September, 1909. 



American Bge Journal j 



upon what stage the brood is in when 

 found. If in the egg or larva form. 

 take such sections ofT the hive and 

 carry them to the cellar, leaving them 

 for 5 or 6 days till they all die from ex- 

 posure to the cool damp air, when they 

 are returned to the hive, and if the 

 queen does not enter them again they 

 will be tilled, if the season holds out, 

 and look as good as if no brood had 

 ever been in them; for the bees will 

 remove every particle of offensive mat- 

 ter, making all as good as new. 



If the brood is capped over, take an 

 uncapping knife and shave off the 

 brood down to within one-fourth of 

 an inch of the septum of the comb and 

 return it to the hive. The bees will 

 now clean it up and build the cells out 

 again, very much the same as they 

 w-ould work out foundation, but the 

 honey will not have quite as nice an 

 appearance when held up to the light 

 for looking through, as it would had 

 there been no brood in it; especially 

 so if any of the brood or larvae had be- 

 gun spinning their cocoons before the 

 combs were shaved. Then, the brood 

 can be left till the mature bees emerge 

 from their cells, when, if the season 

 holds out it will be filled with honey, 

 which will have to be sold as third or 

 fourth quality, on account of its looks 

 and the cocoons toughening the cell- 

 walls of the combs. 



Years ago, where I found sealed 

 brood in any sections, and at the same 

 time had colonies which refused to en- 

 ter the sections, I would take these 

 sections, bees and all, and carry them 

 to these obstinate colonies, when they 

 would at once go to work above, in- 

 stead of crowding the queen with 

 honey below, to the detriment of the 

 colony and my desires for section 

 honey. At the end of the season these 

 sections were uncapped, put in a pur- 

 posely made frame, the frame holding 8 

 to 12, as the extractor would take, when 

 2 such frames of sections were put in 

 the extractor and the honey thrown out, 

 after which the combs were melted into 

 wax. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Getting Rid of Foul Brood 



BY .\[. M. BALDRIUGE. 



I am positive that I know how to get 

 rid of foul brood in my own apiary, 

 and I see no reason why others cannot 

 do likewise. I think my plan is so very 

 simple and practical that any bee- 

 keeper, though a novice, can adopt it, 

 and with the best results. 



In the first place, I cage the queen of 

 the diseased colony so as to stop breed- 

 ing, and then place the caged mother 

 in the top of the hive where the bees 

 can have ready access to her, and like- 

 wise so I can get possession of the 

 cage when needed and with the least 

 possible disturbance of the bees. I 

 then bore a hole — say an inch in diam- 

 eter — in the front end of the hive, a 

 few inches above the bottom entrance, 

 and fasten a metal bee-escape over the 

 hole and on the outside of the hive. I 

 do the foregoing towards sunset, and 

 then let the colony alone until the next 

 morning. 



I now prepare an empty hive by fill- 



ing the brood-chamber with a set of 

 frames — less one or two — filled with 

 foundation or simply narrow strips of 

 the same. I now go to any strong 

 healthv colony and remove one or two 

 combs' of brood, with or without the 

 adhering bees, and place the same in 

 the prepared hive. 



I now gently as possible reverse the 

 diseased colony, or turn it end for end, 

 and move it sidewise the width of the 

 hive, or a trifle more, and leave the 

 bee-entrance open ; when this is done 

 I then place the prepared hive on the 

 old stand, but with its bee-entrance in 

 the opposite direction. This may all 

 be done any time in the forenoon, or 

 when the bees are busy getting honey 

 from the flowers. The bees will now, 

 on their return from work or play, en- 

 ter the prepared hive and remain there, 

 and within 2 or 3 days the main force 

 of the matured bees will be transferred 

 to their old location. 



Now towards sunset blow a few puffs 

 of smoke upon the caged queen, to 

 drive the bees away from it, and then 

 transfer the queen to the colony in the 

 prepared hive. She may be given her 

 libertv at once, and by way of the bee- 

 entrance. Now close the iiee-entrance 

 to the diseased colony so that no bees 

 can pass in nor out except through the 

 bee-escape, and gently reverse the hive 

 again so that both hives will now front 

 the same way. Both hives should now 

 set close together, or within an inch or 

 so of each other. From now on all 

 the bees in the diseased colony must 

 pass out or through the bee-escape, 

 and as they cannot return they must 

 and will go into the prepared hive. In 

 about three weeks all the healthy brood 

 in the diseased colony will be hatched 

 out and soon thereafter all the bees 

 will be found in the prepared hive — 

 and no loss of either bees or labor. 

