AMERICAN FOUL BROOD ON THE PACIFIC COAST. ie 
Doctor Puitiies. When the notices were first sent out concerning 
this meeting I wrote to Mr. Fred A. Parker, of Lompoc, Cal., under 
the impression that he was inspector of Santa Barbara County. It 
seems that he has resigned and Santa Barbara County now has no 
inspector. He has, however, sent a paper, which will now be read: 
AMERICAN FOUL BROOD ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 
By Frep A. PARKER, 
Former Inspector for Santa Barbara County, Cal. 
During my term as inspector of apiaries for Santa Barbara County, 
Cal., in the year 1905, 4,073 colonies of bees were inspected. I dis- 
covered 47 cases of American foul brood and found 170 colonies not 
on movable frames. These were ordered transferred, and in some 
instances I did the work myself. Every case of foul brood was 
either burned or treated by the shaking method. Five were burned, 
being too weak in numbers to treat. Preparatory to burning, I would 
dig a hole about 2 feet deep and build a fire in it, then throw in the 
frames containing the diseased brood. After the fire did its work 
the hole was filled with dirt to prevent bees from getting diseased 
honey, if any might have been left unconsumed. If any comb was 
attached to the hives the latter were placed on the fire in the hole 
and when the interior was a mass of flames they were removed with a 
shovel, hoe, or other long-handled tool and water thrown on to ex- 
tinguish the flames if the wood had caught fire. The bees were 
shaken into an empty hive and allowed to build comb on the hd for 
three days, when they were shaken onto frames with starters and 
allowed to proceed. The comb was scraped from the lid and the lid 
scorched. This treatment, if carefully performed, is successful in 
about nine-tenths of the cases treated. Bee keepers are generally 
too careless in handling the diseased combs, thus giving other bees 
an opportunity to steal a load of infected honey. 
I have read many statements to the effect that queens do not carry 
the infection, but my experience has convinced me otherwise. I had 
shaken six diseased colonies in my own apiary in 1902 and four 
were completely cured. While I was equally careful in handling 
these cases the disease reappeared in two of them. I shook them 
again, and again in due time the disease appeared. This caused me 
to suspect that the queens were defective, and to test it I exchanged 
them with the queens of two perfectly healthy colonies, shaking the 
diseased stock again. In both cases the cure was complete, while the 
(disease appeared in the brood of the formerly healthy colonies. This 
appears to me to demonstrate beyond doubt that the ovaries of queens 
are occasionally infected, that their eggs transmit the germs of Ameri- 
can foul brood, and that the disease will develop in any colony to 
