DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 
559 
of curative measures, I am yet at the outset constrained 
to say, that the disease is so sadly infectious that those 
who are by nature apathetic, or whose occupation will 
only permit half attention to their bees, may inflict 
grievous wrong upon their neighbours by attempting 
any cure, as this is likely to be done in a fitful, negli- 
gent fashion, keeping the disease languishing, while 
other stocks are, through it, being made victims. To 
such I advise, as the kindest course to self and others, 
the destruction by fire of the combs, and, possibly, 
even the frames and hives. If the bees are worth 
saving, make a swarm of them into a skep, and 
transfer forty-eight hours later into a frame-hive. If 
there be much brood, the case not a very bad one, 
and the robbing season not at hand, unqueen, cutting 
out all royal cells eleven days later, and giving from 
a healthy stock a royal cell just sealed. When 
the queen hatches — by which time nearly all the 
worker brood will also have left their cells — make a 
swarm of them into a skep, and transfer, on the second 
day, into a frame-hive. The queen will, in seven or 
eight days, begin to lay, and probably all will go well. 
The re-queening removes the possibly infected queen^ 
and gives in her place a healthy one, while the delay 
gives time for the diseased bees to die off before 
they are required to act as nurses, which is the 
virtue of the so-called “ starvation cure.” The honey 
in the diseased combs may be melted down, thinned 
with water, boiled, and used as food, preferably with 
medication. 
The destruction of the hive, however, is never 
necessary^ for, after the worst cases, it may be used 
