188(5 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



727 



f'OUL BROOD. 



THE DESTRUCTION PLAN VEKSUS THE OTHER 

 REMEDIES. 



T|p T the close of the honey season last year I 

 2J*^ discovered that every colony in lay apiary 

 ^^ was more or 'ess affected with foul brood. 

 ■*'"*• I had never seen the disease, and, of course, 

 had no knowledge of it except what I had 

 obtained from rcadinn', and what I had heard in 

 the discussion of the subject at the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Convention in Cincinnati, Oct., 1883. It 

 seemed to be the prevailing- opinion of the mem- 

 bers of the convention, that the surest remedj' for 

 the disea:e is to kill the bees and burn the hives and 

 combs. 1 admit, that Mr. Jones, who was present, 

 said that he could cure it by the so-called •' starva- 

 tion plan;" and Mr. Muth also asserted his confi- 

 dence in the efficacy of salicylic acid; but 

 the destruction method seemed to be the most 

 popular with the bee-keepers present. I ac- 

 cordingly followed the destruction plan, with 

 the exception of two that were very strong- in bees, 

 and had not a very g-reat extent of foul brood. 1 

 had not time to try the starvation plan, so 1 put 

 them in the cellar, with the intention of trying: it 

 this summer, if they were alive in the spring. 

 They wintered well. During the winter I heard of 

 Cheshire's pamphlet on foul brood. After reading 

 it I concluded to try his remedy, phenol, on my 

 affected colonies, when I should set them out in the 

 spring. Afterward I read in the Birnrn Zcituug, 

 a German bee-journal, that powdered brown coffee 

 is a powerful, antiseptic, and a destroyer of foul 

 brood. I now had two remedies, phenol and 

 coffee, and I determined to try phenol on one 

 colony and powdered brown coffee on the other. 

 Accordingly I gave phenolated syrup (1 part to .500 

 parts), with a feeder placed over the cluster, and 

 covered with a cushion. I did it as soon as I set 

 them out in April. 



I applied the coffee finely ground, by removing 

 the combs one at a time and taking the powdered 

 coffee in my hand, sprinkling it over the combs, 

 bees and all, and into the cells and all the crevices 

 and cracks, and over the tops of the combs when 

 replaced. I treated the colony in this manner 

 three times, at intervals of about a week. 



The colony treated with phenol took about half 

 a gallon of the medicated syrup. The last of last 

 month I examined both colonies, aided by my 

 friend, an experienced bee keeper, C. Spangenberg, 

 of this citj% who has had some experience with the 

 disease, and we found not only no trace of the dis- 

 ease, but both were in a healthy and flourishing- 

 condition. 



From these tests it seems that each remedy is 

 equally efficacious. Coffee is to bo found in every 

 house, but phenol is not so easily obtained, and 

 coffee can not possibly injure the honey or the 

 bees. I think the bee-keeping world is to be con- 

 gratulated in having- so pleasant a remedy, so 

 easily applied, and so efficacious. I hope all who 

 have the disease will at once try coffee. Grind or 

 powder it very fine. J. W. Vance, M. D. 



Madison, Wis., Aug. Zi, 188(J. 



Friend V., before you read what I liave to 

 say in regard to the above, please remem- 

 ber that I have very little faith in remedies, 

 unless I can see some consistent renson for 

 applying such remedies, And now excuse 



me for saying that I can not believe your 

 finely ground coffee had any effect What- 

 ever over the foul brood. The i)henoI may 

 have had some effect— I do not know ; but 

 as a good many have reported that they 

 could not see that it made any difference, 

 excuse me for being somewhat skeptical in 

 regard to phenol also. Do you ask, how, 

 then, the disease came to "disappear? I 

 think it disappeared of its own accord. A 

 friend has written us, that, in order to test 

 a remedy for foul brood, he used it on a 

 part of his colonies, and used nothing on 

 the rest. After some time, on finding the 

 disease had disappeared on the treated col- 

 onies, he was ready to shout eureka, but 

 concluded to examine those not treated be- 

 fore doing so. To his astonishment he 

 found the disease had disappeared from 

 all— those treated, and those not treated. 

 Now, a great many experiments are made 

 like the one you note above. The disease 

 is gone, it is true; but how can you be sure 

 the coffee or i)henol either had any thing to 

 do with its disappearance V See also last 

 paragraph of article from E. C. Long, on 

 13age 701, last issue. 



BKUSHING BEES OFF THE COMBS, 

 VERSUS SHAKING. 



CONTRACTING lUiOOD-CHAMBERS NOT SUCCESSFUL 

 WITH MRS. AXTELL. 



TN last Gleanings it was remarked, it did not so 

 ijf anger bees to shake them off the combs as it 

 ^[ did to brush them oft'. True, it does not; but is 

 there not danger of injuring the brood to shake 

 it too hard? We know that queens' wings may 

 be thus injured, and why not worker-bees? I gen- 

 erally shake them enough to shake the clusters off, 

 and then stand to one side, or, rather, corner, of the 

 hive, generally the southeast corner, of hives facing 

 the south. Hold the comb in the left hand, and, 

 with a soft grass l)rush (never a feather brush, if 

 grass or weeds can be had), brush the rest of the 

 bees off, being careful not to stand in the bees' way, 

 so they can not alight in front of hive. Getting in 

 their way also angers them. 



This spring we thought we would try small brood- 

 nests after swarming, so as to get most of the honey 

 In the surplus-cases, as'.some are advocating. We 

 had tried it before, but thought we would try it 

 again, as it is claimed we did get most of the honey 

 in such hives in the surplus-cases; but those colo- 

 nies did not equal those hives that had their full 

 number of combs. Peforo the spring harvest had 

 closed, those colonics were smaller, consequently 

 they gathered less honey. If a colony gets run 

 down in numbers in mid-summer, with us, it does 

 not of itself build up in time for the fail crop, gen- 

 erally commencing the last of August. Mr. Axtell 

 and I conclude that seven Quinby brood-frames arc 

 none too many for this 1( cality, except in the win- 

 ter and early spring; ihcn lour or five are better; 

 but seven and (nght full of sealed stores are pone 

 too many to bring them in the best of condition 

 througli "inter and spring, taking away empty ones 

 in the spring and giving full ones, or adding a full 

 one if those in the hives arc full of brood. In or- 

 der to have large colonies ready for harvests (largo 

 colonies are the paying ones for comb honcj'), we 

 oeed in this locftJity to keep them built up, accord- 



