DECEMBER 1, 19 rj 



the last stage of the disease are the most 

 dangerous of all, and radical treatment is 

 best in the long run. No honey is exti'act- 

 ed from the combs in such a colony, all of 

 them being burned except two which are 

 left spaced rather far ajjart in the center 

 of the liive. Later on, wlien no bees are 

 flying, we carefully lift out these two 

 combs, bees and all, and burn them. They 

 can both be carried at once, and drop them 

 on a fire. I should be glad to use chloro- 

 form in some way, as it seems cruel to burn 

 the bees. This makes a clean job of the 

 whole thing except the disinfecting of the 

 hive. 



While it may not be necessary to disin- 

 fect hives when treating American foul 

 brood, we do so with all that have contain- 

 ed a great amount of diseased brood, and 

 we also disinfect the hive where the diseased 

 brood is stacked up to hatch. We have 

 an idea that so much of this brood together 

 is dangerous. The ti'ouble and expense are 

 but trifling, and in some cases it may pre- 

 vent the disease from reappearing. We use 

 a one-to-one-thousand solution of corrosive 

 sublimate or carbolic acid, and simjjly im- 

 merse the hive parts in this solution. Noth- 

 ing can live through it.* 



In producing extracted honey where 

 American foul brood is prevalent there 

 may be no better system to follow than the 

 McEvoy. The hives should be numbered 

 with good plain figures that can be seen 

 clear across the yard. These ought to be 

 made with paint so they will stand the 

 weather from one year to another. Upper 

 stories containing combs that have never 

 been used by the queen should be provided, 

 the theory being that these new combs can 

 be cleaned up dry of honey by the bees, 

 thus removing all spores of American foul 

 brood they may contain. Combs that have 

 been used for brood-rearing contain many 

 cocoons that absorb the honey so that the 

 bees can not get at it, and this honey is 

 just as likely as not to contain spores of the 

 disease. This explains why it is necessary 

 to use combs for the extracting-super that 

 have not been used for brood-rearing. 



Having the proper combs, the plan of 

 producing the honey from a diseased yard 

 is much the same as though no disease were 

 present, except that, before beginning to 

 extract, each upper story should be num- 

 bered the same as the hive on which it was 

 filled. The reason for this is that it is de- 

 sirable to return them to the same hive that 



* It seems to us that scorching the inside of the 

 hive with burning straw or with a gasoline blue- 

 torch is really quicker and more effective. We should 

 have our doubts about such a weak solution destroy- 

 ing the spores of the disease. — En. 



701 



they were on before, in order to get them 

 cleaned from what honey is left after the 

 combs are extracted. And the combs them- 

 selves must be returned to the same super, 

 or else the system can not be carried out. 

 If these precautions were not taken, and 

 Iioney were extracted from a super taken 

 from a diseased colony, then put back over 

 a healthy colony, the disease would be car- 

 ried and thus spread about the apiary. It 

 will be seen that it is necessary to have the 

 combs cleaned up by the same colony that 

 filled them in the first place before they will 

 be safe to use in hives containing healthy 

 colonies. It usually happens that, when 

 these combs are returned to the bees to be 

 cleaned, the bees clean them and store the 

 honey riglit back in tl^e one they are clean- 

 ing, and this is quite undesirable. Mr. A. 

 H. Guernsey, of Ionia, Mich., told us in 

 one of the conventions how to get the combs 

 clean from honey, and I consider it a valu- 

 able kink. He waits until cool weather in 

 October, when the brood is nearly if not 

 all hatched out, before putting them on the 

 hives. At this time bees are naturally car- 

 rying in winter stores from the outside 

 combs to form their winter nest. Taking 

 advantage of this trait of the bees, he gets 

 his combs cleaned at that time. I consider 

 this a valuable addition to the McEvoy plan 

 of producing extracted honey in a yard 

 containing American foul brood. 



As upper stories can not be used year 

 after year on the same hive, their numbers 

 should be made in small figures with a pen- 

 cil so that another year they may be used 

 over a different hive if necessary. Some 

 producers number the upper stories with 

 cards which may be changed from one 

 super to another as they are required. 



CUTTING OUT THE DISEASED PART OF COMBS. 



When we first discovered disease in the, 

 yard mentioned in my first article, the colo- 

 nies had been worked for extracted honey 

 without queen-excluders, and many of the 

 combs in the upper stories had been used 

 for brood-rearing during the season. We 

 decided to follow the McEvoy plan for 

 treating the yard. None of the combs that 

 had liad brood reared in them could be 

 used again. As it so happened, we were at 

 that time expanding our business to some 

 extent, so some of tlie old extract ing-combs 

 had been taken to a new yard we were then 

 starting. To replace these old combs taken 

 away, new frames filled with new sheets 

 of foundation has been supplied. Many of 

 these had not been used for brood at all. 

 and others had been used more or less ac- 

 cording to the position they occupied in the 

 upj)er story, or to the inclination of the 



