, be- 

 cause the honey got but very little heat that 

 ran into the wax-pan. 



I want to give a little advice to the farmers 

 that have foul brood in their bee-yards. 



If you have 10 or I.'* colonies afflicted with 

 foul brood, I want you to prepare things in 

 good shape tlirough the day, by putting the 

 starters in the frames, thus getting all things 

 ready. Then go, about sundown, with a 

 good smoker, well going, and blow smoke 

 into the entrance of every hive near the ones 

 you are goimr to remove the combs from 

 and fix up. Then stand to one side, or the 

 back of the hive, so the bees can see the 

 entrance of their hive, and as soon as you 

 have smoked the colony well, remove the 

 combs and shake the bees right back into 

 the same /ncf, and give them comb founda- 

 tion starters, which you will remove the 

 fourth evening, and give full sheets of comb 

 foundation. 



If no honey is being gathered by the bees 

 at that time, you tnust feed plenty of sugar 

 syrup in llie evenings or your bees ivill 

 swarm out and mix in ivith your sound 

 ones and ruin them. If you have no feed- 

 ers, use small bread pans, or anything of 

 the kind. Pack them full of straw, then fill 



