Nov. 26, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



759 



only when it comes in contact with the disease. And brood- 

 combs are safe to use from a diseased colony where they 

 have gone up and stored their honey, and there has been no 

 brood reared in those combs. I believe there is no danger. 

 I will tell you what I did a few days before I left home to 

 come here. An apiary of b8 colonies, all of them with the 

 disease ; the hives were three or four stories high, extract- 

 ing combs above. It did seem a shame to destroy all those 

 combs. I said, " Don't do it. We will fumigate all of 

 these." But the ones below, where there was disease, I 

 said, "This is worth much more for beeswax, and we will 

 use some new sheets of foundation." 



By the way, with a German wax-press, you can take 

 your combs and render out almost enough wax to pay for 

 the new foundation. 



Question — Would you hesitate to use a hive that had 

 had the disease in it ? 



Mr. France — No, not unless that hive had had foul- 

 broodj honey daubed upon its bottom. In that case, I 

 would want to scrape or boil it thoroughly. Seven 

 years ago I disinfected hives, scraped and boiled, and 

 even took kerosene and burned them out. But I would 

 not want to live in a house with the walls all charred and 

 black, and I do not believe the bees do. Now, I put the bees 

 back in the same hive, simply scraping it. Those cells 

 were clean, and I do not believe there is any danger. 



Question — What amount of boiling would you give 

 them ? 



Mr. France — I simply immersed the hive in the boiling 

 water sufficient to melt the wax. 



Question — I would like to ask how the foul brood is 

 usually conveyed ? also, if it would eradicate the disease to 

 cut out certain parts of it and have the combs recleaned, 

 simply cutting out those portions of the comb that con- 

 tained foul brood ? 



Mr. France — I have agreed in some cases, where there 

 seemed to be but little of it, only one or two cells of foul 

 brood in the comb, or perhaps eight or ten in the entire hive, 

 to cut out and remove the diseased parts, keeping track of 

 the hive, and in a majority of cases that has been all right ; 

 where it was not, I fear there was something covering up 

 some that I did not see. It is a risk, however, for we can 

 not see what is covered up. 



Question — I would like to ask how it is conveyed from 

 one apiary to another, usually. 



Mr. France — It is conveyed largely by robber-bees, and 

 the bee-keeper's manipulating. 



Question — Is it not a fact that it has been conveyed 

 from one apiary to another several miles outstanding, at a 

 time of the year when robber-bees do not work ? 



Mr. France — I would have to get after back-track his- 

 tory there before I would want to admit all that. 



Mr. Corey — We used to boil the hives, but it was very 

 bad on the hives, because when they got dry they would get 

 loose. We abandoned that plan a long time ago. We had 

 a very eminent chemist with us at one time, and he recom- 

 mended the use of bisulphide of carbon, and told me to buy 

 a can of gasoline and put 25 percent of bisulphide of carbon 

 with it, and take a brush and go over the inside of the hive 

 and give a thorough treatment to the cover, and we would 

 save our hives, our nails would all be intact, and our beauti- 

 ful white painted hives, and he said it would be impossible 

 for any spores, no matter what kind, to exist in that bisul- 

 phide. 



Question — Would comb honey on top of the hive, pro- 

 duced from diseased bees, be safe to use or feed lo other 

 bees ? 



Mr. France — I think it would. 



Question — Two years ago we had a case of foul brood. 

 The lady asked me if she could feed the bees with that comb 

 honey that she had ; I told her I thought she could ; we fed 

 that back again, and the next year, or rather last spring, 

 they moved away and sold their hives to some one else, and 

 they were just literally grown up with foul brood. I think, 

 unless they got it from some one else, it came from that 

 comb honey. 



Mr. France — I would get after back-track history again. 

 In Wisconsin a man bought an apiary because he got it 

 cheap ; in due time it was united with his other apiary, and 

 that yard dwindled down until it was half gone with foul 

 brood. He treated it with the McEvoy plan. The next 

 spring, as soon as brood-rearing got nicely started, he 

 treated it again ; altogether he treated that apiary seven 

 times, and the disease would re-appear. He said, " I guess 

 I had better quit the business." He tried to get legislation 

 to help him, but he could not. He stood alone. He went 

 before the legislature, and was ridiculed and laughed at. 



