MICHIGAN EXPERIMENT STATION. 7 



the robbing begins tlie disease is transferred to otlier colonies, and 

 unless the bee-keeper is watchful the whole apiary becomes infected. 



It has been said "a bee-keeper who does not discover foul brood before 

 his nostrils remind him that something is wrong is no man to treat the 

 disease." It would be more proper to say that a bee-keeper who does not 

 discover that something is wrong before his nostrils tell him of the 

 presence of foul brood is no man to treat the disease, for foul brood is 

 often found in the apairy of an owner who was not acquainted with 

 it, but who after having been instructed as to its nature and treatment 

 has effected a complete cure. Dr. Howard says, "I regard the use of any 

 and all drugs in the treatment of foul brood as a useless waste of time 

 and material, wholly ineffectual, inviting ruin and total loss of bees. 

 Any method which has not for its object the entire removal of all in- 

 fectious material beyond the reach of bees and brood will prove detri- 

 mental and destructive and surely encourages the recurrence of the 

 disease." 



The one method that has given the most universal satisfaction is 

 recommended by Canada's inspector of apiaries, William McEvoy. His 

 method is given below in his own words: 



MCEVOY TREATMENT. 



"In the honey season, when the bees are gathering freely, remove the 

 combs in the evening, and shake the bees into their own hives; give them 

 frames with comb foundation starters and let them build comb for four 

 days. The bees will make the starters into comb during the four days 

 and store the diseased honey in them, which they took with them from 

 the old comb. Then in the evening of the fourth day take out the new 

 combs and give them comb foundations to work out, and then the cure 

 will be complete. By this method of treatment all the diseased honey 

 is removed from the bees before the full sheets of foundation are worked 

 out. All the old foul brood combs must be burned or made into wax after 

 they are removed from the hives, and all the new combs made out of the 

 starters during the four days must be burned or made into wax, on 

 account of the diseased honey that would be stored in them. All the 

 curing or treating of diseased colonies should be done in the evening, 

 so as not to have any robbing done or cause any of the bees from the 

 diseased colonies to mix and go with bees of sound colonies. By doing 

 all the work in the evening it gives the bees a chance to settle down 

 nicely before morning and then there is no confusion or trouble. This 

 same method of curing colonies of foul brood can be carried on at any 

 time from May to October, when the bees are not getting any honey by 

 feeding plenty of sugar syrup in the evenings to take the place of honey 

 flow. It will start the bees robbing and spread the disease to work with 

 foul brood colonies in warm days when the bees are not gathering 

 honey, and for that reason -all work must be done in the evenings, when 

 no bees are flying. When the diseased colonies are weak in bees, put 

 the bees of two, three or four colonies together, so as to get a good 

 sized swarm to start the cure with, as it does not pay to spend time 

 fussing with little weak colonies. 



"When the bees are not gathering honey, any apiary can be cured of 

 foul bfot»d by removing the diseased combs in the evening, and giving 



