August 21, 1890. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
169 - 
Journal, and which the Americans recommend, is the surest way 
of banishing the disease. So long as a piece of infected comb 
remains in the hive assuredly will the disease break out anew the 
moment the hive is in a favourable condition for its propagation. 
Imported with Queens. 
If queens are raised in diseased hives, then in all likelihood they 
will transmit the disease. Or if drones are in an infected hive 
they may transmit the disease to the queen and progeny. I never 
experienced a case of foul brood that I could trace to the introduc¬ 
tion of imported queens ; but my method of treating them may 
have helped to this immunity. I usually open the cages contain¬ 
ing queens and air the bees and queen well, transferring them to a 
clean cage and feed with honey from the hive ready to receive 
them, this being a kind of purgatorial process similar to the original 
one. I have in a previous article stated that I do not believe 
a queen could continue laying eggs for any length of time with 
the disease in her system, but from the destructive nature of the 
germs she would fall a victim to the malady. I believe it possible, 
if not probable, that queens may contract the disease or something 
that will produce it from being confined while in transit to this 
country, and thus be the means of introducing foul brood, although 
sent from an apiary entirely free from it. Poultry and other 
animals become diseased, even in cases where ventilation was con¬ 
sidered perfect. I am cognisant of cases of rabbits and ferrets 
becoming diseased while in transit by rail of less than fifty miles, 
then why not bees ? 
A Likely Cause of Infection. 
Foul brood is very contagious, so that great care is necessary to 
keep the healthy and unhealthy, or anything that has been in 
contact with the latter, separate and out of the reach of the former. 
Perhaps the most dangerous agents for spreading the disease are 
robber bees, and the present year being favourable for them, they 
may have been the direct cause of the prevalence of so much disease 
in apiarie3. To those unacquainted with the habits of bees the 
presence of robbers may not be detected until the mischief is done. 
Practical bee-keepers are always on the watch, and seldom fail to 
detect a robber however cunning she may be. They sometimes 
continue their depredations for a long time without bringing 
many of their sisters to the spoil. These Corsair bees are mostly 
the aged ones, and carry the disease to and fro, because foul- 
broody hives are liable to be invaded, so that from one infected 
hive many may, by the above means, become infected within a 
few weeks. It is hoped that all those who may have infected 
hives will take prompt measures to stamp out the disease, and 
make no attempt to cure the hives in any other way. It is a 
duty they owe not only to themselves but to their fellow bee¬ 
keepers and the country. 
It has been asserted by different authorities that the disease 
is curable, and has been cured by different antiseptics employed 
but whenever these were tried by uninterested persons they always 
failed. From the very unmdestructible nature of the germs this is 
not difficult to account for. They resist a greater heat than that of 
boiling water, and a greater degree of cold than that of zero. 
In most cases the disease has run its course before it is detected, 
and the very opening up of the hive may spread it to a great 
extent. The clothing and hands of the operator may get infected, 
then apiaries are at his mercy. Hives may be carried within 
doors and the combs sprayed with acids or other antiseptics, but 
anything strong enough to destroy the germs, or rather alter the 
nature of the combs and their contents, so as to become unfavour, 
able as a nidus for the germs, would injure, if not destroy the 
bees. Besides, it takes all the year for a hive to be in a state for 
profit, and young swarms improve much quicker than old and 
diseased stocks will do. 
While I am writing two letters have come to hand asking if 
the disease could be imported with foundation made from wax 
from diseased stocks. I am unable to say positively whether it 
could or not, but I should not be surprised if hives became diseased 
through infected foundation. As prevention is better than cure 
avoid crowding bees into little space or spreading brood, as I 
believe overheating to be the prime cause of foul brood, and the 
opposite may have the same effect. I am in favour of using 
carbolic acid and things of the same nature freely about the hive,, 
but if I discovered foul brood I would make no attempt to cure or 
experiment with it further than removing the hive with bees- 
within doors, transferring the latter into a straw hive for two or 
three days, then transfer again for the same time, after which I 
would put them into their permanent hive and watch results. 
To have an entire immunity from foul brood amongst the hive& 
requires far greater care than many are apt to think necessary or 
give to their hives. We regret to learn that the plague is so 
virulent and widely spread that slabs of comb sent us contained 
scarcely a single living nymph. We hope no pains will be spared 
to get rid of the disease, so that 1891 may be a cheerful and profit¬ 
able year.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
CARBOLIC ACID. 
Will “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” be so good as to explain how 
to proceed with carbolic acid, as he said some time ago that he uses 
it in a crude state to drive bees from supers, also where I can pro¬ 
cure carbolised paper? I wish to thank the “Lanarkshire Bee¬ 
keeper” for his sound advice, which I have read in the Journal, 
and acted upon with the greatest success for over eleven years.— 
a. c. 
[Carbolic acid is used in the apiary to prevent robber bees 
attacking a hive when manipulating. The bee-keeper in this case 
must keep a watch, and whenever a robber alights a feather dipped 
in the acid applied to the bee or the place it alights on will prevent 
it filling itself with honey and attracting others, until the operator 
gets the hive closed. A little acid smeared upon the top3 of the 
bars is cleanlier and more effective than smoke as a subjugator, and 
when judiciously used acts as a preventive against foul brood and 
moths. It is unsurpassed for clearing bees from frames or supers, 
and is best used upon paper, as it drives the bees from any frame 
the bee-keeper desires, leaving the rest of the hive unmolested. 
There are other uses for it which I will pass over for the present, 
but may explain at some other time. 
I use medium brown paper, and preserve the sheets. Those I 
have in use are at least twenty years old, and are kept straight in 
book-form between two boards. This is necessary, so that they 
pass easily between the combs. When the paper is too thin it 
buckles, and when too thick is apt to cut the combs when they are 
closely built. I use a feather to smear the acid upon the paper 
—a very little does—and mostly near the bottom edge of the 
paper, which should have a second bend, or two pins near the top 
to prevent it slipping down when the hive and supers are deep. 
I prefer crude acid, which may be had of any chemist or apothe¬ 
cary. —A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper.] 
CANDY AND THE BENTON CAGE. 
In the issue for July 24th “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” refers 
to candy in connection with myself, and says he used similar 
mailing cages to the “ Benton ” long before Mr. Benton. I suppose 
his similar cages consisted in boring holes in a block of wood by- 
means of a centrebit. I am not aware that Mr. Benton claims to 
be the first to hollow out cages in that way, nor do I consider that 
anyone can claim to father tne idea, as the centrebit is old, Holman 
Hunt having pictured it in the tool rack in his picture of the 
“ Shadow of Death ” as being a carpenter’s tool in the time of our 
Saviour, though, without a doubt, the model he used was made in 
Sheffield. 
The first “ Benton ” cage was sent to me in the autumn of 
1883. It had four round holes in it ; at one end was a bottle of 
water, at the other a bottle of candy, next to it a hole without any 
air holes, and next to this a hole that was well ventilated. This 
was Benton’s invention, the Benton cage consisting of two cham¬ 
bers for the bees, one ventilated, and the other not. The two 
side grooves were borrowed from my cage, in which he had been 
mailing queens to America. 
In 1883, as the readers of the “ B. B. J.” for that date remem¬ 
ber, I had had a good deal to say about candy as food for bees,, 
having made the discovery that bees could eat and live on candy 
or dry sugar alone, provided the grains were small enough. At 
that time everyone thought that water in some form was necessary. 
