34 li.C Ento.uologu'al Hociety. 



While not posiug as a learned gentleman. I have been asked to write for this 

 Society a brief paper on " Bee-diseases in British C'olnnibia," with the solemn 

 warning from the Secretary that I must limit my verbosity to the reasonable 

 duration of fifteen minutes. But in one respect I can emulate the brevity of the 

 learned gentleman who was iwsted on snakes, and say : " So far as I know, there 

 are no scrinus liccnlisc'isi's in British Columbia." Understand, please, that we are 

 not witliniit wni ri.-s. i<ir if tiic chiefs of our Agricultural Department had not luckily 

 inaugurated luve-inspeetion at a most opportune moment, we in British Columbia 

 would to-day be probably fighting a rearguard action against a most insidious foe. 

 Three times in three years foul-brood, the most deadly of all bee-diseases, has broken 

 out in the Province, but thanks to the all-pervading system of apiary-inspection in 

 force, each outbreak has been discovered and so terminated before it had a chance 

 to spread from the centre of hifection. British Columbia, so far as I know, is the 

 only part of the world where .systematic inspection of every hive is the rule, and 

 the results of the past three years demonstrate the wisdom of the procedure. 



The first discovered case of foul-brood was introduced from Ontario by a settler. 

 The second case as the result of the bringing-in of a colony of bees from England by 

 a rancher, who had a warm spot in his heart for the kind of bees he had handled 

 in the Home-laud. The third case was found In an apiary that had been imported 

 from Oregon. The most noticeable feature of the last case lies in the fact that the 

 germs apparently lay dormant for three years at least, for the disease did not 

 develop until the hives had been in their new location for that period of time. 



There is a report of a possible fourth case. One bee-l^eeper reported to me that 

 several of his colonies had been affected and that he had traced the infection to an 

 empty honey-can that had been thrown outside by a neighbour. The honey came 

 from Ontario, a Province wliere foul-brood is so widespread that sixteen Inspectors 

 are unable to make headway against its ravages. The bee-keeper at once destroyed 

 all infected combs and apparently eliminated the disease, but with the delayed 

 development that happened in the Oregon case before us, you maj' be sure this 

 liarticiiliir :ipi;ii-y will be closely watched in ]9]4. 



Oiilsiile .if rmil liruocl. there are many minor bee-diseases which have been loosely 

 classified as •■ pickle-l)rood." In 1012 there were hundreds of cases of pickle-brood 

 in the district of the Lower Fraser '\'alley, so many that I had considerable anxiety ; 

 so about half a dozen samples were submitted to the Bacteriological Department at 

 Washington, D.C.. where special investigations on the causes of the bee-diseases have 

 been conducted for many years. It is comforting to know that in every instance 

 they reported that the ailment was not of a serious nature. 



The trouble reappeared in lfll.3, but in a very mild form, and in greatly 

 diminished uumlier of cases. By the end of 1012 I had come to the opinion that 

 the very variable weather of the spring and summer was the cause of the trouble. 



During the " building-up " season, when nectar is coming in, the unsealed honey 

 is naturally first fed to the larv.-e. , Should this become exhaiisted, then the sealed 

 stores are brought into requisition. Given a week of warm weather in spring with 

 a free flow of nectar, the colony will expand the brood-nest and induce the queen 

 to lay freel.v. Then let a few days' rain occur, with a consequent stoppage of nectar, 

 the natural result is that the unsealed honey is all used up and the bees must uncap 

 the old stores. 



This takes time, but the work of the hive has been organized on the basis of 

 easily reached food-supply. As a consequence, many larvje are sealed up for the 

 pupation period with insufiicient food-supply, and consequently die of starvation. 

 This particular form of iiickle-brood is really starved brood, and therefore not 

 infectious. Until I 'came to grasp the real facts of the situation there was naturally 

 an anxious time for me. 



By deciding to quarantine all imjiorted bees at the point of entry, the Province 

 has practically eliminated the possibility of introducing foul-brood along with 

 settlers' effects, but unfortunately we are unable to completely attain immunity. 



