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32 



NINTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



they were thus thrown upon founda- 

 tion did the disease appear again. 

 Neither did the disease reappear from 

 infected hives, for nothjng whatever 

 was done to aisinfect the hives. 

 Whether any harm may come in future, 

 remains to be seen, but as no harm 

 was found up to the close of the sea- 

 son, it seems probable that none will 

 be. The frames were boiled in lye and 

 used again. 



It was not long before we discovered 

 that colonies that had been treated 

 were deserting their liives. In all, 

 there were 9 hives that were thus left 

 utterly empty. We concluded that, as 

 no honey was coming in, they were 

 starved out. So, after that, we began 

 giving honey to each colony when it 

 was brushed. If a super with a little 

 'honey had been on the hive, it was 

 left, with an excluder under it. Other- 

 wise a section or two was put into 

 the body of the hive. Although these 

 sections were generally from diseased 

 colonies, in no case was it discovered 

 that any infection came from them. 



Giving the bees a lunch at the time 

 of brushing them was generally effec- 

 tive in preventing desertion, but not 

 always. We finally settled on the plan 

 of leaving in the hive one of their 

 combs. This was put in one side of 

 the .hive, and next to it given two 

 empty frames. Not empty combs, but 

 empty frames — not the least bit of a 

 starter in them. Generally the bees 

 made no use of more than one of 

 these, and within three or four days 

 we found at least a little co:n:b built 

 on the frame next to the comb. Then 

 we took away the comb, leaving the 

 frame they 'had started on, and filling 

 up the hive with full sheets of foun- 

 dation. Sometimes we took away the 

 frames they had started on as soon as 

 a gooS beginning was made on the 

 foundation, and sometimes we didn't. 

 In either case, the cure was all right, 

 only there ^was danger of the frame 

 being filled out with some drone-comb. 



The brood that was taken from four 

 colonies was piled up on a 5th over an 

 excluder. In three weeks the brood 

 would be hatched out, and the combs 

 in the four upper stories would be 

 ready to be melted up. But there 

 would still be the lower story full of 

 affected combs, which would have to 

 be dealt with. Then I thought we 

 might take advantage of the Alexander 



plan, if there was anything in it. The 

 plan of tne laie E. W. Alexander, in 

 treating European foul brood, was to 

 make a colony strong, make it queen- 

 less for three weeKs, and t'nen give it 

 a young Italian queen, the bees, while 

 queenless, having cleaned out all dis- 

 ease from the cells. So I took the 

 brood, from; the diseased colonies and 

 enough bees to care for the brood, and 

 made a pile four or five stories high, 

 leaving the pile queenless. In ten 

 days all queen- cells that were started 

 in the pile were killed, and, either then 

 or within two or three days, a very 

 young virgin queen of choice stock 

 was given. 



The combs of some of these piles, 

 after being thus treated, seemed to be 

 cleaned out all right, and no disease 

 . showed in the brood that was in them 

 afterward. Other piles were a failure. 

 I am inclined to think that the success 

 was where the piles were very strong 

 in bees, and the failures where there 

 were not so many bees. 



As before said, we commenced first 

 on the "very bad" cases, leaving till 

 the last the mildest cases, and by the 

 time we got around to take care of 

 these last, no bad brood was to be 

 found in thera, the bees having appar- 

 ently cleaned out the disease of their 

 own accord. Of course, these were left 

 without any treatment. There were 23 

 of these colonies, which had at least a 

 few cells of bad brood, and were 

 cleaned up by the bees themselves. 



The regular thing is to shake on 

 foundation or starters in the evening — 

 that, probably, 'because safer from 

 starting robbing. With so much to do, 

 it would have been inconvenient for 

 us to do all the work in the evening. 

 We did it any time in the day, when 

 the bees were at work, arid, although 

 a dearth was on, yet there was at least 

 a little the bees could do for a 

 good part of the day, even if they 

 did not get enough for their own use.' 

 We kept a very sharp look-out for 

 robbers, and whenever there was any 

 sign of them we suspended opera- 

 tions. 



From the experience I have had so 

 far with European foul brood, and 

 from, what I know about American 

 foul brood by no small amount of read- 

 ing, I have doubts as to European be- 

 ing very much worse than American, 

 if, indeed, it is as Ibad. But it may be 



