134 



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FOUL BROOD. 



Experience with Curing the 

 FquI Brood. 



Written for theAmertccm Bee Journal 

 BY A. A. BALDWIN. 



In the fall of 1886 foiu- apiarists (in- 

 cluding mj'self) bought a carload of 

 California honey for feeding our bees, 

 as it was cheaper than sugar, and it 

 would also help the honey market that 

 much. We took the precaution to 

 write to the party that produced it, 

 asking him if there were any foul 

 brood among his bees, and getting an 

 answer that there was no disease 

 among them, we felt safe to use it 

 without boiling. 



During the fall and the next spring, 

 we fed it to about 1,000 colonies of 

 bees, and it was sometime in April 

 that we found that we had given them 

 tlie foul brood. We had had experi- 

 ence in New York with the disease, 

 and knew what to expect. We talked 

 the matter over together, and felt as 

 might be expected — out of patience 

 with ourselves for not being more 

 careful, and on the whole a good deal 

 "blue" about it. We concluded to 

 wait until the close of the honey har- 

 vest before making an effort to get 

 rid of it. 



The disease progressed much more 

 rapidly in my apiary than in either of 

 the others, showing that the condi- 

 tions were more favorable for it, or 

 else my strain of bees were not as 

 strong to resist it. Perhaps the water 

 supply had something to do with it, 

 although some of the colonies fed, did 

 not show the disease until late in the 

 season. I liad fed 128 colonies out of 

 the 150 before I discovered the dis- 

 ease, leaving 22 colonies all right. 



Some two weeks later, I found whole 

 frames full of dead brood, and some 

 75 colonies that were not h.atching 

 enough bees to keep up the strength 

 of the colonies, and if I saved them I 

 would have to be about it. I took the 

 back numbers of the American Bee 

 Journal, and looked them over until 

 I found Mr. McLain's remedy, and he 

 was so positive in his statements in re- 

 gard to the cures that he had wrought 

 with it, that I went to work with no 

 little confidence to treat mine. 



I doctored 80 colonies, following his 

 directions to the letter, and watched, 

 as you can imagine, with a good deal 

 of interest, the development of the 

 new brood ; but, alas, vain hope ! I 

 found that I could as well expect to 

 move into a house from which the 



occupants had been carried to the 

 grave by small-pox, and remain health}', 

 as that a healthy bee could be reared 

 in a cell from which a putrid foul- 

 broody mass had been removed. I 

 doubt veiy much that a remedy will 

 ever be found for the disease, and use 

 the same combs. 



I found that combs that had stood 

 empty through the winter, in which I 

 could not detect the disease by the 

 scent or looks, gave the disease to 

 clean, new swarms. 



The season (1887) was a very poor 

 one for honey ; the healthy colonies 

 gathered barely enough to keep up 

 their strength ; but those diseased were 

 fast running down in numbers and in 

 stores, and becoming discouraged, 

 many of them swarming out, leaving 

 their hives in disgust. I had to be on 

 the watch to keep the healthy ones from 

 cleaning out the deserted hives. 



Early in July I went to work to 

 make new colonies, by brushing the 

 bees from one, two, or three of the dis- 

 eased colonies, according to their 

 strength, together into a clean hive, 

 and after two days, giving them six 

 frames full of foundation, and feeding 

 them until they had sufficient stores 

 for winter. These where made strong 

 enough, became strong, healthy colo- 

 nies. I found later by experimenting, 

 that I could give them foundation at 

 once, without continuing the disease, 

 and thus save time and trouble. 



I rendered the combs into wax, and 

 made that into foundation, and used it 

 for brood-combs again. I wintered a 

 few colonies that showed the disease a 

 little, and found some others that de- 

 veloped the disease as thej' bred up in 

 the spring, some 15 in all, I believe. 

 Some of the worst cases I put on foun- 

 dation about May 1, feeding them 

 liberally. One of them gave me 90 

 pounds of comb honey for my trouble. 

 Those colonies that had it light, built 

 up and swarmed, when I brushed out 

 the remaining bees with the swarm, 

 and gave the frames of brood to other 

 sick colonies to hatch out, till I had 

 reduced them to a few colonies ; these 

 I made qneenless, and as soon as they 

 had a young, laying queen from a 

 healthy cell given them, I brushed 

 tliem out and treated them as a new 

 swarm. 



I steamed most of tlie hives befoi-e 

 using them again. The balance I 

 fumigated with burning sulphur. Both 

 treatments proved effectual. Eighteen 

 of the 22 colonies not fed the honey, 

 remained healthy through it all, in 

 the same yard, and I have no doubt 

 but that the four that took it, got a 

 lick of the honey while feeding the 

 others, or while treating them ; for if 

 the disease-germs floated in the atmos- 

 phere, or were carried by the bees to 



the flowers to be taken by other bees 

 to their hives, and thus spread the dis- 

 ease, as some think, none would have 

 escaped it. 



During the first stages of the disease 

 it cannot be detected by the odor ; but 

 later, as they begin to open the cells 

 to investigate the trouble, thus expos- 

 ing to the current of air passing 

 through the hive, the putrid contents, 

 it can be readily detected by taking a 

 sniff at the entrance of the hive. 



We have conquered the disease, and 

 now have a full stock of as fine bees as 

 we ever had. We may find a few cases 

 during the coming season to deal with, 

 but we are not troubled about it. 



We have thus saved by our labor, 

 many of the bees, and a thousand 

 hives worth at least two dollars each ; 

 also 1,500 pounds of wax, which, I 

 think, is much better than burning 

 them all, as some recommend. 



Our experience agrees with Mr. 

 Quinby's given twenty or more j"ears 

 ago, viz : 



1. That the disease is carried in the 

 honey, and in no other waj'. 



2. Thoroughly boiling the honey 

 makes it safe for feed. 



3. Boiling, steaming or fumigating 

 with sulphur, renders the hives s.afe to 

 use again. (I would also add that the 

 wax from diseased combs is safe to use 

 for brood foundation again.) Never 

 feed honey without first boiling it un- 

 less you positivchj knoiv it to be healthy. 



I hope that this experience maj" help 

 some bi'other apiarist who ma)- be in 

 like trouble. 



Independence, Mo. 



GOOD YIELD. 



Keeping Bees in Te.xas — Peaches 

 Blooinins. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY A. C. ATEN. 



During the season of 1888 my bees 

 produced 11,000 pounds of honey, 

 mostly extracted, being an average of 

 112 pounds per colony, spring count ; 

 besides an increase of 40 colonies. 

 They have wintered well, or rather we 

 have had no winter, as there were 

 only three nights that ice formed in 

 the most favorable places. 



Roses have been in bloom all winter, 

 and lilies were in bloom in the garden 

 in January. Peaches are beginning 

 to bloom, and bees are busj". Tliere is 

 scarcely ever a spring, however, in 

 tills part of Texas, but that we are in 

 danger of losing some colonies by 

 starvation, unless we feed them. 



There comes a time after fruit-bloom, 

 that there is scarcely any honey to 

 gather for two or three weeks, and 



