FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 611 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD. 



Too much stress cannot be placed on the advantage of requeen- 

 ing all colonies with pure Italian stock where European foul 

 brood is known to be present in the neighborhood. This race of 

 bees is much more resistant to this disease than the common 

 strains and will frequently pass through an epidemic without in- 

 jury when all common stock will be destroyed by it. The experi- 

 enced bee keeper can sometimes eradicate the European foul brood 

 by caging the queen until all brood has hatched before requeening 

 and thus avoid the necessity of destroying all the brood-combs. 



In order that this plan be successful a sufficient time must 

 elapse for disease scales to be removed by the bees before the 

 new queen is permitted to begin laying. Pure Italian stock is 

 also essential to success. This plan is never successful with 

 American foul brood, as before mentioned, for no method has yet 

 been found that will eliminate the disease germs from the combs. 

 European foul brood, how^ever, is the result of a different germ 

 which the bees are able to clean out under favorable conditions. 

 If one has this disease among common bees the best plan is to 

 kill the queens at once and shortly introduce an Italian queen by 

 the queen cage method. The queen should not be released too 

 soon, however. This plan succeeds only with strong colonies. 



Dr. Phillips of the U. S. Department of Agriculture strongly 

 urges the shaking method for this disease as advised for Ameri- 

 can foul brood. In the hands of any but an expert bee keeper 

 that is perhaps the best method for either disease. 



In treating bees by the shaking method it is quite possible to 

 save most of the honey and wax if one is very careful that none 

 of it is exposed to the bees. The honey is perfectly wholesome 

 for human consumption and if of sufficiently good quality may 

 be used on the table. Once it has been melted and rendered into 

 cakes there seems to be no further danger from the wax. 



PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO BEES. 



There are a number of free publications relating to bees that 

 should be secured by every progressive bee keeper. Among them 

 may be mentioned the following: 



Bee Keeping in Iowa. Extension Bulletin No. 11, College of Agri- 

 culture, Ames. Address State College, Ames, for this bulletin. 



All the following are to be had from the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at "Washington: 



