472 



THE AMERICAJS BEE JOUKNaL. 



For tne Amencan Bee joumaL 



Mm Sf arms— ly Experience. 



WILLIS M. BARNUM. 



Things are " middling lively" in 

 my apiary now-a-days. I had au ex- 

 tra large swarm the other morning at 

 exactly 7:30 o'clock. Who can beat 

 that ? I am seriously thinking of 

 rearing a strain of "business bees" 

 from this colony. 



A bushel basket is about the hand- 

 iest thing to swarm bees with that I 

 have ever discovered. Just hold the 

 basket under the bees, shake or brush 

 them into it, carry them to the hive 

 and dump them down in front of it-- 

 and 'tis done. It is a quick, sure and 

 effectual method — one that will be 

 hereafter adopted in my apiary, at 

 least until I hear of something better. 



The other day one of those great, 

 big "bushel basket" swarms came 

 out. I hived them in "^regulation 

 style," gave them three or four frames 

 of brood, and went off to work in 

 another part of the apiary. I had not 

 been to work five minutes before I 

 discovered that the same big swarm 

 ■was coming out again. Well, while 

 they were hovering around in the air, 

 it occurred to me that heat was the 

 probable reason of their not staying 

 in the hive. So, getting a nice, new, 

 cool hive, I placed it right where the 

 other had been ; sprinkled the inside 

 of the hive with salt-water,transf erred 

 the brood-combs, put on the super, 

 put a shade-board on the hive, and 

 waited for them to settle. 



Just as I thought they were going 

 to settle on a grape-vine trellis, they 

 soared up into the air and started 

 direct for the woods. As they started 

 for the woods, I started for the pump. 

 I was determined to have that swarm, 

 if I had to chase them to the Pacific 

 Ocean ! Getting a cup and a pail of 

 water, I started after the bees on a 

 run. By running cross-lots, I man- 

 aged to get ahead of them, just be- 

 fore they reached the woods. By 

 throwing the water into the air in 

 front of them, I actually stopped 

 them, turned them around, and 

 started them back towards the apiary. 

 When I got back, the bees were going 

 into the hive that I had prepared for 

 them, just as fast as they could 

 "scrabble." To-day that is one of 

 the best colonies in the apiary. 



Angelica, ? N. Y., July 18, 1887. 



For the American Bee Joumal. 



My Experience i ith Foul Brood. 



GEO. H. HOTLE. 



I know the opinions of the differ- 

 ent authorities on the subject of foul 

 brood, and I know what arguments 

 can be, and are going to be brought 

 against my theory of the disease. I 

 have a firm belief in all the experi- 

 ments on the disease that have been 

 reported to the bee-papers ; but I am 

 careful not to get a party's opinion so 

 mixed with his experiments, but that 

 I can consider each separately. It is 



my intention, after I state my experi- 

 ments, to base my arguments solely 

 on the evidence to be found in the 

 American Bee Journal, Gleanings, 

 and other bee-literature. 



I am going to offer no plan of cure 

 adapted to all circumstances ; for I do 

 not believe that a treatment is yet 

 found, or ever will be invented, that 

 will suit every case. Therefore,every 

 bee-keeper should learn all he can 

 about the disease, and when it is 

 among his bees, he will know better 

 what to do than anybody can tell him. 



I am determined to argue the ques- 

 tion honestly and fairly ; and if any 

 one sees where he thinks I am wrong, 

 I would be pleased to hear of his ex- 

 perience ; and I will not contradict 

 his experiments. In connection with 

 this idea, I want to refer the reader 

 to page 426, the second column and 

 second paragraph. He will see that 

 Mr. J. E. Pond puts me in a very 

 ridiculous position ; and it is just as 

 false as it is ridiculous. He thinks 

 that I believe every authority on this 

 disease to be loholly wrong. I would 

 rather he called me all the names he 

 could think of, than for him to have 

 stated that : the names could do me 

 no harm, but any who see that article 

 and do not see this, will believe it ; 

 and those who believe it can come to 

 but one conclusion about me. How- 

 ever, I have the consoling hope that 

 I will soon convince him that I am 

 right, for he requires so little proof. 

 See the last sentence of the first 

 paragraph and the second column of 

 the article referred to. 



