TREATMENl' OJ^ INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



The treatment for both American foul brood and European foul 

 brood is practically the same. It is impossible to give minute direc- 

 tions to cover every case, but care and common sense will enable any 

 bee keeper successfully to fight diseases of brood. 



Drugs. — Drugs, either to be given directly in food or to be used for 

 fumigating combs, can not be recommended for either of these dis- 

 eases. 



Shaking treatment. — To cure a colony of either form of foul brood 

 it is necessary first to remove from the hive all of the infected material. 

 This is done by shaking the bees into a clean hive on clean frames with 

 small strips of comb foundation, care being taken that infected honey 

 does not drop from the infected combs. The healthy brood in the 

 infected combs may be saved, provided there is enough to make it 

 profitable, by piling up combs from several infected hives on one of 

 the weakest of the diseased colonies. After a week or ten days all 

 the brood which is worth saving will have hatched out, at which time 

 all these combs should be removed and the colony treated. In the 

 case of box hives or skeps the bees may be drummed out into, another 

 box or preferably into a hive with movable frames. Box hives are 

 hard to inspect for disease and are a menace to all other bees in the 

 neighborhood in a region where disease is present. 



The shaking of the bees from combs should be done at a time when 

 the other bees in the apiary will not rob and thus spread disease, or 

 under cover. This can be done safely in the evening after bees have 

 ceased to fly, preferably during a good honey flow. Great care should 

 be exercised to keep all infected material away from other bees until 

 it can be completely destroyed or the combs rendered into wax. Wax 

 from diseased colonies should be rendered by some means in which 

 high heating is used, and not with a solar wax extractor. The honey 

 from a diseased colony should be diluted to prevent burning and then 

 thoroughly sterilized by hard boiling for at least half an hour, if it is to 

 be fed back to the bees. If the hive is again used, it should be very 

 thoroughly cleaned, and special care should be taken that no infected 

 honey or comb be left in the hive. 



It is frequently necessary to repeat the treatment by shaking the 

 bees onto fresh foundation in new frames after four or five days. The 

 bee keeper or inspector must determine whether this is necessary, but 

 when there is any doubt it is safer to repeat the operation rather than 

 run the risk of reinfection. If repeated, the first new combs should be 

 destroyed. To prevent the bees from deserting the strips of founda- 

 tion the queen may be caged in the hive or a queen-excluding zinc put 

 at the entrance. 



[Cir. 79] 



