THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
133 
When this disease attacks a colony, it 
rapidly dwindles because of its failure to rear 
brood ; as it becomes weak, other colonies rob 
it, and thus spread the disease. 
When this disease is discovered, immediate 
steps should be taken to eradicate it ; it is so 
infectious that all materials used in connection 
with a, diseased colony — whether frame, box, 
honey, pollen, or propolis — will easily com- 
municate the disease if other bees have access 
to any of them. 
Directly the presence of foul brood is sns- 
peeted, examine carefully all the hives in the 
apiary, and mark those that have the disease 
or are suspected, and at once make prepara- 
tions for curing them. 
Method of Cube. 
There are several ways of eradicating foul 
brood, but that which has been found the most 
certain by South Australian Beekeepers is 
Math’s method. It is as follows : — Transfer 
the bees from the infected hive to a clean or 
new hive containing frames with foundation, 
and feed them with honey or sugar syrup 
medicated with Salicylic Acid. The combs 
from the infected hive are to be burnt, and 
the hive and frames thoroughly disinfected 
as described further on. If this method is 
honestly carried out, foul brood will certainly 
be eradicated every time, and the bees, having 
got clear of disease, will soon make up for the 
loss of combs and brood. 
The Operation. 
Everything should be prepared beforehand. 
Get ready as many hives or boxes as there are 
diseased colonies of bees. If you have frame 
hives, prepare frames for the clean hives, with 
strips of foundation half-an-ineh wide fixed to 
the top bar : five or six frames to each hive 
will be sufficient, unless the colonies arc very 
large. Now go to a diseased colony, blow 
some smoke in at the entrance, open the hive, 
find and cage the queen, and place her thus 
caged in the new hive. If you cannot readily 
find the queen, omit this, but caging her 
prevents the bees swarming out. The best 
plan is to suspend the cage between two of the 
top bars of the centre frames by a piece of 
wire or strip of tin. Leave the queen caged 
for at least 21 hours before releasing her. 
Remove the old infected hive from its stand, 
and place the clean hive in its place. Arrange a 
board sloping from the ground to the entrance 
of the new hive, so that the bees can crawl up. 
Now, one by one, take the combs from the 
diseased hive and shake or brush the bees off 
them on to the ground in front of the new 
hive. In the ease of a box hive the bees must 
be smoked and drummed out in the usual way 
into a clean box. It is safer to burn the old 
box. 
Replace the diseased combs in the old hive 
and close it carefully — so that no bees can get 
in — and carry it to a room where it can remain 
unmolested till wanted for further treatment. 
The bees in the new hive should be fed w ith 
medicated food, prepared as follows : — Make 
a solution of Salicylic Acid in the proportion 
of 16 grains of the acid and 16 grains of Soda 
Borax to one ounce of water, and add one 
ounce of this solution to every quart of food. 
The best food is honey, diluted with one-fourtli 
of its quantity of water ; but if no honey is on 
hand, make a syrup of sugar and water, using 
one pound of sugar to one half-pint of water. 
The food, whether of honey or sugar, should 
i be heated until it boils, and the acid solution 
then added. The food may be given to the 
bees in any convenient way; pevhaps the 
simplest plan is to make a feeder out of an empty 
mustard or other similar tin having a movable 
lid, by punching a few holes in the lid with a 
fine bradawl This feeder is to be filled with 
the medicated syrup and turned over with the 
holes down on the top of the frames, so that 
the bees can sip the food through the holes. 
Feeding, in every case, should be done inside 
the hive, and after sundown About one half- 
pint of medicated food should be given to each 
colony every evening for one week. 
To return to the hives containing the 
diseased combs. All comb containing brood 
should be carefully cut out and destroyed by 
fire, or it may be buried in the ground, pro- 
viding there is no possibility of its being 
disturbed. All honey should be extracted 
from the combs, either with an Extractor, or 
by putting the honey combs in a tin vessel, 
and heating it gently until the wax is 
separated, and floats on the top of the honey. 
When cool, the wax can be removed in a cake. 
The honey should then have one-fourth of its 
quantity of water added to it, and be boiled 
for ten minutes, in order to destroy the germs 
of disease. When the Salicylic Acid has been 
added as before described, this honey will 
afford safe feed for the bees. If the honey is 
removed by the Extractor, the comb should 
afterwards be cut from the frames and melted 
into wax. 
The hives and frames should be well scraped, 
and the scrapings allowed to drop on a news- 
paper, so that 1 hey can be readily burnt. 
To clean and disinfect the hive and frames, 
dip them into or scrub them with boiling 
water and Carbolic Soap. 
4 f ter handling a diseased hive of bees it is 
important to thoroughly disinfect the hands 
and implements that have been used in the 
work. For this purpose some of the Salicylic 
Acid solution may be added to a basin of water 
and applied with a sponge. But as this is not 
pleasant for the skin, a better plan is to use a 
solution of Carbolic Acid, made by adding one 
part of Calvert’s Carbolic Acid to 200 parts of 
water. 
After treating an infected hive, the stand 
and ground where the hive stood should be 
sprinkled with Carbolic Acid to destroy any 
germs that may there exist. For this purpose, 
an ounce of No. 5 Acid added to one gallon of 
water should be applied with a watering-pot. 
