MICHIGAN EXPERIMENT STATION. 9 



will not pay to try to save an ounce of honey or wax. If you are a care- 

 ful person you may make the combs into wax, and the honey may be 

 saved by adding a little water and keeping it at the boiling point for 

 two hours. 



The old hive bodies may be scraped, the scrapings burned, and the 

 inside painted with kerosene and set on fire. When it gets to burning 

 well, throw in about two tablespoonfuls of water and clap on the cover. 

 The water will be turned to steam and this will scald the inside of 

 the hive. 



If this operation be performed with sufficient care, the colony will be 

 free from the disease, but it will require close attention and the best of 

 care because of the tender condition in which the bees will be after the 

 severe treatment, and the discouragement following the loss of all their 

 brood. This treatment may be used at any time during the summer but 

 preferably when honey is coming in, as the danger from robbing is then 

 at a minimum. 



There are doubtless many instances where a mild case of foul brood is 

 taken for chilled brood, and it is possible that a case of foul brood may 

 appear in a mild form early in the spring, and then disappear as the sum- 

 mer opens, only to reappear later in the season. It is possible that this 

 state of things is due to the fact that the honey in the cells is infected 

 with the germs, and when the spring honey begins to come in freely, it is 

 used to feed the brood, which spring honey, being free from germs, is 

 eaten by the brood.'with impunity until the combs become full of healthy 

 brood and the dead larvae nearly disappear. 



Perhaps the most favorable condition for the spread of the disease 

 occurs when it becomes present in the yard of the bee-keeper who does 

 not examine his colonies frequently. A colony becomes weakened from 

 the failure of the brood to mature and the keeper may not know that 

 anything is wrong with the colony. Soon the honey flow stops and rob- 

 bing commences. Weak colonies are attacked first and in this way 

 honey from this weak, diseased colony is taken to nearly every hive in 

 the yard and especially to the stronger ones with disastrous results. 



The extractor is an important factor in spreading the disease. A 

 case of extracted combs, taken from a diseased colony, and after extrac- 

 tion put back into half a dozen different hives, may bring infection- to 

 each one of them. 



In the winter of 1898-9 the bees were wintered in a cellar at the 

 station. They were tiered up in the cellar in alternate rows with the 

 bottoms of the hives removed. A diseased colony was placed among 

 the healthy ones and marked. During the winter the bees- did not 

 remain quiet but ran out from the hives to quite an extent. In the 

 spring the four hives, which had wintered in direct contact with the 

 diseased one, were also diseased. 



This shows that wintering the colonies in cellars with the bottom 

 boards of the hives removed, may also assist in spreading the disease. 



Another way in vphich the apiary may become infected is by the care- 

 lessness of the owner. Combs, partly filled with honey or brood ace 

 left lying on the top of the hive "for the bees to clean up." The waste 

 from the wax extractor is thrown out where the bees can have access to 

 it. A hive in which the colony has died is not at once taken out of the 

 reach of the bees, but allowed to stand in the yard and the entrance of 



