■f /«<55!K»!S!»*5S 



28 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



many bee-keepers are not so situated 

 as to keep all diseased material from 

 robber-bees while taking care of it, the 

 best and only safe way is to burn the 

 diseased combs and frames. 



Utah. 



Utah has county inspectors, and from 

 ■one who has remarkable success I copy 

 the report of his method of treatment : 



"Wherever found, it should be dealt 

 with earnestly and with dispatch. If the 

 colony is weak, I recommend smother- 

 ing the bees, and in order to do this 

 without letting a bee escape, take a 

 tablespoonful of sulphur and place it in 

 the hive entrance of the hives ; if there is 

 any breeze, turn the hive so it will blow 

 in the entrance. Then fire the sulphur 

 and it will soon kill the bees. This 

 should be done early in the morning be- 

 fore any of the bees are flying, as one 

 bee escaping from the hive might carry 

 the disease to any colony with which it 

 may take up its abode. If the colony 

 is a strong one, I would keep the en- 

 trance partly closed so as to prevent 

 any other bees from getting in. Then 

 as soon as fruit-blossoms come out so 

 the bees can obtain honey I treat them. 

 I procure an empty box of any kind so 

 it is clean, then find the queen, put her 

 in a screen-wire cage which is easily 

 made. Take a small piece of screen, 

 roll it up and tie a string around either 

 end, cork up one end, then place the 

 queen and a few workers for company 

 in the cage and place in the other end 

 cork. Put same in this box and shake 

 all the bees out of their hive into the 

 Tdox. This must be done in the even- 

 ing when no bees are flying. Keep the 

 queen- in this box 24 to 48 hours, allow- 

 ing the bees to fly in and out as they 

 please. Next take a clean hive with 

 good, healthy combs or foundation and 

 shake bees into it, letting the queen go 

 and they will be free from disease. The 

 old combs are melted into wax, bring- 

 ing same to a good boil. Often washing 

 with boiling water any hives or imple- 

 ments that might contain disease. Wher- 

 ever strictly followed this has effected a 

 cure." — ^C. Wilcox, Emery Co., Utah. 



Pickled Brood. 



Some seasons pickled brood is quite 

 Tiad among bees, and in a few cases I 

 liave known it to reduce large colonies, 

 <ven large apiaries to doubtful hopes. 



but those same colonies, after I ■ gave 

 them treatment, were in a month free 

 from all disease. Sometimes it takes 

 as careful handling as if foul brood. I 

 do not believe it is contagious, for all 

 I have seen in 60 colonies in one apiary 

 badly reduced by it. As an experiment 

 one of my out-apiaries had 50 colonies 

 at one time with pickled brood. I treated 

 them and all were soon free 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 first swollen, with a 

 black head, dried to a hard bunch and 

 often turned up — Chinaman-shoe-Hke. 

 The skin of the dead bee is quite tough, 

 and, if punctured, the thin, watery fluid 

 of the body will flow as freely as water, 

 often a .little yellow or brownish-col- 

 ored 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 prop- 

 erly cared for, the bees will take care 

 of "themselves. Plenty of liquid, un- 

 sealed honey and pollen near the brood, 

 and hives so protected as to keep bees 

 and brood 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 signs of weakness 

 by putting 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 



