Feb. 23. 190S. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



151 



thereby transmit the disease until an apiary will soon be 

 destroyed and neighboring apiaries jeopardized. 



Every person who keeps bees, whether they have many 

 or few, should study and try to be able to detect the disease 

 in its early stages, and know how it may be carried from one 

 hive to another, which might be briefly summed up in a 

 few words. In any way in which honey or the stain-m.Trked 

 cells can be changed from one hive to another. Watch the 

 brood — take an interest in it; whenever you lift out a frame 

 take a look at the brood. If it is all healthy, fat and white- 

 looking, all is well. If not, apply the tests and find out what 

 is the matter, and, if you find the real thing, close the hive 

 and mark it and consider. 



To cure it, we must get rid of the combs and honey, for 

 therein is the disease and germs. 



Go to the colony late in the evening when the bees 

 will not fly or scatter to other hives. Shake the bees off into 

 the hive and give a set of frames with foundation starters. 

 We have thus gotten rid of the combs as far as the colony 

 is concerned. Not so with the honey. As soon as we dis- 

 turbed the colony the bees loaded themselves with honey, 

 and we must still get rid of that. They also clean up any 

 that shook out during the manipulation on the floor of the 

 hive, and any that remains on burr-combs or was attached 

 to the inside of the hives. This they would store if they 

 had a particle of comb supplied ready. We have only given 

 foundation starters, however, and they must work it out. 

 Wax-seeretion is necessary, and most of the honey is digested 

 and used ; but they soon have cells built and may store 

 some of the diseased honey therein. To make a complete 

 cure it is therefore necessary again to shake three days 

 later, the same way as before, and supply full sheets. 



Melt up or burn up the old combs and the first set of 

 starters, and the cure is complete, if properly carried out. 



This cure can only be applied in the early part of the 

 season, and during a honey-flow. If no flow is on, the bees 

 must be fed or they would swarm out, and perhaps scatter 

 into one or more hives, and thus make matters worse. If 

 the disease is discovered late in the season, and the colony 

 still strong, leave it until November, take the combs away 

 and supply honey from a clean colony, in full, sealed combs. 

 The queen is not now laying, and any honey that they have 

 picked up will be consumed first, and thus out of the way. 



If a yard of bees or apiary is badly diseased, when dis- 

 covered, send for the inspector or some one who has had 

 experience, so that it is unnecessary for me to describe how 

 to go about curing a ba'dly-infected yard. 



In looking for the disease, hold the frame or comb so 

 the light may shine into it. The stain-marks may be seen 

 by standing with your back to the sun, and holding so the light 

 will shine on and into the lower side of the cell. 



In dealing with foul brood, the first loss is the least, 

 and while it is well to cure as economically as possible, if we 

 have a large number of colonies, plenty to do, and the disease 

 is not discovered until after the honey-flow, it would be 

 better perhaps to destroy the combs and kill the bees. The 

 top story or super-combs, if very clean and free from pollen, 

 may be saved by having the diseased colony clean it out 

 before curing. But in this case, again, perhaps the first loss 

 will be the least and it might be better to melt the combs. 



Never put a diseased colony into winter quarters. 



Always clip the queen before shaking to cure. 



H. G. SlBB.\LD. 



Mr. Hoshal — When I treated my own yard, it had not 

 fully developed. In the first stages if we change the queen 

 we cure the disease. 



Prof. Harrison — There are different degrees of virulence 

 in foul brood as in typhoid or other human diseases. There is no 

 specific method for curing foul brood. Mr. Sibbald has car- 

 ried out the Formalin Method very well. It is considered an 

 efficient disinfectant in the case of human diseases, and should 

 be so for Bacillus Alvei if properly used. The gas generated 

 is more potent if the temperature is low and there is lots of 

 moisture. Either hang wet sheets or turn on steam to get 

 moisture. Leave in a tight box for 18 to 24 hours. Bertrand 

 recommends medicated syrups — formic acid. Through long 

 exposure the bees of Europe have become partly immune to 

 the disease. In a similar way the sheep of Algiers are partly 

 immune to anthra.x. 



INSPECTOR OF APIARIES' REPORT. 



