24 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



icylic acid t^oliition. A small board was then 

 leaued against the front of the hive to sug- 

 gest to its denizens that they would better 

 look about and see if they were at home. 

 Such combs as contained uu hatched brood 

 were left in the old hive with the few re- 

 maining bees, the hives tightly closed and 

 set in a new location and left closed until 

 night, when enough entrance was given to al- 

 low only one bee too pass. If there were 

 more such combs than one hive would hold, 

 another hive with no bottom was placed on 

 top. Combs containing no brood were 

 taken to a temporary honey house to have 

 the honey extracted. 



The whole apiary was gone through with in 

 this way, adding the brood to the hives where 

 the first was placed, until the hives were 

 from two to five high. No queen was left 

 with the brood. 



When the brood was hatched, the same 

 process was gone through with as with the 

 original colonies, except that the new hives 

 were placed but a few feet in front of where 

 the old one stood. 



It has been stated that a foul broody col- 

 oi.y cannot rear a queen. In more than one 

 instance I proved the contrary. In some 

 cases the queen larvie would be dead and the 

 cells unsealed ; in other instances the laryas 

 would die after the cells were sealed ; while 

 queens would hatch from others. 



The honey was extracted, boiled, salycilic 

 acid added, and then fed to the bees. After 

 being extracted, the combs, to the number 

 of (300 or 7CK), accompanied by the frames, 

 were ^thrown into the big kettle half filled 

 with water, and boiled. The frames were 

 "fished out" while hot, and were then ready 

 to be used again. The hives and combs 

 were boiled at night, and the greatest possi- 

 ble care taken that not a single bee should 

 get the slightest taste of honey. 



The object of putting salycilic acid in the 

 honey was that it might become mixed with 

 the honey the bees took with them, and thus 

 destroy the germs of foul bi'ood. 



As regards the sending out of queens from 

 infected colonies. If it is a settled fact (and 

 I almost believe it is) that the disease is con- 

 veyed only by means of infected honey, then 

 it would be perfectly safe to send them in 

 cages provisioned with food in which the 

 honey had been mixed with salycilic acid. 

 Anyhow, as much as I dread the disease, I 

 would be willing to try the experiment, if 

 some careful, honest beekeeper would send 

 me a first class queen put up in that man- 

 ner. 



One thing more. We had a gallon crock 

 well supplied with the salycilic solution, and 

 after handling anything infected, and be- 

 fore handling anything not infected, our 

 hands and tools were washed in the solution. 

 While boiling the hives, frames, etc., if han- 

 dled with the hands before boiling, they were 

 not touched again with the hands after being 

 boiled, until the hands had been first washed 

 in Ihe acid solution. If, as is asserted, forty 

 l)illions of the infecting "animiles" can be 

 held in a worker cell, too much care cannot 

 be exercised in dealing with the disease. 



AUBURNDALE, OlliO. 



Jan. 25, 18<J0. 



How to Discover Foul Brood and Eradicate it 

 By the use of Disinfected Hives. 



J. A. GBEEN. 



iORTUNATELY for the bee keeper, the 

 number of diseases to which bees are 

 subject is not large, but of these, un- 

 less we call the wintering diificulty a 

 disease, the only one about which we need to 

 trouble ourselves very much is foul brood. 

 That it is a most serious pest and a very 

 difficult one to get rid of will be admitted by 

 all who have had any experience with the 

 genuine article. I am afraid though that 

 there are many bee keepers who appreciate 

 but little its i^eriousness, while others are so 

 careless in their methods that it beehooves 

 every bee keeper to make himself as famil- 

 iar as possible with symptoms of the disease 

 as well as with the best methods of cure. 

 As the editorial in the Januarj Review states, 

 there is no apiary in which it may not appear. 

 Moreover, it may appear so suddenly and 

 spread so rapidly that there is no time then 

 to be lost in studying it or experimenting 

 with it. Remember that if the disease exists 

 at all in the neighborhood a little careless- 

 ness on your part or that of your neighbor 

 may suread it through your whole apiary, 

 and that once well started it may cost yi>u 

 more than your apiary is worth to get rid ot 

 it. So be careful, take it in time and he 

 prompt and thorough. 



In the first place, how are we to detect iir 

 The disease generally if not always shows 

 itself first in the unsealed larva?. As you 

 look over the combs of your hives, educate 

 your eye to note carefully the condition of 

 all the brood in every frame you handle. 

 This is not a hard matter. The beautiful 

 regularitv with which the larvse are disposed 

 in the cells makes it easy. You must look 

 for a break in this regularity. At one point 

 the glistening beauty of the pearly field— and 

 it is beautiful to a bee keeper— is hrokeu by 

 a spot of a different appearance. 1 here is a 

 larvffi that does not glisten. It is yellowish 

 white, stretched out instead of coiled, per- 

 haps a little shriveled. This is the begmnir g. 

 There is another in which the disease has 

 proceeded farther. The color is a yellowish 

 brown and it is sinking down into a formless 

 mass at the bottom of the cell. At this stage 

 it becomes viscous and ropy. Stick a splinter 

 of wood into it and as it is withdrawn the 

 matter will cling to it and be drawn out an 

 inch or more. As it breaks, you will notice 

 that it is slightly elastic and the ends will 

 fly back toward the cell and the stick, ihis 

 roniTiess and elasticity form the best te^t 

 for foul brood. It becomes greater as tlie 

 larviB dries up into a browner, more glutin- 

 ous substance, but do not expert it to be of 

 too marked a character. The diseased mat- 

 ter will not "snap back like a piece of rub- 

 brr " as somr have stated. At some stages 

 of the disease it is only slightly elastic. 



Much has been said about the smell of tlie 

 disease, punctured cappings, etc. It is true 

 that a peculiar smell accompanies the dis- 

 oa-f^ which is somewhat like that of n ponr 

 quiUty of glue, but it is not perceptible in 



