;THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



731 



have not only found it in the comb 

 introduced, but all through the brood- 

 nest. 



I then took the queens from the 

 diseased colonies, and introduced 

 them into healthy ones to see if the 

 disease was in the queen alone, and 

 as such colonies at once became dis- 

 eased, I at once concluded that the 

 disease was congenital, and not really 

 infectious. Here I made another 

 error. I was supported in this in 

 breeding queens in small nuclei, 

 which turned out diseased, while 

 those bred in strong colonies proved 

 healthy. Here let me say. that think- 

 ing the disease was not infectious, I 

 may have unconsciously used in- 

 fected combs in the nuclei, and combs 

 free from taint in the full colonies. 



In 1884 I thoroughly tried Hibbert's 

 plan, of fumigating with salicylic 

 acid, feeding the acid in syrup 

 (Cowan's plan of curing foul brood), 

 also placing large pieces of camphor 

 in the hives. I never saw much of 

 the disease in the spring, the reason 

 being that every autumn I get many 

 driven bees and young queens, which 

 were chieHy the bees that passed 

 through the winter, and which is ex- 

 plained in the sequel. 



In the spring of 1885, still thinking 

 the disease lay alone in the queen,! 

 sent a native British queen, that I 

 had obtained with driven bees the 

 previous fall, that was producing foul 

 brood, to Mr. Frank Cheshire, who 

 at once wrote back, saying that her 

 ovaries were full of baccilli, which 

 was quite new to him ; that the bac- 

 cilli lay in strings, and resembled bits 

 of sticks crossed about auyliow. pre- 

 senting a striking contrast. He asked 

 for samples of the brood, which I 

 sent him, and in which he found the 

 same baccilli. 



During the summer I sent Mr. Che- 

 shire a number of queens that I knew 

 had produced healthy brood and bees 

 in the spring— two were with swarms 

 hived on perfectly empty but tainted 

 combs — and he found the same bac- 

 cilli in the ovaries of every one. One 

 I sent him was from a colony that 

 had not more than 14 or 15 foul cells 

 in all, and he said he examined her 

 ovaries without seeing any baccilli, 

 and was going to report that she was 

 healthy, when he examined the last 

 portion and found the same baccilli. 

 This was a most important report to 

 me in understanding this disease, and 

 I think I was most fortunate, as well 

 as the bee-keeping world, in having 

 the services of such a skillful micro- 

 scopical dissector as Mr. Cheshire. 



Towards the close of the year 1885, 

 I decided to try Mr. Cheshire's phe- 

 nol remedy for foul brood, which he 

 claimed to be a certain cure ; so I 

 thought if it will one kind of baccilli, 

 why not another V and as, owing to 

 the weather, no honey was coming in, 

 I considered I had a splendid oppor- 

 tunity to get rid of it without destroy- 

 ing a como. As I had lots of driven 

 bees, all healthy, I destroyed the old 

 infected queens, united these, and 

 fed upon phenolated syrup. The 

 combs were filled with it ; 18 colonies 

 were packed up for winter reduced 

 from 26, and 20 lots of driven bees 



were added ; 3 of these 18 never had 

 been diseased, and they were the 

 only healthy ones I had in the spring 

 of 1886. The rest were either dead or 

 weak, and all that were alive were 

 diseased, and to make matters worse, 

 the 3 healthy ones found a way into 

 one of the colonies thathad died, and 

 cleared out the phenolated syrup from 

 the combs, and they also became dis- 

 eased. 



This circumstance was valuable in 

 its way, as it proved the spores of the 

 disease can be carried in the honey 

 from an infected hive. I concluded 

 that the spores went in the honey to 

 the queen, and as aliment to the 

 eggs, which became foul, producing 

 in turn spores to again go to the 

 queen, and so pass through more eggs, 

 in which I was confirmed in the fact 

 that when bees are bringing in honey 

 the colony increases in strength, and 

 shows little traces of disease; while 

 when it ceases, and the queen has to 

 be fed from honey stored in infected 

 combs, the bees rapidly dwindle and 

 the brood becomes very foul. There- 

 fore, I reasoned, that if I turned the 

 queen and bees into an empty hive or 

 box, and if no honey was coming in, 

 feed them for four days to induce the 

 bees to build comb into which the 

 queen could deposit her diseased 

 eggs, and before they began to hatch 

 tarn the queen and bees into a clean 

 hive on starters only, I ought to get 

 clear of it, and even cure the queens. 

