THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



colonies I had and g-iving- them to cer- 

 tain nuclei. I built up six nuclei by 

 giving them brood from diseased colo- 

 nies, and so far (nearly a j-ear after- 

 wards) only one of these colonies has 

 shown any signs of the disease. 



As several other colonies have taken 

 the disease this spring-, it is not very 

 likely that this one took it because of 

 these combs of brood and honey. That 

 five out of six failed to take the disease 

 after nearly a j-ear has passed, looks 

 as though it will be as safe to use all 

 combs of either honey or brood. This 

 simplifies the problem of what to do 

 with diseased colonies and saves the 

 loss of combs and brood as in cases of 

 foul-brood. 



Several years ag^o nearly or quite 

 one-third of my apiary was diseased 

 and the prospect was that I might 

 have to abandon bee-keeping because 

 of it, after nearly half of the diseased 

 colonies had died. Experimenting- 

 with all the methods of cure I could 

 hear of, the use of sulphur proved the 

 only method of any value. This I ap- 

 plied to three or four colonies at a 

 time, then in a few days to a few more. 

 Then, after an interval to more and so 

 on, until all had been treated. The 

 result was the entire cure of each col- 

 ony treated in the order of their treat- 

 ment, while not a colony in the yard 

 recovered until a certain time after 

 treatment, showing conclusively that 

 it was the treatment which affected a 

 cure. I have used the same method 

 more or less since then, but not to so 

 g-reat an extent. Out of some forty or 

 fiftj' altogether which I have treated, 

 all were cured by one treatment ex- 

 cept three which required a second 

 treatment each. As many have re- 

 ported failures in treating diseased 

 colonies with sulphur, it looks as 

 though they must have misapplied the 

 sulphur in some way, and I think it 

 will be best to g-ive in detail the way 

 I have used it. 



For reasons I will give later on in 

 this, I always go to the colonj' I am 

 to treat, during- the day, and take 

 away all the combs that contain brood, 

 or, at least, unsealed brood or eggs, 

 and give to some other colony; then in 

 the evening, as soon as the bees have 

 quit work and all are at home, I pro- 

 ceed to dust sulphur over every comb 

 in the hive and, if possible, on every 

 bee in the hive. I never measure the 

 exact amount of sulphur used, but pre- 

 sume about a tablespoonful to every 

 three or four combs in the hive. I do 



the work by taking- what sulphur I can 

 hold between mj^ thumb and first two 

 fing-ers and dusting- same over first one 

 side and then the other of each comb, 

 bees and all; also over any collection 

 of bees there may be off the combs in 

 any part of the hive. My aim is to 

 have a thin dusting- of the sulphur over 

 every bee and every comb in the hive. 

 The thinner the dusting the better so 

 it reaches everything^ in the hive. I 

 tried using an insect powder gun, but 

 couldn't do as good work as I could 

 with my fingers. The next day after 

 doing- this dusting-, I carry back to the 

 hives the same number of combs and 

 brood as I had taken away. 



The reason for taking away brood 

 before dusting the combs, and return- 

 ing again afterwards, is because the 

 dusting of combs not onl}' kills all the 

 unsealed brood in the combs, but ruins 

 these same combs for brood-raising. 

 If such combs are left in the hive, all 

 eggs deposited in them will hatch out 

 all right, but the larvae will die as 

 soon as hatched. B3' giving these same 

 combs to strong colonies, they will 

 clean them out and use them all right, 

 and no loss of combs will result. 



For a week after dusting a diseased 

 colon)' with sulphur, fully as manj^ or 

 more bees will be dying as before the 

 dusting; and this fact maj- lead some 

 to think the "cure" is not a cure. It 

 will take a couple of weeks before one 

 can tell whether the treated colony is 

 cured or not. 



Diseased colonies are usually very 

 weak in number after being cured, and 

 are of very little, if any more, value 

 than a good nucleus. I have doubts 

 whether it really pays to cure them 

 except such as can be treated very 

 early in the season, before nuclei can 

 be profitably made. For the last year 

 I have adopted the plan of curing such 

 colonies as needed it as early as the 

 middle of February, or even earlier; 

 after that I make as many nuclei as is 

 needed for the purpose, and as soon as 

 they have a young laying queen I take 

 away the combs from these nuclei, 

 thus giving the brood to these nuclei, 

 thus building up into good colonies 

 and destroy all the diseased bees with 

 sulphur fumes. 



In changing combs from diseased to 

 other colonies I am very particular to 

 know that each comb is aboslutely free 

 from bees, especially of dead ones that 

 may be in some empty cells. Diseased 

 bees quite often crawl into empty cells 

 to die. 