Now for something else : On June 

 16, 1885, 1 discovered foul brood in 

 one of my hives in the shape of dis- 

 colored larvse ; but I do not think that 

 it was foul brood, though, because 

 the disease always appeared, in my 

 mind, as associated with "sunken 

 caps with pin holes in the tops:" I 

 was uneasy, though, about it. The 

 honey-flow from flowers ceased that 

 year about May 25, and as I had 

 finished extracting, I was doing very 

 little to the bees except watching that 

 discolored larvae which I could not 

 understand. On June 21 I opened a 

 hive that had it so badly that about 

 20 per cent, of the brood was dead 

 with the disease, as near as I should 

 guess. I then began to examine 

 other colonies. I found none free 

 from it, though some cases were not 

 bad. I saw that there was only one 

 thing that could cause this state of 

 affairs, and that was foul.brood ; and 

 that I must get some remedy and go 

 to work to cure it. 



I had read Mr. Cheshire's experi- 

 ments and views on the subject the 

 year before ; and I was so favorably 

 impressed with them, that I took my 

 Bee Joitrnal for 1884 and reread 

 the articles on pages 644 and 740, and 

 as you may suppose, with no little 

 interest. When I was through study- 

 ing the articles, I was just as sure 

 that I could cure the complaint with 

 his remedy as is Mr. Cheshire himself. 

 The medicinel got was called "chemi- 

 cally pure carbolic acid." I had then 

 65 colonies of bees, and as I wanted 

 to cure them all at once, I fed each 

 colony every day. Every evening, as 



soon as there was no danger of rob- 

 bing, I would commence to feed, 

 raising the cover of each hive and 

 pouring about 4 ounces of feed down 

 between the frames. I kept this up 

 for eight days, and as I could see no 

 improvement, I decided on a more 

 thorough treatment, which was this : 



I would extract the honey from the 

 frames and cut out the combs, all but 

 about 2 inches at the top, which had 

 never had any brood in it ; I filled 

 these strips of comb with this phe- 

 nolated syrup; put them in a hive 

 washed with carbolic soap ; then I 

 would take the brood from a colony 

 of bees and put the bees in the hive 

 thus prepared. I also had a lot of 

 this phenolated feed in a barrel, ar- 

 ranged so that all the bees could help 

 themselves to it, which they did. I 

 had prepared 26 colonies in the man- 

 ner above-mentioned before I could 

 see whether I was curing them or not. 

 But as soon as they had larvae three 

 or four days old I could see that I had 

 not cured them. I stopped work to 

 watch the result of what I had done : 

 I soon became satisfied that phenol 

 would not cure it. 



Now do not put me down as saying 

 that Mr. Cheshire did not cure this 

 disease, fori know he did cure it; 

 and I will explain why he could 

 cure it and I could not, after I get 

 through telling my experience. 



I gave up the phenol cure on July 

 15; and I was just as confident on that 

 day that I could cure my bees as I was 

 the day I commenced it. 



I had a boiler made large enough to 

 boil my hives in ; I sent for Mr. D. A. 

 Jones' book on the subject ; put some 

 colonies in starvation quarters, and 

 went to work cutting out combs, and 

 boiling frames and hives. About this 

 time the hives emitted a strong stench 

 that surpassed anything I ever saw 

 reported. About this time, too, I was 

 taken with a peculiar complaint of 

 the throat, which I attributed at the 

 timeto the disease, but since then I 

 thought it might have been produced 

 by the mental anxiety I was in. I 

 boiled every thing; and when I 

 starved a colony I put them in a clean 

 hive, with clean frames with founda- 

 tion, and fed them boiled honey. I 

 worked 30 in this way. I did not wait 

 until time for sunken caps to appear ; 

 for I was a firm believer in the " germ 

 theory." and the least indication of 

 disease in the larvse statisfied me that 

 I did not cure it. I did not cure one ; 

 but I am ashamed to say 2 colonies 

 starved to death, and 2 very strong 

 colonies smothered. Please do not 

 understand me to say that Mr. Jones 

 never cured this disease ; I know he 

 has cured it. And I will explain why 

 he could cure it and I could not, after 

 I get through with my own experience. 



I began to wonder why the disease 

 did not get any worse in some colo- 

 nies that I had not worked on. I 

 doctored the worst ones, it is true ; 

 but they had it as long as the others, 

 and I could not see why it did not get 

 worse. (I will in the future give my 

 opinion, which is founded on obser- 

 vation, why some colonies have the 

 disease worse than others.) Just 

 about this time I saw the following in 



