June. 1909. 



201 



American Hee Journal 



Diir 

 'Bee -Keeping 



ijiiaiucted ov K ^l M-\ M. WiLSoN. Marent:u. ili. 



Diseased Bees and How to Treat 



Them. 



Dear Miss Wilson: — I have discovered dead 

 brood in considerable quantity in 2 of my 

 colonies, and do not know if it is foul brood 

 or not. The brood apnarently all died at 

 the same age, just as the larva becomes up- 

 right in the cell. Some .of the cells are 

 capped, and the caps broken and sunken. The 

 dead brood does not smell, nor does it rope. 

 Still I fear foul brood or some other brood- 

 disease. 



1. Can I do better than employ the Mc- 

 Evoy method? 



2. I have discovered the dead brood in 

 2 colonies. I have 10 other colonies apparent- 

 ly healthy, but there has been great exposure, 

 exchange of combs, honey dropped, etc. _ Do 

 you advise treating all colonies as the wisest 

 plan? 



3. As I understand the McEvoy plan, the 

 ■bees are first shaken onto foundation-starters, 

 then after 4 days of comb-building, given full 

 sheets of foundation. Will it be necessary 

 to destroy the frames given with the start- 

 ers? 



4. Would it be possible to disinfect all 

 frames, even those having the dead brood, 

 by repeatedly boiling the frames, but destroy- 

 ing the old combs? 



5. Can the queen-excluders, hives, fixtures, 

 etc., be disinfected and used again? If so, 

 how? 



6. It will be a month before I hear from 

 you: at least a month before T can get sup- 

 plies for New York, bringing us to .Tuly. By 

 that time there will be only a very light 

 honey-flow. Can the treatment be employed 

 then? 



7. Is there any one to whom I could send 

 a sample of the dead brood to learn positively 

 if it is diseased brood? Please give his ad- 

 dress and state charges. 



8. How would it do to wait until fall when 

 there i& no brood in th- hives? They would 

 have to be fed when sl>ak'"n on the foundation- 

 start>TS. would they not? If treated when 

 the hive is full of brood, must the brood be 

 destroyed ? 



(Miss) Kate Beatties. 

 Thibodcaux, La., April 10. 



It is a very unusual thing for any of 

 the sisters to report anything like foul 

 brood. Is it possible that they have 

 less trouble with it than the brethren ? 



1. No; but remember tliat the Mc- 

 Evoy methixl includes treatment in the 

 fall as well as during the honey-flow. 



2. It is hardly necessary to treat a 

 colony so long as the brood appears per- 

 fectly healthy. 



3. Xo ; merely melt up the contents of 

 the frames. 



4. Yes. 



5. Mr. McEvoy thinks that hives need 

 not be disinfected. Editor Root, who 

 has had much experience with foul 

 brood, thinks that while that would gen- 

 erally be safe there may he occasional 

 exceptions: and that it is better to dis- 

 infect at all times. Moisten the inside 

 of the hives with kerosene, touch a 

 match to it, and the slight burning out 

 will do the business. Frames, etc., may 

 be treated the same way. 



6. Yes. Hut it is possible that it may 

 be even better to use Mr. McEvoy's fall 

 treatment. See last item on page 166 



of this Journal. The main point to 

 keep in mind is that you must have 

 combs filled and sealed by healthy colo- 

 nies, and that there must be at least 

 some pollen present. 



7. Yes, send sample to Mr. N. E. 

 France, General Manager of the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Association, Platte- 

 ville, Wis. If you are a member of the 

 Association there will be no charge. If 

 not, send along a dollar to become a 

 member. 



8. This is answered in No. 6. If treat- 

 ed when the hive is full of brood, the 

 brood must be destroyed. 



The Spring and Condition of the Bees. 



The spring of 1909 was unusual. Not 

 in many years has there been a spring 

 before when there were so few days 

 up to the 4th of May when bees could 

 fly. The blooming of the soft or red 

 maple is usually the signal for taking 

 the bees out of the cellar. The first 

 maple was seen in bloom March 25. But 

 the weather was so forbidding that it 

 was not thought advisable to take out 

 the bees just yet, and very few of the 

 maples were out till April 5, when the 

 bees were taken out. 



