124 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAIi. 



[Dec, 



the lower story, thus preventing the escape of 

 animal heat from below, and it all passes up 

 through the Avire cloth into the cages, to help 

 keep up a proper temperature for the young 

 queens. By lifting oft' the cover from the upper 

 story, and looking down through the glass tops 

 of the cages, we are able to see at a glance which 

 of the queens have hatched each day, and record 

 the same on the under side of the cover. 



Wlien the queen in the lower story has hatched 

 and become fertile, she is lemoved, and the oldest 

 one in the cages is let down, and when this one 

 is fertilized she is taken out, and the next oldest 

 let down, and so on. 



By opening these hives about three o'clock in 

 the afternoon, on pleasant days, we can usually 

 find the visible signs of connection on the queen, 

 and remove her at once. 



G. W. P. Jekeakd. 



Levant, Me., Nov., 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Poulbrood. 



Dear Journal : — I am almost afraid of wear- 

 ing out my welcome by appealing so often to 

 you, especially on the same subject ; but you 

 know it is natural to be garrulous on that topic 

 in which one is most interested. 



Last year I was almost discouraged by the 

 rapid and destructive spread of foulbrood in my 

 little apiary ; but this year it has been a pleasure, 

 rather than a sorrow, to watch and control it. 



Only a few of those treated last year with 

 sulphite of soda or chloride of soda and lime, as 

 conducted then, with honey and pollen remain- 

 ing in the combs, proved to be ^permanently 

 cured, when brood was raised in the spring, 

 although all trace of the disease had been re- 

 moved in the fall, and the combs continued 

 through the winter to be ajqjarently healthy. 



All colonies (with the exception of one which 

 contracted the disease in the fallj that were 

 treated in the early summer, according to Quinby, 

 remain free from disease to this day. In fact 

 one of these has been my best, giving me two 

 early s\\ arms, which, with the original hive, 

 have yielded one hundred and one pounds of box 

 honey, and ninety-five pounds of extracted, 

 leaving in each hive about thirty-five pounds for 

 winter. 



The season being somewhat earlier than usual, 

 the hives were removed to their summer stands, 

 from the best of all bee houses, the "Novice," 

 early in March, and all those which were dis- 

 eased the fall previous were placed a few rods 

 away from the others, in a lot surrounded on 

 three sides by a very high board fence, with a 

 barn and the out-buildings connected forming 

 the fourth, and separating it from the apiary. 

 This was the hospital yard, and the seclusion 

 proved sufficient protection, as there has been no 

 case of contagion this year in the apiary, which 

 now numbers eighteen colonies. 



Is it not a fact that bees, unless greatly de- 

 moralized, have little inclination to I'ob out of 

 their own enclosure? 



This summer's experiments have been to test 

 cures in two ways. One by pruning, the other 

 by emptying the comb with the " Peabody," and 

 disinfecting them before restoring them to the 

 bees again. The bees themselves, of course, 

 were shut up and made to consume all the dis- 

 eased honey which they carried with them. 



First pruning. Early in March I removed the 

 bees from two infected hives to healthy ones 

 which were well supplied with stores ; bflt from 

 having lost their queens were nearly tenantless. 

 Now after one of these had become well filled 

 with brood, a part of the frames were removed 

 to strengthen a weak colony, making three hives 

 which were occupied more or less with brood 

 from the transferred stocks. All these were 

 found diseased in April. How did this happen, 

 when the bees had been confined without food 

 for nearly two days before they were given to 

 healthy combs? Probably forty-eight hours in 

 their sluggish state, in the cool weather of March, 

 is not time enough for the consumption of the 

 diseased supply. One hive was so badly dis- 

 eased that pruning was useless. The other two 

 were so slightly affected that I determined to 

 prune, removing the first row of healthy cells 

 around those diseased, and to this day they are 

 perfectly healthy. One of them was prevented 

 from swarming by cutting out queen cells, and 

 the other threw off a large swarm during the 

 summer. 



The others, with two more as badly diseased, 

 were treated as follows : All the honey was ex- 

 tracted, the combs washed in clean water, and 

 then immersed for a few hours in a solution of 

 chloride of lime, after all the cells which had 

 contained disease had been washed out with 

 either sulphite of soda or chloride of soda, then 

 washed out again with clean watei', immersing 

 them and emptying with my "Peabody." In 

 this way two were perfectly cured, and remain 

 so. In the third, the disease slowly reappeared, 

 and after it had made a good headway, the queen 

 was removed and given to a healthy colony. (I 

 have frequently done it with impunity), the 

 brood allowed to hatch, while a new queen was 

 raised, and as soon as she began to lay, the colony 

 was shaken into an empty hive on the old stand, 

 and confined for a day and a half. Meanwhile 

 all the putrid larviB was removed from the combs 

 by the atomizer and water, and all the honey re- 

 moved by the extractor. The combs, after being 

 washed in clean water, were immersed for a 

 night in a solution of caustic acid, washed again 

 in water, and given to the swarm. The disease 

 reappeared in less than three weeks in two out 

 of the six combs. On the supposition that this 

 occurred only in cells not thoroughly disinfected, 

 and that the contagion had not been spread 

 through the hive, I concluded to prune. All the 

 disease was carefully removed, and now six weeks 

 afterwards, there has been no new invasion, and 

 to all appearance it is healthy. 



I consider my apiary pure, and the hospital 

 without a case, and if next spring it continues 

 so, I shall try various experiments to recreate 

 the disease. 



I still have two hives testing the time cure. 

 One with honey and disease undisturbed, the 



