ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



195 



clear beyond the reach of the bees and 

 treat it in an isolated spot. I took 

 every bit of clothing ofC that I wore 

 and went and boiled my hive out, and 

 I started up my gasoline stove and 

 laid the hive in the heat of a burner, 

 and then threw it into wjater to cool 

 it. I took a teaspoonfuli of carbolic 

 acidi to a pint of water and washed my 

 hands, and took my knife and scraped 

 my nails and even shampooed my 

 head. You will agree with me you 

 cannot be too careful; the greater care 

 you exercise the better, t"' 



Now, about disinfecting hives, it is 

 nearly impossible to take ten frames 

 out of a colony without getting a little 

 on your fingers, and as like as not 

 when you dip your fingers down you 

 will rub a little honey off, hence the 

 importance of disinfecting that hive>v, 

 and I invariably go to work and pour 

 two or three ounces of gasoline down 

 in the bottom, light a piece of news- 

 paper and drop, it in there; put the 

 lid on my hive,- and after it has burned 

 a fractional part of a minute — I let it 

 char or burn that hiv^ brown on the 

 inside — I use bibiling water, and the 

 heat of that will reach every part in 

 it. There are rabbets in the hive, and 

 I have been in the habit of tearing 

 them off fully,! and lighting them sep- 

 arately, and letting them burn up the 

 propolis completely. Mr. McEvoy of 

 Canada does not do that; but when 

 you get the honey in the hive the 

 germs are there too, and you may 

 ibreed 50 or 100 colonies and not get 

 the disease in the hive in that way 

 as described, and yet you may do it 

 every time, hence the importance of 

 adhering to the rule that Dr. Phillips 

 recommends of disinfecting every hive 

 that has foul brood in it. I heard this 

 given as general treatment by Mr. 

 Root at the first Convention held in 

 the United States at the City of 

 Indianapolis. He said: After trying 

 all other remedies my advice is to 

 dig a hole and as soon as it is night 

 and the bees have all settled, wrap 

 your infected hive up carefully, put it 

 into the hole, cover it over with straw, 

 and not burn it, but bury it if you can 

 beyond the possibility of resurrection. 

 I wouldn't do that now with a good 

 Mve. ■ There are hundreds of thou- 

 sands of box hives all over the coun- 

 try. If a hive is worth saving we 

 can save it, and if the comb is not old 

 and worthless we can save the bees- 



wax. If it is an old worthless hive, 

 and a weak colony, and the comb not 

 worth much, 1 would say turn in and 

 dig a pit, put some dry s'traw down 

 in there, and after night set your 

 colony in there and put coal oil on it 

 and burn it ail up, and then fill up the 

 hole with dirt. Now, that kind of 

 treatment I regard as radical, and it 

 will cure every time. 



Cleanse your implements after you 

 use them, and either boil or burn a 

 suit of clothing that you have used. 

 As to this matter of shaking bees 

 when they are in the height of the 

 honey flow, you can't shake bees off 

 your frame without shaking more or 

 less honey out, and before that honey 

 is all gone and evaporated and has 

 disappeared the flies raay take it all 

 up, but if they do not the bee comes 

 along and takes up some of that honey 

 and you see what happens, the colony 

 becomes infected at once, so that we 

 want to cut off every avenue. I don't 

 claim to know all about this by any 

 means, and I feel I have scarcely 

 learned the alphabet, and I would not 

 have been at this Convention if it had 

 not been for this subject which in- 

 terests me above all others. I feel as 

 though it needs the help of every man 

 that is capable. I have said before 

 this Association that I do not ever 

 expect to make any money out of it, 

 but it is just for pastime, and what 

 I may be able to learn and teach 

 others. 



•Mr. DeJong — ^This thing is new to 

 me. We have a good deal of foul 

 brood in our country. The best way 

 I thought would be to take a board and 

 put it on a new hive and set it out 

 in the old place, and set the other 

 hive on top of that; take your queen 

 out and put her below on som6 comb 

 foundation and let the bees work it 

 out there. I thought in doing that 

 twice the new hives would prevent 

 them carrying any honey. 



Dr. Bohrer- — Tell us. again. 



•Mr. DeJong— I suggested to our In- 

 spector to take and set a new hive 

 right on the place where the infected 

 hive was, and then take a board and 

 lay it on top of that, and set carefully 

 your infected hive on top of that, and 

 then take out your queen and put her 

 below, and then the. bees will go down 

 there. 



Dr. Bohrer — Have yuu treated it that 

 way? 



