176 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar 1. 



MANUM'S EXPERIENCE, NO. 3. 



Foul Brood Not Cured by Salicylic Acid ; the Starv- 

 ation Plan a Success. 



BY A. E. MANUM. 



The season of 1874 was a poor one for hon- 

 ey ; but I managed to double my colonies, and 

 by feeding I succeeded in wintering my 60 

 colonies with the loss of but one. The year 

 1875 was a good one, and I got something over 

 two tons of comb honey, and I will say that 

 that season was one of the most enjoyable I 

 ever experienced in the apiary, before or since. 

 I left my harness business in charge of one of 

 my men for six weeks, hardly going to the shop 

 during that time. I was too much occupied 

 in the apiary, rearing queens for the purpose 

 of Italianizing my own colonies and those of 

 my neighbors — constructing and experiment- 

 ing with new hives and other new things. Very 

 many of my new and j^reat inventions, how- 

 ever, were consigned to the " dump." 



Were I to tell you, Mr. Editor, of all my ex- 

 periences, both pleasant and sad, I think the 

 story would fill the pages of GlEaningS for a 

 year. I will, nevertheless, relate one very un- 

 fortunate experience that came to my lot at 

 this time. 



Just when my enthusiasm was running 

 high, when I seemed to see success floating a 

 fortune within my grasp, here I was with a 

 nice apiary of 120 colonies, nearly all in my 

 improved hive (now known as the Bristol 

 hive); and, as I supposed, all were in prime 

 condition ; but, to my surprise and sorrow, I 

 discovered in some of my colonies thai terri- 

 ble and much-dreaded disease "foul brood." 

 It was the latter part of July, 1875, that I sus- 

 pected my bees were affected with it. I at 

 once visited my friend and adviser, Mr. J. E. 

 Crane, who, after listening to my description 

 of the appearance of my brood-combs, decided 

 that foul brood was in my apiary. Mr. Crane 

 gave me directions how to proceed in order to 

 prevent its spread to healthy colonies, and ad- 

 vised me to destroy all affected ones. This 

 was almost heart-rending ; and to think of de- 

 stroying 25 or .30 colonies was too Jiiuc/i. I 

 wanted to save the strong colonies. I had an 

 apiary that I was proud of ; and to destroy a 

 portion of it seemed more than I could endure. 

 Nevertheless, the next day I hired a man to 

 dig a grave, 12 feet long by 2 wide by 5 deep, 

 in which I buried all the foul-brood combs I 

 could find. Twent}' colonies were deprived of 

 their combs, and the combs buried as stated 

 above. The bees were given iiezi' hives, and 

 allowed to nearly starve (this being just after 

 the close of basswood, and before buckwheat 

 bloom ) . At the end of three days I fed each 

 colony 1 lb. of sugar syrup. I continued this 

 feeding for about one week, when buckwheat 

 came to my assistance with a bountiful supply^ 

 of honey ; and the way these twenty colonies 

 worked was truly wonderful. This was before 

 the days of comb foundation, hence they were 

 hived with empty frames. In twelve days 

 from the time buckwheat bloomed, Mr. Crane 

 called on me ; and on opening some of these 

 hives we found to our surprise that these colo- 



nies had not only filled their 12 frames with 

 nice straight combs, but had stored honey 

 enough to winter on. There remained in my 

 apiary but a few colonies that were affected, 

 and those very slightly. But, dear me ! be- 

 fore the summer of 187() was half spent I found 

 myself with over fifty diseased colonies. I 

 suppose I spread the disease by changing 

 combs from one hive to another the season 

 before. 



During the winter of 1875 I had read of a 

 remedy for foul brood by the use of salicylic 

 acid. I procured 5 oz. of it, at .S4.00 per oz. ; 

 an atomizer, 83.50 ; spirits to cut the acid, 

 s,3.00, making .826.50 in all. This was used 

 faithfully, according to directions, and with 

 but little effect. I did think that the disease 

 was kept somewhat in check by the use of the 

 acid ; but it did not cure in my case. I re- 

 sorted, therefore, to the old remedy, as prac- 

 ticed the year before, except that this time, 

 instead of burying the combs, I rendered them 

 into wax which I sold for 25 cts. per lb. 



The next season, having bought a founda- 

 tion-mill, I bought the same wax back, for 

 which I paid 32 cts. per lb. 



During the season of 1877 I succeeded in 

 ridding my apiary of this dreadful disease, and 

 to this day I have never had any symptoms of 

 foul brood in any of my apiaries. 

 To be continued. 



[Your experience with salicylic acid is ex- 

 actly ours. It never had any effect whatever 

 in curing the disease, that I could see, and I 

 used it liberally and according to directions ; 

 but the starvation - foundation plan worked 

 every time. Knowing now as I do that there 

 is a kind of dead-brood disease that greatly 

 resembles foul brood, and which will usually 

 go off of its own accord, doing but little or no 

 damage, I am inclined to think that the parties 

 who recommended salicylic acid, and claimed 

 it as a specific for foul brood, never had the 

 real foul brood itself, but had this pickle-brood 

 or dead-brood disease that I have been speak- 

 ing about. As this malady would disappear 

 anyhow, when they gave the salicylic acid and 

 the dead brood disappeared, they naturally 

 jumped to the conclusion that salicylic acid 

 was the stuff to cure. — Ed.] 



. . • •••••»***^ « 



MANUFACTURING SUPPLIES. 



It does Not Pay the Average Bee-keeper to Do it, 



and Why ; Importance of Lumber of Exact and 



Uniform Thickness. 



BY G. C. GREINER. 



The question, " Does it pay the average bee- 

 keeper to manufacture his own supplies?" 

 comes up occasionally for consideration. As a 

 rule I would emphatically sa.\ it does not. In 

 some cases it may seem as though there might 

 be some gain or advantage in dabbling in the 

 supply business ; but when you sum it all up, 

 very little is gained by the operation. If the 

 bee-keeper is at the same time a farmer, has a 

 team to keep through the winter, with no 

 steady work for them to do ; has on his prem- 



