21 



SEVENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



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 wash- 

 ing with boiling water any hives or 

 implements that .might contain disease. 

 "Wherever strictly followed, this has 

 effected a cure." — C. Wilcox, Emery 

 Co., Utah. 



Pickled Brood. 



Some seasons pickled brood is quite 

 bad among bees, and in a few cases I 

 have known it to reduce large colonies 

 even 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 60 colonies in one apiary 

 ibadly 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 ten of the worst brood-combs, 

 where at least two-thirds of the brood 

 were dead, and placed these 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 

 shrunken 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 uip — 

 Chinaman-shoe-like. The skin of the 

 dead bee is quite tough, and, if punc- 

 tured, the thin, watery fluid of the 

 body will flow as freely as water, often 

 a little yellow or brownish-colored 

 fi;om the dissolved pollen from the ab- 

 domen of the bee. ' It ,has very little or 

 no smell, does not at any time stick to 

 the walls o€ 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 brood 

 comfortable on cold days and nights. 



Never nut 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 ihives are properly sheltered so as to 

 be warm on cold days and nights there 

 w-ill be little or no pickled brood. If 

 the queen is old, shows signs of weak- 

 ness 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 lit- 

 tle, and when queen-cells are started, 

 remove them all and give them a 

 queen and bees, between t'w'o of her 

 own brood-combs from a hive where 

 she has lived. I do not think pickled 

 :bro'od 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 pol- 

 len, even in hives with plenty of sealed 

 honey in the outer combs. There is a 

 time in spring in Wisconsin between 

 aandelions 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 it dies, and then it is we first 

 notice this about the time white clover 

 honey begins to come in. In other 

 parts orf 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, 

 while in the same apiaries other colo- 

 nies affected and not so treated con- 

 tinued for some time, but got rid of 

 it as soon as treated. 



Strong colonies of bees In the fall 

 with a young laying queen, and an 

 abundance of good .honey sealed or 

 capped by the bees, if properly cared 

 for during winter whether in the cellar 

 or in chaff hives, wintered out of doors 

 in sheltered location, seldom have 

 pickled brood, chilled or other deaa 

 brood, or dysentery, and are the col- 

 onies that give their owner profit. 



Black Brood. 



Black brood is another fatal and 

 contagious disease among bees affect- 

 ing the old bees as well as the brood. 