During 1904 I visited bee-yards in the Counties of Nor- 

 folk, Brant, Simcoe, Victoria, Perth, Oxford, Wentworth, 

 Lincoln, Peel, Grey, York and Ontario. I inspected 91 



apiaries, and found foul brood in 32 of them, and dead brood 

 of other kinds in many others. 



The spring was one of the most unfavorable for bees 

 that we have had in many years. At no time during the 

 spring did bees bring in honey fast enough to keep pace 

 with the amount of larvae that required feeding, and the 

 result was that more or less starved brood was to be found 

 in every apiary. I received many samples by mail of starved 

 brood, asking what it was, many dreading it to be foul 

 brood because some of the capped cells of brood were punc- 

 tured. I also received samples that contained both foul 

 and starved brood in the same comb. 



I set the bee-keepers to feeding in every apiary that I 

 examined during April, May and the early part of June. I 

 was much, pleased with the way the bee-keepers took hold 

 and cured their apiaries of foul brood. 



It is one thing to know how to cure an apiary of foul 

 brood in the shortest possible time and to do it with the least 

 loss, but it is quite another thing to handle all classes of 

 men, and particularly so when things get into hot dispute over 

 the sales of diseased colonies, and notes for large amounts 

 have been given. No man on earth can deal with cases of 

 this kind so well as the inspector, and I always claimed the 

 right to have such cases placed in my hands to deal out 

 justice to both parties, and I am pleased to say that they 

 were always left to me, and that I got things settled very 

 nicely. 



Death makes big changes, and where the widows had 

 diseased apiaries and wanted to sell the bees, I managed the 

 business for them, and had everything put to rights as nice 

 as the flowers of May, and secured fair prices for them. 



In every locality that I went into I picked out the best 

 bee-keeper in it to go the rounds with me, so that he could 

 (on the quiet) let me know from time to time how the 

 people were getting on at the curing. By keeping in touch 

 with the business this way, I was able to get everything 

 put to rights with the help of the good men that "I picked 

 out to pad the road with me." 



With the help of those men and very many others, I have 

 not only driven the disease out of the Province in the most 

 wholesale way, but converted the foul-broody apiaries into the 

 best paying ones in Ontario. 



No Province or State in the world had as much foul 

 brood in it as Ontario had when I first started out to cure 

 the diseased apiaries of foul brood, and now no country has 

 as many fine, clean ones for the number kept. 



For the very courteous treatment that I received from 

 every person while on my rounds, I return to them my most 

 heartfelt thanks. Wm. McEvoy. 



Mr. F. J. Miller read a paper on 



THE PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF SWARMINQ AS 

 USED WITH THE HEDDON HIVE IN THE PRO- 

 DUCTION OF EXTRACTED HONEY. 



The subject assigned me is one leading up from early 

 spring management, hence my article begins with the work 

 as the hives leave the winter-cases. At this time supers are 

 put on all colonies showing sufficient strength. Queen-clip- 

 ping follows as rapidly as possible, great care being taken 

 that no queen is allowed to pass unseen although last year's 

 record may show her to have been clipped. Apple-bloom is 

 now closing, and some queens may yet remain undipped; 

 this makes but little difference with the short-cut methods 

 of handling the divisible brood-chamber hive, and the work is 

 completed as I must ktww that every queen is clipped in or- 

 der to carry out our future plans. 



During this early management a watchful eye is kept that 

 no colony becomes congested with honey in the brood-nest. If 

 the queen is being crowded and not allowed all the room she 

 can occupy, the divisible brood-chamber hive affords the 

 quickest results possible witli the least amount of labor. We 

 simply divide the center of the brood-nest horizontally by 

 exchanging the two sectional parts of the brood-chamber, i. e., 

 by replacing the bottom-chamber with the top one, thus 

 placing honey in the center of the brood-nest. This being 

 averse to the instinct of the bees the honey is quickly re- 

 moved. The brood now extending to the top-bars under the 

 queen-e.xcluder, the honey is carried above this line into the 

 suners, leaving empty cells for the use of the queen in the 

 center of the brood-nest as it now exists. 



During the vk'eek of honey-dearth between fruit-bloom 

 and white-clover, this interchanging of the brood-nest has the 

 same stimulating effect as feeding, or the uncapping of honey. 

 With the opening of white-clover supers are again added un- 



