3So 



I -"^^^^ 



American l^ee Journal 



December, 1910. 



giving them clean combs from a healthv 

 colony." 



Fred A. Parker (inspector of Santa 

 Barbara Co., Calif.)— " Nothing short 

 of removing all the combs will make 

 the cure permanent." (This same man 

 relates one fusi- where the disease dis- 

 appeared of its own accord in an api- 

 ary of 30 colonies. On the other hand, 

 he reports one instance where an api- 

 ary was entirely destroyed by the dis- 

 ease in one season. His conclusions 

 are that the disease, although erratic 

 in its nature, is dangerous, and that a 

 relentless war should be waged against 

 it until extermination.) 



J. M. Rankin (California)—'! have 

 seen an apiary showing only slight in- 

 fection in February become almost a 

 total wreck by August." 



Dr. Phillips visited an apiarv of l.jl 

 colonies in Ventura Co., Calif.,' with A. 

 G. Edmonson, inspector. Two vears 

 previously that apiarv was healthy, but, 

 at the time of their visit onlv 15 colo- 

 nies were healthy, and the 'other 13(i 

 were either dead or nearly so. 



Louis H. Scholl, of Texas, burns up 

 all diseased colonies for fear that bv 

 the shaking treatment some honey mav 

 be dropped to the ground that will 

 transmit the disease. 



Bertrand, Switzerland (La loque et 

 son traitement)— "A colony suffering 

 from foul brood is less active than its 

 healthy neighbors, the flying bees have 

 less activity and appear discouraged 



The bees remove chilled dead 



brood from the cells, but do not have 

 much to do with the cells containing 

 foul brood, t/?//,-xs the afiuiist has used 

 au a>it!st/ttc:" (This writer recom- 

 mends the use of antiseptics and de- 

 stroys but very few combs, except in 

 cases where the colony is badly in- 

 fected. Most of his experience appears 

 to be with fresh cases, for he is a verv 

 careful bee-keeper.) 



Dzierzon ("Rational Bee-Keeping ") 

 —"The bees take the trouble /'<t;V/«//v 

 to remove to the outside the blackish- 

 brown crust forming finally from the 

 rotten _ matter." A little farther he 

 says: "When thej' are in some strength 

 they can at most get rid of it by en- 

 tirely biting down the tainted cells and 

 making fresh ones." 



Of Dzierzon's losses by foul brood, 

 Langstroth says in his first edition of 

 the "Hive and Honev-Bee:" " In the 

 year 1848 a fatal pestilence, known by 

 the name of foul brood, prevailed 

 among his bees and destroyed nearly 

 all his colonies before it could be sub- 

 dued, only about 1(1 having escaped the 

 malady. He estimates his entire loss 

 that year at 500 colonies." 



Jas. A. Green (quoted in " Langstroth 

 Revised," who gives a most accurate 

 description of foul brood)— " Usually 

 the bees make no attempt to clean out 

 the infected cells, and they will some- 

 times fill tliem with honey, covering up 

 this dried foul brood matter at the bot- 

 tom." 



Many authors mention two kinds of 

 foul brood, t!ie virulent and the mild 

 form. It seems to be the present con- 

 sensus of opinion that the mild form is 

 not foul brood at all, but what is now- 

 called " pickled brood," and it takes an 

 expert to recognize the difference. The 

 self-cured instance mentioned by Fred 

 A. Parker, of California, was undoubt- 



edly a mild case, and so must have 

 been the combs so easily cleaned in 

 Mr. Stewart's case. 



I have myself met at different times 

 those who thought they had had cases 

 of foul brood, that disappeared of its 

 own accord. I recollect an old gen- 

 tleman. Mr. St. Pee, who was treasurer 

 of the French Societe d' Apiculture, in 

 1900, at the time of my visit in Paris. 

 He had charge of the experimental api- 

 ary in the Lu.xembourg gardens, and 

 showed me the bees. He said they had 

 had foul brood in that apiary, but it 

 had worked itself out without any 

 remedies. He was therefore quite 

 optimistic regarding this disease. 



To sum up the above numerous testi- 

 monies: Whenever we come across 

 cases of easily cured foul brood, we 

 may safely decide that it was not the 

 ropy, malignant American foul brood. 

 This is rarely cleaned out of the combs 

 by the bees. 



The different advices, as well as my 

 personal observation, indicate that it 

 is not necessary to burn up anything, 

 although in very advanced cases the 

 disgusted apiarist will prefer to burn 

 up the worst contaminated combs, for 

 it is not a pleasant task to heat decayed 

 animal matter over a fire, even to save 

 a few pounds of beeswax. 



