942 



GLExVNlNGS IN i3EE CULTLKE. 



Dec. 



advice you will nut go back to tliose old- 

 fashioned things in too much of a hun-y. By 

 tlie time yon would get rigged with your 

 honey-boards and Viig boxes, the coraniittee 

 wotdd get educated, or tliey would have a 

 dilferent oup. and tlieu you would be left out 

 in the cold again. Why did you not walk 

 up to that coraniittee and tell them that the 

 lioney was just as pure and good as that in 

 the old boxes? Show them an A IJ (' book, 

 and some copies of the l)ee -journals. — If 

 your people want a 2(l-lb. box, why not give 

 them a case full of sectionsV It will be al- 

 most as cheap for you. and I am quite cer- 

 tain that very soon tlif^y would outsell the 

 old traps you mention.— Vou will find i)ic- 

 tures of the honey-boards on pages 47, 121, 

 and 771, for the year 1885. and 373 and <)lo, 

 for the past year. I think the honi-y-boards 

 made of strips of wood, alternating with 

 strips of zinc, will be the Ijest thing for your 

 purpose. These are made esi)ecially to 

 avoid the bridge-combs that attach them to 

 the brood-frames and honey-boxes. The 

 hives we .send out don"t need any honey- 

 board at all ; and if anybody wants a whole 

 box of honey you can sell the case of sections 

 with it, just {is it comes off from the hive; 

 and I think any tidy housewife will prefer a 

 box of lioney so arranged that each comb 

 can be lifted out without dripping and 

 daubing. 



SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO FOUL 

 BROOD. 



THK PUEMUI., OU CAUB()LIC-ACI1> TltEAT.ME.NT. 

 TKIEU r.V KOnF-RT SPKOUI-E, OF IKELANI). 



a EAR SIR:— T ain sorrj' to see, by Gleamnos, 

 that you have I'oul brood in your apiary; 

 aiid as you do not seem to liavc any faith in 

 the phenol treatment, I trust yt)u will accord 

 me space to say a few words in its I'avor, 

 premising' that my knowledjie ot the disease is lim- 

 ited to what might be gained by observations with 

 the naked eye, and while endeavoring- to eradicate 

 it in an apiary of half a dozen colonies. The scien- 

 tiBo aspect of the (|uestion I leave to those Avhose 

 skill and training' enable them to investigate it, and 

 1 accept their sfateincnls, in so far as tiicy agree 

 with my own experience, as being made in good 

 laith for the general good. ». 



Up to a few yeai's ago it was generally supjiosed 

 that there were two distinct forms of I'oul brood— 

 the ■' virulent " and the "mild," the ditferencc be- 

 ing that the tirst was dilticult if not impossible to 

 cure, while the second ga\e way to sj'stematic 

 treatment, and sometimes disappeared without any 

 special treatment. Beyond this, nothing was known 

 of the disease; and as to a remedy for the "\lru- 

 lent " form, T say, without hesitation, that there was 

 none, the alleged cures Ijy moans of salicylic acid 

 to tlie contrary notwithstanding-. Recent discover- 

 ies have enabled us to distinguish between both 

 forms of the disease, and to cure one almost as eas- 

 ily as the other. 



r first saw foul brood about eight years ago, when 

 it appeared in my apiary in a colony ot Ligurian 

 bees, to which I maugaged to confine it by spray- 

 ing with salcylie-acid soluliou and other treatment 

 until the following- summer, by which lim!> e\ cry 

 colonv Iliad was intci-tcd. l-'or- llii- next Ihnc or 



four years I was vinrcmitting- in my efforts to stan'ip 

 out the disease, but witliout success. During all 

 this time my bees never swarmed, and I was 

 obliged to destroy dozens of combs by burying 

 them in tlie earth, and all to no purpose. The bees 

 formed queen-cells, but the contained gi'ubs died 

 immediately after scaling over, and I was obliged, 

 each season, to l)uy swarms an.d driven bees in or- 

 der 10 keep up my stock. Matters went en in this 

 way until the autumn of 1883, when a friend sug- 

 gested carbolic acid as being worth a trial; and as 1 

 could not be more unsuccessful with it than with 

 salicylic acid, I determined to act on the sugges- 

 tion. At this time 1 had four colonies, made ui> ot 

 driven bees hived on full sheets of comb founda- 

 tion, and fed with sugar syru|j, in which salicylic- 

 acid solution was ini.xed. As I had not made up 

 my mind as to the best way to give the carbolic acid 

 to the bees, my intention was to leave them alone 

 until the following spring, by which time T would 

 have tixed on a plan of operations. 



The nc.\t stc]) was to find out the make of carbol- 

 ic acid best suited for my inirpose; and after a 

 good many samples had been tried I concluded that 

 what is known here as " Calvert's carbolic crystals. 

 No. 1, B. P.," would be most easily administered, as 

 it was soluble, even in cold water; and its taste, 

 when diluted and mi.\ed in syrup, was not disagree- 

 able. I prepared it for use by melting the contents 

 of an ounce bottle and pouring- into a quart of cold 

 water, which was shaken up until the crystals wore 

 dissolved, after whieli the bottle was corked, and I 

 considered the solution ready for use. The follow- 

 ing spring I took a look at my four colonies, and 

 found them badly diseased. Brood rearing seemed 

 to have been going on very briskly, and the bees 

 were m'uch reduced in numbers. There were ver.v 

 few, if any, healthy cells in the brood combs; and 

 after a little consideration I concluded that the re- 

 maining bees were not worth saving, and I deter- 

 mined to give up keeping bees for that season, and 

 to make a fresh start the following one, with new- 

 hives and other gear, so as to avoid any further 

 risk of disease. ] took no trouble with the diseased 

 colonies beyond placing an inverted tumbler filled 

 with syrup, in which, for curiosity's sake, I mixed 

 some carbolic solution near the hives. The bees 

 took the medicated syrup readily, and the tumbler 

 was refilled as required. Not being at home during 

 the daytime I saw very little of the bees, and, in 

 point of fact, T took no interest in them; and so 

 when, on my arrival in the evening, I was told that 

 "the liees were flying very strongly to-day," I 

 merely smiled, with the air of one for whom the 

 pleasures of beekeeping had long since passed 

 away, like all other pleasures ot our imperfect ex- 

 istence. This state of indilference continued till one 

 warm morning about the end of May, when I hap- 

 pened to pass in front of the hives just before lea\- 

 ing- for the city, and was astonished at the acti\-ity 

 of the bees. At the first opjiortunity afterward I 

 opened and e.vamiiied the hives, and, found that all 

 traces of foul In-ood had disappeared. The combs 

 had been cleaned (jut, and were now filled with 

 healthy brood and drone-brtiod capped. Before the 

 end of .June each colony gave a swarm, and, better 

 still, the (lueens hatched out in every case. Those 

 very satisfactory results seemed to me so impoi'tant 

 that 1 lost no time in placing the fac'ts before the 

 g-reate.st livin;;- authority on seientinc bee culture. 

 Mi-. F. (.'heshiie. >vho said the treatment was quite 



