AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



145 



Foul Brood — Further Informa- 

 tion as to Treatment, Etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY WM. m'evoy. 



I was greatly pleased when I read the 

 editorial item on page 7 of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal of July 6th, and saw 

 that advice to all bee-keepers to give my 

 methods of curing foul brood a thorough 

 trial, and then report results. 



In my last article (see page 15) I said 

 the dross from the wax-extractors must 

 he buried. Since then Mr. Gemmill has 

 written me, saying that I should have 

 said the dross from a solar wax-extrac- 

 tor. He says the dross from foul-broody 

 combs that were boiled would be all 

 right, which is very true, and I am 

 very thankful to Mr. Gemmill for notic- 

 ing that I had not explained what I 

 meant. I meant the dross from all 

 steam wax-extractors, but forgot to say 

 so, and explain why the dross from them 

 must be buried. 



If foul-broody combs are put in a steam 

 wax-extractor, the honey will run out 

 into the wax-pan, just as soon as the 

 steam warms the honey in the combs, 

 then as fast as the steam melts the 

 combs the wax will run into the wax- 

 pan. 



The common practice with the most 

 bee-keepers and their wives, after lift- 

 ing out the wax to heat over and run 

 into cakes, is to throw out the dross and 

 honey that was in the bottom of the 

 pans : if the bees get at such honey, and 

 take it to their hives and feed it to the 

 larvae, it ivill start foul brood at once 

 with a vewjeance, because the honey got 

 but very little heat that ran into the 

 wax-pan. 



I want to give a little advice to the 

 farmers that have foul brood in their 

 bee-yards. 



If you have 10 or 15 colonies afflicted 

 with foul brood, I want you to prepare 

 things in good shape through the day, 

 by putting the comb foundation starters 



in the frames, thus getting all things 

 ready. Then go, about sundown, with 

 a good smoker, well going, and blow 

 smoke into the entrance of every hive 

 near the ones you are going to remove 

 the combs from and fix up. Then stand 

 to one side, or the back of the hive, so 

 the bees can see the entrance of their 

 hive, and as soon as you have smoked 

 the colony well, remove the combs and 

 shake the bees right back into the same 

 hive, and give them comb foundation 

 starters, which you will remove the 

 fourth evening, and give full sheets of 

 comb foundation. 



If no honey is being gathered by the 

 bees at the time, you must feed plenty of 

 sugar syntp in the evenings, or your bees 

 ivill swarm out and mix in with your 

 sound colonies, and ruin them. If you 

 have no feeders, use small bread-pans, 

 or anything of the kind. Pack them 

 full of straw, then fill them full of sugar 

 syrup, and put them on the frames in 

 the evenings ; by doing that the bees 

 will rush into the feed, soon work out 

 the starters, and store the foul honey in 

 tbem that they took from the foul-broody 

 combs when you removed them. 



The fourth evening, when you go to 

 remove these nice white combs (and see 

 what a lot of combs the bees made in 

 such a short time in the honey-flow, or 

 by booming them with sugar syrup), 

 don't leave them in, thinking it all right 

 because they look so pretty. You must 

 remove these new combs that were built in 

 the four days, because they will have the 

 deadly honey in them, and you must melt 

 them into wax. 



When you remove the old, foul combs, 

 if they are very bad, make wax of them 

 at once ; but if your colonies have only 

 a little foul brood in them, and a large 

 quantity of good brood, you can make it 

 pay to save it, if you are a careful man, 

 by following the directions I gave in the 

 Bee Journal of July 6th. 



Some of you will say, "I have no 

 sugar. Can't I feed the honey from the 

 foul combs if I heat it?" Yes, you can, 

 if you will mind me ; but I do hate to 

 trust you, because I know how careless 

 you are. If you are determined to feed 

 that honey from the foul-broody combs, 

 put about half water in it, and bring it 

 to a sharj) boil before you feed it. I 

 never advise the feeding of foul honey, 

 heated by men of no experience, be- 

 cause it is too deadly a thing for green- 

 horns to tamper with. 



In localities where little or no honey 

 is being gathered by the bees when they 

 are put on foundation starters, they will 

 in some cases swarm out if the queens 