 The contents of the diseased colony 

 may now be taken to some proper 

 place and be disposed of l)y burning 

 the same. This is best done in a room 

 or building to which no outside bees 

 can gain access and get at the honey. 

 But it is not necessary that this should 

 be a total loss. Such combs as con- 

 tain honey and are free of diseased 

 brood, may be extracted and saved for 

 table use, and the empty combs melted 

 and made into wax — those that contain 

 brood may as well be burnt up at once 

 — frames and all— as the cost of re- 

 placing them nowadays is but a trifle 

 anyway. 



By this time the prepared hive will 

 or should be full of both comb and 

 brood, and without any foul brood or 

 any trace of the disease. In fact, it 

 will be, and remain, a healthy colony. 

 At least that has been my experience. 



The new empty hive may, by simply 

 scraping it thoroughly, be used again 

 with no recurrence of the disease. At 

 least that is my belief. But should the 

 reader believe otherwise then the 

 empty hive may be thoroughly disin- 

 fected by simply boiling it in water or 

 by heating it with fire — and this can be 

 done without doing the woo<l any ma- 

 terial injury. When done by fire, 

 simply paint the inside of the hive with 

 kerosene oil, and then throw inside of 

 it a burning paper, then watch the fire 

 closely, and when it has done its proper 

 work, cover the hive with a board and 



smother it out. The inside of the hive 

 throughout should now be about as 

 free of foreign matter as when new. 

 The disinfected hive may now be used 

 and with no danger of any germs of 

 the foul-brood disease therein. 



The foregoing treatment of the foul- 

 brood malady is based upon the gen- 

 erally accepted theory, which I en- 

 dorse, that the honey in the combs of 

 a foul-broody colony is more or less 

 impregnated' with the germs of the 

 disease. The manipulation given simply 

 but successfully transfers all the bees— 

 nurse-bees in due-time included — from 

 the foul-broody colony to another hive 

 free from disease, and without any- of 

 the diseased honey in their bodies, nor 

 in the food the nurse-bees may have in 

 their stomachs. All the nurse-bees by 

 this plan remain in the diseased colony 

 until their baby-food becomes ex- 

 hausted, and the method outlined is the 

 onlv one I am acquainted with that 

 secures this result when the combs of 

 the diseased colony are filled with 

 brood in all stages of its growth. 



To conclude: As soon as foul brood 

 is found to exist in an apiary, please 

 don't get excited nor foolish, and 

 thereupon burn or otherwise destroy 

 the entire apiary. The better way by 

 far is first to ascertain as speedily 

 as possible how many colonies are 

 diseased, mark them, and then let 

 them severely alone until the proper 

 time arrives to treat them. Do not 

 open such hives nor handle the combs 

 unless absolutely necessary, and then 

 use care that no robber-bees get a 

 chance to steal and carry off more or 

 less of the honey. Besides, even though 

 not treated at all the first season the 

 disease begins, the profits of the apiary 

 may not be materially diminished. 



As a rule, this disease makes but lit- 

 tle headway until after the first season. 

 But it is bj' no means pleasant to have 

 foul brood in one's apiary, and hence 

 it is the way to get rid of it the same 

 season it is found to exist. The dis- 

 ease does not seem to me to be as dan- 

 gerous or as virulent as when it first 

 became known in the United States, 

 but this may be owing to the fact that 

 experienced bee-keepers discover it 

 sooner and know better how to man- 

 age such colonies as become infected. 

 The main danger among novices is 

 that they do not know the disease, and 

 hence do not discover it in its first 

 stages, and thereby scatter it among 

 the healthy colonies by changing the 

 combs about from one hive to another. 

 — Btf- A'effers ' Rfi ■ieic. 



St. Charles, 111., Nov. 30, 1907. 



[We have been requested to repub- 

 lish the foregoing article by Mr. Bald- 

 ridge, as it gives in detail his method 

 of treating the disease of foul brood 

 among bees. — Editor.] 



No.9.--Bee-Keeping in Colorado 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



Numbers left us with the taking off 

 of the honey crop, and- now we will 

 consider the other stages of its progress 

 to market. It is a big problem to pro- 

 duce successfully; the marketing is 



