1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



25' 



deal depends on the depth of the frame or 

 hive. The extremel}' shallow frames of 

 five or six inches seem to be prett3' well 

 ruled out of practice as being- too much of a 

 good thing. But there are many who like 

 a frame about T';. inches, and among them 

 is G. W. Brodbeck, one of the leading bee- 

 keepers of California. Such men prefer a 

 frame of that depth for either comb or ex- 

 tracted honey. 



This whole question is an interesting 

 one. and I should be glad to hear from oth- 

 ers of our subscribers, both those who have 

 tried the sectional brood -chambers and 

 abandoned them, and those who have tried 

 them and like them. — Ed.] 



PICKLED BROOD. 



\ very Interesting Case, Accompanied by some 



Valuable Suggestions; Pollen not Removed 



by Soaking in Water. 



BY C. F. BENDER. 



As I have had what seems to be a rather 

 unusual experience with pickled brood, I 

 will try to set forth what I have learned, 

 for the benefit of others — to give others, if 

 possible, the advantage of that experience, 

 without the cost. 



About the middle of last March I cleaned 

 up the combs and hives of fifteen colonies 

 which had died b3' being buried under a 

 snowdrift. Many of the combs were old, 

 and nearly all were heavy with pollen, but 

 with only a little honey. Two or three of 

 the combs from one hive contained some 

 dead brood, mostly unsealed. Supposing: 

 this to be chilled brood, as it may have 

 been, I paid little attention to it; but I hung 

 all the combs together in the honey-house, 

 to wait for warm weather. 



When the bees began to get pollen in the 

 spring, I went over the whole apiary; and 

 as there were manj' weak colonies I took 

 away a part of the combs from them, leav- 

 ing only as manj' as they could cover, put- 

 ting the spare combs with the others in the 

 hone3'-house. There were no signs of dis- 

 ease in any of the hives at this time. When 

 warm weather had become settled, and 

 some of the bees had begun to need more 

 room, I was troubled quite a little at there 

 being so much pollen in those old combs, 

 especially as some of it was rather moldy. 



About this time I read Mr. Doolittle's 

 advice as to getting pollen out of old combs, 

 and proceeded to follow it — to my sorrow. 

 I filled a barrel with the combs, after ex- 

 tracting such as contained honey; poured 

 in water to cover them, and left them to 

 soak for 48 hours. Then I tried the ex- 

 tractor; but the pollen wouldn't come out 

 for any kind of turning. I gave them three 

 days more soaking, and tried again, with 

 the same result. Then I used salt water, 

 so the combs wouldn't sour, and soaked 

 them several days longer, but could throw 

 out only a small part of the pollen by vig- 

 orous turning. 



I took the soaked combs out and drietf 

 them, such as had not been ruined by the 

 process, and used them to fill out the hives 

 which had begun to need more room. And 

 now my troubles began. 



In about a week every hive to which these 

 combs had been given began to show dead 

 brood. In some the brood all died imme- 

 diately^; in others the disease progressed 

 more slowl}', but none the less surely. 

 The brood always remained healthy until 

 after the third day of the larval stage, but 

 almost always died before sealing over. 

 Even in those cases which were mild at 

 first, the disease always progressed until 

 there was no healthy brood in the hive, or 

 very little, except that which was too young 

 to take it. There was a strong smell like 

 pork-brine in all the cases — no ropiness of 

 the dead larvs. The affection did not seem 

 to be very contagious, as there were no 

 cases except those infected by the introduced 

 combs. 



After growing cultures of the mold I was 

 convinced that the trouble was pickled 

 brood; but to make the matter a certainty 1 

 sent samples to Dr. Howard, who confirm- 

 ed my diagnosis. Now for the treatment: I 

 shook several swarms on full sheets of 

 foundation, and nearly all of them remained 

 free from the disease. One or two took it 

 again later on. 



But I wished, if possible, to save the in- 

 fected combs, so I began to experiment. I 

 picked out enough combs containing no dead 

 brood for five colonies; fumigated them with 

 sulphur, and shook diseased colonies on 

 them. The greater part of them took the 

 disease again. Then I used combs con- 

 taining no pollen or honey, fumigated in 

 the same waj^ This was successful where 

 the combs were nearly new, not otherwise. 

 To give all my experiments would take sev- 

 eral pag-es of Gleanings; but my conclu- 

 sions will be shorter, and perhaps more in- 

 teresting. 



I found that I cound not safely use the in- 

 fected combs over again, even if they were 

 free from pollen and dead brood, unless 

 they were nearly new. I tried fumigating 

 with formaldehyde gas, in a box as nearly 

 air-tight as I could make it; but the results 

 were not satisfactory. I am sure that, for 

 pickled brood at least, formalin is nearly 

 useless. It succeeds sometimes, but too 

 often fails. I had much better success by 

 fumigating with burning sulphur. And 

 let me say right here that you had better 

 not trust to formalin in any disease where 

 the combs contain either dead brood, pollen, 

 or honey. Even the manufacturers of the 

 drug do not claim for it much penetrating 

 power. The only safe rule is to destroy all 

 old combs, and give the bees empty frames 

 or foundation. Even if you have never had 

 any bee-disease, it will be safer to fumigate 

 all old combs with sulphur before returning 

 them to the bees. 



There is one thing that I rather hesitate 

 about mentioning, because I am not quite 

 sure of it 5'et; and even if it is true, I can 



