ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 137 



Now, going back to European foul brood for just a moment, the 

 answer it seems to me is rather simple. We got this colony strength, 

 of which you will pardon me for bragging so much, by leaving three 

 things with the bees the fall before. We gave them room for the 

 development of colony strength without unpacking; we gave them 

 protection in superabundance, and we left an abundance of storage. 

 We left probably with every colony of bees sixty pounds of honey. 

 Now that seems outlandish, but it is what did the trick. Storage, 

 protection and room were the three things the bees wanted to build 

 up a better colony, and if any one of those three things is lacking, the 

 colony cannot build up to its full capacity. 



A Member.- — If they did not have the stores, didn't have the 

 protection or did not have the bees, wouldn't they develop European 

 foul brood? 



Dr. Phillips. — Any one of those things would give the disease 

 an opportunity to develop. But w4th all three present, and with the 

 resistant stock in the hives, European foul brood has not a show in the 

 world. And consequently, that is the point that I want to make this 

 afternoon, that we have it within our power to give the preventive 

 measures for European foul brood control in September for the next 

 year, and unless we do give it in September the chances are we won't 

 give it in time. 



Now, there is another point, which I have not made yet, in regard 

 to the matter of wintering. Colonies of bees that are not wintering 

 well begin to breed too soon. Let me tell another story, from exper- 

 ience, unfortunately, although I don't know but what it was a pretty 

 good experiment. We moved our apiary in Washington on the first 

 day of February this j^ear, our lease expired on the place we had and 

 we got an opportunity to get a place very suitable for our work, and 

 so we had to move the first of February. Now, that is an awful thing 

 for a bee-keeper to contemplate, but it was a good experience, that I 

 would not have missed for a great deal. When we got to the new place 

 we unpacked tjiem from their packing cases, because these packing 

 cases we found were so heavy that the stores and the sawdust and the 

 heavy cheap quality of wood we used for making them, that six men 

 could not lift one of them, so we had to unpack them. Of course, 

 as you recognize, there is not anything very good to get a hold of, we 

 could not handle it, almost broke one fellow's leg trying it, and I said 

 the best thing to do was to unpack them, when we got to the new 

 location w^e set them up and repacked half of them and left the other 

 half unpacked. We examined those bees Saturday, last Saturday, 

 or Friday, now I have forgotten exactly which, but it was just before 

 I left, and we found that brood had started in three of the weak col- 

 onies out of fifteerjthat we examined, brood had started, Those that 

 were in the packing cases have no brood at all, and they won't for some 

 time, because those colonies that are strong in bees, that are well 

 protected and have lots of stores, will probably defer brooding until 

 the first of April. When the first of April comes they wijl start in 

 response to the stimulus of the incomeing of nectar or pollen, whereas 

 colonies of bees that are unprotected in various ways will probably 

 start brooding right away. You will find that some exposed colonies 



