Bee Disease Control ii 



stand. This hive is furnished with frames containing starters of 

 foundation. The old hive is disinfected by scorching with lire, 

 the wax rendered from the combs and the frames disinfected by 

 boiling or destroyed by burning. If sufficient honey is in the dis- 

 eased combs to make it worth while, it may be extracted and used 

 for household purposes or it may be fed back to the bees after 

 being diluted with an equal amount of water and heated sufficiently 

 to kill the spores of disease which it contains. The heat necessary 

 to render the combs makes the wax safe for further use by bees. 

 White*' has shown that a temperature of 210° F. for ten minutes 

 is sufficient to kill the spores of this disease. 



If considerable healthy brood is in the combs' and a number of 

 colonies are to be treated, the hives of beeless combs may be placed 

 above an excluder over a weak colony and at the end of 10 days, 

 when practically all the good brood has emerged, this colony may 

 be shaken and the combs rendered. This is best done at the be- 

 ginning of a honey flow. 



If a considerable number of colonies are to be treated it will be 

 found best to do the work in the middle of the day, taking every 

 precaution to prevent the spread of the disease by robbing. If 

 only one or two colonies need treatment, it is best done just before 

 nightfall. In any case, to guard against absconding it is advisable 

 to place an entrance guard, drone trap or perforated zinc before the 

 hive entrance in such a manner that the queen is confined in the 

 hive. 



If the disease is not discovered until the season is well advanced 

 and no further honey flow can reasonably be expected, one of two 

 courses is open to the beekeeper. He can, if the disease has not 

 reached a stage when destruction of the colony is advisable, leave 

 it until broodrearing has ceased and shake the bees onto combs 

 entirely full of honey free from disease. Or he can shake the 

 bees onto foundation and feed sugar syrup to enable them to build 

 and stock the combs. This latter process will not be found 

 profitable. 



It is much better, however, to treat a diseased colony late in the 



sWhite, G. F., 1914. Destruction of germs of infectious bee diseases 

 by heating. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 92. 



