446 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



that had much to do with it; but I have little incli- 

 nation to experiment further with drone fdn. — at 

 least, not on so extensive a scale, as I think that the 

 use of that 5 lbs. of drone fdn. cost me several hun- 

 dred pounds of honey. J. A. Green, 140. 

 Dayton, III., June 21, 1883. 



Many thanks, friend G., for the important 

 facts you furnish. This is indeed a matter 

 that demands careful investigation. I have 

 been a little surprised to hear so few reports 

 in regard to the matter, especially while we 

 have so many orders for drone as well as 

 worker. I hud thought it quite likely that 

 during a moderate flow of honey, the bees 

 would give a preference to the worker fdn., 

 and I am a little surprised to hear that they 

 did not use drone, or at least give it the same 

 preference during a heavy yield of honey, 

 such as you report having had. Your point, 

 also, that old fdn. is not as good as new, is 

 an important one. I have before suggested 

 that it is probably owing to the fact that 

 wax, when exposed to the air, loses an oily 

 portion of its substance, making it harder to 

 work. It is for this reason that bleached 

 wax has been quite unsuitable for fdn. Will 

 those who have experimented with both 

 kinds of fdn. for surplus honey please re- 

 port in regard to the drone V Has your ex- 

 perience been like friend Green's V 



FOUL. BROOD. 



SOME FACTS FROM A SUFFERER. 



i^HE winter of 1880 was the hardest ever known 

 in this section for bees. Fully 95 per cent of 

 all the bees left out unprotected died, while 

 the loss was about 30 or 35 per cent of those packed 

 in chaff, buried in clamps, or wintered in cellars. I 

 had 3 stands buried, which came through alive — 

 one good colony, and two weak. Lost one by spring 

 dwindling; bought 3 more, 3 of which died, leaving 

 me three stands. Friend S., whose bees had all died, 

 gave me his combs, which I wired into frames; and 

 when the bees swarmed, I put the new swarms into 

 hives filled with empty combs, which enabled me to 

 Increase my stock to 8 colonies, and I got about 200 

 lbs. comb honey. My 8 colonies were all strong, and 

 in fine condition, and came through the winter all 

 right. The spring of 1883 proved cold and wet until 

 July 5, when a drought set in, which lasted 7 weeks, 

 and every thing got so dry that very little honey 

 was secreted. Basswood, which usually blossoms 

 here about the first of July, did not blossom till the 

 36th, and then lasted only about a week. Last year's 

 honey-crop was small, most bee-keepers reporting 

 only about 30 lbs. surplus to the original colony. 



About the first of June I noticed one of m y colonies 

 dwindling, and went to ray strongest colonies and 

 took frames of hatching brood, and exchanged them 

 for frames from this weak colony. They still con- 

 tinued weak, and I got an experienced bee-keeper to 

 examine them, and he pronounced it foul brood. 

 The cappings were shrunk, and turned brown 

 and black; and on picking them open they were 

 found filled with a foul, offensive matter. 



We examined the frames that I had taken from 

 this hive, and put into 3 other colonies, when I ex- 

 changed and found them filled with foul brood in 

 various stages of advancement. June 34, at night, 



after bees had ceased flying, I took the weak hive 

 from its stand and put an empty box in its place, 

 and brushed the bees off in front of it, and let them 

 crawl in. I burned frames and combs, and burned 

 out inside of hive; kept them three days, and then 

 put them in the hive on foundation. They built up to 

 a fine colony by fall, and are apparently sound. The 

 other 3 affected colonies which were full of bees, I 

 left to swarm. One did send out one a few days aft' 

 er, which I hived on fdn., and they appear healthy. 

 The other two would come out almost every day in 

 great numbers, and buzz around and make a great 

 ado, but failed to swarm. Those two matured no 

 queen-cells. As queen-cells are a temporary struc- 

 ture, and are not made of an original secretion, but 

 are composed of " odds and ends " picked up through 

 the hive, may not this account for the fact that 

 hives having foul brood so rarely swarm? In a few 

 weeks they began running down, and I noticed, in 

 front of them, black scales something like those we 

 see from a blacksmith's anvil. Closer examination 

 showed it to be composed of cappings and contents 

 of those deseased cells, the putrid matter having 

 dried down to a hard black sediment, which the bees 

 threw out in front. Seeing that those hives were 

 doomed, and liable to spread the contagion, I ap- 

 plied sulphur, Aug. 31, and extracted the honey, and 

 rendered the combs into wax. The parts filled with 

 rotten brood I burned. It was a sickening job; and 

 were I to have it to do over again, I would burn 

 bees, honey-combs and all. The bees would some of 

 them revive; and as they would be liable to carry 

 the disease to other hives, if they went back, I had 

 to kill hundreds of the poor fellows by crushing, and 

 then scald the floor of the room in which we operat- 

 ed. On reflection, I will say that, if foul bi'ood is 

 found in the fore part of the season, it may possibly 

 pay to save the bees (and bees only, burning the 

 rest); but if later in the season, destroy the whole; 

 it won't pay to fuss with it. 



Now the question arises how I, a beginner, got foul 

 brood. Did it generate spontaneously, or was it in- 

 troduced from without? By close inquiry I found 

 that none of the parties of whom I got bees or combs 

 had known of any foul brood among their bees. But 

 a neighbor of Mr. S., whose bees were only about 100 

 rods distant, lost several colonies by foul brood in 

 the summer of 1880; and as Mr. S. lost all his bees 

 the following year, he doubtless had foul brood 

 among his bees, but was not conscious of it. As for 

 the remedies for foul brood, I have had no ex- 

 perience, and am faithless of their efficacy. A cor- 

 respondent of Gleanings tells us that we can de- 

 stroy foul brood by spraying the combs and bees 

 with a solution of salicylic acid and borax, or alco- 

 hol. Surely that remedy is very simple; any clod- 

 hopper ought to succeed with those simple direc- 

 tions. The theory is fine; but how do we find it in 

 actual practice?. On opening a hive containing foul 

 brood, we find empty cells from which the larvae 

 have repeatedly perished; others capped, which are 

 filled with corruption from the larvee that died; and 

 again, other cells filled with honey or propolis, seal- 

 ed and unsealed, which had formerly been occupied 

 by the diseased brood. Now, if salicylic acid can 

 penetrate through all that wax, honey, propolis, 

 corruption, or dried sediment, to the bottom of those 

 cells, and destroy those spores, then it surely pos- 

 sesses antiseptic properties beyond any thing I have 

 seen or heard. Possibly the Avriter designed that 

 the cappings should be shaved off, and the combs 



