84 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEKERS’ JOURNAL. 
near nightfall, and replacing it next morning | 
for a second day, is generally successful where 
other courses fail. If only one stock is robbing, 
and it can be identified, changing the places 
of robber and robbed for a few days soon 
settles the matter. 
Cross bees require plenty of smoke, and even 
then they remain cross if they have little or 
no honey in the hive, in -which case a little 
sprinkling of syrup or sweetened water before 
smoking’ has a magical effect. It is a great 
mistake to use too little smoke when we wish 
to quiet bees. A good cloud into the entrance 
and then a thorough good deluge under the 
mat and over the frames, decisive and over- 
whelming, is the proper course. Continually 
pulling from a half-lighted and almost smoke- 
less smoker is a sure irritant of even quiet 
bees. While speaking of this I may mention 
that I find that dried eucalyptus bark— es- 
pecially the stringy kinds — broken up small, 
is capital fuel for a smoker ; the smoke . is 
aromatic and carries a little of" the essential 
oil of the eucalypi with it and will, therefore, 
act somewhat as a disinfectant. 
Late and weak swarms, nuclei, and stocks 
not thoroughly established, should he fed 
freely immediately houey gets scarce, so 
that they may be built up for the autumn 
harvest. ' No better food can be given than 
white sugar syrup with a little salt in. 
Outside frames of strong stocks, if well 
filled, should be extracted, care being taken 
that plenty is left to keep the hees going, or 
if close extracting is resorted to, regular feed- 
ing must be carried on till honey begins to 
come in again. 
♦ 
FOUL BBOOD. 
(Continued ekom Paoe VO.) 
Since writing our last article on this subject, 
we have had the pleasure of finding that 
several stocks which were treated late last 
season, and very early in the present one, by 
transferring to a new hive, and frames full of 
foundation, and feeding with syrup medicated 
with salicylic acid are now apparently the best 
stocks in our apiary. Every one has sent off; 
a grand swarm, and both parent stocks and 
swarms are overrunning with bees, aud storing 
honey rapidly. The disease is at all events 
checked, and if it does not re-appear after our 
first honey-flow is over, by the middle or end of 
December, we may conclude it is cured. 
We have seen some hives in the country 
which had lost nearly all their population 
from moth (as we were told) ; the owners knew 
it was moth from the “ chips ” or “ scales ” of 
wax which were found about the entrance. 
On examination foul brood in its worst phase 
was found in every hive, and the wax chips 
thought to be a sign of the ravages of the 
moth) were the cappings of the honey cells 
gnawed off by robber bees, which, doubtless, 
conveyed the disease to their own homes. We 
believe that the wax moth cannot get a foot- 
hold in healthy colonies, and that when it is 
found in a hive, it is after the hive has been 
decimated by disease, starvation or queenless- 
ness. 
In a late official report, the United States 
Entomologist, Mr. N. W. McLain, devotes 
several pages to the important subject of Foul 
Brood, an extract from which is given in The 
American Bee Journal of August 31, headed 
“The Foul Brood Disease.” This article is 
important and exhaustive, and is worthy of 
perusal. 
Mr. McLain adopts the following treatment, 
and reports of its undoubted and remarkable 
success in several apiaries, numbering from 14 
to 200 colonies. First he prepares a mixture 
for spraying the combs ; this mixture is made 
as follows : — To three pints of water add a pint 
of dairy salt (any ordinary good salt will do), 
warm this gently to about 90 degrees faliren- 
heit (nearly blood warm) till all the salt is 
dissolved. Now take a pint of boiling water 
and dissolve four table-spoonsful of bicarbonate 
of soda in it. stir these two solutions together, 
and while doing so add enough honey to 
thoroughly sweeten but not to thicken it. 
Then dissolve I of an ounce of salicylic acid in 
about a fluid ounce of alcohol, aud stir this 
into the mixture also ; leave it standing tor two 
or three hours, when it will settle and become 
clear. He goes on further to describe the 
treatment as follows : — Shake the bees from 
the combs and extract the honey as clearly as 
possible. Then thoroughly atomise the combs, 
blowing a spray of the mixture over and into 
the cells, using a large atomiser throwing a 
copious spray ; then return the combs to. the 
bees. Combs having considerable quantities 
of pollen should be melted into wax and the 
refuse burned. If there is no honey to be 
obtained in the fields, feed syrup or the honey 
which has just been extracted. If syrup is 
used, add 1 ounce of the remedy to each quart 
of the syrup fed. If the honey is used, add 
21 ounces of the remedy to each quart of honey 
fed. The honey and syrup should, he fed 
warm, aud the remedy thoroughly stirred in, 
and no more should be furnished than is con- 
sumed. 
Give all the colonies in the apiary one 
copious application for the remedy, simply set- 
ting the frames apart, so that they may be 
freely exposed to the spray. This treatment 
frequently reveals the presence of diseae where 
it was not before possible to detect it. The 
quantity prescribed, applied by means of a 
large atomiser, is sufficient to treat 150 colonies. 
Continue the treatment by thoroughly and 
copiously spraying the diseased colonies at 
intervals of three days, simply setting the 
i frames apart so as to direct the spray entirely 
over the combs and bees. In order to keep 
the bees from bringing in fresh pollen, burn 
old dry hones to an ash and pulverise in a 
mortar, and sift through a fine wire cloth sieve. 
