1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



void their excrement, aud also die 

 outside the hive (except in winter) 

 tbe spores contained in their bodies 

 are generally carried out. I do not 

 know whether the queen transmits 

 the disease to the brood by her eggs 

 or not, but the fact that removing the 

 queens has often cured the disease, 

 seems to point to that direction 



What can be done? The treatment 

 used to cure .silk-worm disease cannot 

 be applied to bees. The chief part of 

 it consists in a microscopical examina- 

 tion of the eggs to acertain if there 

 are any spores in them, and reject all 

 but the healthy ones. 



Two processes suggest themselves: 

 Since the disease resides chiefly in the 

 grown bees it is probable that salicylic 

 acid administered in syrup, or some 

 other antiseptic, would destroy the 

 disease. The other consists in remov- 

 ing the queen to be sure she cannot 

 transmit the disease to her brood 

 through her eggs or otherwise; and at 

 the same time spraying the bees and 

 €ombs with some antiseptic (salicylic 

 acid, phenol, sulphur or prehap.s salt- 

 ed Waaler) in order to destroy what 

 spores might be in the hive, and re- 

 peating the process until all the dis- 

 eased bees should be gone. 



The bees themselves help a good 

 deal in checking the disease, by eject- 

 ing and literally carrying out the dis- 

 eased bees; and since bees void their 

 excrement outside, and also die 

 generally outside of the hive, most of 

 the spores are thus carried away. 

 Someone has insisted, however, that 

 the dead bees ought to be collected 

 and burnt so as to avoid any danger 

 from that source' I have not tried 

 any thing yet. 



Knoxville, Tenn., July 30." 



Someone will be a.sking us what we 

 are going to do about it? Well, we 

 have not got the lesser plague in our 

 apiaries, and the first thing we are 

 going to do is what we have been do- 

 ing, viz., be careful not to borrow it 

 by bringing queens or any other sup- 

 ply into our apiaries from any other 

 until we are assured of freedom from 

 all contagious diseases. We have 

 kept bees in large numbers over a 

 quarter of a century and none of these 

 troubles yet.— Dowagiac Times. 



ITALIANIZING AN APIARY. 



A subscriber wishes me to tell in 

 the Review the best way to Italianize 

 an apiary of fifty colonies. He also 

 wishes to know which is the cheapest 

 method. That for which we pay the 

 least money is not always the cheapest. 

 The best is u-ually the cheapest in the 

 long run. Yes, he asked me one 

 more question, and that is, if the Ital- 

 ians are any better than hybrids for 

 comb honey. I think I better answer 

 the last question first, as, if he means 

 by hybrids a cross between the Ital- 

 ians and blacks, I can simply say 

 " no," and it is done with. As I take 

 another look at his letter I see he also 

 wishes to know when he better do the 

 work. This better be cleared away 

 before attacking the main question. 

 1 would do it after the main harvest 

 is over. If the queens are to be 

 bought they can then be secured at 

 the lowest piice, and are probably as 

 good as those that are reared earlier 

 in the season. My next choice would 

 be quite early in the season, before 

 much honey was coming in or the 

 brood nest had become very much ex- 

 tended. The greatest objection to 

 this time of year is extra price that 

 must be paid for queens. From the 



