450 



experience in any business that a true 

 result as regards profit or loss can be 

 obtained. Our average yield for each 

 colony in the spring of 1873, was 80 lbs.; 

 in 1874, a fraction of a pound less than 

 100; in 1875, a little over 106 ; in 1876, 

 just 50 ; in 1877, a little less than 167 ; in 

 1878, 71 ; and in 1879, the present season, 

 58 lbs., making an average yield of a 

 little over 90 lbs. per colony for the 

 term of 7 years. By looking over our 

 diary we ascertain that our honey has 

 sold at an average price of 21 }i cents 

 per pound, the highest price being 

 obtained (28^ c.) in 1874, and the lowest 

 (10% c.) in 1878. 



From past experience, we believe a 

 thorough, practical, workingman can 

 do all the work required to be done with 

 100 colonies of bees, and from the above 

 he should obtain for an average term of 

 years, 9,000 lbs. of honey annually, 

 which at 21 ^ c. per lb. would bring him 

 a yearly income of $1 ,912.50. Although 

 the average yield per colony for 7 years 

 to come may be increased, yet the price 

 during that time is likely to be lower, 

 as the high prices caused by the war 

 are passed, and unless we have some 

 unforeseen event to raise the price of 

 honey, it will probably never bring 28c. 

 per pound again. Still, with a much 

 lower price for honey than that averaged 

 for the last 7 years, bee-keeping ranks 

 favorably with almost any other pursuit. 



Borodino, N. Y., September, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Experiments with Foul Brood, Etc. 



E. P. ABBE. 



I send you to-day a bee destroyer 

 Asilus, I suppose, that I caught in the 

 act. I presume it is the same species 

 that you have spoken of as a common 

 pest in Missouri, and I send it only as a 

 specimen from a widely separated 

 iocality. . 



A few years ago my apiary was seized 

 with foul brood, nearly every hive (I 

 had at that time about a dozen) becom- 

 ing more or less affected ; and I passed 

 most of my lesiure time during that 

 summer in experiments with various 

 methods and remedies for its cure. I 

 found as I supposed that it was con- 

 trolable with Sulphite of Soda. I say 

 controlable, instead of curable, for un- 

 less every particle of the zoosperms was 

 washed out or reached by the Sulphite, 

 the disease was sure to return ; and as 

 they were frequently sealed up with the 

 stored honey, it only remained for the 

 uncapping to start the disease afresh. 



I was at the time quite enthusiastic 

 and certain that I had discovered a 



quick and ready method of curing foul 

 brood ; but when it began to reappear 

 although slowly, and I found that the 

 same tedious process with the atomizer 

 must be gone over with again, and 

 especially as all the pleasure of an 

 apiary was gone when it had to be 

 watched like a suspicious character, 

 and there could be no interchange of 

 combs or bees between the colonies, I 

 resolved to get rid of the trouble and 

 annoyance in the radical way, viz : con- 

 fining the bees in an empty hive until 

 they had consumed all honey in their 

 sacks (or about three days), then giving 

 them their honey, which had been 

 scalded and strained. In this way I 

 soon had my apiary once more in a 

 healthy state. 



Soon after these experiments. Salicy- 

 lic acid came before the public as a 

 disinfectant and anti-putrescent, and I 

 regretted that I did not have a case of 

 foul brood to try its powers. The next 

 year, however, I had a small hive in 

 which I found some half dozen cells of 

 unmistakable foul brood. I carefully 

 sprayed the hive, and washed out the 

 diseased cells with a strong solution of 

 Salicytate of Soda, and the trouble per- 

 manently disappeared. 



This summer, in July, I found one of 

 my colonies badly diseased, and as it 

 was one of five that I had freely 

 exchanged combs or given from the 

 same old combs that were stored 

 together, I immediately opened the 

 others and found all more or less 

 affected. One, however, had only a few 

 dead larva? in one comb, and these I 

 pruned out, and gave no other treat- 

 ment. The trouble has not returned in 

 it. I have always thought that if the 

 disease can be detected sufficiently early 

 and is pruned away before the attempt 

 to remove it, the colony is safe. 



One of the others I reserved for 

 Salicylic acid treatment experimentally , 

 and the others were treated on the 

 Quinby plan. (See Mr. Corey's interest- 

 ing article in July number.) I however, 

 did not confine t^e bees after they were 

 put in empty hives, but let them fly 

 freely on their stands. I put them in 

 empty box-hives without frames for 

 four days, carefully destroying any 

 comb they may have made. It was at 

 the season when forage was getting 

 scarce, and they did not make four 

 square inches of comb altogether. 

 After four days I gave them their per- 

 manent hives in various conditions, 

 viz : One had only empty frames, one 

 had empty combs, one had combs with 

 brood in all stages, and one with a 

 frame of comb with eggs one or two 

 days old. Here, certainly, were con- 



