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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Sept. 



offices " The reader will remember that this 

 was before any kind of movable comb hive was 

 in use, or even thought of, and can understand 

 how much Keaumur was delighted when he 

 saw the queen for the first time. 



The further detail of the "History of the 

 Divided Swarm " is equally instructive. 



Renediub. 



[to be CONTINUED.l 



♦-♦- 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Letter from New Bedford, Mass. 



The past winter was so severe that many lost 

 more or less of their colonies, but thanks to 

 my bee house none of mine died. I 

 have put my bee house also to another 

 use, which greatly increases its value to 

 me I use it for a fruit house. The bees 

 keep the temperature just above freezing, and 

 grapes and pears keep remarkably well. I had 

 a few vicar of Winkfield pears as late as March, 

 and the Sieulle, so difficult to ripen without 

 shrinking and becoming leathery, were plump 

 and mellow into January. 



Notwithstanding the great drouth we have 

 had, the crop of honey has been quite good, 

 both in boxes and by the extractor. In fact, 

 owing to the prevalence of bass and tulip trees, 

 for shade and ornament in the city, we seldom 

 have a "miserable honey season." 



From some cause unknown to me, I found 

 about the last of April, a few cells of foul brood 

 in three of my best hives. Now how did this 

 happen when I have been free for two years. I 

 have no doubt but that Alley, who likes to 

 catch one on the hip, will say, "just as I told 

 you; better burn and bury, or sooner or latent 

 will return." Now two years is a long time for 

 it to wait before reappearing, especially in hives 

 and colonies that are entirely new within that 

 time. ^ 



I can guess how it was introduced. When i 

 first set out mv bees the last of March, I fed 

 with rye meal, and (very unnecessarily) put 

 gome honey in a plate on the edge of the feed 

 box, which was knocked off and mixed with the 

 rye ; as it was moist or rainy and cold for a 

 number of days the honey and wet rye was left 

 carelessly to ferment before the bees began 

 again to work on it. I soon removed it when 

 the error and carelessness was discovered. I 

 am afraid there are others careless as well as 

 myself and perhaps in the same way. 



Well friend Alley, I did not bury or bum, 

 neither was I much alarmed for my twenty col- 

 onies, over whose health and prosperity I had 

 for two years been boasting, for I knew that I 

 could control it, and in this instance proljably 

 with very little trouble, for I have a theory that 

 if the first few cells of a foul brood are destroyed 

 before the bees undertake to remove it, and so 

 mix it with the honey and feed of the hive, the 

 disease is removed, radically. It would be an 



interesting experiment to put a frame of foul 

 brood protected by wire gauze from contact 

 with bees, into the center of a full colony, to 

 determine the question whether actual contact 

 with the disease is necessary for its communica- 

 tion, or whether it can be communicated through 

 exhalation. I have never heard of a well authen- 

 ticated case where it was not communicated by 

 the access of the bees themselves to the disease, 

 or cause of the disease. I believe it takes some 

 time for the disase to be virulent or rather ex- 

 tensive in the hive when it commences with 

 only a few cells in this way, and that the bees 

 are capable oftentimes of curing themselves by 

 removing the dead larva before they have become 

 really putrid and that animal poison developed 

 with that disease which we in medical term call 

 septicemia. 



From the circumstances that there was no foul 

 brood in the fall, or appearance of it in March 

 when I set out the colonies, at which time I 

 made a careful inspection, I was satisfied that 

 the disease had only just commenced, and I was 

 in time I thought to easily cure by pruning I 

 carefully cut out every cell diseased and the two 

 or three healthy cells around it, and from one 

 hive where the disease was the worst removed 

 the queen to be sure that all dead larva should 

 be seen before a new generation was started. I 

 was entirely successful : not a trace of disease 

 showed itself afterwards. The number of bees 

 in the colonies was small the space occupied by 

 brood was comparatively small, so that I had 

 every advantage in my favor of finding easily 

 all the disease. , 



I did not care to nurse up this pest into viru- 

 lence in order to make a cure in some other and 

 more diflticult way although I was thoroughly 

 tempted to leave one for the experiment of cur- 

 incr by feeding the medicine without using the 

 spray douche, or washing the combs in a disin- 

 fectant. Besides, I would like to have made 

 trial of that new and nonpoisonous antiseptic 

 and disinfectant, bromo chloralum, a suggestion 

 for its use I saw some time ago m the Jouknal, 

 but cannot again find it. I have seen m the 

 Journal, and heard by letter that cures have 

 been made by feeding alone. I should like to 

 try feeding with bromo chloralum, and at tne 

 same time spraying the hive and combs with it 

 once or twice a week. It is entirely harm ess, 

 as I have made the trial of feeding it to a healthy 

 nucleus without any injury to the brood. 1 put 

 one ounce to a pint of feed. 



You see, dear Journal, that I still have faith 

 in medicine, sulphate of soda and bromo chlo- 

 ralum. Only when it is safe, (and it requires 

 iudgment to know when it is safe,) pruning is 

 io mnch more simple, and next to this Mr 

 Quimby's mode of brushing out the bees and 

 making a new colony, and next to this medi- 

 cine. 



Yours truly, Ed. P. Abbe. 



New Bedford, Mass., July 36, 1873. 



