16 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the starters of foundation, and store the 

 diseased honey in them, that they took 

 from the old, diseased combs; and when 

 the new combs are removed the fourth 

 evening, and the foundation given, the 

 feeding must be continued to get the 

 foundation worked out and filled with 

 plenty of good stores for winter. 



When I find apiaries of foul brood at 

 the close of the honey season, I get the 

 queens caged in all the weakest colonies 

 for about ten days, so that no brood can 

 be started to become foul. I then get 

 the owners to take the brood out of the 

 strong colonies, and tier it up on the 

 weak colonies with t^e caged queens. 

 Then give the colonies starters as soon 

 as the combs are removed, and feed 

 sugar syrup in the evenings for four 

 days ; then remove the starters for foun- 

 dation. Then at the end of ten days I 

 get all the combs taken from the weak 

 colonies that have the caged queens, and 

 shake the bees into a single hive, give 

 starters of foundation, let the queens 

 out of the cages, and feed sugar syrup 

 in the evenings, and remove the new 

 combs the fourth evening for full sheets 

 of foundation, and continue the feeding 

 until all is in good condition. The colo- 

 nies that were weak when the brood of 

 other colonies was tiered up on them, 

 will be very strong from the quantity of 

 bees hatched out during the ten days. 



I have to use considerable judgment 

 in curing many foul-broody apiaries, so 

 as to make the cure as profitable as pos- 

 sible, and have every colony a good, 

 strong one when the season closes. 



It is a very easy thing for one to cure 

 a foul-broody apiary, and soon put it in 

 good order, no matter how bad it was 

 when I started to fix it up in good shape 

 to cure it. But I have found it a very 

 hard thing to handle all sorts of men so 

 that they would cure, and do as I or- 

 dered them. 



When a few colonies in an apiary are 

 found with foul brood at the close of the 

 season, the owner can very easily fix 

 them up all right by removing the combs 

 in an evening in October, when the 

 queens Juive done laying, and giving 

 sealed combs from sound colonies. If 

 the owner has no sealed combs, he must 

 feed until the bees in the sound colonies 

 seal them for that purpose, and then 

 when given to the foul colony the bees 

 won't have any place to store the foul 

 honey they took from the diseased 

 combs, and then they will have to keep 

 it until they consume it; and with no 

 place to start brood, the queen stopped 

 laying, and cold w<^ather coming on, the 

 bees will have gotten rid of the diseased 



honey long before brood is started again. 

 Every bee-keeper should have, every 

 fall, plenty of combs sealed over like the 

 oest of section honey. I have hundreds 

 of them every fall. 



I know of many failures in Ontario 

 where the drug system has been tried, 

 and I have many private letters from 

 several localities in the United States 

 where it has been a complete failure. I 

 never knew one cure made by the drug 

 system, and why any man should speak 

 of it as a cure when it is always a fail- 

 ure, is something I can't understand. 



I will here warn all men not to waste 

 their time in tinkering with any kind of 

 drugs in a bee-yard ; the best place for 

 such drugs would be in the sea — only it 

 might be a sorry time for the fishes. 



The D. A. Jones' starvation plan will 

 cure every time, but it is too hard on the 

 bees, and completely unfits them for 

 comb-building for a time, by making the 

 bees very thin, lean and poor ; and the 

 starving sometimes almost ruins some 

 of the queens for life. 



I have been very busy, or I would 

 have written up my method sooner. I 

 have received many letters from the 

 bee-keepers from all over the United 

 States, asking me to write and tell them 

 how to cure .their apiaries of foul brood. 

 I know by the number of letters that I 

 get from the United States by every 

 mail, that foul brood must be very prev- 

 alent there. I am sorry that I could not 

 find time to answer their very strong ap- 

 peals for help. I hope these men will 

 excuse me, and save the American Bee 

 Journal with this article in it, and also 

 take this as an answer to their letters. 



Woodburn, Ont., June 19, 1893. 



Bee-Paralysis a Disease — Pulled 

 i^ueens. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY H. F. COLEMAN. 



On page 627 Mr. Demai'ee gives it as 

 his opinion that bee-paralysis is not a 

 disease, but that it is caused by a veg- 

 etable poison. This has been my opinion 

 until recently, but I am now convinced 

 otherwise. I now have a colony badly 

 troubled with it, and we are having the 

 finest honey-flow I ever saw. Poplar is 

 in its prime, and white clover is begin- 

 ning to be fine, and it seems impossible 

 that bees would gather any poisonous 

 nectar — if any exists — at this time. 



This case is the only case of bee-paral- 

 ysis that I have ever noticed in the 



