632 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



No method of handling the disease from year to year can be successful 

 unless that method takes cognizance of and embodies within it the best 

 recognized and established principles of good beekeeping. A number 

 of the best beekeepers in the state give but little attention to European 

 foul-brood from year to year because they have in their yards selected 

 Italian stock and practice the best known methods of beekeeping. In 

 this connection it may be well to mention a few essentials of good bee- 

 keeping: viz. pure Italian stock of greatest vigor and productiveness, no 

 queens over two years of age at any time, the wintering of the bees so 

 well that the colonies are strong and vigorous in the early spring, and 

 an abundance of stores at all times. 



METHOD OF TREATING EUROPEAN POUL-BROOD 



The JSIiller Treatment.- — The following is quoted from Dr. Miller in 

 the "ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture"; ''First, no matter whether the case 

 be severe or mild, make the colony strong. In a severe case, kill the 

 queen ; and as soon as the colony recognizes its queenlessness, say within 

 24 hours, give a ripe queen cell, or, immediately at the time of killing 

 the queen, give a virgin not more than a day old or a cell in a protector. 

 That's all; the bees will do the rest. In a mild case, make the colony 

 strong, and cage the queen in the hive for a week or ten days — only 

 that. But don't expect the disease to be at once and forever stamped 

 out. Last year I had the disease in a mild form in about one colony in 

 four ; this year in about one in twenty." 



In classifying various degrees of severity of an attack of European 

 foul-brood. Dr. Miller stated the following recently in an editorial: "If 

 less than one per cent of the larvae are diseased, it is a very mild case ; 

 if one to ten per cent, mild ; 10 to 35, medium ; 35 to 50, bad ; and beyond 

 50, very bad." 



Dr. Miller further states in response to the question: "What do you 

 do to save the combs?" "Nothing. Just use them the same as if there 

 had been no disease. Vigorous bees .with a vigorous queen will clean 

 them out. Spores may be left, and here and there the disease may 

 break out again; but in the long run the loss will be less than if the 

 combs were destroyed, and possibly the returns of the disease will be 

 no more frequent than if all combs were destroyed. In my own apiary 

 I think there were no more fresh outbreaks where the old combs were 

 left than where the bees were thrown upon foundation." 



This treatment is not to be used in apiaries of Black or hybrid bees. 

 The colonies must be vigorous Italians or be given a cell or queen from 

 vigorous Italian stock before one can expect to make progress against the 

 disease. 



Alexander Treatment. — Double up all diseased colonies until strong 

 colonies are secured. Kill the queens and keep the colonies queenless for 

 20 days. Then introduce into each a ripe cell or a recently hatched 

 virgin. Such a long period of queenlessness is not necessary except in 

 colonies where the disease has progressed to the point where most of the 

 larvae are dead. The period of queenlessness should be determined by 

 the length of time it takes a colony to clean out ALL of the diseased, 

 dead larvae. When the combs are free from such dead larvae, then it is 



