196 THE PRACTICAL BEE GUIDE. 



tion of formalin (366), under the floor board yentilator, and 

 continue to feed the bees with medicated syrup for a week or 

 ten days. The skep ; the box used in the operation ; and the 

 fittings of the old hive should be burned : the hive should also 

 be burned, or disinfected, as directed above (355) ; and the 

 ground around the stand should be turned over. The frames 

 and combs, it will be safer to burn : but, if it be desired to 

 save the wax, the combs ma^ be thoroughly boiled (286), the 

 wax being extracted for household use : the residue and bag 

 should be burned. 



357. Requeening Desirable — As already stated, foul brood 

 is a disease of mature bees, as well as of brood (349). A 

 iailure in the treatment recommended, may be due to the 

 existence of bacilli in the organs of the queen ; and, in general, 

 requeening should be practised in connection with the other 

 remedies. The introduction of a young, vigorous queen gives 

 a better tone to the colony, and promotes that active resistance 

 to the disease which is so desirable. 



358. Infected Honey Dangerous — Honey taken from infected 

 stocks, though quite safe for the owner's use, should never be 

 fed back to bees, not even if previously boiled. It is certain 

 that the spores of foul brood can be communicated to larvEe in 

 boiled, infected honey, if fed to them, and that spores will 

 survive chemical treatment, and even freezing, and boiling, 

 such as would at once destroy bacilli. 



35%. Disinfecting Necessary Too much emphasis cannot 



be laid upon the necessity for a thorough disinfecting of the 

 hands and clothing, and of hives, frames, combs, and all appli- 

 ances which may have been in contact with this terrible disease 

 —(355.363.364.) No remedies can. by any possibility, prove 



effectual unless they include such disinfection. The ground 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the hives, also, becomes in- 

 fected by th" throwing out of particles of injurious matter, 

 and of diseased larvas, and by the accumulation there of bees 

 which had nerished by the disease. It should be well dug, and 

 the sods should be turned over. Neglect of this detail has, 

 more frequently than many suppose, led to a recrudescence 

 of the disease, after it had been satisfactorily grappled with 

 and overcome in the hives. A recent extensive experiment, 

 which included the transport for several miles of diseased 

 stocks, and their treatment there, showed very excellent results 

 until, some months later, the stocks were returned to their old 

 stands, when the disease immediately broke out again, and with 

 renewed activity, which speedily exterminated the stocks. 

 Evidently, the infection located in the ground about the old 

 stands had not been dealt with, and the spores of the disease, 



