82 BEES FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 



are so strong that they would also kill all the bees. The 

 • treatment, therefore, which will cure a hive in the early stages 

 of the disease is absolutely useless in the advanced stages, and 

 this fact the bee-keeper must never forget. 



Do not mistake chilled brood for foul brood. If brood 

 becomes too cold it dies, but thereafter, in time, it turns black, 

 never brown, as in foul brood. Later on it dries up and be 

 comes hard; it never forms a sticky, putrescent mass of cofFee- 

 coloured, " ropy," or pappy matter, such as is to be found in 

 cases of foul brood. 



The Treatment of Foul Brood in its First Stages. 

 We will now deal with the remedies which will cure the 

 disease in its first stages, of which the best known are the 

 following : — 



Salicylic Acid. 

 This remedy was discovered many years ago, and some 

 bee-keepers still use it with good results. It is used in two 



Fig. 41. — Spray Diffuser. 



ways — namely, to spray the combs with, and to mix with 

 the food. The solution for spraying the combs is made as 

 follows : — 8 grains of salicylic acid, 8 grains of soda-borax, and 

 1 oz. of water (it is necessary to add the soda-borax, as salicylic 

 acid, by itself, is practically insoluble in water) : all the 

 honey in the hive must be uncapped, and the solution projected 

 on to the combs in a fine spray from a spray dilFuser (fig. 41). 



