Foul brood is the rotting of brood in a hive; the caps of the sealed
brood appear indented and shriveled and the larvae and young bees in
unsealed cells become putrid, emitting a disgusting stench or smell.
When the disease has a firm hold, even though it may be possible to cure
it, I would advise the total destruction by fire of the bees, combs,
frames and hives, with everything which might harbor the disease. In its
primary stages it can be cured in this way: With an atomizer spray the
hives, bees, brood, honey and combs with a solution of salicylic acid,
borax and rain water, repeated on the sixth day. Remove the diseased
brood from the hive and give them capped honey, if not too far advanced
this may give relief.
There is another plan, which is as follows: Take a clean new hive with
new, clean frames, fill it with comb foundation, take and run all the
bees out of the diseased hive into the clean one, do this in the evening
and as soon as the bees are all in close the entrance with wire cloth,
keep them confined for forty-eight hours until they have consumed all
the honey in their sacks in building comb. At the end of forty-eight
hours open the entrance and let them fly if they wish, feed them a
little sugar syrup every night for about a week, and if the honey season
is over, or, if this is done during a dearth of honey you should feed
them regularly so as not to let them starve. I had the disease in my
apiary the past season and this is the plan I used to cure it. My bees
are as healthy now as as if they had never had it.
_Sunny Side, Md._
[The instructions which friend Dewitt gives in the first part of
the foregoing article will apply this month only to the more
southern localities. Here in the North the hives in many places
are still covered with snow and the bees should not be disturbed
until spring has unmistakably arrived.--ED.]
New Inventions.