February, '17] CARR: CONTROL OF FOULBROOD 199 



diseased larvae. This may be accounted for by the greater or smaller 

 proportion of young bees in the colony or by the difference in the race 

 or strain of bees. However this may be, the economical management 

 of the apiary demands that a colony be without a laying queen only 

 so long as is necessary to accomplish a desired result. 



Doctor Miller, in applying this so-called Alexander treatment, made 

 an error by giving a laying queen at the end of twenty-one days instead 

 of a ripe cell. The period of no egg production in the hive was thus 

 reduced from 27 to 21 days. Further experimentation has resulted 

 in overcoming the disease by a break of ten days in egg production, 

 this reduction in time being governed by the amount of infection and 

 the activity of the bees in cleaning up. It is clearly seen, then, 

 that to fix an arbitrary limit to the time of queenlessness would 

 unnecessarily interfere with the work of some colonies. 



Giving a Good Italian Queen 



The word "good" as here used really means a queen whose offspring 

 show disease-resistant qualities. It is entirely possible that such 

 qualities might be found in any race of bees, but since the Italians 

 have proven to be resistant, a good Italian queen is usually specified. 



Many have failed at this point of the treatment and through no 

 fault of theirs. Requeening is sometimes done with purchased queens 

 and unfortunately not all queens are Italians which are sent out under 

 that name and, further, not all Italians are equally good at cleaning out 

 European foulbrood. 



Doctor Miller has, with good results, practised caging the queen 

 in the hive. Like results may be had by anyone under like condi- 

 tions, which are exceedingly strong colonies, vigorous bees and a small 

 amount of infection in the hive. This method appears questionable, 

 since it may safely be assumed that the bees of a colony which is at- 

 tacked by foulbrood have a susceptibility to disease which should be 

 bred out. However, substituting a young queen reared from selected 

 disease-resisting stock cannot be other than beneficial. 



Other Modifications of the Same Principles 



Instead of deposing or caging the reigning queen success is also had 

 in combating this disease by causing the bees to construct a new brood 

 nest, thus bringing about a period of no brood-rearing in the infected 

 combs. There is no reason to expect success with this plan unless 

 there is a heavy honey flow at the time. The principle appears to be 

 the two or three days' break in egg laying reduces the food for the 

 bacillus, the honey flow furnishes an abundance of healthful food for 

 the larvae and gives a stimulus to the cell cleaners and the cells which 



