BEE MANUAL. 265 



having been effected by it have from time to time reached the 

 bee journals. Mr. A. E. Bonney, who has been very successful 

 in eradicating the disease from his apiary by Muth's method, 

 described the plan in a very able paper read by him before the 

 South Australian Bee Keepers' Association, on January 5th, 

 1885, in the following words : — 



" Remove from its stand the hive containing the diseased colony, 

 and put in its place a clean hive with starters of foundation in all the 

 frames. Brush the bees into the clean hive, and feed them with honey 

 or sugar syrup, adding to every quart of food an ounce of the following 

 mixture, namely, sixteen grains salicylic acid, sixteen grains soda 

 borax, one ounce water. This feeding should be kept up for about ten 

 days. The diseased combs should be cut from the frames and burned 

 up, and the hive and frames scraped and well scrubbed with carbolic 

 soap and water. Calvert's medical soap, containing 20 per cent, of 

 acid, is most effective for this purpose. That is the whole opera- 

 tion; but when there are more hives than one, certain precautions 

 must be taken, or else the bee-keeper will discover that in curing this 

 one he has spread the disease into others. The best time for this work 

 is the early morning, and everything should be prepared the previous 

 evening. The entrances to all adjacent hives should be closed with 

 perforated zinc, which must not be removed until after the operation 

 is completed. Before removing the zinc, the alighting-boards and 

 fronts of the hives should be washed over with a solution of 1 of phenol 

 in 200 of water. While the disease exists in the apiary the apiarist 

 should make a practice of always washing his hands, smoker, etc., with 

 the above solution before going from one hive to another. A small 

 piece of sponge is convenient for this purpose. After treating a bad 

 case I have my clothes washed before wearing them again amongst 

 healthy hives. Carbolic acid No. 5, well mixed with water, in the pro- 

 portion of one ounce of acid to two quarts of water, should be sprinkled 

 on the ground where the diseased hive stood. This will destroy the 

 germs in any foul broody matter which may have been carried out of 

 the hive. All honey extracted from diseased combs should be tho- 

 roughly boiled with one-fourth of its quantity of water before being fed 



back to the bees Thirteen of my hives have been cured by 



Mr. Muth's method, and it is to me a source of much pleasure to go 

 from hive to hive and see large sheets of healthy brood in all stages, 

 knowing that not long ago some of these colonies were dying out in 



rottenness Mr. Stevens, of Goodwood, by the persistent use of 



this cure got rid of foul brood last year, and has not since been 

 troubled with it." 



Writing in June, 1885, he says : 



"It is quite possible that in many places in Australia, where the 

 honey supply is intermittent,' or in the more rigorous climate of New 

 Zealand, the Cheshire cure may be the best to adopt, but it certainly 

 is not in this locality (Adelaide)." 



