GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



648 



We now defer the rest of the operation till 

 such time in the evening as bees shall have 

 ceased flying. If the infected colony can be 

 isolated, so much the better ; otherwise we 

 must be content to leave them in their original 

 position after they have been rehived. In this 

 case, however, the occupied ground must be 

 carefully watered with carbolic solution, or 

 carbolate of lime must be scattered around. 



Evening having arrived, we will commence 

 operations by closing the entrance of the ad- 

 jacent hive on either side, with strips of gauze, 

 "to prevent risks of entry by our patients 

 while the process of transferring is pro- 

 ceeding. We now close the entrance of the in- 

 fected colony with our remaining strip of 

 gauze, and remove it. Next, the ground it 

 occupied must be disinfected, after which the 

 new hive must be placed there; and a board 

 leading up to the entrance having been arrang- 

 ed for the convenience of the bees, the combs of 

 the infected colony are to be shaken over it. 

 the division- board and quilt having been re- 

 moved, so that the bees may be enabled to dis- 

 cover their new queen. If there is any difficulty 

 in getting them to enter the new hive, this is 

 easily removed by placing the comb, on which 

 the queen is caged, outside, and leaning it 

 against the entrance, w hi-n the bees will quick- 

 ly cluster on it. While this is going on, half a 

 pint or so of thecarbolized syrup may be inject- 

 ed into the shaken combs of the diseased colony, 

 after which the frame containing the caged 

 queen (on which many of the bees will now have 

 collected) is to be placed in the hive, and the 

 other combs are to be ranged on either side of 

 it. 



They are now to be contracted into a suitable 

 space by employing the division-board: the 

 quilt is replaced, the hive closed, and its en- 

 trance also, the piece of gauze being again re- 

 placed. The bees must be closely confined for 

 48 hours, at the end of which time their new 

 queen will probably be acceptable; when so, she 

 is to be released. As soon as the queen com- 

 mences to lay, the developing brood must be 

 carefully watched, and each day a few ounces 

 of carbolized syrup should be injected into the 

 adjacent cells. The sealed brood will also need 

 scrutiny, and any unhealthy patches must be 

 sprayed with solution No. 1. whenever discov- 

 ed. In a montli's time all should be safe. 



The old hive is to be carefully fumigated 

 with burning sulphur, and next morning it 

 must be painted externally and internally with 

 solution No. 1. This should b(i done twice or 

 thrice, after which it may be put away for fu- 

 ture use. As this neighborhood has been 

 heavily visited with foul brood. I find it ad- 

 visable to medicate spring food. as. before the 

 honey crop opens, scavenging among diseased 

 colonies, which lire too often carelessly exposed, 

 is apt to spread the evil once more. 



Aug. ]5 



The disinfectant I use with my spring feed i* 

 that recommended by my old friend Muth, of 

 Cincinnati : 16 grains salicylic acid and 16 

 grains soda borax, to each quart of honey or 

 syrup. 



I fear my article has become somewhat 

 lengthy; but unless minutiae are attended to, 

 perfect immunity can not be attained. 



Inneshannon, Ireland. 



[We believe Mr. Frank R. Cheshire to be an 

 eminent scientist, and one who has done much 

 — very much — to advance real science in bee 

 culture; but his conclusions in regard to foul 

 brood, or Bacillus alvei, strangely disagree 

 with our experience in one or two particulars. 

 Out of 60 or 70 colonies which we treated for 

 foul brood, every one was allowed to have its 

 own queen after treatment — that is, after put- 

 ting on frames of foundation in clean hives; 

 and in none of these cases did the disease devel- 

 op again. Indeed, we have taken queens from 

 diseased colonies and put them into healthy 

 ones, to test this very thing; but foul bruod did 

 not follow in their wake. If the ovary of the 

 queen contains the diseased germs, as stated by 

 Cheshire, they are not transmitted, or were not 

 in our cases, 13 the brood. 



Now with regard to the phenol, or carbolic 

 acid. As we have related before, Prof. Sar- 

 gent, at our suggestion, prepared some pure 

 •• cultures"— that is. test-tubes containing beef 

 gelatine, that had been sierilizHd of course. Into 

 these tubes he introduced the virus of foul 

 brood. Later examination with a microscope 

 showed that the bacilli grew rapidly ; and a 

 twelfth-inch objective showed ex. icily the same 

 microbes that are illustrated in Mr. Cheshire's 

 work, into these tubes containing the germs 

 of foul brood he introduced phenol solutions 

 f-uch as are used for feeding bees, of the strength 

 recommended by Cheshire; but it did not kill 

 the germs. Other tubes of gelatine could be in- 

 oculated from the tubes treated with pheniil, 

 showing that carbolic acid of the strength pro- 

 posed by Cheshire, at least in our own case, 

 failed to kill the germs. This was exactly in 

 accord with our own experience in spraying 

 some dozen or so colonies that we had been ex- 

 perimenting on, but without any satisfactory 

 results, the disease reappearing after lepeated 

 sprayings. You suggest, that perhaps the so- 

 lution used by us was not strong enough. In 

 some cases we made it so strong that it actual- 

 ly killed the bees themselves: but did it kill oft 

 the foul brood? Not a bit. The most we could 

 ever say for the phenol, or carbolic acid, was, 

 that it seemed to hold the disease in cli.ck; but 

 further than this we could discover no effect. 

 For these reasons we have discouraged the 

 use of phenol, or carbolic acid, as a waste of 

 time, and at the same time it is a great risk. 



As it is possible that we may have erred in 

 some of our experiments, and have not give" 

 the Cheshire treatment a fair trial, we are glad 

 to place before our readers the article by Mr. 

 Stephenson.— El).] 



STARVATION A CAUSE OF BEE-PAKAI.YSIS. 



Mr. Dayton writes me that he thinks starva- 

 tion causes the" new bee-disease." lirodbeck 

 is getting honey again from honey-dew. He 

 -ends me leaves on which I find honey-dew and 

 aphides, or plant-lice. This dry year in Cali- 

 fornia is very favorable to both scale and plant 

 ]■^^.f, A. J. Cook. 



Claremont, Cal.. July 23. 



