American liee Journal 



the hives swap places, and that leaves 

 your nucleus on its new stand in B. 

 You will understand that these changes 

 are made in view of the fact that the 

 field force will remain at the old stand, 

 no matter which hive is there. 



No Use Doctoring' for Black Brood 



Delos Wood writes : " I have had 

 experience with black brood, and say 

 it is useless to doctor for it. The Mc- 

 Evoy treatment is the only remedy." 

 For some reason .•\merican bee-keep- 

 ers have never taken much stock in 

 using drugs for either kind of foul 

 brood, although in Europe they are 

 used no little, at least as palliatives. In 

 England it is a common thing to put 

 napthol beta in all syrup that is fed, as 

 a preventive. 



Color of Virgin AVax 



Mr. T. W. Cowan teaches that freshly 

 made wax has a yellow tint. Dr. C. C. 

 Miller sent him a sample of wax simply 

 melted from a piece of comb that had 

 never been used for anything but to 

 contain its one filling of honey, of which 

 Mr. Cowan says in the British Bee Jour- 

 nal : 



"The sample is very nearly white, and 

 much paler than any beeswax obtained 

 in this country without bleaching." 



The question is whether other bee- 

 keepers in this country find virgin wax 

 white like Dr. Miller's, or pale as in 

 England. 



Or. MlUer'.s Experience with Eu- 

 ropean Foul Brood 



In 1907 some cells of dead brood 

 were found in No. 13. We thought it 

 might be that they were poisoned, as 

 an orchard in easy reach had been 

 sprayed while the trees were in bloom. 

 If we had known at the time that we 

 could send samples to Dr. Phillips at 

 Washington for identification, it would 

 have saved no little subsequent trouble. 

 But No. 13 apparently recovered, and 

 was one of the very best in the whole 

 apiary. In 1908 I think the same trouble 

 appeared in 2 colonies, and little heed 

 was given to it, the supposition still 

 being that the spraying accounted for 

 the trouble. The year was a boomer 

 for the bees, and if there was any dead 

 brood later in the season it was un- 

 noticed. 



In the spring or early summer of 

 1909 we noticed more or less dead 

 brood in a number of colonies, but 

 not until after we had done our level 

 best to spread it throughout the whole 

 apiary by exchanging frames. A sam- 

 ple was sent to Washington. The re- 

 ply came that we were entertaining foul 

 brood — not American — but European — 

 the kind that had been pronounced ten 

 times worse than American! 



Just for a little I had a feeling like 

 giving up in despair. But not for long. 

 Others had fought the disease ; why 

 not I, even if it was spread all through 

 the apiary? One thing to be thankful 

 for was that I had given up the out- 

 apiary, and had nothing but the home 

 apiary to care for. Things are never 

 so bad but they may be worse. 



In all there were about 1.50 hives in 

 the apiary with bees in, although a 



good many hives contained nuclei, 

 most of which were shortly broken up. 

 Looking over the record book now, I 

 find only 22 colonies that were at all 

 times entirely clear of the disease 

 throughout the entire season, against 

 93 that were more or less affected. How 

 many of the nuclei were affected I do 

 not know, but breaking them up cer- 

 tainly lessened the number of affected 

 families to deal w'ith. Besides, the sea- 

 son being one of dearth, there was 

 always danger that robbing might be 

 started at any one of the nuclei, and a 

 diseased nucleus might thus give the 

 disease to several clean colonies. 



The failure of the crop made matters 

 look more discouraging, although I 

 may remark in passing that the late 

 flow filled up the hives in good shape 

 for winter, and gave about a thousand 

 sections besides. The most discourag- 

 ing feature of the whole case was the 

 fact that all around were those who 

 had one or more colonies here and 

 there whose bees were diseased, and 

 however often I might clean up, these 

 sources of infection would always be 

 ready to give me a fresh start until 

 they were all wiped out; since there is 

 no law in Illinois to prevent any one 

 from indulging in all the foul brgod he 

 likes. 



In some colonies only a bad cell or 

 two were to be seen ; and right here is 

 as good a place as any to say just what 

 was to be seen. Generally the diseasd 

 brood was seen when nearly full grown 

 and still unsealed. A healthy larva is 

 pearl-white ; the diseased brood is 

 cream color or darker. That's the only 

 thing we paid any attention to, and it 

 is not difficult to detect, even if there 

 be only a single diseased larva in the 

 hive. Generally very little ropiness 

 could be detected, and the odor in this 

 European or black brood is very little 

 compared with that of American foul 

 brood. There was no appearance of 

 anything wrong with the sealed lirood, 

 as is the case in American foul brood. 

