October ST, 1*87. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
S71 
As every-*-swarm contains in its normal state one 
queen, casts often contain several; therefore, if the bee¬ 
keeper knows that one queen is in any way superior to 
the other or others the inferior queens should be destroyed, 
and the better one saved. If, however, the bee-keeper 
has no choice he may leave all the queens to fight it 
out, and the union will be equally successful. Again, 
if two small swarms, or three, or even more issue on the 
same day, the simplest plan is to destroy all the queens 
but one, preserving, of course, the best, or if the best is 
not known then the best by inference, and to throw all 
the swarms together in front of the hive which they are 
intended to people. In this case, also, the precaution of 
removing or destroying all the queens but one is not by 
any means necessary, but it is satisfactory to know that 
the best queen reigns, and that, as a great writer on bees 
says in effect, though the exact words have left my recol¬ 
lection, “ the best fighting queen is allowed, by a wrong 
interpretation of the ‘ survival of the fittest ’ theory, to 
perpetuate that quality at the expense of qualities far 
more desirable from the standpoint of the practical bee¬ 
keeper.” 
Swarms may in the same manner and without any 
additional precaution be united to old stocks, the honey 
carried by the bees of a swarm for the purpose of furnish¬ 
ing the new home being a sufficient bribe to insure a glad 
reception. In the same manner a cast may be returned 
to the stock from which it has issued, and will very rarely 
indeed come forth again unless supering arrangements 
have been grossly neglected. If it does not issue again 
on the following day the bee-keeper may rest assured 
that the would be emigrants have been received back in 
the old home, and will not again set forth until another 
summer s sun shines upon a new generation of bees. 
If a bee-keeper cannot with facility unite swarms to 
stocks and swarms to swarms he had better at once 
recognise that he is like a cat in a dairy—in the wrong 
place! It is the easiest of all manipulations, and it is 
scarcely possible for any man who does not wish to 
supply the “ missing link ” in Darwin’s famous chain of 
descent to fail in his first attempt to unite bees made 
friendly to bees by their homeless condition, and bees 
made friendly to bees by the handsome bribe of a supply 
of honey gratuitously given to the common store.— Felix. 
ODOURLESS FOUL BROOD. 
Amongst all the infectious diseases from which bees suffer the 
above ’s the most insidious. Phenol, salicylic acid, camphor, and in 
fact all and every remedy which has been known to cure the offensive 
tormot foul brood, is powerless to cure or prevent the odourless form of 
the disease spreading. Its appearance is exactly like the other—viz. 
cappings of cells sunken, dark coloured dead brood cofFee coloured and 
ropey, but it has no smell whatever, hence it is very apt to caus; no 
alarm, and by interchanging combs one may get it into every stock 
before its nature is suspected, particularly when combs arc changed fin 
autumn and spring to save feeding. 
I write this from bitter experience. I first noticed it in 1881, but as 
all authorities agreed that foul brood could not be mistaken on account 
ot its offensive smell, and that it was the only infectious disease bees 
were liable to, I thought it must be chilled brood, then thought no more 
of it in 1882 by changing combs I had it in nearly every stock—about 
eighteen ; J1 then began to experiment with it. First, I shaved the 
caps off diseased combs, and put them into healthy stocks to see if 
it was infections, and as the first brood hatched out of the diseased 
pells apparently healthy I at once concluded it was not infectious. In 
‘ ls 1 ‘ na< ‘ c an unfortunate mistake, for had I noticed the stocks until 
mter the second batch of brood began to hatch I should have not only 
found it in the comb introduced, but all through the brood nest. 1 
then took the queens from the diseased stocks and introduced them into 
healthy ones to see if the disease was in the queen alone, and as such 
stocks at once became diseased I at once concluded that the disease was 
congenital, and not really infectious. Here 1 made another error. I 
was supported in this in breeding queens in small nuclei, which turned 
out diseased, while those bred in strong stocks proved healthy. Here 
let me say, that thinking the disease was not infectious, I may have 
unconsciously used infected combs in the nuclei, and combs free from 
taint in the full stocks. 
• 1 tborou g h ly tried Hibbert’s plan of fumigating with salicylic 
acid, feeding the acid in syrup (Cowen’s plan of curing foul brood), also 
placing large pieces of camphor in the hives. I never saw much of the 
disease in the spring, the reason being that every autumn I get many 
driven bees and young queens, which were chiefly the bees that passed! 
through the winter, and which is explained in the sequel. 
