189G. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



307 



as long as a swarm remains uneasy 

 and uusettled you may rest assured 

 that they have no queen with them 

 and will slidrtly return. Clipped 

 queens are a wonderful help during 

 swarming time, and it only recjuiresa 

 little practice to meet with success. 

 In opening a hive you can soon tell if 

 the colony has a queen or isqueenless 

 simply by tbe action and the roar of 

 the bees. Just so readily, with a little 

 practice, you can determine if a swarm 

 has or has not a queen. A bee keep- 

 er to be successful must notice all the 

 little as well as the big things about 

 bees, and every action about a bee 

 means something. All we have to do 

 to lesson labor largely and to keep up 

 with the times is to learn the meaning 

 of their actions. 

 Steeleville, 111. 



Curing Foul Brood. 



BV G. M. DOOI.ITTLE. 



A correspondent wishes me to tell 

 tbe readers of the Amekicak Bee 

 Keeper something regarding foul 

 brood and its cure, and whether I con- 

 sider the views on that subject as put 

 forth by Mr, Cheshire as correct. Mr. 

 Cheshire termed the cause of foul 

 brood " bacillus alvei," and very many 

 consider him good authority on the 

 subject, but his words, " the popular 

 idea that honey is the means by which 

 foul brood is carried from hive to hive 

 and that mainly through robbing, is as 

 far in error that only occasionally and 

 casually can honey convey it from 

 colony to colony," are so directly op- 

 posed to those of Quinby and Jones, 

 who both give testimony that through 

 the honey arises the greatest danger 

 of the spread of this disease, that it 

 seems strange to me that any of our 



apiarists should endorse Cheshire and 

 cast aside the many proofs given in 

 this country to the effect that honey 

 is really the only means of spreading 

 this dreaded disease. Mr. Cheshire 

 was a great scientist and scientific re- 

 search should be prized highly, but to 

 be of value such research must not 

 run squarely against facts known to 

 exist from practical experience. My 

 first experience with this disease was 

 in 1872-73. Being short of combs in 

 my early bee keeping life 1 was oblig- 

 ed to turn every way to secure all I 

 could for there was no such thing as 

 comb foundation then. I had a chance 

 to pi'ocure some combs of a man sev- 

 eral miles distant which combs had a 

 little honey in them, he having saved 

 them from some colonies which had 

 died the winter previous. These combs 

 were fitted into frames and the frames 

 were given to late swarnls the follow- 

 ing summer to enable them to become 

 in good condition for winter. In the 

 fall I noticed some cells of unhatched 

 brood in these hives but thought noth- 

 ing of it as I had at that time little 

 experience in bee keeping. During 

 the next spring combs from these hives 

 were exchanged with other hives, and 

 before I could hardly realize the situ- 

 ation I found that the former hives 

 were almost rotten with foul brood 

 and many others thoroughly inoculat- 

 ed with the disease, caused by the 

 exchange of combs. I became alarm- 

 ed and rashly resolved that I 

 would never under any circumstances 

 again exchange combs, nor ever take 

 another comb from another apiary 

 not even as a gift, the folly of which 

 resolve I saw the very next spring 

 when some of my colonies were starv- 

 ing while others had plenty of honey 