 This proved to be correct, for every 

 case so treated has proved a cure, 

 even curing in a most complete man- 

 ner every diseased queen. 



I have at the present time several 

 queens whose mothers were diseased 

 last year, and now I have over 30 fine, 

 strong, healthy colonies inhabiting 

 hives, frames, and quilts that have 

 had diseased colonies in them, yet in 

 looking over them this fall I could 

 not tind a single " foul " cell. 



Having described the disease, I will 

 now describe how to stamp it out if 

 it is noticed in the spring or summer : 

 Turn the bees and queen into an 

 empty hive or box on the old stand, 

 allowing them full liberty to fly where 

 they wish in search of stores ; if they 

 can get home freely they will need no 

 more attention for four days ; if not, 

 then they must be fed for four days. 

 In the meantime, extract the honey 

 from the combs, which, after strain- 

 ing, will be all right to eat, but the 

 greatest care must be taken against 

 any bee getting a sip of it. 



Then melt the combs for wax- 

 there is nothing gained' in trying to 

 save the brood— bake or boil every 

 frame, quilt, and hive; if you have 

 neither an oven nor boiler to hole the 

 latter, rear it against the kitchen tire 

 until the inside at least is well baked ; 

 now fix foundation-guides not more 

 than half an inch deep in the frames, 

 and at the end of four days put it on 

 the old stand, dump out the bees from 

 the hive or box, and let them run into 

 the hive, and at once destroy the 

 combs they have built. If honey is 

 to be had, the work is done ; if not, 

 they must be fed, taking great care 

 that all food and feeders are first 

 boiled. 



The plan I here describe is quite 

 novel, never having, to my knowl- 

 edge, been advocated as a means of 

 curing foul brood or other forms of 

 disease ; though a plan much like it 

 called the "starving" process has 

 been much advocated. But, accord- 

 ing to many reports, it seems rather 

 uncertain ; and well it may, as bees 

 starve according to the amount of 

 activity they exhibit. Thus they may 

 drop down exhausted in 24 hours, or 

 they may show no signs of weakness 

 at the end of 14 days, as I soon found 

 in my experiments ; hence the plan I 

 recommend is more simple and 



England, Oct. 20, 1887. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and ptace of Meettng* 



Nov. 16.— WeBtern, at Kansas City, Mo. 



J. A. Nelson, Sec, Muncle, Kang. 



Nov. 16-18.— North American, at ChicaBO, Ilia. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec, Flint, Mloh. 



Nov. 19.— Marshall County. at Marshalltown. Iowa. 

 J. W. Sanders, Sec, l<e(irand, Iowa. 



Nov. 25. 1'B.-Pike Co. & Ills. Cent., »t Plttsfleld. 111. 

 W. T. F. Petty, Pres., PittsUeld, UU. 



Nov. 26.— Hardin County, at Eldora. Iowa. 



J. W. Buchanan, Sec, Eldora, Iowa. 



Deo. 7-9.-Mlchlgan State, at East Saginaw, Mloh. 

 H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 

 1S88. 



Jan. 7.— Susquehanna County, at New Mllford, Pa. 

 H. M. Beeley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



Jan. 20.— Haldlmand, at Cayuga, Ontario. 



E. C. Campbell, Sec, Cayuga, Ont. 



tW In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 



Plenty of "Winter Stores.— M. H. 



Freeman, Olustee Creek, c Ala., on 

 Nov. 4, 1887, writes : 



In my report on page 234, it should 

 have read ten colonies instead of " 100 

 colonies." I have increased them to 

 15 colonies this season, and have 

 taken 400 pounds of extracted honey. 

 This makes an average of 40 pounds 

 per colony, spring count. They have 

 probably enough natural stores for 

 winter, if it is not unusually long and 

 severe ; but I intend to feed them 

 some sugar syrup yet, as I think 

 there can be no danger of an over- 

 supply of winter stores. 



Wintering Bees.— Allen Bartow, 

 Milan, 5 Ohio, on Nov. 8, 1887, says : 



I wintered my bees last winter 

 without the loss of a colony. There 

 were very few dead bees at the hive- 

 entrances at any time, winter or 

 spring. My hives are of the Simplicity 

 style. I make cases of boards 3 inches 

 higher, and 6 inches longer and 

 broader than the hives, with movable 

 cover and bottom. They are perfectly 

 water-tight. I place the hive on the 

 bottom board 2 feet from the ground, 



