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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



27 



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, bringing same to a good boil. 

 Often washing with boiling water any 

 hives or implements that might con- 

 tain disease. Wherever strictly fol- 

 lowed, this has effected a cure." — C. 

 Wilcox, Emery Co., Utah. 



Pickled Broo^. 



Some seasons pickled brood is quite 

 bad among bees, and in a few cases 

 I have known it to reduce large colo- 

 nies, even large apiaries to doubtful 

 hopes but those same colonies, after 

 I gave them treatment, were in a 

 month free from all disease. Some- 

 times it takes as careful handling as if 

 foul brood. I do not believe it is con- 

 tagious, for all I have seen 60 colonies 

 in one apiary badly reduced by it. As 

 an experiment one of my out-apiaries 

 had 50 colonies at one time with pic- 

 kled 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 shrunk- 

 en or dark-colored as in foul brood. 

 The dead bee will be first swollen, 

 with a black" head, dried to a hard 

 bunch and oft^n 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 freely 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 the 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 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 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 iri the outer combs. There 

 is a .time in spring in Wisconsin be- 

 tween dandelions and white clover 

 bloom when there is no honey coming 

 in from flowers and often cold days 

 and nights so that the live bees con- 

 sume the liquid, unsealed honey flrst, 

 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 o"ther parts ef 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 

 evei. <5Ugar syrup, and kept the hive 

 warm, all dead brood soon disap- 

 peared, while in the same apiaries oth- 

 er colonies affected and not so treated 

 continued 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 cel- 

 lar or in chaff hives, wintered out of 

 do6rs in sheltered location, seldom 

 have pickled brood, chilled or other 

 dead brood, or dysentery, and are the 

 colonies that give their owner profit. 



