THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



213 



or perhaps three at the most. Expe- 

 rienced beekeepers can, with the use 

 of comb foundation, stimulative feed- 

 inj>- and careful management, increase 

 to five or even more. 



2. This will depend largely on the 

 number of colonies you liave with 

 which to commence operations. One 

 safe and very satisfactory method is 

 this, just stimulate your colonies ju- 

 diciously in the springtime, so that 

 they will build up rapidly, and also 

 contract the brood chambers (as per 

 directions in back numbers of this 

 Journal) and when the colonies have 

 been built up by the addition of brood 

 combs or comb foundation, until they 

 are strong, take from each colony (if 

 you have five to eight) one comb of 

 hatching brood from each, place them 

 in a new hive with adhering bees and 

 give them, if possible, a young laying 

 queen if not a good queen cell, placing 

 the new hive in a new location. After 

 the old bees have returned home, as 

 naiiy of them will, the new colony 

 should be examined, and if there is 

 more brood tiian the bees can cover, 

 remove the extra combs and contract 

 the brood chamber. This may be re- 

 peated just as often as the strength of 

 the old colonies will permit. Remem- 

 ber that you gain much time by giving 

 the new colonies laying queens, also re- 

 place the combs taken from the old 

 colonies with empty ones, or full sheets 

 of comb foundation. If you have but 

 two or three colonies you will be 

 obliged to manage differently, and if 

 your colonies are in box hives, transfer 

 them early in apple blossom time, and 

 then proceed as per above. 



3. The moth worms have been at 

 work with your brood, and they 

 travel about under the cappings of the 

 cells, over the heads of the immature 

 brood. The bees, in their endeavors 

 to dig them out, uncap much of the 

 brood which never develops ; hence 

 you will find many young bees with 

 wings only partially formed, and with 

 a white skin adhering to them. Ital- 

 ianize your bees and keep them strong; 

 melt over the affected combs, and 

 when you store any combs away, never 

 place them so close together that they 

 touch, and it would be well to brim- 

 stone them occasionally. 



The following questions asked by Mr. 

 J. A. Hopkins, and answered by Mr. 

 Muth, were kindly sent us by the latter, 

 and we favor our readers with both the 



questions and answers, and here we 

 would state that those who have not 

 read the reports of the last convention 

 of the North Eastern Beekeepers' As- 

 sociation given in our February and 

 March numbers, should secure a copy 

 and read them. AVe can furnish the 

 reports (forty-eight pages, mostly bre- 

 vier) for twenty-five cents, which is 

 very reasonable considering the value 

 of the matter contained therein. 



1. I think it is admitted that bees 

 cannot carry the infection on their 

 bodies, hence is it safe to introduce a 

 queen from an infected stock to a 

 healthy one, after caging her for a few 

 hours? If not, why not? 



Ans. Foul brood is of vegetable 

 growth, a fungus and spreads by 

 spores. Running over an infected cell 

 or cells, bees or a queen may drag 

 along on their feet one or more spores, 

 too small to be seen with the naked 

 eye, and if dropped on a larva, this 

 will die, and in due time, throw out 

 spores of its own. These spores are 

 harmless unless they come in con- 

 tact with a larva. Queens from dis- 

 eased colonies are as dangerous to 

 spread foul brood as any part pertain- 

 ing to that hive or colony, as danger- 

 ous as your fingers or knife with which 

 you handled the colony. 



2. If the infection cannot be carried 

 on the body of a bee can it be commun- 

 icated through empty comha any more? 



Ans. Spores of foul brood maybe 

 dropped anywhere inside of or about 

 the hive, and are harmless until, in 

 some manner, they are brought in con- 

 tact with larv£e. Combs, empty or 

 filled, from a diseased stand, offer as 

 good a means for infection as an empty 

 hive. 



3. If salicylic acid is a destroyer 

 of the germs of foul brood, then can- 

 not empty combs be saved by spraying 

 with it and be made safe to use in 

 healthy colonies? 



Ans. I can prove to the satisfaction 

 of anybody that salicylic acid destroys 

 the germ of foul brood. Spraying is 

 safe, if every part of comb and frame 

 is moistened with the acid. But, if 

 you skip a spore in a cell or a corner 

 of the frame, foul brood will take a 

 start again in due time, i. e., whenever 

 that spore is brought in contact with 

 a larva. 



4. A colony having ten frames and 

 an extracting top or super, with ten 

 similar frames, is discovered to have 

 a few cells of foul brood. Cannot these 

 combs be extracted and the top sepa- 

 rated enough from the brood chamber. 