 Perhaps there is little or no diseased 

 brood in the sealed cells of European 

 foul brood, the brood all dying before 

 it is sealed and being cleaned out by 

 the bees. And right here, I think, is a 

 marked difference between the two dis- 

 eases. In American foul brood the 

 putrid mass dries down in the cell so 

 solid that the bees cannot remove it, 

 while in the European variety it is not 

 so much like dried glue, and the bees 

 can clean it out of the cell, as was 

 shown by the blackened remains 

 thrown out at the hive entrance in at 

 least some cases. 



The amount of bad brood in a hive 

 ran all the way from a single cell up to 

 perhaps one in every 8 or 10 cells of 

 unsealed brood. This, however, may 

 not be entirely correct, as it is only a 

 matter of memory. As we wanted to give 

 attention first to the worst cases, we 

 marked as " bad " any colony that had 

 one or more bad cells up to those that 

 had perhaps one bad cell in every 20 

 cells of unsealed brood, and anything 

 worse than this was classed as " very 

 bad." I know it may sound a little 

 strange to some to class as "very bad" 

 a colony having among its unsealed 

 brood only 5 to 12 percent diseased, for 

 that would class as very bad a colony 

 having only about Xyi percent of its 



2Lhoh- brood diseased ; when they have 

 seen foul brood so bad that nearly all 

 the brood in a comb, botli sealed and 

 unsealed, would be rotten. I'm only 

 telling how it was here. How long the 

 disease would have to run before it 

 would get to be so very bad I do not 

 know. 



July 8 we began throwing on foun- 

 dation after the orthodox plan, begin- 

 ning with some of the " very bad " 

 cases. In the first case we shook the 

 bees on newspaper in front of the hive, 

 so that if any affected honey was 

 shaken out the newspaper could be 

 burned. But after this first case we 

 brushed the bees off. It was perhaps 

 safer, and on the whole less trouble. 

 Dr. Phillips having said that he thought 

 the second shake was not necessary, 

 the bees were thrown upon full sheets 

 of foundation, and I may say here in 

 passing that in no case where they 

 were thus thrown upon foundation did 

 the disease appear again. Neither did 

 the disease reappear from infected 

 hives, for nothing whatever was done 

 to disinfect the hives. Whether any 

 harm may come in future remains to 

 be seen, but as no harm was found up 

 to the close of the season, it seems 

 probable that none will be. The 

 frames were boiled in lye and used 

 again. 



It was not long before we discovered 

 that colonies that had been treated 

 were deserting their hives. In all there 

 were 9 hives that were thus left utterly 

 empty. We concluded that as no honey 

 was coming in they were starved out. 

 So, after that, we began giving honey 

 to each colony when it was brushed. 

 If a super with a little honey had been 

 on the hive, it was left, with an ex- 

 cluder under it. Otherwise a section 

 or two was put into the body of the 

 hive. Although these sections were 

 generally from diseased colonies, in no 

 case was it discovered that any infec- 

 tion came from them. 



Giving the bees a lunch at the time 

 of brushing them was generally effec- 

 tive in preventing desertion, but not 

 always. We finally settled on the plan 

 of leaving in the hive one of their 

 combs. "This was put in one side of 

 the hive, and next to it given 2 empty 

 frames. Not empty combs, but empty 

 frames — not the least bit of a starter in 

 them. Generally the bees made no use 

 of more than one of these, and within 

 3 or 4 days we found at least a little 

 comb built on the frame ne.xt to the 

 comb. Then we took away the comb, 

 leaving the frame they had started on, 

 and filling up the hive with full sheets 

 of foundation. Sometimes w'e took 

 away the frame they had started on as 

 soon as a good beginning was made on 

 the foundation, and sometimes we 

 didn't. In either case the cure was all 

 right, only there was danger of the 

 frame being filled out with some drone- 

 comb. 



Tlie brood that was taken from 4 col- 

 onies was piled up on a 6th over an ex- 

 cluder. In three weeks the brood 

 would be hatched out, and the combs 

 in the 4 upper stories would be ready 

 to be melted up. But there would still 

 be the lower story full of affected 

 combs, which would have to be dealt 

 with. Then I thought we might take 

 advantage of the Alexander plan, if 



