708 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



bees have come in coiilact willi the tierni, 

 there would be vei-y g'reaL danger of the 

 spread of disease. Suoli a case would be; 

 that of robbing from a common source, 

 such as from combs aftcM- extracting', and 

 from exposed honey. 



Por years [ have said that when Euro- 

 pean foul brood struck our bees I would 

 throw up the sponge, walk out, leaving the 

 outfit behind ine. 1 may do this yet, T 

 sometimes think. However, since adoiJfing 

 the above radical methods we have found, I 

 think, only two cases we had not seen be- 

 fore. At the same time, we have had too 

 much work to do to look very carefully for 

 dead bi"ood. 



Lest any one might be anxious lest he 

 might have the disease from queens or 

 colonies shipped by me, let me say no one 

 has received a queen out of any of our 



apiaiies Ihi.s season; and with one excep- 

 tion the bees shipped out were from an 

 apiary whicli even now lias sliown none of 

 the disease. In that exceptional case the 

 man was written to at once, and told that 

 the disease had been found in the apiary 

 from which tlie bees were supplied. It 

 api">ears to me ihat when the disease is in a 

 new section of countr\', as in this ease, bee- 

 keepers should be Avarned, so they can be 

 on the lookout. The statement which some 

 ha\e made, which came first hand from a 

 friend last year who had been told that J 

 liad been importing the disease into Canada, 

 is totally untrue. No inspector nor any 

 one in ray employ, nor myself, had found a 

 cell of foul 1)rood in anything T liave im- 

 ported. 



I'n-antford, Out. 



PRUNING DISEASED CELLS FROM A COMB; IS THE PRACTICE SAFE? 



DY J. F. KIGHT. 



I have just had an experience Avhich, so 

 far as I know, has never been reported to 

 (jI.kanings in a similar manner. In early 

 May I bought seven colonies of Italian bees 

 and placed them in an outyard; but be- 

 fore doing so I examined them carefully 

 twice, about eight days apart, and found 

 them to be in fair condition, and breeding 

 up well. Knowing the presence of Ameri- 

 can foul brood in the neighborhood I took 

 l)articular pains to see that they were not 

 diseased. I examined them again on the 

 tenth day after bringing them home, and, 

 to my surprise, 1 found six of them with 

 from one to six cells of American foul 

 brood. As soon as nectar began coming in 

 I placed a super of starters above them, 

 and, wilh a little smoke and a little hammer, 

 I drove them above. Then at the end of 

 the 48 hours I placed them on full sheets of 

 comb foundation and left them as cured. I 

 slacked the six old diseased hives by pairs, 

 and at the end of 21 days I shook all the 

 bees off tlie diseased combs on to the start- 

 ers, and in 48 hours I gave them full sheets 

 of foundation, and felt sure T had perfected 

 a cuie. 



Now comes my story. In making this 

 last cleani'p s;;-'^p bees with infected honey 

 must have gone into a hive just in the rear, 

 for I found in about twelve days three dis- 

 eased cells in one frame. The queen had 

 almost filled every comb with brood, and 

 to destroy all of them again seemed too 

 ureai a loss, so F decided to prune. With a 

 sharp long-bladed iiocket-knife I cut out 



these three diseased cells, making a hole 

 in the comb about an inch in diameter. That 

 was over a month ago, and there is no dis- 

 ease in this hive, and now it is one of the 

 best and strongest colonies. So it seems 

 that, if the disease can be detected in its 

 incipient stage, pruning might save it. 

 Certainly it has done so in this case. 



It will be noticed that in the first case 

 I drove the bees, and in the second case I 

 shook and brushed all off. The reason I 

 prefer to drive in the first instance is that 

 it is no trouble to cause the queen and the 

 old bees to rush to the top hive from the 

 smoke and hammering; then there are left 

 enough young ])ees to care for the larvte. 

 Besicles, this drive system is more sanitary 

 and there is less danger of spreading the 

 disease. The second shift, all bees must be 

 saved; hence it is necessary to shake and 

 brush. 



T should be glad to know whether or not 

 this disease has ever been cured in a similar 

 way. 



Indianapolis, Ind., July 21. 



[We have had reports fi'om those who 

 have pruned out the diseased cells in a 

 colony showing American foul brood. In 

 some ca.ses a cure was effected. But it is 

 fair to say that we have had reports frou) 

 other people who have tried this pruninc 

 business and found it unsatisfactory. It 

 may eliminate the disease for a rime; but 

 sooner or later, especially when the stores 

 are pretty well eaten down, the old disease 



