ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



45 



and that without any very great pecuni- 

 ary loss. In an essay read at a meeting 

 of the Michigan State Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, he stated at length his various 

 experiments, all of which resulted in fail- 

 ure except that of the plan just mention- 

 ed. His method of treatment was some- 

 what different, in details, from that usual- 

 ly followed. Among other things he 

 managed to secure a good crop of honey. 

 Perhaps I cannot do better than to quote 

 two or three paragraphs from his essay. 



"I found in my experiments, that by 

 feeding a few pounds of honey medicated 

 with salicylic acid, in the spring — the 

 food being placed in an upper story, in a 

 capacious feeder — the disease, though 

 never cured, was completly checked, and 

 the usefulness of the colony for the pro- 

 duction of honey preserved. One colony 

 so fed, yielded, notwithstanding the foul 

 brood, twice the average of the apiary. 



Another benefit of this feeding is, that 

 it practically prevents, I think, the dis- 

 semination of disease from the colony. 

 Taking advantage of this discover3', 

 after much deliberation 1 decided upon 

 the following plan of operation, as the 

 best under all circumstances. 



In the spring, about the middle of May, 

 feed, as indicated above, each colony to 

 be treated, then manage the same as 

 healthy colonies until such time as the 

 brood to be reared from eggs laid will be 

 of little use in the collection of the main 

 honey crop — say thirty days from the 

 probable close of the flow from basswood, 

 then cage the queen in the hive for three 

 weeks, and, at the end of that time, move 

 back the hive, place a clean hive furnish- 

 ed with foundation on the old stand, run 

 all the bees and the released queen into 

 it, remove the old combs and hive to a 

 place of .safety, and the work is done. 

 Of course, colonies may be treatetl in the 

 same manner during any sufficient honej' 

 flow. " 



When freed from bees and healthy 

 brood, the combs may be emptied of hon- 

 ey by extracting, then melted into wax. 

 Thorough boiling of the honey will kill 



all the germs of foul brood, but, to make 

 assurance doubly sure, some have added 

 to the honey a small proportion of sali- 

 cylic acid. Honey thus treated may be 

 fed to the bees. The hives ought to be 

 boiled in water fifteen or twenty minutes. 

 Simply pouring boiling water upon them 

 will not answer. Some have advocated 

 the burning of the combs with no attempt 

 at saving the honey and wax. If only a 

 few colonies are to be treated, this might 

 be advisable, but the owner of a large 

 apiary quite generally affected with foul 

 brood, can well afford to take the neces- 

 sary precautions whereby the combs may 

 be saved. Whoever undertakes such a 

 job must remember, however, that "eter- 

 nal vigilance" is the price of success, 

 that one drop of the infected honey se- 

 cured by a robber bee, means disease 

 once more in the hive to which it is car- 

 ried. Some one has suggested that the 

 extracting, etc., be done down cellar. It 

 is a cool place in which to work, and the 

 bees can the more easily be kept out. 

 Others have melted up the combs at night 

 when no bees are flying. There is no 

 necessity for destroying the combs and 

 the honey they contain. If a man can 

 not or will not, exercise sufficient care, it 

 would certainly be better to burn them; 

 but, if he has "gumption" enough to suc- 

 ceed as a bee-keeper, he can save the 

 combs from destruction. It would be 

 well, however, for all to bear in mind 

 that one little "forget" may compel a 

 repetition of the "whole business." 



Of late, the bee-keepers of Colorado 

 have been following a plan whereby a 

 man may keep his apiary fairly free from 

 foul brood, even though located in afoul 

 broody district. It is well known that 

 shaking the bees of a foul broody colony 

 into a clean hive, and allowing them to 

 build a new set of combs, frees them the 

 infection; well, these Western men, just 

 at swarming-time, treat eveiy colony in 

 the apiary in this manner — make a whole- 

 sale sweep of the matler. As this is done 

 at a season when the honey-flow has com- 

 menced, and there will be no more rob- 



