AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



SO? 



and returned them to their own hive. 

 Then about sundown, when the bees had 

 settled for the day, I examined this 

 colony and found a small cluster of bees 

 crowded in the center of the brood-nest, 

 and from the sudden loss of so many 

 bees, much of the brood was uncovered. 

 I closed the entrance up smaller, and let 

 them alone for awhile. Then when I 

 examined them again. I found the un- 

 covered and uncared-for brood a rotten 

 mass. 



The next time I examined this colony, 

 warm weather had set in, and the decay- 

 ing brood had gone from bad to worse, 

 and was in a horrid state of decomposi- 

 tion. I then exchanged all of its combs 

 with my strongest colonies. 



Some days after that I again examined 

 that colony (expecting to find it in good 

 condition from the booming I had given 

 it with sound brood from other colonies), 

 and was greatly astonished to find it 

 worse than ever. As it was then in the 

 clover season, I cut all the combs out of 

 every frame except about two inches of 

 sealed honey along the top-bars, think- 

 ing that everything would be all right 

 when the new combs would be built out. 

 I was again sadly disappointed by find- 

 ing the brood in a rotten state in the 

 new combs. 



I then examined the colonies T ex- 

 changed combs with, and found them all 

 very bad. But as I had never seen any 

 foul brood before, and had been led 

 astray by the writings of other men, I 

 could not at that time think it was foul 

 brood, or that foul brood could originate 

 in an apiary from the rotting of uncared- 

 for brood. 



I then wrote several bee-keepers, tell- 

 ing them that I had a kind of dead brood 

 in my hives that was brown, rotten mat- 

 ter that would stretch nearly two inches 

 long when pulled out of the cells. Every 

 letter that I got in answer to mine, said 

 that it was foul brood, and that I must 

 burn up every hive with bees that had 

 any of that plague. I hjtd some very 

 bitter experience then, before I downed 

 that terrible disease. I had some 60 

 colonies of bees at the time, and foul 

 brood had got into many of them. 



The summer of 1875 was a good 

 honey season, but I got very little honey 

 on account of my apiary getting into a 

 bad state with foul brood. I felt pretty 

 "blue" over the fate of my apiary, 

 which I had thought so much of, and 

 often felt very much discouraged when 

 many things that I would try would only 

 end in failures. I struck a cure at last, 

 and downed the disease in several ways, 

 but they were all the same in principle. 



I found that what would sure in some 

 cases would be a complete failure in 

 others. 1 will here give some of my 

 "hits" and "misses," but not all, or 

 this article would be far too long. 



SOME " hits" and " MISSES " WITH FOUI- 

 BROOD. 



I took the brood out of the diseased 

 hives and gave them sets of nice combs, 

 and then watched them. I found that 

 of no use in any case. 



I then went in for putting in about 

 five cull combs that were sound, and 

 leaving them in the brood-chamber for 

 four days, and extracting from them 

 each evening, and then removing them 

 for another set of clean combs, which I 

 left in to be extractec^ from when ready. 

 That was a success in every case, but it 

 meant considerable work. As I had to 

 melt up the combs that were used the 

 first four days, my combs were not going 

 to hold out, so I took out the diseased 

 combs, and let the bees build new combs 

 in many colonies. In some of these it 

 was a successful cure, and in others it 

 was a complete failure, although they 

 were all done at the same time. The 

 honey-flow was good at the time, and 

 the bees made combs very fast, and soon 

 had larvae in them. The colonies that 

 were not bad when I took the diseased 

 combs from them, were the ones that it 

 failed on. 



I then let all build combs for four 

 days, and then took thena, away, and let 

 the bees build new combs the second 

 time ; in every case this made a complete 

 cure. 



Before I got nearly through, the honey 

 season closed, and then I had a very 

 trying time, the weather being very 

 warm, and no honey coming in, the bees 

 would rob at a colony as soon as I 

 opened it. I had to put all work off 

 until evenings then, so as not to get the 

 foul-broody colonies robbed out by the 

 good ones and ruin them. 



I opened one hive very early one 

 morning, expecting to get through be- 

 fore the robber bees would* find me out, 

 but I kept it open too long, and the bees 

 from one colony made a terrible raid on 

 this foul colony. I shook some flour on 

 the bees that were robbing at the foul- 

 broody colony, and saw the white backs 

 going into one of my best colonies. I 

 examined that sound colony that same 

 evening, that had been robbing so in the 

 morning, and I never saw a sounder 

 colony ; then I examined it again in one 

 week, and found it badly diseased with 

 foul brood, which they got by robbing 

 at a foul colony that I unfortunately 



