5 8 A Modern Bee- Farm 



mentioned proportion of phenol. It appears that bees fed upon 

 such medicated syrup have greater energy and build up much 

 faster in spring than others not so treated, though free from 

 disease, and fed without the addition of phenol. It would 

 appear, therefore, that Mr. Cheshire is quite right in stating that 

 bees are troubled with several minor diseases, and these seem to 

 be avoided where medicated food is used winter and spring. 

 The death rate is lower, consequently the hive is sooner populated, 

 and spring dwindling does not occur. The apiarist will take the 

 hint, and will study his own interests by acting accordingly. 

 Before closing this chapter I wish to again refer to the 



Change of Queens as an aid in subduing the disease 



of foul brood. It is evident that the continued addition of eggs 

 from a diseased queen only adds to the putrid matter, while on 

 the other hand, when removed and a young one from clean stock 

 inserted after about ten or fourteen days, the workers have had 

 some rest, and immediately the young queen begins to lay, her own 

 vigour is imparted to the workers, and the matter which hitherto 

 they would not touch is at once removed. This is a fact which 

 I have observed in every instance where such change of queens 

 has been made. 



A queen is of litde value compared with the trouble in hand ; 

 and my own recommendation in all cases where there are 

 sufficient bees to be worth saving, is to at once remove the queen 

 and proceed as above, all the time feeding with Cheshire's 

 remedy. It happens however that the bees will not take the syrup 

 when other food is coming in, and at such times it is necessary to 

 pour it into the combs, or better, fill them with a syringe. 



There is one thing that appears to have escaped notice; 

 where sealed honey is present the feeding will not disinfect 

 that, therefore if not extracted every cell must be uncapped that 

 the contents may be shifted and re-stored, or used with the 

 medicated food. 



