If the bees are removed to an empty hive, and given no comb for three or four days, till they have digested all the honey in their stomachs, and then prevented visiting the affected hive, they are said to be out of danger. It would seem that the spores are in the honey, and by taking that, the contagion is administered to the young bees. The honey may be purified from these noxious germs, by subjecting it to the boiling temperature, which is generally, if not always, fatal to the spores of fungoid life. By immersing the combs in a salicylic acid solution, or sprinkling them with the same, they would be rendered sterile, and could be used without much fear of spreading contagion. The disease is probably spread by robber bees visiting affected hives, and carrying with them in the honey the fatal germs.
I have found that a paste made of gum tragacanth and water is very superior, and I much prefer it for either general or special use to gum Arabic. Yet it soon sours—which means that it is nourishing these fungoid plants—and thus becomes disagreeable. I have found that a very little salicylic acid will render it sterile, and thus preserve it indefinitely.
ENEMIES OF BEES.
Swift was no mean entomologist, as shown in the following stanza:
"The little fleas that do us tease,
Have lesser fleas to bite them,
And these again have lesser fleas,
And so ad infinitum."
Bees are no exception to this law, as they have to brave the attacks of reptiles, birds, and other insects. In fact, they are beset with perils at home, and perils abroad, perils by night and perils by day.