In the spring of 1885, still thinking the disease lay alone in the 
queen I sent a native British queen that 1 had obtained with driven 
bees the previous fall, that was producing foul brood, to Mr. Frank 
Cheshire, who at once wrote back saying her ovaries were full of baccilli 
m j,. w , as fiU'te ne w to him ; that the baccilli lay in strings and resem¬ 
bled links of sausages, whereas the baccilli of offensive foul brood 
resembled bits of sticks, crossed about anyhow, presenting a striking 
contrast. He asked for samples of the brood, which I sent him and in 
which he found the same baccilli. During the summer I sent him a 
number of queens that I knew had produced healthy brood and bees in 
the spring—two were with swarms hived on perfectly empty but tainted 
combs—and he found the same baccilli in the ovaries of every one One 
I sent him was from a stoek that had not more than fourteen cr fifteen 
foul cells in all, and he said he examin- d her ovaries without seeing any 
baccillr and was going to report that she was healthy when he examined 
the last portion and found the same baccilli. This was a most important 
report to me in understanding this disease, and I think I was most for- 
tunate, as well as the bee-keeping world, in having the services of such 
a skilful microscopical dissector as Mr. Cheshire. 
Towards the close of the year 1885 I decided to try Cheshire’s phenol 
remedy for foul brood, which he claimed to be a certain cure ; so I 
thought if it will cure one kind of baccilli, why net another ? and as 
owmg to the weather, no honey was coming in, I considered I had a 
splendid opportunity to get rid of it without destroying a comb As I 
had lots of driven bees all healthy, I d stroyed the old infected queens, 
united these, and fed upon phenolated syrup. The combs were filled 
with it ; eighteen stocks were packed up for winter reduced from 
twenty-six, aud twenty lots of driven bees were added ; three of these 
eighteen never had been diseased, and they were the only healthy ones 
I had in the spring of 1886. The rest were either dead or weak, and all 
that were alive were diseased, and to make matters worse the three 
healthy ones found a way into one of the hives that had died and cleared 
out the phenolated syrup from the combs, and thev also became 
diseased. This circumstance was valuable in its way, as" it proved the 
spores of the disease can be carried in the honey from an infected hive. 
I concluded that the spores went in the honey to the queen and as ali¬ 
ment to the eggs, which became foul, producing in turn spores to again 
go to the queen and so pass through more eggs, in which I was con¬ 
firmed in the fact that when bees are bringing in honey the stock in¬ 
creases in strength and shows little traces of disease, while when it 
ceases and the queen has to be fed from honey stored in infected combs 
the bees rapidly dwindle and the brood becomes very foul. Therefore I 
reasoned that if I turmd the queen and bees into an empty hive or box 
and if no honey was coming in, feed them for four days to induce the 
bees to build comb into which the queen could deposit her diseased eggs 
anil before they began to hatch turn the queen and bees into a clean 
hive on starters only, I ought to get clear of it and even cure the queens. 
This proved to be correct, for every case treated so has proved a cure" 
even curing in a most complete manner every diseased queen. I have 
at the present time several queens whose mothers were diseased last 
year, and as I write this I have over thirty fine strong healthy stocks 
inhabiting hives, frames, and quilts that have had diseased stocks in 
them, yet in looking over them this fall I could not find a single “ foul” 
cell. 
Haying described the disease, I will now describe how to stamp it 
out if it is noticed in the spring or summer. Turn the bees and queen 
into an empty hive or box on the old stand, allowing them full liberty 
to fly where they wish in search of stores ; if they can get honey freely 
they will need no more attention for four days ; if not, then they must 
be fed for four days. In the meantime extract the honey from the 
combs, which after straining will be all right to eat. but the greatest 
care must be taken against any bee getting a sip of it. Then melt the 
combs down for wax—there is nothing gained in trying to save the brood 
—bake or boil every frame, quilt, and hive ; if you have neither an oven 
or boiler to hold the latter rear it against the kitchen fire until the in¬ 
side at least is well baked ; now fix foundation guides not more than 
half an inch deep in the frames, and at the end of four days set it on 
the old stand, dump out the bees from the hive or box and let them run 
into the hive, and at once destroy the combs they have built. If honey 
is to be had the work is done ; if not they must be fed, taking great care 
that all food and feeders are first boiled. 
The plan I here describe is quite novel, never having to my knowledge 
been advocated as a means of curing foul brood or other forms of 
disease; though a plan much like it called the “ starving ” process has 
been much advocated. But, according to many reports, it seems rather 
uncertain : andiwell it may, as bees starve according to the amount of 
activity they exhibit. Thus they may drop down exhausted in twenty- 
four hours, or they may show no signs of weakness at the end of fourteen 
days, as I soon found in my experiments ; hence the plan I recommend 
is more simple and certain. 
If the disease is noticed in the fall never delay a day in suffocating 