On that day the thermometer went up 

 to 73 degrees, and the bees had a glo- 

 rious flight, after their 129 days' con- 

 finement. But after that day they had 

 little chance to fly. It was cold and 

 wet mi.xcd up with rain, snow, hail, 

 lightning, thunder, and wind (took off a 

 chimney of the house and part of the 

 shop roof), and whenever the bees did 

 have a chance to fly they seemed des- 

 perate in their attempts to rob. May 

 I it snowed a good part of the day, 

 thawing about as soon as it fell, but 

 May 4 it was warm enough for bees to 

 ' fly. and May 3 it seemed to burst nut 

 into summer weather, with the ther- 

 mometer at 84. Then the bees quit tlieir 

 meanness, gave up robbing, and turned 

 their attention to the fine display of 

 dandelions, having had practically no 

 chance at soft maples and elms. 



We always plan to have the bees sup- 

 plied with abundant stores in the fall, 

 so that there will be no need to open 

 the hives until fine weather comes in 

 spring. But for some reason there will 

 always be an occasional colony rather 

 light when taken out in the spring; 

 possibly because it overeats. There were 

 half a dozen or so of such colonies, and 

 to each of them, as soon as convenient 

 after they were taken from cellar, was 

 given a frame of sealed honey, or else 

 a couple of sections. To give this there 

 was no need to open a hive. We merely 

 pulled off the entrance-board, shoved the 



honey under the bottom-bars (how han- 

 dy that 2-inch space under the bottom- 

 bars comes at such a time), and then 

 tacked on the entrance-board again, 

 leaving the hive with its cover glued 

 on just as it was in the fall, with its 

 entrance of an inch square or less. 



Ordinarily no further attention is 

 given to the bees until the weather is 

 warm enough for the first overhauling. 

 But this year, after a month of such 

 beastly weather had passed, we began 

 to feel just a bit uneasy for fear some 

 colonies might be running short. Right 

 here is the place for those sisters who 

 have lo-frame hives to congratulate 

 themselves. With a lo-frame hive you 

 can get in such a stock of stores in the 

 fall that there can be no need to give 

 the matter any thought till the harvest 

 comes again. You cannot do that with 

 8-frame hives; and we have 8-frame 

 hives. 



So May 8 all hives were hefted. It's a 

 back-breaking job to lift a lot of hives 

 from their stands when a good share of 

 them are very heavy. But there's no 

 need to lift them all. When a hive 

 feels as if nailed down, just pull on it 

 hard enough to make sure it isn't too 

 light, and let it go at that. The few 

 that were suspiciously light were opened 

 and had a frame of sealed honey given. 

 In reality only one colony of the few 

 was so short of stores as to be in im- 

 mediate danger. That same day we 

 overhauled the first 30 colonies, seeing 

 whether a clipped queen was present in 

 each hive, and noting conditions. When 

 a comb was found nearly empty, it was 

 exchanged for a sealed comb of honey. 

 Tlicn on the following days we kept on 

 tlie same way till we had gone through 

 the whole apiary. 



Thus you will see that up to May 

 8 the covers were left sealed on just 

 as they were in the fall. There was 

 no need to open them then, only for 

 the fact that there is always the possi- 

 bility that one or more colonies may 

 be queenless, and it is a pity to have 

 queenless bees wasting their time in 

 spring when they could lielp at rearing 

 brood, either by being distributed among 

 queen-right colonics or by the plan of 

 uniting a queenless colony with a weak 

 queen-right colony. 



Some young sister may say, "But why 

 don't you give a frame of brood to a 

 queenless colony, and let it rear a 

 queen?" Dear sister, when you're a lit- 

 tle older you'll not think of having a 

 queen reared by a lot of old, queenless 

 bees. Neither will you think of rearing 

 a good queen so early with any kind of 

 bees. 



There are some who would say that if 

 we didn't allow the colonies to requeen 

 themselves, but requeened each colony 

 before the queen got old we wouldn't 

 have any queenless colonies in spring. 

 The fact is that a colony may be queen- 

 less which had a queen less than a year 

 old. 



Probably we never had a spring be- 

 fore when near the middle of May 

 there was so little brood in the hives 

 for the amount of bees. There musl. 

 be some hustling if colonies are strong 

 enough for the harvest. But then the 

 harvest is likely to be late, if indeed 

 there be any harvest, for white clover 