From two authorities, France and 

 Bertrand, we may conclude that combs 

 containing neither honey nor pollen 

 may be disinfected so that the bees of 

 a healthy colony will cleanse them of 

 dead matter after the latter has been 

 thoroughly dried. As a rule it is best 

 to melt up the combs of diseased colo- 

 nies for beeswax, taking care to keep 

 the wax hot two or three hours. The 

 hives need only to be disinfected by a 

 flame to be entirely safe for use again. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Wintering 

 Cellar 



Bees in a House- 

 Non-Swarming 



BV C. A. B;\RBISCH. 



During the past 8 years I have win- 

 tered all my colonies in the house-cel- 

 lar, and with the exception of the first 

 2 years, when I lost 2 colonies, I have 

 not lost a single colony. With these 2 

 colonies it was my own mistake. They 

 became somewhat restless, and in or- 

 der to make them quiet I shut them in 

 with wire-cloth, which simply will not 

 do, for as soon as the bees know they 

 are shut in they will begin to buzz, 

 want to get out, and consume a lot of 

 honey; dysentery follows, and the col- 

 ony is ruined. 



I have what I consider an ideal cel- 

 lar. It is under the whole house, large 

 and roomy, and 7 feet high, with a sub- 

 earth ventilator 50 feet long to the 

 west, where the most prevailing winds 

 come from. The chimney runs down 

 into the cellar, and there is an opening 

 about one foot from the floor in the 

 chimney. The walls are made of 

 stone, but the floor is cemented. The 

 walls are a foot above the ground, but 

 on approach of cold weather they are 

 made frost-proof by banking up with 

 horse-manure and sawdust. The ther- 

 mometer hardly ever varies more than 

 5 degrees until towards spring when 

 the weather warms up. 



.\long the last of February, when th 

 colonies become restless, we open th 

 door or window at night, but it is 

 always closed again before daylight so 

 as not to coax the bees out. The cool, 

 refreshing air stops their restlessness, 

 and for days the bees are quiet again. 



The colonies are stacked up in the 

 southeast corner, entrances facing the 

 front and not to the walls, for the rea- 

 son that it is much handier to take a 

 look at them, and, if necessary, to clean 

 out the dead bees. .And, by the way, is 

 it not a pleasing sight in midwinter for 

 the bee-keeper to see the large clusters 

 of bees, perfectly quiet and contented, 

 the best sign of perfect wintering ? 



The cellar is kept dark at all times 

 except when we need something for 

 the kitchen. A large curtain is hung 

 in front of the bees, excluding all light, 

 which I consider absolutely necessary. 

 I have used both large and small en- 

 trances, and could see no difference in 

 the colonies. I now use an entrance % 

 inch by the width of the hive, and no 

 trays or cushions of any kind are used, 

 but an oilcloth over the top of the 

 frames, and then the cover — that is all 

 there is to it. 



Some bee-keepers say it will not do 

 to have vegetables in a bee-cellar. This 

 cellar is packed full with vegetables of 

 every description, and, as stated before, 

 the bees winter successfully in every 

 way. 



In my opinion the following things 

 are absolutely necessary to winter bees 

 successfully in the cellar: 



1st. Plenty of good stores. 



2d. The cellar must be dry and warm. 



3d. Good ventilation that can be reg- 

 ulated even in very cold weather. 



4th. Perfect quiet, and total darkness. 



If the above conditions exist in a 

 bee-cellar there is no need of losing 

 any colonies in wintering them therein. 



Allen's Non-Sw.\rming Brood-Ex- 

 CH.\NGE Pl.\n a Perfect Success. 



While reading Dr. Jones' book on 

 swarm prevention, and also his article 

 in the Review, I was very enthusiastic 

 at first, and had about decided to try 

 his method, when I read Mr. Allen's 

 plan in the " old reliable " American 

 Bee Journal, and I said to myself, 

 " Here is something even better than 

 the Jones' method." 



Well, did Mr. Allen's plan work ? 

 Yes, I am glad to say it did, and I think 

 it is by far the best swarm-prevention 

 I ever tried. As there may be some 

 readers of the American Bee Journal 

 who did not read his article I will 

 again give his method: 



When the flow is well started go to 

 the colonies, whether they want to 

 swarm or not, and remove them from 

 their stands, putting in their places 

 hives filled with empty combs less one 

 of the center ones. 



Next, a comb containing a patch of 

 unsealed brood as large as the hand is 

 selected from the colony and placed in 

 the vacant place in the hive; a queen- 

 excluder is put on this lower story, 

 then a super of empty combs, and on 

 top of all an empty super. A cloth is 

 then spread in front of this new hive, 

 the bees and queen shaken from the 

 parent colony, and the third story is 

 filled with the combs of sealed brood, 

 and brood too old to produce queens. 



