Treatment with bee escape. — The shaking treatment may be modified 

 so that instead of shaking the bees from the combs the hive is moved 

 from its stand, and in its place a clean hive with frames and founda- 

 tion is set. The queen is at once transferred to the new hive, and the 

 field bees fly there when they next return from the field. The infected 

 hive is then placed on top of or close beside the clean hive and a bee 

 esckpe placed over the entrance of the hive containing disease, so that 

 the younger bees and those which later emerge from the cells may 

 leave the hive but can not return. They therefore join the colony in 

 the new hive. 



Fall treatment. — If it is desirable to treat a colony so late in the fall 

 that it would be impossible for the bees to prepare for winter, the 

 treatnient may be modified by shaking the bees onto combs with 

 plenty of honey for winter. This will be satisfactory only after brood 

 rearing has entirely ceased. In such cases disease rarely reappears. 



In the Western States, where American foul brood is particularly 

 virulent, it is desirable thoroughly to disinfect the hive by burning the 

 inside or by chemical means before using it again. This is not always 

 practiced in the Eastern States, where the disease is much milder. 

 Some persons recommend boiling the hives or disinfecting them with 

 some reliable disinfectant such as carbolic acid or corrosive sublimate. 

 It is usually not profitable to save frames because of their compara- 

 tively small value, but if desired they may be disinfected. Great care 

 should be exercised in cleaning any apparatus It does not pay to 

 treat very weak colonies. They should either be destroyed at once 

 or several weak ones be united to make one which is strong enough to 

 build up. 



Recently some new "cures" have been advocated in the bee jour- 

 nals, particularly for European foul brood, with a view to saving 

 combs from infected colonies. The cautious bee keeper will hardly 

 experiment with such methods, especially when the disease is just 

 starting in his locaKty or apiary, but will eradicate the disease at once 

 by means already well tried. 



In kll cases great care should be exercised that the bee keeper may 

 not himself spread the infection by handling healthy colonies before 

 thoroughly disinfecting his hands, hive tools, and even smoker. Since 

 it takes but a very small amount of infected material to start disease in 

 a previously healthy colony, it is evident that too much care can not be 

 taken. In no case should honey from unknown sources be used for 

 feeding bees. Care should also be exercised in buying queens, since 

 disease is often transmitted in the candy used in shipping cages, 

 Combs should not be moved from hive to hive in infected apiaries. 



[Cir. 79] 



