?«p^';- 



STATE BEE-KEEPERS* ASSOCIATlO?f. 25 



from dead brood. At the same time I took 10 of the worst 

 brood-combs where at least two-thirds of the brood was dead, 

 and placed those combs in other strong, healthy colonies. 

 They at once cleaned out the dead brood and reared as nice 

 brood as one could ask for. 



SYMPTOMS. 



The larval bees (in last of May and through June) show 

 light-brown spots, a little later the cappings have small holes 

 in — the cappings are not sunken or dark-colored as in foul 

 brood. The dead bee will be at first swollen, with a black 

 head, .dried to a hard bunch and often turned up — ^China- 

 man-shoe like. The skin of the dead bee is quite tough, and, 

 if punctured, the thin, watery fluid of the body will flow 

 as free as water, often a little yellow or brownish-colored 

 from the dissolved pollen from the abdomen of the bee. It 

 has very little or no smell, does not at any time stick to the 

 walls of the comb, is easily pulled out of the cell, is never 

 ropy or sticky, and if the colony is properly cared for, the 

 bees will take care of themselves. Plenty of liquid, unsealed 

 honey and pollen near the brood, and hives so protected as 

 to keep bees and br6od comfortable on cold days and nights. 



Never put bees on old black brood-combs, or those with 

 dead brood in ; better make wax of the combs and give the 

 bees full sheets of brood-comb foundation. 



TREATMENT. ' 



Keep all colonies strong, with plenty of unsealed honey 

 near the brood, and if hives are properly sheltered so as to 

 be warm on cold days and nights there will be little or no 

 pickled brood. If the queen is old, shows weakness by put- 

 ting several, eggs in one brood-cell and nursing several others,, 

 so that the brood is patchy, I would kill such a queen, feed 

 the bees a little,- and when queen-cells were started, remove 

 them all and give them a queen and bees, between two of her 

 own brood-combs from a hive where she has lived. I do not 

 think pickled brood is often the fault of the queen, but rather 

 a lack of proper food and heat in the hive. In most cases a 

 shortage of liquid honey, or moldy pollen, even in hives with 

 plenty of sealed honey in the outer combs. There is a time 

 in spring in Wisconsin between dandelion and white clover 

 bloom when there is no honey coming in from flowers and 

 often cold days and nights so that the live bees consume the 

 liquid unsealed honey first, and cluster in a compact body to 

 keep warm, the result often is the larval bee just changed 

 from the egg to a tender little grub, is either starved, half- 

 fed or chilled so that it grows slowly and too often dies, 

 and we first notice this about the time white clover honey 

 begins to come in. In other parts of the State, where pickled 

 brood appeared it was from the same cause, and at other 

 dates, which was due to a difference of time of honey bloom. 



Wherever I fed daily some honey or even sugar syrup, 

 and kept the hive warm, all dead brood soon disappeared ; 