Then, through the State Bee-Keepers' Association we got 

 legislation. Otherwise we never would have gotten it. So 

 much for the State Association. How much quicker we 

 would have gotten it had we had a National one I I went 

 to this apiary, and there were about four car-loads of empty 

 hives. I went inside of the apiary in a neighboring yard, 

 and there was foul brood and no attempt to get rid of it. 

 What was the use of treating when his neighbor would not 

 treat ? 



Question— What is the difference in the symptoms of 

 foul brood and black brood, in the appearance and develop- 

 ment of the diseases ? and are they two distinct diseases, 

 or but one ? 



Mr. France — I intended to bring some samples of en- 

 larged cells of black brood, foul brood, and pickled brood. 

 But black brood is always black, and head under, sharp- 

 pointed, a little turned up, and quite hard. Pickled brood, 

 the lower end light brown, thick skin, and the bottom end 

 apparently a water-bag, as you would take hold and pull it 

 out, which is easly done, as it is never ropy or sticky, and 

 you puncture that skin and the fluid will run as freely as 

 water. If it is black brood, that little bee would cover up 

 about half to two-thirds of the bottom of the cell ; it turns 

 brown, or nearly black, with white streaks running near 

 the center. It doesn't come out and get this sharp end to it 

 like pickled brood at all. 



Question — Do you think it is safe to feed bees comb 

 honey from hives that have been treated for pickled brood, 

 or black brood ? 



Mr. France— I would not use it for that purpose, unless 

 I had heated it. 



B. S. Taylor— I own three apiaries in part. One apiary 

 had foul brood ; in every case, where they fed this honey, it 

 produced foul brood, for all of these had foul brood the next 

 year. In regard to cutting out combs, one man, five years 

 ago, had 240 colonies. Wherever he found a symptom of 

 foul brood, he cut it out or burned it. L,ast year he got 

 down to 56, and I found 28 that had foul brood. Now he 

 has 11. Another man has been cutting down 100 colonies, 

 and has been cutting out and burning them. I said, " In 

 my opinion you will find 20 cases next spring." 



Question— Is black brood as contagious as foul brood ? 



Mr. France — Yes ; even worse. 



Question — Will it cure itself? 



Mr. France — Not until the bees are dead. 



C. J. Davidson— To what heat would you subject honey 

 in order to make it safe in feeding bees— honey that you are 

 suspicious of— simply bring it to a boil to eradicate the 

 germs ? 



Mr. France — Many have misunderstood that term 

 "boil." I have had considerable correspondence in regard 

 to Dr. Howard's treatment of that. He used dry heat. In 

 boiling, I invariably stir so as to bring the center of the 

 can to the boiling surface, so that it all gets heated. You 

 may take an ordinary-top milk-can, which is common upon 

 the farm, set it on the stove, and if you do not stir the con- 

 tents you will find the center of the can has hardly been 

 heated through, while it is apparently at the boiling point. 

 One man said, " Any man can see that is boiling." I said, 

 "You haven't killed the foul brood in that." I put my 

 hand down deep in that and it didn't burn. I believe in 

 thorough stirring. When it has all been boiled, and all 

 brought to the surface, it will be safe to use to feed the bees. 

 The germs will then all be killed. 



Mr. Corey — You don't believe it is necessary to cook it 

 two or three hours, do you ? 



Mr. France — No. 



(Continued next week.) 



Honey as a Health-Food is the name of a 16- 

 page leaflet (3,"2x6 inches) which is designed to help in- 

 crease the demand and sale of honey. The first part is 

 devoted to a consideration of " Honey as Food," written 

 by Dr. C. C. Miller. The last part contains " Honey-Cook- 

 ing Recipes" and " Remedies Using Honey." It should be 

 widely circulated by every one who has honey for sale. It 

 is almost certain to make good customers for honey. We 

 know, for we are using it ourselves. 



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