22 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



cylic acid as an effective remedy, now con- 

 cludes that the acid is not an absolute cure, 

 and recommends shaking the bees into clean 

 hives, and boiling the infected hives and 

 frames. I have tried carbolic acid in both 

 weak and strong solutions. I have tried sal- 

 icylic acid ; also several doses received from 

 bee-keepers with assertions of never failing 

 cure, but they proved universal failures. 



In boiling infected hives and frames, it is 

 highly important to make a sure thing of it. 

 A mere drenching in hot water will not an- 

 swer ; neither will anything less than the 

 boilng point, as I know by bitter experience. 

 Boiling for several minutes is sure. 



I should consider it scarcely worth while 

 to hoi\ frames. Brand-new ones, very much 

 better than the old ones, can be bought for 

 about $10.00 a thousand. As to the brood, 

 that is certainly worthless. The comb and 

 honey are the only things I should consider 

 of any value ; and, when we consider the very 

 great danger of extracting infected honey, 

 and the attendent danger of rendering the 

 wax, I regard the saving of small impor- 

 tance. If a single bee gains access to the 

 houev before it is heated, it may renew the 

 trouble in the apiary. Nothing so quickly 

 attracts bees during a dearth of honey, as 

 the trying out of old combs, and it is a very 

 difficult thing, indeed, to keep away every 

 bee that may be hovering outside 



^yhen foul brood breaks out in chaff hives, 

 disinfection by immersion in boiling water 

 is an expensive operation. In the first place, 

 a large tank is required ; and, in the next 

 place, all the chaff must be burned and the 

 hive held under boiling water several min- 

 utes. Chaff hives are good for winteriug 

 bees, but an eternal nuisance in tre.iting 

 foul brood. 



As you say, the disease is transmitted by 

 means of the honey ; but it can be carried by 

 whatever comes in contact with it. I have 

 not been able to prove that, after tlie honey 

 sacs are emptied, that it can be transmitted 

 by mature bees, as Mr. Cheshire says ; nor 

 have I, so far, seen evidence that the germs 

 may reside ia the egg of a queen. I have re- 

 peatedly taken queens from diseased colo- 

 nies, and dropoed them into healthy ones, 

 and never has the disease appeared in the 

 colonies thus furnished queens. 



Foul l)rood is one of the greatest calamities 

 that can visit the apiarist, especially if he 

 makes a business of selling bees and queens. 

 If honest, he will discontinue sales, and 

 make good all losses sustained from recent 

 shipments. For nearly three years, our 

 large, queen rearing apiary, instead of pay- 

 ing a good [)roflt, was su'^tained at an enor- 

 mous expense. It would be difficult to esti- 

 mate the loss; l)ut, cousiilering our loss of 

 trade, the labor required to keep the disease 

 in subjection, the burning of Lives and the 

 renovation of others, it must, necessarily, 

 have run up into the thousands. Having 

 the disease in our apiary, we exDerira-^nted, 

 for the benefit of the fraternity, with all 

 sorts of remedies, and that, too, persistently. 

 With our pres^int knowledge, we conll,"l 

 feel sure, cure it in a single season by the u-e 

 of foundation and clean or disinfecte'l hives. 

 Medina, Ohio. Jan. 2:5, IS'.O, 



A Clear, Concise, Description of Foul Brood, 



And how to get rid of it Without Loss of 



Bees, Hives, Frames, Honey or Wax. 



A. B. MASON. 



H DEAR! why on "yearth" do you 

 " harrer " up unpleasant memories 

 by making the February Review a 

 special on *' Foul Brood ? " My four 

 years experience with the scourge, and the 

 loss of several hundred dollars, don't have a 

 tendency to awaken a desire on my part to 

 renew an acquaintance that I so willingly 

 and deliberately "cut" several years ago. 

 At the recent meeting of Michigan bee-keep- 

 ers, at Lansing, Senator Taylor, with a 

 gleam of mirth and mischief "beaming o'er 

 his smiling face," very generously offered to 

 lend me some foid brood to experiment 

 with ; but, with an alacrity surprising to 

 those who heard the offer, I very firmly but 

 kindly (so as not to wound his feelings) de- 

 clined the proffered loan. But, as I write 

 this, a sort of " hankerin f eelin " comes 

 over me, that, for the sake of a more scien- 

 tific acquaintance, I'd "kinder like "to re- 

 new a sliglit acquaintance with my old foe. 

 However, don't let anybody send me any 

 till I ask for it. 



My iirst acquaintance with the disease was 

 in 1880; and, in the June A. B. J. lor 

 that year, I gave a brief description of what 

 I then supposed was, and afterwards proved 

 to be, foul brood : and, so far as the descrip- 

 tion is concerned, I conuot better it to day; 

 and, had I been more observeiit and thought- 

 ful of what Mr Quinby had written nearly 

 twenty years before, I might have saved 

 myself a large loss. 



You say " We wish to know what general 

 course of action a bee-keeper shall pursue 

 that he may become apprised at the earliest 

 possible moment of foul brood in his apiary. 

 What shall we regard with suspicion '( 

 What are the symptoms most liksly to 

 strike his senses first ? " Well, firstly, just 

 remember that, until sometime after the 

 young bees reach the chrysalis stage of their 

 developement, they are always ivhite unless 

 dead; but all dead larvw are by no means 

 foul brood. I should not rei/arU with susp'- 

 cion dead or discolored brood, unless it pos- 

 sessed certain, distinctive characteristic* , 

 but a thoroughly infected colony, one in 

 which the disease has become so thoroughly 

 advanced as to become offensively pu- 

 trescent, is such an one as is cause for alarm, 

 and is as bad as I have ever heard it describ- 

 ed: and, unless in the hands of one who 

 knows how to deal with it, and who means 

 bimness, the sooner it is cremated the bet- 

 ter. 



The symptom "most likely to first strike 

 the senses" of tiie ordiniry bee-keeper, 

 would probably be that of smell: although 

 it has usually reached a somewhat advan- 

 ced stage when it is so discovered. This 

 smell, which first attracted mv alttntion to 

 one of my first infected colonies, is what I 

 at that time descril)ed as being such a? comes 

 from a poor qual.ty of warm glue, aid was 

 roticed for several days, as the hive was 

 pas-ed, before the cause was discovered. 



