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latter is made with sugar and some honey ; and as it is through germ- 

 infected honey that ' .disease is generally conveyed, it is absolutely 

 necessary that every precaution should be taken against risk, lest we 

 inadvertently import the dreaded " black-brood." 



The measures to be taken to avoid risk are simple. With queens 

 everything except the queens themselves, including the bees accompany- 

 ing them, should be burned after the queen has been put into a clean 

 introducing-cage. In the case of colonies, the comb and frames should 

 be burned, and the bees be treated at once on the McEvoy plan. 



Treatment of Foul-brood. 



As far back as 1771 Schirach in his writings recommends the 

 removal of the combs from the bees for the purpose of curing foul- 

 brood. It is on this principle that the present treatment is based. 

 It was not until recent years, however, that this method was gene- 

 rally recognized as giving the most reliable satisfaction. Formerly 

 drugs were brought largely into use, but it has been proved beyond 

 doubt that they are absolutely of no consequence and their use a waste 

 of time. The present system, commonly called the " McEvoy " treat- 

 ment, when properly carried out, gives an effective cure which has been 

 repeatedly tried with absolute success in many thousands of cases in 

 New Zealand. 



Where the disease is so far advanced as to have left few bees in the 

 colony, then it will be safest to destroy by fire everything that has been 

 in contact with it. " Tinkering " with such a colony would be both 

 useless and dangerous. 



Treatment may be undertaken at any time of the year, providing 

 the weather is not too cold to prevent the bees building comb. In 

 the southern parts of New Zealand, if treating in the cold season, the 

 bees should be put on to drawn-out combs and fed as below with 

 warm syrup, or the bees put on to frames of clean honey, if procurable, 

 and left until the spring. 



All operations in this connection should be carried out in the 

 evening, when the bees are quiet. 



Prepare a clean hive and bottom-board with narrow starters of 

 comb-foundation in the frames. Remove the infected hive and stand 

 to one side, and put the prepared one in its place, prop up the front 

 about an inch, lay a sack near the entrance, and shake and brush the 

 bees as quietly as possible close to the entrance, and when finished 

 remove every vestige of the infected hive away where bees cannot get 

 at it. The combs, if not too badly infected, may be melted into wax, 

 or, iif insufficient in quantity for that purpose, they, with their frames, 

 had better be burned right away and the ashes buried. The hive, 

 ■bottom-board, and cover, if sound and worth saving, should be cleaned 

 and thoroughly disinfected with a strong solution of carbolic acid or 

 izal, or singed inside by" fire. 



On the evening of the fourth day following, the necessary number 

 of frames for the hive should be furnished with full sheets of comb- 

 foundation, to be exchanged with those the bees have been working 

 on. This can be done by removing the frames one at a time, shaking 

 the bees back into the hive, and inserting the others. The comb built 

 on the starters during the four days may be cut out and melted up, 

 and the frames disinfected. 



The result of this treatment is that during their four days' comb- 

 building the bees use up all the infected honey contained in their 

 honey-sacs when taken from their old hive, so that when shifted again 

 at the end of the four days they start clean. 



