European Foul-brood Bek Disease. 251 



later observations show that other methods r re more reliable. 

 . . . The same amount of stores left with the colony the 

 previous fall will usually do more good than heavy spring" 

 feeding as a means of disease control. 



The remedial measures here described should he iisrd only to 

 remove the disease if it enters the apiary. Preventive measures 

 should then be ('mi)loyed lo avoid a recurrence of the disease. 



The dead larvae arc easily removed from the cells, and the 

 jcmedial treatment serves to i)rovide conditions such that these 

 may be lemoved by the bees during- a period when no new diseased 

 material is appearing in the combs. Usually the queen is 

 removed from the colony, and, since a queen whose colony 

 becomes badly infected is rarely of any value, she is killed. In 

 five or six days all queen cells are removed, so that the colony is 

 hopelessly queenless. The workers do not clean out the dise.ised 

 cells so rn])idly unless they have a queen or a queen-cell. . . 

 [f only a few diseased cells are observed, and if the colony is 

 fairly "poi»ul(. us, the queen may sim])ly be caged and relciisod 

 later when the dead broud is removed. 



The length of time necessary foi' the cleaning out of the 

 dead larvae varies with the strength of the colony, and for weak 

 colonies it may be necessary to wait until all brood has emerged 

 before giving' a young queen. This method should not be 

 employed unless each colony has enough bees to sustain at least 

 five combs full of bjood. Some colonies seem to clean out dead 

 brood more rapidly tluin others of the same strength. If the 

 honey-flow comes earlv it will usually be possible to reduce the 

 period of queenlessness to a few days. A bee-keeper may use the 

 time necessary tor cleaning up as an 'ndication of the strength of 

 his colonies, for if he finds a long time needed he may be sure 

 that his colonies, for some reason, are not as - asperous as they 

 should be. If it is certain that there will be no honey-flow until 

 midsummer or later it isMiot so necessary, from the standpoint of 

 good bee-keeping, to have all colonies strong so early in the year, 

 but it is surely an exceptional ]oc;di(y where there is notliing for 

 the bees to get in early summer. , , 



Where the bee-keeper is dependent on a late honey-flow it is 

 often desirable to move the bees durin'^- the early part of the 

 season to some place where nectar may be obtained. This will 

 often be easier and less expensive than treating the colonies. 

 Tor example, the author was shown a location in the west where 

 European foul-brood caused great annoyance during the s])rin<-''. 

 while apiaries not many miles away were able to get enough 

 nectar to ward off the disease, and at the same time to give the 

 bee-keeper enough profit to justify the expense and time of 

 movino-. In such a case preventiA^e measures are cheaper and 

 better 'than the remedial measures here described. 



The Journal is the Department's medium of making known its 

 activities. It contains information of value to every farmer m the 

 Tin ion Keep it for reference. 



